Peek Inside My Carnivore Fridge!

Sometimes it just helps to see practically what another carnivore’s fridge has in it. Here’s a peek inside mine!

The first thing you notice is that it’s pretty bare compared to a “normal” fridge. The simplicity is a great thing: it’s just ① defrosting meat and ② storing leftovers. We can see what we have at all times, and our food waste has essentially gone down to zero (!!).

The second thing you might notice is the gallon water bottles in the back. An empty fridge is actually less efficient and has to expend more energy to keep the temperature cold. So, we add the water bottles as thermal mass: essentially, the water bottles help keep the temperature stable, which saves us money.

Our raw meats go at the bottom of the fridge, in containers, to catch any drips. The bottom of the fridge is coldest, so it’s the perfect safe defrosting spot. When these start to get empty, we bring up more meat from our chest freezer in the basement. This way, we always have meat that is ready to cook, and never have to scramble to defrost anything last-minute.

Cooked meats (i.e. leftovers) go up on the top shelf in clear glass containers for easy access and visibility. We got the glass food containers in various sizes from IKEA.

In this particular photo, which is pretty typical of what our fridge looks like at any given time, the top left shelf has leftover stew meat in broth, leftover roast in broth, leftover whole roast chicken, and salo.

(Salo is Ukrainian cured pork fat, which is a little like bacon. You cut it into thin slices, and the fat melts in your mouth, kind of like the fat in prosciutto does. ? If you have a local Eastern European deli, you might be able to find it there!)

The top right shelf has two packages of bacon and a store-bought package of brats that are ready to cook.

On the bottom shelf, in the clear defrosting dish, the white packages are from our ½ cow from Neiffer Ranch here in the PNW that we split with family: t-bone steaks, 2 pounds of ground beef, and two tenderloin steaks. We also have two salmon fillets defrosting. In the bowl is a whole chicken, also from Neiffer Ranch.

In the door (not pictured) are two SodaStream bottles with chilled water, ready to be turned into sparkling water, and a jar of rendered bacon fat.

Overall, our carnivore fridge is WAY lower maintenance than it was before. I’m happy about the ease of cleaning and the elimination of food waste, most of all!