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Cheap cuts of meat

32 replies

Teacher12345 · 06/07/2020 20:28

I am trying to reduce our food bill by using smaller quantities and cheaper cuts of meat. E.g A large gammon joint at £7.50 to use for a roast, gammon egg and chips and carbonara.
Any other meats I can do this with? Beef is so expensive. The last joint we got was £12 even though we got 3 meals out of it.

OP posts:
SarahAndQuack · 06/07/2020 20:35

We have a lot of beef and pork cheeks - they're delicious slow cooked and pretty cheap. Less child friendly, but liver is literally pennies, too. Or things like chorizo that aren't especially cheap, but are suited to using in small quantities.

Teakind · 06/07/2020 20:37

British pork shoulder is a cheap cut and is really nice. You can roast it, slow cook it in to pulled pork etc

icedaisy · 06/07/2020 20:40

Yes to pork cuts.

Chicken thighs, drumsticks way cheaper than breast.

Slow cooker is your friend, most joints come out great if cooked longer.

Looking for yellow sticker items and freezing.

Sometimes I find frozen meat in supermarkets worth a look and comes out cheaper than fresh.

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TonTonMacoute · 06/07/2020 20:42

For long slow cooking, shoulder of lamb is very good.

FrugiFan · 06/07/2020 20:43

Lentils can be used alongside mince to make it go further in recipes like spaghetti bolognese, chilli, sheperds pie etc. I would use 250g of mince and a tin of green lentils, rather than 500g of mince, for bolognese.

Beef and pork mince (mixed together) is cheaper than straight beef mince.

Pork in general is pretty cheap. A large pork shoulder joint costs about £6 and does at least 3 meals for us (family of 3). I usually cut it to thirds and roast 2/3rds, make a stir fry with the leftover roasted meat and then pulled pork with the other 1/3rd.

Also shop around I found aldi much cheaper than asda.

Lonecatwithkitten · 06/07/2020 20:43

Breast of lamb, needs slow cooking, but for lamb it's really cheap. Beef skirt is the same cut and also cheap if you can get it.

maddiemookins16mum · 06/07/2020 20:44

Chicken legs are good value normally, I chop them at the break to get the thigh and drumstick. I can make a nice chicken casserole for 4 adults for under £6. Our butcher does 5 chicken legs for £4, bung in the slow cooker with some veg, smoked bacon lardons etc and it’s a low cost, tasty meal.
I also buy shin, which I also slow cook.

LoisLittsLover · 06/07/2020 20:44

Chicken thighs are so muncher nicer than breast too

Madvixen · 06/07/2020 20:45

If you're looking for cheaper cuts then you're really looking at cuts that take a long time to cook.

Beef shin and skirt
oxtail
Cheeks

If you have a good, local butcher make friends with them. They can recommend good cuts at a decent price. For things like stock, ask if they have any carcasses or bones that you can have. A couple of chicken carcasses will make a fabulous pot of soup and they are normally dirt cheap as they get thrown away otherwise

FrugiFan · 06/07/2020 20:45

And yes to shopping the reduced section of your local supermarket. I havent been doing it so often with lockdown but in the last I've managed to buy steak for £1, whole chicken for £1.10, salmon steaks for £1.50, chicken thighs for 62p. Stock up the freezer!

My0My · 06/07/2020 20:47

Roast chicken. Use the carcass for soup. A small chicken feeds 4, so a bigger one does 6 portions. Look for Turkey too. You get quite a lot for your money.

I love liver and onions! Old fashioned Lancashire Hotpot was always made with neck of lamb. Not much meat on it and you don’t see this cut so much these days. Lamb is so expensive now and it’s difficult to find a cheaper cut.

Shin of beef should be cheaper. Cook with lots of veg in a big casserole. Slowly. Pork shoulder is usually cheaper than leg.

I do vegetarian and use eggs/cheese 2/3 evenings a week. I think that saves money. Home made quiche is good and you could put a bit of gammon in if you want. Risotto with fresh summer veg and cheese is great too. Lots of pastas are more veg than meat.

FrugiFan · 06/07/2020 20:47

Buy a whole chicken and butcher it up yourself- you get bigger breasts than you would in a separate pack and the legs as well.

Twixes · 06/07/2020 20:49

Try pork mince and do Nigel slaters pork meatballs. Super cheap and absolutely delicious served with pasta aglio olio.

Pork belly is also cheap but very fatty.

Turkey breast for curries instead of chicken.

Another one is pasta puttanesca: anchovies, capers, basil, garlic, black sliced jar olives and tinned tomatoes. Don't be put off by the anchovies, you can't taste them, they just give a lovely salty flavour. Mix the pasta with the sauce and serve. Makes everything go much further. Kids love it.

