frozen meat or fresh?

evie451

ok taken a look at the bank balance, I am skint, and I do mean more skint than usual here!

I am going to be doing battle this month with 2 large men who love to eat enormous quantities of meat with every meal and even though I am used to rubberising my chicken and eating leftovers like hell I am going to struggle.

What are the pros and cons of frozen meat, I admit I have never used it but it seems considerably cheaper than the fresh variety..I paid £4 for 515g of chicken breasts last night which I thought was ok but have noticed Asda do a kilo of frozen ones for £5? will they be awful or am I missing a trick? :eek: they have nearly a kilo of mince for £3 now I braise a kilo of mince which suitably rubberised will give me 5 dinners for 6 of us so this looks a really good deal........but will it be watery horrid mush?

anyone any advice

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I find the supermarket frozen stuff is atrocious. All gristle and added water.

So I go to the butcher instead and get meat for half the cost and double the quality. The amount I save more than covers the extra effort in making a second journey.

BitterAndTwisted

You may have bought meat that's been previously frozen without knowing it, especially if it's travelled long distances by ship or of it's out of season.

My own feelings are: buying chicken breasts is ruddy expensive and there are few recipe where other parts of the bird wouldn't do. And buy some frozen and see how you get on. The biggest difference with meat is how long it's been hung for not whether you buy it in its natural state or frozen

anguk

I much prefer fresh meat to frozen but when things are tight I will use frozen depending on what I'm cooking. So for example if we were having pork chops, mash and veg I'd use fresh pork but if I was making pork casserole I'd use frozen.

I do use frozen chicken breasts quite often because they're handy to have in the freezer and I don't think there's much difference in taste but the frozen ones do shrink a bit because of the water content. I'm not a fan of frozen mince, I have tried it but I find it breaks up, it would be okay for pies or something like that but I wouldn't use it for mince & dumplings.

In an ideal world I would only use fresh meat from the farm shop but unfortunately the budget doesn't stretch so I have to go for the cheaper option.

anguk

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I find the supermarket frozen stuff is atrocious. All gristle and added water.

So I go to the butcher instead and get meat for half the cost and double the quality. The amount I save more than covers the extra effort in making a second journey.

I wish I had a butchers like yours nearby, all the butchers around here are double the price for half the quality compared to the supermarket.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

anguk wrote: »

I wish I had a butchers like yours nearby, all the butchers around here are double the price for half the quality compared to the supermarket.

Have you tried the ethnic shops? We've got lots of those as well as normal butchers/meat markets - and the lamb is much, much cheaper, and much, much better than the bland scraps sold by the supermarket for the best part of a tenner.

I avoid the 'we sell real meat because it's a lifestyle choice of us middle classes compared to the unwashed masses' butchers. Especially after I asked how much one single rib of beef was once and not only did they laugh at me for being a cheapskate, they doubled the price as they reckoned they couldn't sell the remaining single unless it was to someone for their dog.

evie451

thanks guys.......... Anguk thats the way I was thinking about it........if I am going to do a sauce to go over it or cook it for ages then surely it cant make a huge difference to it if its frozen mince I am braising for 4 hours? unless its massively full of gristle of course...........

why do men eat so much meat! I struggle to fill the 2 of em up and the Teen is awful for only eating chicken breasts, thighs are juicier tastier and easier to do a casserole with but no......

TimBear

I only ever buy frozen chicken and find it absolutely fine to use.

I've bought frozen mine previously though and would never do that again. Maybe it was just the specific one I bought (from Asda), as I haven't tried others, but it just went to mush in the pan, it was disgusting!

Would they eat a meal without meat? You could make a nice vegetable pasta bake which would be cheap as chips and filling too.

Or a stir fry? Spicy rice/cous cous? Macaroni cheese? Jacket potatoes cheese and beans? Beans/cheese on toast?

These are my staples when things are a bit tight!

anguk

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Have you tried the ethnic shops? We've got lots of those as well as normal butchers/meat markets - and the lamb is much, much cheaper, and much, much better than the bland scraps sold by the supermarket for the best part of a tenner.

I avoid the 'we sell real meat because it's a lifestyle choice of us middle classes compared to the unwashed masses' butchers. Especially after I asked how much one single rib of beef was once and not only did they laugh at me for being a cheapskate, they doubled the price as they reckoned they couldn't sell the remaining single unless it was to someone for their dog.

Unfortunately it's not very ethnically diverse around here so there's no ethnic shops. There are some in Newcastle but I only really visit the city if we have to go for a hospital visit, whenever I do go I always visit the Chinese supermarket to stock up on herbs & spices because it's so much cheaper.

We have 2 small butchers in my town (thank you Mr A & T for driving the others out of business :mad: ) and they're both quite expensive and not great quality in my opinion. I do have a wonderful farm shop nearby but their prices are :eek: so I only go occasionally for a treat.

jess1011

I always buy frozen unless the fresh is on offer as we are very limited in funds, I do prefer fresh but Ive never heard a complaint about the frozen in our house

valk_scot

My suggestion is to sit them down, show them the figures and then say that as you're going to do your best re meat there had better be no ruddy moaning at the end of it, unless they're prepared to add some money to the food kitty from their own pocket money/cash. A grown man and a teen should be capable of understanding a few cuts in the food budget surely?