Slaughter to order: why we only slaughter once you have ordered

In the supermarket, meat lies in the counter long before anyone asks for it. It was slaughtered, butchered and packed without anyone knowing who would buy it in the end. With us it works the other way round, and that is exactly what slaughter to order means.

What slaughter to order actually means

We do not produce for stock. Only once a week's orders are in do we know how much beef, veal, lamb or poultry is actually needed. Everything else follows from that. The sequence repeats every week and is deliberately fixed: orders close on Sunday at 23:59. On Monday planning and ordering take place. On Tuesday slaughter and processing happen to demand. On Wednesday we pack and dispatch chilled. Thursday is the scheduled delivery day.

This rhythm is not a footnote. It determines by when you have to order, and it determines the condition in which the goods reach you. Halal is not an extra we have to organise anew each week but the basis on which everything is done anyway.

Why the timing matters more than the label

With this sequence, only a few days lie between processing and delivery, and those days are known in advance. The meat does not wait in a display for somebody to choose it. It is processed, packed chilled and goes into dispatch.

Freshness with us is therefore not a claim on the packaging but a consequence of the order of events. Whoever slaughters first and sells afterwards has to bridge the time in between. Whoever sells first and slaughters afterwards does not have that problem.

The second part is transport. Packing is chilled, dispatch is chilled, and the delivery day falls in the middle of the week. A shipment scheduled for Thursday does not sit in a depot over a weekend.

What has not been ordered is not processed

One side effect concerns quantity. We do not have to estimate how much sucuk or beef fillet a week will need, and we do not have to plan for leftovers. What is processed is what appears on the orders.

For you that mainly means one thing: you are not buying meat that has been circulating for days and has to go. For us it means we do not have to work around half full cold stores when it comes to quality and cutting.

It also explains why some items are only available in certain weeks. A cut that occurs only a few times per animal cannot be offered at will. Rather than pretending it is available, we take it out of the range until it can be planned in again.

The price of this model is planning

To be fair, this sequence asks something of you. Spontaneous does not work with it. If you order on Monday morning, the current week's cut off has already passed, your order runs in the next cycle and arrives a week later accordingly.

That is why we never write anywhere that something is available immediately. That would be convenient wording and simply untrue. Instead we state the order deadline, the processing day, the dispatch day and the planned delivery day separately. On public holidays or during shipping pauses those days shift. We then point that out in the shop and in the order emails before you order.

How to plan your order

The easiest way is to think backwards. You know when you need the meat, for a meal at the weekend for instance. Then you order by the Sunday before, receive the delivery on Thursday and still have some room if something comes up along the way.

Whatever you do not cook straight away you can freeze right after delivery. It makes sense to divide it into portions before it goes into the freezer. That way you later defrost exactly the amount you need.

If you want to see what can be ordered right now, the beef range holds the most common cuts, and the Reinweide shop the complete offering from Austria. Ordering runs until Sunday, slaughter follows after. In that order, every week.