cheaper cuts of meat

puddy

Farway wrote: »

No idea if one near you, or the price, but Morrison's do both of these

actually there is a morrisons a short drive away, i will check this out as we watched rick stein last night and he did ox tail which got me thinking

01001011

What about frozen, raw meat? It looks like nobody talking about them? IIRC a kg of frozen chicken drumstick cost around £3, a kg of white fish around £4. Looks much better than the 'fresh' meat in a typical supermarket.

puddy

yes, i do buy frozen where i can, hence the freezer is full up with bags of fish, which is very cheap and which we love in curries and poached in milk, lovely. tonight is haddock cooked in olive oil, garlic, parsley and capers

but i have noticed that when buying breasts, they can be touch and go, some are filled with water but its not always clear on the packet and often they are odd shapes so its fine for curries and mixed up dishes but not for stuffing

RAS

Talk to your expensive butcher and see if he sells cheaper cuts. I used to get one better with my old one (new owner not as good) who would piut aside three chicken carcasses when I wanted to make chicken soup and stock. These came with wings (6) and loads of breast meat. Giving me enough for a stirfry, southern wings and then stock and soup

THIRZAH

I find both breast and neck of lamb quite fatty and am never really sure if it's worth buying them as they contain a lot of bone, My butcher does diced lamb for just under £3 a pound. It's mainly shoulder as far as I can tell and is lean.He also does bacon bits in a vacuum pack-slightly more expensive than Tesco but less fatty bits.Skirt is more expensive in my butchers than ordinary stewing beef .

Shin beef is fine and I've bought that from Tesco labelled "Stewing Beef".

What about turkey? The breast steaks are quite pricy but you can sometimes get breast fillets (a bit more chunky) or diced meat for less.

puddy

yeah we tried turkey, but it was so tough, not suitable for stir frys or currys, awful stuff

this is my basic query to be honest, is it worth buying 'cheap' cuts from the butcher (because many of the skirt/neck/tail are not available in supermarkets) which come in at the same sort of cost of buying meat in the supermarket?

also i dont really want fatty cuts as im losing weight.

what sort of price per kilo does everyone look to buy certain meats for?

rachbc

i buy whole lamb for £2 a lb but obviously thats not going to work without a freezer - I nearly faint when I see the price of lamb in the shops!

I aim for £4 kg for lean mince, £5 kg for braising/ stewing beef and £12 k for steak!

I by huge, skinless bone in chicken thighs from the asian shop for £2.80 a kg and diced boneless thigh for £3 ish. I also get wins for about £2 kg which we all love!

I buy pork shoulder in the butcher for £2.70 kg and an occassional piece of belly pork for around £3/4 kg.

These are the prices I keep in my head - I only buy offers/ whoopsies if they work out less - and often they don't in the supers!

ladymarmalade

What about liver and kidney? Chicken thighs...very cheap from my new butcher and nicer than breast.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

sometimes i find you are better off buying a better quality bit of meat, and just having less of it,

I sometimes buy a little bit of diced lamb.... cut the cubes up even smaller:D and then only use a few in a cawl ( lamb stew) basically i use the lamb for the stock, and because the cubes are cut up very small, it looks as though there is more meat than there really is, i also use the rest of the meat in a lamb casserole, and lamb curry, and totally bulked out with various veg

Lexxi

Could you head to the abattoir? Me and my mum tried ours a few weeks back the ques were enormous! These ones allow you to ask in cost too so £2 of lamb rather than weight