Mid-Michigan Dining

• 500 Williamston Center Rd.
• Williamston, MI 48895
• (517) 655-2898
• Website

If there’s been one constant on this blog over the past week, it’s been commentors that keep telling me I need to shop at Merindorf Meats.  They kept talking about the store in Mason, but somehow, I ended Williamston instead.  We were at Frandor Shopping Center where my girlfriend sold some gold.  After getting more than she expected, she suggested going to the meat shop everyone kept talking about on the blog.  Since we were already out and didn’t have an address, we put “Mason” and “meats” in her GPS.  Merindorf popped up, but the Williamston store is the only one that came up.  It wasn’t all that far and not being familiar with the area yet, we thought maybe people were saying Mason but it was really in Williamston, so we went.

We were shocked when we took the right on Williamston Center Road.  I was expecting this little butcher shop, but what I was presented with was a pretty large building that looked more like a country grocery store.  The first thing that just knocked my socks off was the smoker right next to the door.  They had it fired up and, if my nose wasn’t playing tricks on me, there was some hickory going to work inside.  It smelled soooooo good.  Once inside the store, we didn’t know where to start.  Butcher shops are my equivalent to candy stores.  I love everything about them.  Right away, we were ran into a display of sausage and cheese.  We made a quick stop there before heading straight to the butcher counter.

Like everything else, I didn’t know where to start.  They had a wide variety of meats and not just beef.  There was fresh pork and chicken in the cases.  For the first time anywhere, I saw a place that would cut pancetta how you want it.  Usually I can only find pancetta thinly sliced and already packaged.

We backed away from the meat counter for just a second to check out the rest of the store.  In back by the liquor, they had a freezer full of sausages.  Venison, buffalo, beef, etc.  Whatever you want in stick form, it’s probably there.  Next to the alcohol was a small pantry area.  We browsed through there, but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without.  The next stop was the frozen meat area.  Just like the sausages, if you want it they have.  There were one pound packages of ground beef, veal, turkey, buffalo, elk, and pork plus more brats and hot dog flavors than I have ever seen.  My girlfriend picked up a pacakge of Chicken Apple Brauts.  I had my doubts because I really don’t like brats, but she thought they sounded good.  After I pulled it off the grill, I cut the end off to make sure it was cooked and just to see how it tasted.  It came out really juicy and I could see myself eating a couple of these.  She added a little shredded cheese to hers and told me to cook the rest later this week.  She really liked it.

We headed back to the meat case to get something for me to eat for dinner.  I finally decided on the Flat Iron Steak which was on special for $6.99/lb.  I’ve bought Flat Iron steaks a few times and have tried a couple different ways to marinate and cook them.  I’m not really a fan of marinades, so this was probably why I’ve never been fond of the cut.  This time, I decided to fire up the grill and just keep it simple.  I put a little olive oil, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper and threw it on the hot coals.  It only took a few minutes on both sides to get it to a perfect medium rare.  I threw it on my cutting board to let it rest, but it was sooo hard.  The steak came out really juicy and the simple salt and pepper left the flavor of the steak in tact.   I had been screwing up this cut of meat by thinking it *had* to be marinated.  A perfectly cooked steak over natural hardwood charcoal doesn’t need any help.

Thank you to everyone who suggested Merindorf!  Both meats we got were incredibly flavorful and I can’t wait to go back and try something else.  They have a great selection of different kinds of meat including game which is something you just can’t get at the local mega mart.