Vandal Brand Meats: A Tasty Gift

Vandal Brand Meats: A Tasty Gift

meat If you’re at a loss for gift ideas for any holiday season,or are in the market for a quality cut,look no further than Vandal Brand Meats.

Located on the west end of UI’s Moscow campus, off Perimeter Drive and 6th Street, award winning Vandal Brand Meats offers a large selection of products year round. From meat bundles to Vandal sausages, or smoked turkey to cured ham,meats lab manager Ron Richard and his staff can fill any specialty order.

Vandal Brand Meats sells over the counter. For out-of-town customers, it ships within a few weeks by UPS or air.All meat is shipped frozen and wrapped in a freezer pack material to ensure quality and freshness. All cuts are labeled with nutrition facts,cooking,and storing instructions.

All livestock is locally raised—the majority on campus farms—and all meats are processed in the UI Meats Lab.UI assistant professor in Animal and Veterinary Science Paul Kuber explains,“One benefit of dealing with a small product supply is that we can give our consumers the background of our meats,in return building customer confidence.”

All Vandal Brand beef is aged 7 to 14 days,allowing enzymes to break down muscle tissue and tenderize the meat,compared to supermarket meats,aged as little as 2 days.

For the past 20 years,Vandal Brand Meats has made the transition from bulk processing to single item retail, incorporating methods such as sausage making, spicing, and marinating. It’s the outlet for products used in research,teaching,and extension activities.

“We try to give students a gate-to-plate mentality, so they think through the entire growing and harvesting process,”says Kuber.“There’s got to be a retail outlet so students can understand how the breeding and genetic work they do translates to the quality of our meats.”

meat Proceeds cover expenses and pay students who work in the meat lab. UI’s meat lab students this fall entered products they produced and processed in Portland’s Northwest Meat Processors Associated Cured Meats Championship, bringing home five trophies and All Around Champion title.

The most popular product, next to smoked sausages, is the old-fashioned-cure holiday ham,already cooked,with heating instructions. Newest product is Chicken Cordon Blue sausage.

To place orders, or for detailed product list and open hours, call 208-885-6727, e-mail rrichard@uidaho.edu, or stop by.

--Alison Folk (photos by Mark LaMoreux)