Carnivore Club Review 2023: Cure for Meat Cravings

Overview

Unless you live near a specialty butcher shop, good cured meats can be hard to find. If you have a hankering for high-quality ham or superior salami, Carnivore Club may be the meat delivery service you’ve been looking for.

Carnivore Club is geared towards serious cured meat fans. If you’re a meat lover, a Carnivore Club subscription can provide a steady supply of meats that are great for hosting parties or enjoying at home.

After thorough research, I can say that Carnivore Club isn’t perfect. You don’t get to choose the meats that arrive in your subscription box. And if you’re looking for full meals, you’ll do better with one of our best meal delivery services.

But the meat Carnivore Club sends is excellent, and you can place one-time orders without subscribing. If you’re a charcuterie connoisseur, this might just be the meat delivery service of your dreams. Read on and see if Carnivore Club is right for you!

What’s on the Carnivore Club Menu

At Carnivore Club, it’s all about the meat. If you look really hard, you can find cheese and crackers to go with your meat and even some meat-carving knives. But overall Carnivore Club offers exactly what the name suggests.

If you don’t eat meat, Carnivore Club isn’t the service for you. There are no sides, veggies, or cured Impossible Burger sausages. You should instead check out our best vegetarian meal delivery services to find herbivore-friendly menus.

Meal Options 

Carnivore Club offers boxes of hard-to-find charcuterie and artisanal meats from around the world. Offerings include handcrafted bacon, kosher jerky, premium pepperoni, or a Wild Game sampler with items like Alaskan Salmon Jerky Strips. Alas, you can only order boxes and not individual items.

Meat-loving friends will be thrilled with a Carnivore Club gift box, and you can get accessories like salami slicers or a charcuterie board to get maximum enjoyment from your cured meat.

Customization

Carnivore Club’s boxes are pre-packaged, so you have to trust its judgment. There’s no option to replace spicy meat sticks with milder ones, swap salami for soppressata, or double up on your favorite air-dried chorizo.

It also can’t guarantee all products are gluten, nitrate, nitrite, or lactose-free because it sources products from many different suppliers. If you have serious sensitivities, you may want to look instead at our list of the best gluten-free meal delivery services.

Carnivore Club’s Marketplace has 5 sections: Gifts, Boxes, Charcuterie, Jerky, and Accessories. There’s a lot of cross-over between sections. For example, the Mega Meat Box appears in 4!

Many boxes use different suppliers each month. This gives you something new and surprising to look forward to with each delivery. But new and surprising isn’t always good, and there’s always a chance you’ll be stuck with a box of meat you don’t like.

Carnivore Club boxes come in a range of sizes, from the Snack Box Sampler containing 5 jerkies and meat sticks to the Mega Meat Box containing a minimum of 18 cured meats. 

Unboxing

Because the meats are cured, no refrigeration is required during shipping. Most of Carnivore Club’s cured meats are shelf stable for 1-3 months, but only if they’re kept at a temperature of 60 degrees. Since most of us don’t have a cold cellar, Carnivore Club recommends keeping your meats in the refrigerator.

Items arrive in individual packages, with ingredients listed and meats clearly labeled. You should have no trouble distinguishing between the different items in your box. Sadly, Carnivore Club provides no information on recycling its shipping boxes or packaging.

Cooking with Carnivore Club

Your Carnivore Club items need no preparation other than plating or slicing – and many items arrive pre-sliced to make things even easier! Carnivore Club snacks require all the cooking effort of opening a bag of potato chips, and they’re a lot healthier.

Carnivore Club’s items are appetizers and snacks. If you’re looking for meat that you can cook as part of a meal, Grassland Beef has an excellent selection of grass-fed steaks, as well as poultry, bison, lamb, and seafood.

Shortlist of My Favorite Boxes

Here are 2 representative examples of Carnivore Club’s subscription boxes.

In your Aufschnitt’s box, you get 2 types of jerky and 3 meat sticks and a bag of bacon-flavored “jerky bits” that provide the taste and mouth feel of bacon bits without the pork. Those who keep kosher – or those who love the flavor of kosher deli meats – will love Aufschnitt’s handmade, small-batch products.

While other subscription boxes use different suppliers each month, Carnivore Club gets all its kosher products from Aufschnitt and you will get the same items with each order. But since their meat receives excellent customer reviews, who’s complaining?

Carnivore Club’s Complete Box is a charcuterie lover’s dream come true. Each month’s box includes 2 premium handcrafted cured meats and 3-4 complementary pairings, such as mustard, olives, crackers, cheese, jams, dried fruits, nuts, and pickled goods.

Your Carnivore Club Complete Box subscription supports small businesses, making it a great choice for meat lovers who want to try something new and support artisanal meat makers. The carefully selected pairings help you create a charcuterie board your guests will never forget.

Prices

Carnivore Club members can save as much as 20% on certain Marketplace items like knives and accompaniments.

Most marketplace items don’t have a subscription option. Accessories range from under $10 for a Charcuterie Tasting Diary to around $150 for a Dedwood Kitchen Knife Set. Boxes range between $30 for a Snack Box Sampler to $100 for a Classic Box and Salami Slicer combo.

Every month several items are offered at a discount price, but quite a few items sell out before the month is over.

