Cheap cuts of meat - Educate me!

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Can anyone recommend some cheap cuts of meat (and how to cook)? I made a stew with some beef skirt at the weekend, I do a roast belly of pork and if I can get gammon hock then i'll make a pea and ham soup, but is there anything else i can try? I know shockingly little about the different cuts of meat!

my mum used to make lovely stews from neck of lamb, hard to find now ime

Lamb neck fillet is also good for frying as it is quite tender. Ox-tail is great for stews and don't forget liver which is delicious if it is only flash fried and served with balsamic fried onions.

Shin of beef is really nice in a stew if you cook it for aaaages (cover the saucepan with foil under the lid so the stew doesn't boil dry).

Also lamb shanks - I stew them with chickpeas, again for ages. But they're hardly that cheap these days.

Chump end chops, roasted.

Brisket of beef. Not as cheap as it was but still a cheap joint.

Breast of lamb. Unbelievably cheap. You can stuff it and do it as a slow roast joint, or pot roast it as well I think. Can be a bit greasy, but very tasty. You mention roast belly of pork, but you can also get it in thick slices. Hugh F-W has a gorgeous recipe in The Meat Cookbook for an oriental braised pork belly. And of course there's offal, though I don't really use it, to be honest. Pigs trotters make unbelievable stock (I chuck one into my chicken stock).

see my ox cheeks thread (above this currently)

i love breast of lamb too, the butcher cuts it into individual ribs, i marinade them and then blast in a hot oven, do them on the grill rack , with the grill pan filled with boiling water

yummy and about £3 for 2 meals worth

agree about neck of lamb - not difficult to find ime, most butchers have it, also Morrisons. Actually Morrisons good place to find the cheaper cuts if you don't have a good butcher, usually have oxtail (though that's not that cheap anymore), breast of lamb, loads of offal, pork belly etc.

Don't forget things like chicken wings, they are usually cheap and delicious marinated and roasted. Also some butchers sell 'boiling fowls' which are older chickens, cheap and great for soups, stews etc.

go to local butcher

open door

ask nice butcher for some breast of lamb, enough to feed a family of X

he will give you the lamb

you pay him

you leave the shop and go home

when you get home, yuo unwrap the lamb, place in a large bowl, drizzle with crushed garlic, olive oil and a bit of rosemary and sea salt
or you can use moroccan dry spice rub or anyhting you like .

then an hour or so before you want to eat, put oven on really hot, and fill your grill tray with boiling water, then put the rack in and place the individual ribs on the rack.

put in oven and turn ribs every so often...

when done,put them on plates , with rice , or crushed potatoes, or couscous and then eat with your fingers!!

is that step by step enough for you??

I am with OrmIrian - brisket of beef

I do mine in slow cooker with beef stock and sliced onions (I usually brown the joint first).

Equally, you can do it in the oven with stock and onions just the same.

Will always be tender.

I also like boneless shoulder of pork.

Thankyou All!! Lots of things to add to my list x

I bought some beef hough (?) nd did it in the slow cooker. It ws lovely, but wht is it?

Beef shin on the bone.

h thnks (why didn't I think of google )

It wsn't on the bone though. It ws very chep

I'm not using text spek btw - I spilt te on my keybord nd the first letter of the lphbet isn't working...

I make a lovely hungarian goulash with beef shin in the slow cooker - sooooo tender. It's very filling too.

I also make barbeque pork ribs in the slow cooker - very cheap and tasty.

I really want that Hugh F-W 'Meat' book. It's very expensive but I reckon it must pay for itself in the end with all the lovely 'thrifty' recipes - please someone tell me it does so I have an excuse to splash out

Wallace - my Beef shin is always off the bone...

My ' thinks it is a ; a lot of the time - drives me round the bend - I think your missing 'a' is quite endearing though

slow cooking is essential.

adding alcohol to stews helps to brak down the connective tissue and make the meat more tender

I am RAVING about a new dish my husnamd made, sooo cheap.

Slow roast shoulder of lamb, in a garlicky, tomatoey sauce with rosemary /or thyme and tinned cannelini beans. Meat literally falls off the bone. Oh dear I'm drooling.

If you want the recipe I'll find it and post?
Very easy ans my 2 year ols son loves it too.

Hand of pork is a great cheap cut also (it's not literally a hand, obv, I think it's the top of the shoulder).

You cook it v. slowly in cider with bay leaves, pepper corns, onions and carrots. Butchers often don't have it, farm shops are more likely to (as with all cheapo cuts ime).

lotser yes please!