NJ Dining: Kochers Meats
Kocher’s Continental Specialty Meats
634 Bergen Blvd
Ridgefield, NJ
(201) 945-7086
I enjoy living in the New Jersey suburbs, but I envy Manhattan and NYC residents for their easy access to top specialty meat purveyors, such as Lobels, Dean and Deluca, Citarella, Schaller & Weber and Pete’s Meat (in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market). I thought we Jersey residents were seriously deficient in that department until my recent first time visit to Kocher’s Meats in Ridgefield, a long-established quality meats purveyor.
Kocher’s is a German-style butcher and makes ALL of its sausages and charcuterie onsite.
They’ve got many varieties of sausages, including their own hot dogs, bratwursts, weisswursts, kielbasas, and also Italian-style sausages as well. Everything is made in-house.
Cocktail franks. These are nice and smoky and are great grilled.
Kocher’s makes its own hams, bolognas, salamis and other cold cuts under the Continental brand. Oh yeah, their own bacon too.
In addition to top quality pork, Kocher’s also carries Prime beef cuts.
If the cuts on display don’t exactly fit your specifications, Kocher’s will cut your meat to order. Here are some thick-cut Pork Chops I bought for tonight’s dinner.
In addition to meats, Kochers also sells other gourmet food items, including great breads (like Eastern European style Lithuanian Ryes) and dried noodles such as Spaetzle.
August 9, 2006 at 1:48 pm
I enjoyed this.
August 9, 2006 at 5:39 pm
looks awesome! what is the pricing like at this place? significantly less than places carrying similar stuff in nyc?
August 9, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Very reasonable. For the two big pork chops, and four sausages, plus two bottles of mineral water we drank when we were there, I spent $22.
August 9, 2006 at 6:12 pm
What, no hot dogs?! I’ve been to a number of quality meat and butcher shop/pork stores, and have found that they are all good. One of the better ones in Union County is the Union Pork Store. Known for their exceptional meats, they sell prime beef as well as rare German sausages that are no longer made by most other places. They also have some of the finest bratwurst this side of Germany. Great dogs, too. Continental Provisions in East Brunswick is worth a stop as well.
August 9, 2006 at 6:19 pm
I’m going to go back and get some hot dogs from them shortly. I’ve had the ones that Roman Inn in Englewood uses in their Roman Candles (Jalapeno and Cheese Hot Dogs wrapped with pizza dough) and they are excellent.
August 10, 2006 at 12:31 pm
[...] Last night, Rachel cooked up the double thick cut pork chops I got from Kocher’s. This would have been another Nice Weather = WEBER entry, but I was permanently attached to my computer for about 13 hours yesterday working on a client web server issue, and thus the mighty metal grill stayed cold that evening. However, I must say, the regular cast iron pan does wonders for thick pork chops — the meat came out perfectly done and juicy. [...]
August 10, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I’m eating lunch and reading Jason’s blog, AND he’s making me hungry AGAIN.
August 13, 2006 at 9:42 pm
[...] I took a nice big flank steak I bought from Kocher’s Meats (I went back there on Saturday) and liberally dosed both sides with Goya Adobo with Cumin, and then marinated it in a combination of lime juice, recaito, finely chopped shallots (didn’t have any garlic but it ended up working really nice), chopped hot bird chile peppers, freshly cracked black pepper and some olive oil for 24 hours. Yes, I know that sounds like an awful lot of time for a marinade, but boy, let me tell you, did it pay off — the meat was infused with the most incredible latino flavor, and came off nice and tender after cooking to to medium-rare on the Weber. [...]
