cheaper cuts of meat

ukmonkey

Also, as someone on the other section asked; I don't JUT cook with meat, we often have tune pasta bake, fish pie, salmon and veg, etc etc, but I'm purely asking agbout the meat side of things here.

TIA.

thriftlady_2

ukmonkey wrote: »

Am I going down the right track with this?

Yes, sounds about right to me;)

For the beef shin of beef is one of the cheapest and tastiest cuts but it does need long cooking.

Get whole chickens as they will be cheaper. They are easy to joint for casseroles but the butcher will do it for you if you ask him.

Sausagemeat is cheaper than sausages and can be added to mince for meatloaves and meatballs, or made into pies.

Pork is usually the cheapest meat, then beef with lamb being the most expensive. Have you thought about buying a side of pork? I had one fairly recently from my butcher and it yeilded 5 big roasting joints, 3 belly joints, 20 chops plus a few other bits and bobs. It was a free range pig and cost £1.36 per lb.

Hopefully your butcher will give you a discount for buying in bulk. I've placed a freezer order with my butcher (who isn't particularly cheap) which I will pick up on Wednesday. It comprises;

Family meal pack -3lb beef mince, 2lb lamb mince and 2lb braising steak

Mid-week meal pack - 3lb sausages, 2lb beef mince, 2lb diced lamb, 2lb diced pork and 2lb gammon steaks

3lb pork mince
3lb sausagemeat
4 chickens (free range)

That should last me a while as we eat meat about 3 times a week.

valk_scot

For lamb stew and curries that are going to get a long slow cooking, I buy rolled shoulder of lamb and dice it down. Ends up melt-in-the-mouth tender. But before that at a different butched I just bought what he called "diced stewing lamb" and it was also great. It probably came from all the untidy trimmings when they butchered a lamb but that doesn't matter...no law after all that says the meat all has to come from one piece.

It looks like you do a lot of slow cooking and casseroles so you don't really want joints as such, correct? So if you want diced stewing meat of various types, tell him, and also what amounts you'd like it packaged in for the freezer ie 1 lb or 1 1/2 lbs etc. Mince is easy of course, you just say what grade and what weights again. For chicken you ask for breast or dark meat if you want it diced off the bone, or the particular pieces (thights, drumsticks etc) and what number.

You will pay a few pennies more per pound to have it all neatly diced and portioned ready for the freezer but really, butchers love this sort of order with a bit of advance warning because it fills up the quiet times and means they have a ready customer for the less popular cuts that are used for stewing, rather than the prime roasting pieces. My last butcher (who I really miss) used to do this sort of thing for me every two months or so (I would get home made sausages and burgers as well as all my stewing meats) would add in all sorts of freebies like soup bones, a pack of meat scraps for the cats and a steak pie. So make friends with your butcher!

ubamother

my butcher does bacon bits - the end bits left when he's sliced the bacon - they're a mixture of thin slices and thick wodges! Dead cheap - £1.50 for 2lbs - I use them for stock, soups, quiches, pasta and ham dishes and mince them up and add to meatloaf mixes.

SailorSam

ubamother wrote: »

my butcher does bacon bits - the end bits left when he's sliced the bacon - they're a mixture of thin slices and thick wodges! Dead cheap - £1.50 for 2lbs - I use them for stock, soups, quiches, pasta and ham dishes and mince them up and add to meatloaf mixes.

You can get bacon bits like that in Heron.

ally18

Hi,
I'm a bit of a newbie on here and trying to get loads of good advice. I went to a local market yesterday and bought a £20 pack of beef joints, £20 pack of pork joints hopefully to stock up the freezer and have something decent to eat. The only trouble I have is that I'm a hopeless cook and apart from the general meat and two veg have no ideas as to what to do! I don't get home until late at night, haven't really ever felt like cooking hence lots of toast for tea and I hate veg! Plus Ive joined a slimming club! Looks like that meat will stay there for a long time and I really wanted to try to be healthier. And today I forgot to take out a piece of meat for the first day, what a start!

tryingtoruletheworld

I quite like cooking meat on the bone for extra flavour, like lamb ribs which are super cheap.

ukmonkey

ally18 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm a bit of a newbie on here and trying to get loads of good advice. I went to a local market yesterday and bought a £20 pack of beef joints, £20 pack of pork joints hopefully to stock up the freezer and have something decent to eat. The only trouble I have is that I'm a hopeless cook and apart from the general meat and two veg have no ideas as to what to do! I don't get home until late at night, haven't really ever felt like cooking hence lots of toast for tea and I hate veg! Plus Ive joined a slimming club! Looks like that meat will stay there for a long time and I really wanted to try to be healthier. And today I forgot to take out a piece of meat for the first day, what a start!

Ally, look at getting a slow cooker. Lots of info and recipies on this section of the forum for slow cookers. They're brilliant for busy people, get meat out to defrost night before, throw in slow cooker with veg and water, turn on, thats it.

Come home from work, get plate out of cupboard, serve food, job done.

Argos have some good offers on slow cookers atm.

HTH's.

dizzybuff

If you van cope with bones , OXtail is amazing braised in a SC and the butcher will usually give you this cheap. PM me if you want a recipe .

Then once cooked take the oxtails out to rest then shred meat off the bonesd mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm im salivating at this

ukmonkey

dizzybuff wrote: »

If you van cope with bones , OXtail is amazing braised in a SC and the butcher will usually give you this cheap. PM me if you want a recipe .

Then once cooked take the oxtails out to rest then shred meat off the bonesd mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm im salivating at this

Could you post your recipie on here please (just so that others can see too)?