Best-value "value" meat

borntoshop

Same here for me "Chicken Out" is the family motto, but I miss it especially Birds Eye Crispy Chicken and chicken and veg pies, after emailing them though and being told it wouldn't be viable to produce their their range as economically if they used free range. Oh and walking past reduced hot chickens and sliced chicken.

I have no probs with the pork lamb and beef, great curried and stewed and even just grilled chops, I have found that it comes from Eire and havent a problem as I eat it when there, not keen on the economy mince as the amount it shrivels down to is way less than you start with, would prefer less good quality mince..

sweetserendipity

Hi, has anyone bought meat from Netto before? The reason I ask is that I bought some of their lean steak mince and overnight it turned brown in the fridge - ugh! It wasn't cheap (£1.99?) and the use-by date was fine so don't know why it 'turned' but I had to throw it out as really didn't fancy cooking with it. I just wondered if 'cheap' shops sell 'cheap' meat and maybe I should have just bought something like Mr T value mince instead?!

scottishgal_2

One thing I have, I always check where the meat is from before buying it!! I'd rather buy value british than foreign expensive, just the thought of the meat travelling so far before getting to me!!

Farway

sweetserendipity wrote: »

Hi, has anyone bought meat from Netto before? The reason I ask is that I bought some of their lean steak mince and overnight it turned brown in the fridge - ugh! It wasn't cheap (£1.99?) and the use-by date was fine so don't know why it 'turned' but I had to throw it out as really didn't fancy cooking with it. I just wondered if 'cheap' shops sell 'cheap' meat and maybe I should have just bought something like Mr T value mince instead?!

The reason it turned brown was oxidisation.
This is completely normal, bright red or pink meat is not

naturally_2

I was about to start a thread on this the other day, having seen a program on disgusting food & why it is disgusting, some chicken breasts that are only 60% chicken featured, and "bangers" that weren't allowed to be called sausages because the meat content wasn't high enough!!

I have to say it put me off sausages, or at least anything but the best sausages, and reminded me not to eat things with MRM on them (mechanically recovered meat)

shudders

foreign_correspondent

Pipkin wrote: »

Well, I bought some value meat from Mr T's last time I went shopping.

Lamb stewing steaks, and after doing them in the SC I can honestly say they were delicious.

It wasn't nasty little scrag ends of meat. they were big proper steaks.

I can understand the reluctance with chicken, for the way the birds are reared, but I'm not sure I'd understand the reluctance with say lamb or beef.

Please don't all shout at me at once, I do have a heart.

Lamb cannot be reared indoors, so all lamb, cheap or expensive gets to run around outside and has a decent life.

I only buy free range chicken.

I bought two expensive 'finest' scottish rump steaks the other day only to find that one was blackish green and smelt rotten when opened. As I was half way through making dinner, I returned it, whereupon I was told to go and get two more, when I looked there were several 'off' packs on the shelves. I got a fresh looking one and took another bad one back to cs with me to show them, and advised them to send someone up to check the steaks.

No apology, no refund and replace, just replacement steaks and a badly overcooked tea by the time I had finished!

so, I would say your tasy value lamb was a much better buy than my expensive rotten steaks!

Horace

I try not to buy meat in the supermarket preferring to go to my local butcher.

I made the mistake of buying some lean steak mince in Sainsbury's the other day and it was dreadful. It stays in strings and clumps together unlike the lovely stuff I get from my butcher. The whole dish was tough and really not nice - I won't be buying it again nor will I be buying their frozen chickens because they are always watery.

If my OH comes to stay then he gives me money to buy a free range chicken or some lamb shanks from my butcher - or even rib eye steak. I think that the meat from the butcher is cheaper than supermarket meat plus it has been aged which is why I think that the mince is stringy.

pigpen

I only ever buy value meat.. a pig is a pig is a pig.. the meat in the value packs is usually from the same places as the non-value brands just slightly more fatty/less 'meaty'/more added water.. how on earth does one differentiate a cut of meat from the local butcher, shot and prepared by him to a value one? (yes our local butcher shoots and prepares his own meat..) Usually it has more water added but the price difference makes it no more expensive, but you cannot see that.

I don't buy value sausages or burgers or other 'prepared' uncooked stuff (I do get the cooked meats) as they are inedible but the shops premium brands are usually fine.

Tesco value chook in the oven as I type... not that I'll get any because a chook simply never has enough meat to feed the whole family.. I do get the stock as soup/casserole though.

horseinhatman

I reckon the whole concept of "value meat" is wrong , its value because either is reared poorly , or full of anti biotics , or a poor part of the animal or a number of other reasons.

I have tried to start thinking of my meat as a luxury item , rather than a deserved cheap everyday product, like slurry reclaimed meat sausage or nuggets.

I cant really afford organic freerange more than once a week , and if I cant afford it i'd rather eat quality vegetarian than value meat products.

redfraggle_2

It's great to hear so many of you will only buy free range chicken, they really are grateful!

However, please remember that most cheap pork is reared indoors in poor conditions (essentially battery pigs) and for that reason I only buy free range pork (which Tesco do not sell)

I've no problem with value meat, and would buy value beef or lamb though so please don't think I'm some unrealsistic idiot, it's just a line I draw