Neil’s Quality Meats celebrates 45 years in business

Celebrating 45 years in business this week is Neil’s Quality Meats and More in McIntosh. The business has seen many changes over the years and continues to grow. If you haven’t visited Neil’s lately, this is the week to stop by and check out the new products and savor the quality products that Neil Bursheim and family have been bringing to our tables now for 45 years.

Neil’s Quality Meats began in 1971 when Neil and Carol Bursheim purchased the City Meat Market. The market had a small cutting room and a retail area. Services offered at that time were bulk meat sales of beef and pork, plus a full-service meat case.

The first smokehouse for Neil’s Quality Meats was built in 1973. Using the block building that was originally the cooler for the hanging of beef and pork, located just north of the cutting room, equipped it with a gas plate to produce the heat for the sawdust. They also purchased their first sausage stuffer that same year along with a mixer-grinder with a 200 pound capacity.

In 1976 the large front window of the meat market was removed and in its place a solid wall was built. The market also put into use its first electronic scale that had the flexibility of weighing up to 24 pounds at any price. The total weight, price per pound and total price were all displayed for the customer to see.

Two new electric smokehouses were designed and constructed by Neil and his brother Dean in 1977. This gave Neil’s Quality Meats the ability to smoke up to 1,800 pounds of meat at one time. Replacing the old gas equipment with electric equipment in the smokehouses provided better temperature control and eliminated the risk of open flames.

On the two open lots directly to the north of the meat market, Neil and Carol expanded the retail area of the market with a 1,800 square foot addition in 1980. The addition provided ample space to include an office and a room for the compressors that ran all of the refrigeration for the meat cases, freezers, coolers and display units.

In the spring of 1981, a portion of the store was used as a pizza restaurant and cafe for a time.

Replacing the original stuffer, a new electronic stuffer was purchased in 1984. The new stuffer has a larger hopper, eliminating the need to hand pack the machine. It also pulls a vacuum, eliminating air pockets in the sausages. As each link comes off the tube, it is automatically linked and weighed, with accuracy to within one gram. This stuffer is still in operation today at Neil’s Quality Meats.

By 1988 Neil’s Quality Meats was producing over eighty products from their own recipes. Some of the older ethnic products included head cheese, blood klub (blood sausage), potato klub, rullepolse, Swedish potato sausage, and liverwurst. Some of the new products developed included beef jerky, snack sticks, smoked turkey legs, beef loaf and skinless wieners.

Major changes in the meat industry in the 1970’s and 1980’s revolved around packaging. In 1986 a new computerized scale and labeling machine was purchased to comply with the new laws.

By 1989 Neil’s Quality Meats produced over forty varieties of sausages, hams and cured meats, and included fresh meats.

The new millennium brought a refurbish in the cutting room, and the walk-in coolers were updated and rebuilt.  

A small marinating tumbler was added as well. With this addition, there was an expansion of ready to cook products. 

In the last few years, Neil’s Quality Meats has added many new flavors of specialty meats again, including wild rice meatball mix, summertime brat flavors, marinated chicken breasts, and stuffed beef and pork roasts and stuffed chicken.

Neil’s Quality Meats has also provided many hunters, in a broad geographic area of Northern Minnesota with the processing of wild game sausage when the hunter provides the trimmed game (deer, elk, bear, moose, etc.) for the many products available for custom processing.