cheaper cuts of meat

florain

We bought a piece of brisket from M's which I did in the slow cooker last week and it was the nicest beef we had eaten for a long time. Went back yesterday and got 4 more joints for the freezer. Would have got more but no room.

Spendless

I live in a large market town and have a covered market 3 days a week, that has plenty of butcher's stalls. I buy the majority of my meat from there, and only at supermarkets if we can't get. I am appalled at both the quality and the price of supermarket meat.

Depending on where you live - if you could give us a rough idea, by saying county if you'd rather not state exactly where you are. then maybe someone could point you in the direction of something similar even if it means you making a trip once a month to stock up.

Kittygalore

Hi there,

I was just wondering what cheaper cuts of meat people use? We are a family of 6 and I am trying to get the food bills down but still have homely winter meals. We regularly use chicken thighs in the slow cooker for casseroles rather than the more expensive cuts and cheaper cuts of beef for stews. I am sure I am missing some secret cuts though lol.

Any help appreciated.

Kitty

Pink.

Hi Kittygalore,

Welcome to MSE

These previous threads have lots of advice on buying and cooking cheaper cuts of meat that should help:

cheaper cuts of meat

cheap cuts of meat that can be slow cooked

I'll add your thread to the first link once you've had more replies to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

CurlyTop

Hi Kitty

Not sure if you saw the programme called 'Food' on Channel 4 this week. They focus on where food comes from, etc and to help you be a more informed shopper. This week they focussed on pig and had a butcher cut the pig down to the different parts, explaining what were the cheaper ends of meat. They then did a recipe with one part of the pig which this week was pigs cheeks! This was weird because I'd just had a natter with my friend that day who was going home to cook her hubby pigs cheeks. She said they are really flavoursome, cheap but do take some time to cook. They said on the programme that you may have to order them from your butcher although I've just come off another thread (can't remember which one, duh!) where someone mentioned pigs cheeks and that morrisons sell them 4 for £1.29.

I noticed that you have a slow cooker so this may be something that would fit in quite nicely there, with them taking a while to cook. There is a recipe on the website, which I think is https://www.channel4.com/food or something like that.

This week (wednesdays, 8pm) , they are doing another animal - can't remember which. Sorry but thought this may help out.

roosterpotatoes

For anyone who lives near Ormskirk, Lancashire.
I was at the market which is held on a Thursday and a Saturday and for anyone who does not know, there is a butchers there, very reasonably priced and we got some cumberland sausage and a few other bits and the cumberland was gorgeous. Im not sure if im allowed to name it but it begins with a W.
Id definately recommend him

lickylonglips

i've recently bought from my butcher 3 lambs' hearts for £1, pork chops at £1 per lb., small chickens at £1 each and 3 lb. of meaty bacon soup bones for £1.... they also do massive packs of ox liver for £1 (must be at least 3 lb. in weight). I would suggest hunting around for a good butcher.

foxgloves

Our favourite is ham hock. I've never paid more than 2.50 for one and our Co-op sometimes has them for as low as 1.90. I shove it in a saucepan of water & bring to the boil just to get some of the salt out, then I put it in the slow cooker with a bit of water & a halved carrot & a halved onion for flavouring the stock. I set it for 8 hours on low & when we get back from work, the house smells lovely. It's not a joint you can slice. It goes very tender & the meat literally falls off the bone in big chunks. Then I take all the fat off it. We like eating it with home-made parsley & chive sauce, new potatoes & peas. There's only 2 of us so I save some to put on top of a pizza or in a pasta bake or husband's sandwiches. Next day, I put the ham bone back in the slowcooker with chopped veg, the cooking liquid, bayleaf, more water & a big scoop of yellow split peas as well as any tiny little scraps of ham & that makes a filling soup. I think that's pretty good for such a small outlay on the meat. (Tho' I bet there are people on here who'd get at least another day's meal out of it!!)

andygb

If you use beef, then Ox cheeks and shin/leg of beef can be used for great casseroles, and both should cost around £4 per kilo. Use ordinary instead of best braising steak. Could you find someone who shoots rabbit (farmers usually employ them), because rabbit stew is great.

valk_scot

My (very good) local butcher sells packs of cubed meat....beef, pork or lamb...for stewing. I did ask him if they were any cut in particular and he said that they were all sorts of untidy bits from when they butchered down a carcase rather than them being from a specific part but that the meat was all good quality stuff but it just required slower cooking. So that's what I get at around £3-£4 per kilo from him and it's never let me down. So might be worth asking your local butcher about this?

I also look for bigger chickens of about 5lb/2.5 kg in weight.....far better meat to bone ratio than little ones. Sainsburys sell these for £5 each and one will easily feed my family of four for three nights (roast plus a couple of meals like stir fry and curry) plus soup. Or if you bought three at a time and got to work with a sharp knife you'd end up with lots of prime breast meat, a pile of thigh joints and drum sticks, lots of cubed meat for casseroles and enough stock bones to last you a fair old while.

Turkey legs are a good buy too....lots of meat in one of these for say a curry, plus bones for soup. Diced turkey thigh is more expensive than cutting it up yourself but more convenient. Pork or turkey mince is cheaper than beef and is excellent if you use it 50:50 with beef for meatballs etc.

Ham hocks are great too...see above. I boil them, use the cooking water for stock, the meat for pies, main course fried rice, carbonara sauce and the leftover bones, skin and trimmings make another pot of stock.

Liver...I love lamb or calf liver stir fried in strips with onions. Pity none of the rest of my family do!