Porter Road Just Launched a Limited-Edition Meat Kit That’s Going To Be the MVP of My Summer Cookout Menu
The sun is shining, the temps are rising — that’s right, it’s grilling season! Since I love smokey flavors and cooking over a fire, I have a classic Weber grill that comes out in April and stays active until well into the fall. As a mother and a consumer with some mild food allergies, it’s important that the meat I choose is sustainably sourced, pasture raised, and not pumped up with hormones, antibiotics, fillers, chemicals, additives, and all the other junk you’ll see in most mainstream stores. Translation: You won’t find just any hot dogs at my house.
Many mainstream brands have ingredients like curing agents and hydrolyzed soy protein that I am personally allergic to, which really limits the selection of hot dogs for me. Thankfully, Porter Road makes it easy for me to shop for high-quality meats online. And with their limited-edition BYOBun Kit that launched today (just in time for summer cookouts!), I have all of the great-tasting, sustainably sourced ingredients I need delivered right to my doorstep. I just have to buy buns, and I am ready to light the coals!
You’ve heard me rave about Porter Road before. Their burgers are some of the best you can buy, and everything I’ve tried from the brand has been very high quality, well sourced, and absolutely delicious. So when given the opportunity to preview their BYOBun Box, I jumped at the chance. I received a box with a couple of packages of dry-aged hot dogs (more on that later), a couple of packages of beef bratwurst, and two packages of Cleveland Kitchen sauerkraut (roasted garlic and caraway). I couldn’t wait to try everything.
The one problem I encountered was when I cooked the bratwurst over direct heat (which was a mistake on my part). All of the casings that held the brat together burst! I definitely should have looked at the cooking suggestions on Porter Road‘s website first. Had I done that, I would have known to cook the brats slow and low over indirect heat — or braise them in beer (learn from my mistakes, friends!). But honestly, this hiccup did not slow me down. After the casings burst, I transferred the bratwurst to the oven until they were cooked all the way through, and I ate them on a Martin’s potato roll with some Emmental cheese, mustard, and the Cleveland Kitchen kraut. It was, in a word, magnifique (*chef’s kiss*).
Why does Porter Road dry-age their meats? Dry-aging is a process of aging large cuts of meat for a few weeks or months before the meat is broken down into smaller cuts, during which time the meat tenderizes and the flavors intensify. (If you have never enjoyed a dry-aged ribeye steak, I highly recommend it.) Porter Road goes the extra step, dry-aging the meat that goes into their hot dogs and their beef bratwurst to deliver products that are deeply flavorful, tender, and delicious.
As for the kraut, it’s slightly sour, crunchy, and tasty (aka a perfect beginner’s kraut). It has a milder flavor profile than some other krauts on the market, which I love because the sour doesn’t distract from the great-tasting meat.
If you’re a purist and want to order just the hot dogs or bratwursts without the accouterments, that’s an option, too, though it’s way more fun to buy the whole kit. No matter which route you go, take it from a very satisfied customer: These will likely be some of the best hot dogs and sausages you’ll ever have.
Buy: Porter Road BYOBun Kit, $50