cheaper cuts of meat

Penelope_Penguin

ukmonkey wrote: »

But disgusting and rank! Urgh...!

Noooooooo :eek: Liver and bacon with baked potato and veg is one of the most nutritious, warming, frugal meals there is

Don;t forget breast of lamb - rolled around flavoured breadcrumbs and slow roasted, it's yummy on a cold day :T

Oooh, and belly of pork - slow roasted in a plum sauce.

As this has fallen from the front of OS, I'll add it to the exisitng thread to give you more ideas.

Penny. x

Debt_Free_Chick

I love Pork belly but have noticed it creeping in price - I think it's becoming increasingly popular as it's often used by "Celebrity Chefs" and it seems the masses are rushing out to buy it now

thriftlady_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I love Pork belly but have noticed it creeping in price - I think it's becoming increasingly popular as it's often used by "Celebrity Chefs" and it seems the masses are rushing out to buy it now

Oxtail too. My butcher had it packaged up in parcels of 6-8 meaty chunks for £13 which I thought was outrageous for something that is supposed to be thrifty especially as it would have only made one meal for 4-6 even with barley and veg. Fashion has a lot to answer for.

valk_scot

ukmonkey wrote: »

But disgusting and rank! Urgh...!

Well, heart is just muscle meat and very lean at that but tough unless really well cooked, so I never bother. The cats love it though so I'm used to cooking it for them in the pressure cooker.

But liver and kidney? They're not rank. Lamb or calf liver is really delicately flavoured and lively as braised liver or in liver and onions. Ox liver I think is best in stews to add depth of flavour. Pig liver makes great pate. Ditto calf or lambs livers are mild and delicately flavoured while the others are best in stronger flavoured dishes.

I think if you've found any of them rank they've not been entirely fresh, tbh. Or you've just not liked them which is fair enough! I don't like tripe or sweetbreads or potted head much, though I will happily eat haggis, given my nationality.

ukmonkey

It's mainly the texture that I find disgusting, urgh!

I do like liver pate though. Yup, go figure! lol.

dizzybuff

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

Okay here we go ... You can increase add to feed more people but this feeds 4 ( adapted from tescos food club book)


700-900 Gramms of oxtail
Flour
3 Parsnips ( Keep all the trimmings of your veg and use for a stock when you have the bones from the meat.)
3 Carrots
3 Onions - or leeks
Beefstock ( or Veg ) up to you now rich you want it
A whole bottle of manns brown ale
Bouquet garni
bay leaf
splash of worseter sauce to taste
3 teaspoons of any mustard you like ( this gives it a lovely flavour and my OH never noticed. ) I used dijon but recipe says english.
Season as you like

You could throw a few root veggies in like sweed and celariac if you have them as well

Right dead simple

Coat the Oxtail in flour and fry off till sealed and nice and brown .

Take out pop in SC (Sont turn on yet :rotfl:)
Cut up onion or leek ( I used leeks as they break down better ) and fry in same pan to get all those lurrrrrrvly juices

Pop them in sc as well

Chop Veggies up roughly and pop in slow cooker moving meat on top of them . Add stock , beeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and herbs.

Pop lid on wack it on high for for 5 hours then low for as long as you need liqure to reduce by half.

take meat out to rest , you may find it just falls off the bones. then remove meat and pop it back in the sc. I boiled min e up , and have a tasty stock. Although my DH had to pull them off me as I wanted the marrow (:o)

Smell it all day and fall over yourself to get the mash cooked ( I popped a little horseraddish in it ) but you can have it however .

Serve with seasonal veg that if you are very OS have just plucked from the garden. I served kale and peas..

Hope you all like it .. Let me know xxxxx ps sorry about the spelling im hopeless

Kathie :T

ukmonkey

Right, been to the butcher, how do these prices look?

• Minced Beef (only do one grade) = £1.99lb or £4.38kg (buy 2lb get 3rd free so £3.98 for 3lb)
• Neck of lamb = £1.50lb or £3.30kg
• Brisket = tbc
• Oxtain = tbc
• Braising steak = £2.49lb or £5.47kg
• Stewing steak = £2.49lb or £5.47kg
• Chicken (whole approx 3lb) = £1.36kg (*he didn't write the price per pound down for this, and £1.36kg looks a bit cheap doesn't it? I wonder if he meant to write £1.36lb? - any ideas? They're NOT free range, just so that helps to gauge the price. I don't want a lecture about treatment of chicken thx).
• Chicken (diced) = £1.9lb or £4.38kg
• Shoulder of lamb = £4.60kg (they don't sell lamb breasts)
• Flavoured Sausage (linc, cumb, pork & leek, etc) = £1.48lg or £3.26kg (2kg pack for £5.99

How does all this look??

ukmonkey

I'm thinking at the moment:

Mince - 3lb = £3.98 for chilli and bolognese's = £3.98 (should do 4 or 5 chillis and bologneses)

Neck of Lamb - 4lb = £6.00 for caseroles and curries

Beef - depends on price of brisket as to whether I get brisket or braising/stewing steak

Chicken (whole) x 3 (one whole, two jointed) = approx £5.50 (*if price above is correct)

Bacon mishapes (for a quiche or two) = £1.19 per pack ("just under 1kg")

Pork & Leek Sausage- 2kg pack = £5.99

= £22.66

Does this look reasonable for two of us for a month? We do eat fish ocassionally (we should eat more fish tbh!).

count_rostov

uk monkey, I think those prices look pretty fair. You'll get a delicious stew or hotpot from the neck of lamb, it's SUCH a thrifty cut.
We rear our own sheep and sell meat directly, and I work in a supermarket so see both sides of the meat industry. The reason supermarket meat is cheaper than a butcher, and the reason it seems so watery, is that the water content is much higher, usually by about 20%. Properly hung meat should lose as much as 25-30% of their slaughter weight, which is a loss supermarkets aren't prepared to take. Some chains even require that abattoirs hose down the carcasses so that they can say they're hung, but they don't lose any weight. In short, supermarket meat might look like a really good deal, but you're actually paying for a lot of water and the cooked weight will be far less than the raw weight.
My favorite cheap cuts of lamb are: heart (stuff with breadcrumbs, butter, bacon and sage, casserole in some stock for about three hours), boned and rolled shoulder (roast very slowly, three-four hours), kidney (steak and kidney pie is the nicest thing ever invented), liver (slice thinly and fry with onions), neck (scotch broth or stovies).
We slaughtered some lambs a few weeks ago. I went to the butcher for some steak for steak and kidney pie, and thought to stock up on other cuts of beef as even a crofter can get bored of lamb. I tried rib of beef for the first time - a really thrifty cut which made a delicious pot roast with an excellent gravy. I was also tempted by the ox tongue which was a MSE £2.50 for the whole tongue. But I just remember cold pressed tongue at great-aunts houses at New Year and it was so disgusting. Does anyone have a nice way of doing tongue?

ukmonkey

Thanks Rostov - helpful post.