why wouldnt you use value meat and/or fish

[LucyLasticKnickers]

i dont, i dont know why. I try value bacon and have no problem with it, I tried value smoked mackeral and that was deliciious.
i owuldnt try the sausages for fear of the gristle.
what is wrong with value chicken?

TheNightIsDark - I've found the trick is to fry it rather than grill it. And while it is frying press the rind down against the pan. It is fucking lovely but yes about a million calories. But then who eats bacon for its health-giving properties?

We sometimes get meat from the butcher at the boot sale (I feel weird admitting that) and I can't always taste the difference between butcher meat and supermarket. Unless it's sausages because supermarket sausages are disgusting no matter what they price them as!

I think for me the main thing about going to the butcher - aside from the heart-threatening smoked streaky loveliness - is that you get cuts of meat that are cheaper than you can buy in any supermarket. For eg, shin of beef, massive ham hocks etc. Although I agree the sausages are much tastier (and also cheaper). Also, our butcher does organic eggs from a local farmer that cost £1.10 for six which is bargainous.

We don't eat value meat because we are lucky enough not to need to and because we are happy to eat a lot of veg meals and pulses.

Would never buy caged eggs.

We stopped eating a lot of fish after that Hugh ferneley whitening stall thing that was on a few years ago. The wastage and needless death made me feel unbelievably sad.

Because I care about welfare standards. I would rather not eat meat than eat animals that had not been well looked after.

I need to go to a butcher. Got a Gordon Ramsey book that uses the more obscure cuts and looks interesting.

I think the problem is that a lot of people don't know how to use meat to its advantage and cheap packages of meat are easy to know what to do with.

Agree with you on both counts, TheNightIsDark. I didn't have a clue about how to cook with cheap cuts until I went to a butcher - hell, I'd never even seen cheap cuts until then. I'm still finding my way really but am a bit better at it now.

A good butcher is a great asset, but so many have closed over the last 10 years. Luckily we still have one not too far away and he knows I like inexpensive cuts and am 'oxtail woman'. The slow cooker comes into it's own here, the oxtail soup is v v yum.
Generally though, we're eating less meat and having meals where eggs and/or cheese are the protein component. Me and dh love lentils, but the dc's haven't got there just yet!
A little bit of good bacon (I cut it up into small pieces and bag up portions for freezing) goes a long way. Potato, bacon, onion and red pepper frittata is a great inexpensive meal, and I just quickly fry up the defrosted bacon bits before chucking them in the frittata.
A favourite meal is cheese and onion toasties with a big bowl of salad to share. I think I could live on wholemeal bread toasties with various fillings!

Going back to the original question - I bought some cheap meat from a Tesco a couple of years ago. I'm normally a Tesco boycotter, but we were in a holiday cottage and it was Tesco or a really tiny village shop, or a 20 mile drive.

I bought a pack of pork chops, a pack of beefburgers, and some chicken legs, as part of a 3 for £10 deal.

I have never seen so much fluid ooze out of those pork chops as they pan fried! Of course meat shrinks in cooking, but I'd never seen it to this extent before. When done, they were chewy and tasteless.

The same happened with the chicken, and the beefburgers were cardboard-like too.

A few weeks later I saw a programme about how water is added to meat to make it look plumper and weigh more, and all became clear!

Some people around here moan about Waitrose, and were overjoyed when Tesco opened. But I'd rather pay £5 for pork chops that taste nice than £3.33 for pork chops that don't.

We have value frozen chicken fillets. Not tried value sausages, used to have the bacon. I personally like others don't care about the welfare of the animal (sorry, probably should) price is overall factor. Also personally I would be very hungry still after an all veg dinner ( tho this may be more psychological) and meat tastes so good!!