I need meat!

sniggings

I need to start eating more healthily so I have bought a slow cooker, just been out to buy my first stew and was shocked at the price of meat, tbh with you I normally by crap food and ready meals so not much experience in buying big pieces of meat, anyway where is a good/cheap place to buy meat, I've just paid £4.50 for a little bit of diced lamb 0.300kg and £7 for a small beef topside 0.728, is that expensive?

[Deleted User]

I buy reduced, yellow stickered, or whoppsie or whatever you want to call it meat. Any cuts are fine for the slow cooker.
I manage to get every kind of meat and cut at the supermarket.
I found chicken with garlic butter and stuffed mushrooms x 2 lurking in my freezer which I paid £1.00 for. I chopped loads of veg and added a tin of value soup to the chicken and it was Lovely and made myself 3 meals out of it.

prettyflamingo

yep im the same look for reductions in stores, or aldi is good for a full free range chicken for around £5 which I can make 10 meals out of usually.

stephen77

stewing meat starts around £4+ kg. These cheap cut are suited to a long slow cook.
Lots of meats will costs from £6 per kg to about £15 per kg.

Though it does get a lot more expensive if your using beef fillet where £30+kg is pretty common.

MysteryMe

Buying meat ready diced is usually more expensive, you can cut meat into chunks quite easily yourself.

sniggings

MysteryMe wrote: »

Buying meat ready diced is usually more expensive, you can cut meat into chunks quite easily yourself.

I thought that too, but checked the lamb chops and the lamb leg steaks etc and the diced was about 40p kg cheaper.

meg72

sniggings wrote: »

I need to start eating more healthily so I have bought a slow cooker, just been out to buy my first stew and was shocked at the price of meat, tbh with you I normally by crap food and ready meals so not much experience in buying big pieces of meat, anyway where is a good/cheap place to buy meat, I've just paid £4.50 for a little bit of diced lamb 0.300kg and £7 for a small beef topside 0.728, is that expensive?

Yes its expensive, I never pay more than £5 a killo for meat, shop around for offers Asda currently have joints of topside and silverside which is great for slow cooking, I paid 8.39 for 2.078 killo. Pork shoulder is £3.00 and Pork leg is £3.50 killo just get a sharp knife and cut into steaks or chunks.

Have just checked and they have leg of lamb for £^.00 too.

sniggings

meg72 wrote: »

Yes its expensive, I never pay more than £5 a killo for meat, shop around for offers Asda currently have joints of topside and silverside which is great for slow cooking, I paid 8.39 for 2.078 killo. Pork shoulder is £3.00 and Pork leg is £3.50 killo just get a sharp knife and cut into steaks or chunks.

Have just checked and they have leg of lamb for £^.00 too.

Asda is a bit a way from me but next time I'm passing I will look in, had a quick look in Aldi but it din't seem that cheap for meat as the rest of their stuff, so I ened up buying it from Sainburys, which going from your prices seems I over paid, the topside was on offer too :eek:.
Is frozon meat a lot cheaper or is it best just to stick with fresh?

mojod

In my experience, in order of preference price wise (assuming you have any locally) - Asian halal butchers, Market Butchers, High Street Butchers, Supermarket.

Tend to use the first two mostly. Last week got ...

1350g boneless chicken thighs - around £4
Lamb breast - £2.99/kg
Lamb chops - £3.99/kg

Also saw lamb neck £4.99/kg, whole chickens around £3

That was all at the halal place and all beautifully fresh.

Also got in local market, ham shank (gorgeous!) and a rack of pork ribs for £4.50

You really don't want to be buying expensive cuts of meat for slow cooking. Go for the cheaper bits - don't be put off by any fat you see as you can trim off any major bits, but otherwise it will melt away nicely and stop your meat from drying out

sniggings

mojod wrote: »

In my experience, in order of preference price wise (assuming you have any locally) - Asian halal butchers, Market Butchers, High Street Butchers, Supermarket.

Tend to use the first two mostly. Last week got ...

1350g boneless chicken thighs - around £4
Lamb breast - £2.99/kg
Lamb chops - £3.99/kg

Also saw lamb neck £4.99/kg, whole chickens around £3

That was all at the halal place and all beautifully fresh.

Also got in local market, ham shank (gorgeous!) and a rack of pork ribs for £4.50

You really don't want to be buying expensive cuts of meat for slow cooking. Go for the cheaper bits - don't be put off by any fat you see as you can trim off any major bits, but otherwise it will melt away nicely and stop your meat from drying out

cheers, i thought topside was the cheapest but having now looked, seems brisket and a couple others are cheaper, I guess it's a learning curve, all be it an expensive one, I thought the slow cooker was going to provide great food cheaply, I guess it stll can if i shop around.

ms_night_ryder

Check reductions, today in waitrose I got a reduced beef joint top rump for £2.79 original cost £11.63.

I also use Costco to bulk buy chicken pork etc.