T & J Meat Packing

Good prices and variety. Like a good old fashioned butcher shop. Worth the distance to make the trip.

Came here as a kid with my family. Smells bad. Some prices are more than average grocery stores but they do have good deals. Need to know market rate prices. Meat seems fresh. Think they slaughter most if not all of their meat. Mostly beef, pork, lamb, goat, dry spices, eggs, and some poultry like duck. Will cut to order. It is wheelchair accessible. No public restrooms. There were people selling items in the parking lot on a Sunday afternoon; Tamales, Mexican groceries, honey, etc.

I was on a mission, to find rare collectibles I could sell. I found a Meat market with a twitching mule and a fowl smell. T&J market is in Chicago Heights, which as far as I am concerned is Indiana. As you pull into the parking lot you are hit with that livestock smell. I thought no way do they raise their own animals and slaughter them? No, well not as far as I could tell. There was a mule tied to a tree twitching and acting nervous. There was also a large cage holding chickens, peacocks and pigeons. I never understood peoples fascination with caged animals for gawking, sure the exotics at the zoo is a whole nother discussion, but pigeons and chickens? I don't get it. The market itself is simple, big cuts of meat, fat steaks look decent, better than the grocery stores in my hood, decently marbled but lacking a high quality butchers trimming. The prices were reasonable on most things. I settled on a brisket for the weekend meal, I also was coerced into some house made bacon, probably not as good as Fernando's but i will make do. Points of interest in this market are the huge capons, head and all for $1.59 a pound, whole baby pig for twenty bucks, quartered goat looked mighty tasty. Forty pound bag of hard wood charcoal. Most customers seem like regulars, yelling out "one liver" from across the market. One gentleman bought a rather large bag of pig testicles, I looked at the bag. I looked him in the eye and smiled. I wanted to say something, anything, I searched his face for clues as to how this would be welcomed. He stone faced me, a large man about 6'2" he stared at me as if to say, "go ahead boy say it, say anything so I can kill you." I said nothing, I imagined him stuffing raw pig balls down my throat asking me "what's so funny now whitey." Probably not a destination spot, but if you are lost on the edges of Illiana, poke a donkey with a stick, buy a chicken with a head on it, and buy a testicle or two. You can always feed it to your buddies and then show them pictures of their meal before you minced it up into their hamburger.