If that's the case, then one is tempted to consider Luger's meat box — despite its practicality — as an atavistic symbol.
9. Riverford Organic – quick and easy meat box £29.95, riverford.co.uk This contains lamb, pork, steak, chicken and beef in fridge-friendly quantities (never more than 900g).
£41, thecornishfishmonger.co.uk 3. Eversfield Organic Meat Box with Lamb Noisette Joint There's enough here to feed a full household for some time, with a lamb noisette joint, bacon, mince, chicken legs, diced venison, sausages and more.
Buried under Peter Luger's kitchen, the meat box does possess a stony vaultlike coolness, mechanically enhanced these days by oscillating fans and a softly humming Bohn refrigeration unit, which keeps the air chilled between 32 and 36 degrees.
A 2,000-square-foot 2,000-square-foot 2,000-square-foot box industrialthan many city domiciles, and is equally congested, packed from floor to ceiling at any given time with 30,000 pounds of raw, aging meat.
£29.99, leggesofbromyard.com 5. Riverford Quick and Easy Meat Box This one, containing the likes of chops, sausages, beef mince, steak and chicken breasts, is brilliant if you don't have the time or inclination to cook large joints of meat or you don't want to overload your freezer.
The resultant biodiesel meets all the family's transport needs, including running the tractor and delivering the meat boxes.
The Well Hung Meat Company supplies regular meat boxes or one-off orders (they deliver nationally) from local farms in Devon.
Donald Russell Pure Beef Selection You'll be hard pushed to find a wider selection of meat boxes than Donald Russell's and the meat is melt-in-the-mouth, which explains the royal warrant and multiple awards.
"He said: 'I've spent years getting my sheep right, and now you're going to ruin them at the last stage,'" remembers Simon Wood, CEO of what's now the Well Hung Meat Company, one of the biggest of the mail-order meat-box businesses, with more than 1,000 regular customers.
Well Hung does fortnightly mixed-meat boxes from £40, or you can order individual lamb cuts.
