Got Carried away at the butchers now i feel overwhelmed.

leiela

I went to my local butcher who i pretty much buy all my meats from, determined to try something different.

you know it get's pretty bad when the poor fella doens't even have to ask you what you want because you buy the same things from him every week.

Anyhoo all the various cut's of meat confuse the hella outta me, so i gave him £30 and told him to fill a bag with whatever to feed a family of 4.

Tbh he knows im quite picky about my meat im a regular and we've often talked about my diet because, i go in so regular and buy so much for a while he thought i must have 10 kids or something. (i spend £20-£30 per week with him)

i asked for nothing "tooo fatty", he asked if i wanted "joints" and i said sure whatever i wasn't scared by cooking in bulk and freezing.

Anyway OMG i now have these 3 MASSIVE bags of meat and i have no idea what the hell to do with it all.

Ok here's what i got.....

2 Huge Chickens (seriously these things would give a turkey a good fight)
2 lb Steak Mince
1 large Beef Brisket (easily enough for 3-4 meals)
1 small peice of Beef Sirloin (enough for 1 maybe 2 meals)
1 large pork loin (quite big 2-3 meals)
1 small pork Loin (1-2 meals)
1lb Diced Pork
10 of my usual Lean Steak Burgers (150g each)

Tbh i know i've guesstimated how many meals it will do, tbh thats at the rate "we" eat it, i think most family's would get a alot more out of it, so im feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Now whats the best way to deal with this lot, diced pork, chicken and burgers are about the only things there i know how to handle haha, i've got to think of storage etc too ... which is best to freeze as is? which should i cook then freeze? the chickens are the biggest problem because they take up alot of space.

voiceofreason

You should be able to freeze all of that as-is - have a think about what you want to make from it, though.

If you're making things like stew, chili or mince casserole, it might be worth cooking and making these up before you freeze? Depends on what you're going to be doing with it.

Looks like you've got a decent load of meat there, for the money - well done!

Penelope_Penguin

voiceofreason wrote: »

If you're making things like stew, chili or mince casserole, it might be worth cooking and making these up before you freeze? Depends on what you're going to be doing with it.

I'd freeze the meat raw. That way, once it's defrosted and cooked, you can freeze again

Penny. x

voiceofreason

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I'd freeze the meat raw. That way, once it's defrosted and cooked, you can freeze again

Good thinking Batman - something to bear in mind for the future, then

mummysaver

Wow, I want to visit your butcher!

It depends how much space you have in your freezer, and also how much time you have to cook over the next couple of days really. If you have plenty of time then cook away and freeze meals already prepared, if you don't then pop the meat in the freezer, just make sure you label it really well!

If the chickens are causing a problems then I'd suggest roasting them both and stripping the meat off them. The breasts could be carved off and kept whole for a roast dinner. The rest of the meat could then be bagged in useful portion sizes to be used for curry, stew, pies later.

Brisket is best cooked long and slow, so in a casserole or slow cooker, it makes a great stew, my kids love it done in guinness with lots of carrots and onions, served with mashed or roasted potatoes or with tagliatelle.

Mince can be made into chilli, lasagne, spag bol, meatballs, cottage pie, all can be cooked and then frozen or just the mince divided up into the right sized portions to make these.

The pork loin can be roasted or slow cooked, or can be chopped and used as pieces in pies/sauces/stir fries.

The sirloin can be slow cooked but it will prob disintegrate, so roasted or sliced and cooked as steaks would be a better bet.

I think you definitely got a week's worth of meals for your money, even if you eat a lot of meat!

mouseymousey99

That's a really good deal - just totting it up in my head.

leiela

I love my butcher haha ... im lost without him. he's so much cheaper than the supermarkets and the meat quality is amazing.

Tbh i think i did well because just telling him to fill a bag gave him chance to "offload" anything he needed to get rid of so he was quite generous... well at least i think he was someone may prove me wrong.

Tbh he's a very nice man, he often throw's thing's into my bag for free last week i got an extra 2lb of steak mince and a few weeks before that he gave me some sausages because thier use by was getting close. Not that a close 'use by' bothers any of us i made a huge sausage cassarole and froze it in portions for use whenever.

I've got a slow cooker, but tbh im abit slow in comparison to some of the SC diva's ... i pretty much only ever do cassarole in it and the occasional Chilli. Though i did go crazy this morning and put a ham in mine.. (fingers crossed, it's my first SC joint .. eeek.. if you don't see me tommorrow you know i gave myself food poisoning haha)

I've got some time tonight to do some cooking, i've got a double oven so i can possibly get 2-3 roasts cooking, i just need ideas eeeek!!

mummysaver

Well fling those chickens in the oven to roast! Then you can removed the meat and freeze it, that way they won't take up so much room.

Not so much point roasting the other meat before freezing if you plan to eat it as a roast, you won't save space and it'll still need reheating before you do eat it.

The SC can be put to use cooking up a basic mince sauce, if you start off with it as a simple meat sauce you can then freeze half of it portioned for use as cottage pie, will just need topping with mash at a later date, or you can do this before freezing. Add toms and peppers and garlic and whatever and you'll have a bolognese sauce, freeze half in portions, remainder add some chilli and kidney beans and you'll have portions of chilli to freeze!

Or you could use the SC to cook your brisket and freeze portions (individual or family sized) of stew.

jembie

WOW that is brilliant. I wish I knew a butchers. I have to be content with supermarkets

RHYSDAD

jembie wrote: »

WOW that is brilliant. I wish I knew a butchers. I have to be content with supermarkets

Where do you live? There isn't a butcher within ten miles of you?

jembie

RHYSDAD wrote: »

Where do you live? There isn't a butcher within ten miles of you?

No not that I know of. I live near town but there aren't any butchers in town these days.
I am not on a bus route and I don't drive so town is my only option for shopping. We have a Sainsburys local near and a spar and local corner shops but no butchers.

When the children were young I used to go to an outdoor market where there would be a butcher's van that did mixed bags for £5 or £10. I used to love it as a £10 bag back then would last me a month. I would stick it under the pram and the walk there and back would also be my exercise for the week. That is going back 10 years though.