Teacher12345 · 06/07/2020 20:54

Thanks all. Pork is a good shout although DH isn't a fan as it's quite fatty and the kids are only little and don't like pulled pork as it's chewy apparently.
Never tried cheeks but will look and see.

OP posts:
Teacher12345 · 06/07/2020 20:54

Thanks all. Pork is a good shout although DH isn't a fan as it's quite fatty and the kids are only little and don't like pulled pork as it's chewy apparently.
Never tried cheeks but will look and see.

OP posts:
JimMaxwellantheshippingforcast · 06/07/2020 20:56

I find if you want casserole beef it's often cheaper to unroll and dice brisket than to buy beef labelled as stewing or casserole

My0My · 06/07/2020 21:29

Pork with lots of fat is far more tasty and less chewy. Cut the fat off when you eat it. The best pork I ever had was from a pig raised by a local hobby farmer. Lots of fat but the most wonderful flavour. Don’t over cook it.

delilahbucket · 06/07/2020 21:42

Make friends with a local butcher and buy better quality meat. You won't need as much to get the flavour impact and then you can pad out with pulses, beans and veggies.

billy1966 · 06/07/2020 21:50

I don't believe in eating too much meat so for example and my children aren't big meat eaters, so would roast an extra large chicken, strip the chicken of the extra meat.
I would make a lentil curry with a lot of sauce and add the leftover roast chicken diced very small to it. Just the right amount of meat for us.

I make a great stock with the bones with lots of herbs from the garden and some onions.

To the stock after getting rid of the fat on top I will add a couple of bags of washed spinach. I whizz it up. Then I cook macaroni in this.
The pasta absorbs all the flavours.
I top it with lots of fresh parmigiano and fried lardons.
This is such a comforting dinner on a cold night. Very nutritious too.

Peta11 · 06/07/2020 21:56

We use alot of beef skirt/chuck ( whichever the butcher has. Slow cooked in the oven in a Dutch oven/crockpot . The pinch of nom cookbooks have great recipes for them.
Chicken things are great with something line harissa paste on them or diced to make kebabs etc.

countdowntofriday · 06/07/2020 21:57

I love slow cooked/pressure cooked beef brisket. Every time I ask my butcher, he asks if I don't mean shin. Cooked for 24 hours it is like pulled pork in beef form (pulled beef?)

I either do it with red wine, bay leaves, thyme and stock and serve on mash, or do it with Mexican type spices and have it in a wrap. I bought enough for 4 today, plus a bag of potatoes and my bill was £6

jullyg · 06/07/2020 22:01

I honestly don't know how a roast chicken can feed six unless people only eat half a Breast and tiny portions of the rest. Four max I'd say for normal portions.

SarahAndQuack · 06/07/2020 22:05

Pork cheeks would be neither terribly fatty nor chewy - they go very tender. You want to cook in apple juice/cider, and then you can serve the meat and leave the liquid. Once the liquid cools, the fat can be skimmed off (and, in my house, used to fry things!), and you have a lovely apple-flavoured pork stock to make soup with (it's really good with lentils or parsnips).

I don't personally find chicken is very cheap, especially whole chickens. You can't make decent stock from a cheapie one, and free range are expensive. Aldi does a half-decent free range chicken for around a fiver, and that's the best compromise I've come across.

Do you like things like frankfurters? Very cheap, and flavourful. They are fatty, but IME children tend to like them. I also really rate salmon trimmings - you can make pasta or fishcakes.

If you have a good butcher game can sometimes be cheap (it can also be eye-wateringly expensive, because it is both intrinsically cheap and slightly snob, so it does depend where you re in the country).

We were down to one income recently and I so much missed lamb - there really are no cheap cuts (only cheaper ones), and we'd have beef burgers on occasion, but basically red meat was out. The thing I did find was that all supermarkets will do a loss leader on some kind of meat at some point, and then I'd corner the market and freeze it all. I really think buying what's coincidentally cheap is (depressingly) more likely to make a difference than choosing different cuts.

Teacher12345 · 06/07/2020 22:21

some fab ideas ladies thank you.

OP posts:
sleepyhead · 06/07/2020 23:08

I always, always check the marked down butcher meat and freeze good buys. We rarely have a full price Sunday roast.

If you have the space, certain times of year are a winner for real bargains - after Christmas/NY and Easter you can get massive joints for not much that will do you a week. We got loads of packs of stewing steak marked down to a pound after New Year this year and only just finished them when lockdown started.