Shipping & Delivery

Carnivore Club subscriptions ship on the 1st full week of the month after you sign up. That means that even though your payment account gets billed immediately, it may be several weeks before your 1st box arrives. Your card will be charged for your recurring subscription on the 15th of each month, and your box will be shipped the following month.

One-time orders and recurring subscriptions are sent out in 2-5 days. Carnivore Club doesn’t let you choose delivery days. You’ll receive an email with a tracking number as soon as your shipping label is printed.

If you’re in the Great White North, Carnivore Club also ships to Canada. The Canadian menu differs from the US menu, but you still get a great selection of cured meats. Carnivore Club got its start in Toronto before opening up shop in America, so you can expect the best meat North America has to offer.

How Carnivore Club Works

Unlike many of the services we review, Carnivore Club accepts one-time orders. You can save 9-15% on your order by signing up for regular deliveries of subscription-eligible boxes (listed in pricing). But subscriptions aren’t required, and many Carnivore Club boxes and items are not eligible for recurring orders.

How to Sign Up

1. Choose the items you want. Most of Carnivore Club’s subscription items are listed on the Join the Club page, but you can also subscribe to Aufschnitt’s Kosher Jerky box from the Boxes page.

2. Decide on a subscription. Most boxes let you choose between a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly subscription but the smaller jerky box is only available monthly.

3. Go to checkout. Verify that you have your chosen subscription and any one-time orders you want to place listed in your cart.

4. Enter your address. Let Carnivore Club know where you want your subscription boxes sent.
   

5. Enter your payment info. Provide your card information and, if necessary, your billing address.
   

6. Wait. Your 1st order won’t arrive until the 1st full week of the following month, so it may take a while before your subscription kicks in. If you placed any one-time orders with your subscription, they should arrive within a few days after your payment clears.
   

Managing Your Subscription

You can modify or cancel your subscription at any time from Carnivore Club’s website. To cancel, log into your account and click on the Edit/View button under Your Subscriptions. On the next screen, click Cancel Subscription on the bottom right of the screen, then confirm your cancellation on the following screen.

Customer Service

Carnivore Club doesn’t provide refunds for late shipments or orders sent to the wrong address due to customer error. While it offers replacements for damaged goods, you must send a photo of the damaged item which they then forward to their supplier so it can replace your item.

Carnivore Club's Customer Service replied to me in just 15 minutes about a question I had about subscription boxes. Their answer was right, but I would've liked more information. It would be good if Carnivore Club added Aufschnitt as a subscription choice in their Club.

 If you have allergies and sensitivities, Carnivore Club will meet your needs if you send them an email at support@carnivoreclub.co. But since all items are stored in the same facility there is no guarantee against cross-contamination and Carnivore Club may not be suited to those with serious sensitivities.

Overall I give Carnivore Club’s customer service a solid B. I’ve seen better, but I have also seen much worse. I’m particularly impressed given that Carnivore Club is a smaller service with fewer resources than the meal delivery titans.

How Carnivore Club Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

• Carnivore Club vs. Factor: Factor’s prepared meals are ready after a few minutes in the microwave, which isn’t much longer than the time it takes to prepare a Carnivore Club charcuterie board. Factor’s meals are ideal for health-conscious eaters and are perfect for singles as each meal serves 1 person.

• Carnivore Club vs. HelloFresh: Carnivore Club aims at a niche market while HelloFresh is a mass-market meal delivery service that offers family-friendly suppertime menus and market items including meat bundles.

• Carnivore Club vs. Blue Apron: Carnivore Club specializes in cured meat products and accessories, whereas Blue Apron primarily offers meal kits along with a selection of prepared meals and add-ons like wine bundles and bulk proteins. If you’re unsure what to do with your meat and are looking for inspiration for a full meal then Blue Apron would be a better choice.

The Bottom Line: Is Carnivore Club Worth It?

Yes, it's worth it if you’re an avid fan of jerky, biltbong, meat sticks, and other cured and dried meats. It'll ensure you get a steady supply of charcuterie-quality products delivered to your doorstep.

Keto and paleo dieters will find that Carnivore Club offers a great selection of high-protein and low-carb meat offerings. Its jerkies and meat steaks are snacks that’ll leave you satisfied while keeping your body in ketosis. And since Carnivore Club uses artisan suppliers, your meats are free of unhealthy preservatives and added chemicals.

Those less enthusiastic about salami may not need a Carnivore Club subscription. But since Carnivore Club welcomes one-time purchases, you can always buy items that catch your interest. And if Carnivore Club doesn’t suit your needs you can always check out our list of the best meal delivery services, where you’re sure to find a meal delivery service you’ll love.

FAQ

What’s in a Carnivore Club box?

Carnivore Club subscription boxes use a different artisan meat supplier each month. This means every month you’re introduced to a new brand. But you can’t pick the meats you want so you can’t swap out spicy meat sticks for mild ones or double up on a salami you like.

Does Carnivore Club ship to Canada?

Yes, Carnivore Club ships to Canada. Carnivore Club has its headquarters in Toronto and has expanded to the American market. The Canadian and American menus are slightly different, but each offers high-quality charcuterie meats, jerky, and other cured or dried meat products.

Does Carnivore Club have a charcuterie board?

Carnivore Club offers a charcuterie board in addition to charcuterie-ready meats and condiments. Look in the Accessories section of its website, where you will also find paring and cutting knives, salami slicers, and a meat-tasting diary that’ll help you master the art of creating perfect party plates for friends.