January 16, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Today I went with a friend to Hiram’s in Fort Lee. On the way home he wanted to take a detour and drive along Bergen Blvd. To my surprise, we drove past Kochers. I saw the name and screamed for him to turn around. I had wanted to try these hot dogs for a long time. I found out this past summer that the beef and pork hot dogs sold at Karl Ehmers in Hillsdale and served at their outdoor cart are made at Kochers. Ehmer’s sells their own all beef dog, but buys the beef/pork dogs from Kochers rather than using their own. As a member of the S.W.A.T. Dog Team I got to sample the Kochers dogs at Karl Ehmer’s. In my opinion they were the best beef and pork dog we had all summer. It was voted 3rd best in the grilled category behind Syd’s and Boulevard Drinks. I had lobbied for grilled beef/pork dogs to have a category of its own as these dogs have a different flavor profile than the spicy, garlicky, kosher style all beef dogs. It was determined that we could only vote on 5 categories, so all grilled dogs were lumped into the one category. Syd’s and Boulevard Drinks are all beef dogs. Kocher’s is one of the best, if not the best German style beef and pork frank that I’ve ever had. I picked up some today, but was full from Hirams, so I’ll wait a day or 2 to eat these. I was told by a butcher that these dogs are 70% beef and 30% pork. A mild spicing with no garlic or paprika as they are in the German rather than Jewish style. These dogs tasted great the 2 times I’ve been to Karl Ehmers, and also great on my home griddle when I bought them at Ehmers to take home. I was also told that in addition to Ehmer’s, Kochers supplies franks to between 30 and 40 other places including delis, stores, and hot dog joints. He wouldn’t tell me the names of these places. But I definitely believe it as these dogs are top of the line.
January 18, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I tried some of these dogs today. I went to the store and bought a Thumanns griller and stopped at the Galloping Hill Inn in Union to purchase a dog cold in order to compare the three. All were excellent. Definitely my 3 favorite dogs in this style. They were so close in quality that it’s near impossible for me to say which is best. Similar in flavor, but each dog was unique in its own way. The Kocher’s frank had a beefier taste (70%beef) but it was very tender in texture. And you can’t beat it for freshness. I was told to eat these dogs within 2 or 3 days at the most, then freeze what’s left.
May 8, 2007 at 7:20 pm
[...] related OTB post: Kocher’s Meats [...]
May 26, 2007 at 7:49 pm
[...] BBQ ribs over the Memorial Day weekend. So I decided to head over to one of my favorite butchers, Kocher’s Meats in Ridgefield Park, and picked up a couple of racks of baby backs and some spare ribs for some good [...]
September 23, 2007 at 9:06 am
Someone recently told me about a very good beef and pork hot dog that he had from John’s Meat Market in Scotch Plains, N.J. John’s is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, meat market in the state. I’ve never been there until this week, but hear about this place all the time. They recently were awarded Small Business of the Year by some publication (New Jersey Monthly?).
I called John’s and was told that they do not make their franks, but have them made by a small butcher. I could not get any more info. I went and bought a few this week. I had a sneaking suspicion that these dogs were supplied by Kocher’s since a butcher there told me that they supply 30 to 40 establishments with their dogs. The guy who waited on me confirmed that their dogs are supplied by Kocher’s. I was happy to find this out, as this place (John’s) is much closer to me than Kocher’s or Karl Ehmer’s in Hillsdale, which also sells these franks. I called and spoke to the guy who makes the hot dogs at Kocher’s to see if perhaps there was an establishment even closer to my home that carries these dogs. He told me there was not. He mentioned a few German restaurants that serve Kocher’s franks. I can’t remember the names.
If you are in Union County or closeby, Kocher’s delicious German franks can be bought at John’s on Park Ave. in Scotch Plains. It’s about 2 blocks off rt 22 near Snuffy’s Pantagis. I would also ask at any local deli that sells franks they describe as homemade if they get them from Kocher’s. You won’t get a fresher frank. These are top of the line and one of my favorites along with Thumann’s, Sahlen’s, and the Galloping Hill Inn frank. And certainly the best frank I’ve ever eaten from a butcher shop.
April 24, 2008 at 8:55 am
nucka im hungry give me some meat mofo