Meat Cutting

[hotcouponmama]

Handling meat sometimes gives me the heebie jeebies, but the frugal side of me wind out everytime. So since two of my favorite cuts are on sale today, I thought I would share how I cut meat to save money.


BEEF
My favorite cut of meat to buy is a "london broil" which is actually not a cut as much as a way to prepare it, but the actual cut is a top round roast. But they market it as such, and likely you know it as london broil.

This is one of the most easy cuts to handle because of its versatility. You can do absolutely anything with this cut.

When it comes on for $1.99 a pound or less is a good time to buy it. I will usually buy several and leave at least one or two of them whole.

The rest I will do my own cutting and make lots of other meals out of it. So if you buy a 2# roast for $4 on sale, you can get between 3-6 meals out of it depending on how you cut it and how many you are serving, although this is pretty standard for my family of 5.

I will take one and strictly cube it. I prefer a finer cut cube, so usually a big cut will give me 5-6 good sized bags of cubed beef. Then I freeze the beef and pull it out for stews and soups later.

I will take another one and get about the same yield as the cubes, but I will do fine strips instead. Pull these out for stirfry or to top asian noodle soups or cold beef for salads.

I usually take 2 of these at cut them into petite sirloin style cuts, usually about an inch thick. Cut a bit diagonal across the grain for a better, more shaply cut. A petite sirloin is a top sirloin steak, so it's easy to get a similar cut from a top sirloin roast.

You an also cut thinly across the roast the long way and get like a carne asada type cut - great for fajitas and marinading for sandwiches.

Cut the roast straight up and down thinly as possible, marinate in your favorite flavor, and dehydrate into chunky home-style jerkey.

Lastly, if you can get this really cheap and in abundance, and you are so inclined, this cut will make a very lean hamburger meat, 10% or less fat. I don't prefer such lean ground beef, but if you do like it, doing it yourself from this cut will be a bit more cost efficient (although not necessarily time efficient) but Kitchen Aid has a grinder attachment for its mixer and I have done that before. Works well.

Another favorite for me is when beef rib roasts come on sale for $4.99 a pound or less when you buy the whole thing (I typically see less than that only around the holidays). This would be the roast that they feature for your xmas dinner, etc. Get the meat cutter to cut them into 1/2-3/4 in steaks for you - this is the same cut that they make into ribeyes. But now you are getting the steaks at $3-5 less per pound than if they were already cut and you were just buying a package of them. I seal these really well and buy a ton of it when it's on sale to eat the rest of the year. Not paying what they are charging for steak these days. You can also do this with the cut for NY steaks.

If you can get cheap ground beef, or you are doing your own grinds, to preserve it, either cook it ahead into taco meat, meatballs, spaghetti meat, etc. or prepat from raw into patties and separate with wax paper.


PORK

Center cut or whole pork loin that comes on sale when you buy the entire roast.....it always amazes me when people pass on that cause they don't want to buy the entire thing. This week, that cut is onsale for 1.88# I always make sure I get this at $2 or less a pound. Love it when it comes on for 1.49 a pound!

You can do many of the same variations as above with the beef. I always leave one or two whole cause I grill them and season them, then shred and BBQ sauce them when they are done for pulled pork sandwiches.

You can can do strips and steaks as mentioned above. To keep these moist, I wouldn't do less than a 1/2 inch cut on the steaks. Sometimes, like at Albertsons, you can get the meat cutter to do these for you cause Albertsons has a cut & wrap free policy. And I know Safeway will do that too. So by virtue of buying the entire roast, they are going to cut and wrap the same way that they are doing for those just buying one or 2 small packs but paying $3.99 a pound or more. A 3# roast should get you about 8-12 half-inch steaks, depending on the diameter of the cut of the roast, with the thicker the roast, the less steaks.

I also cut 1-in steaks and slice them in the middle to make a pocket and pre-stuff and freeze. You can make your own filling. Then pull them out, cover with foil and cook from frozen til 165 degrees all the way through. You can also thaw them and then cook, they go faster that way.

Lastly, you can grind and flavor it to make you own breakfast or italian ground sausage - prepat and form into patties for breakfast, or brown into crumbles for pasta and homemade pizzas.


CHICKEN

I really don't like to handle chicken, but I also won't pay for the strips and such, so you can do this yourself when chicken breasts are onsale. Even if they aren't boneless and skinless (which is what I prefer), you can still buy the ones with the rib-bone and cut it away. Then cube or strip depending on your need.

Cubes are great for soups, strips for stirfry. You can cut the long way against the grain which mangles the breast a little, but then panfry for sandwiches. Chicken breast even with the bone when it comes on anything less than $1.50 a pound is a screaming deal in our area.


Final Thoughs

I always stock up on meat when there is a $10 off $50 coupon or some other such denomination. That brings the price per pound, particularly on the more expensive cuts, down significantly. I always watch for marked down meats and buy them and handle them quickly. WTs are certainly helpful when you can get them, but we don't get them much anymore and we do eat lots of meat in my family, but we never pay full price and learning to be your own meat cutter really helps. Sometimes I can get DH to cut it how I want it, but I always buy in big volume when the sales are right, and then we have meals and meal ideas for months to come.

Happy Shopping!!!

[bugface711]

BUMP!

[puakinikini]

Thanks for bumping this up - great post!

[oregon]

Just a note on ground beef. I've been buying it in bulk and freezing it for years. If you have a food saver, you can vaccum seal it and it will keep for 6 mos (like I could actually keep it for 6 mos!).

Here's my latest.




I never really thought about cutting my own steaks and cubes from roasts, but it is a great idea.

I usually make about 8 qts of stew, chicken soup, or chili at a time and can it for future quick meals. This works great for my culinarily challenged family on the nights I have to work.

One quick question. What is the best way to debone a chicken breast? I've tried several times and end up mangling it. It never looks like the butcher's when I'm done. I would love to be able to do this effectively because then I could make some great stock out of the bones.

Thanks for info! Repped ya!

[chitownmelli]

Awesome info! Thanks! We do a lot of portioning our own meat and you are right, it is a real money saver!

Oregon, love your p-touched labels on the meat! So, the food saver really helps with keeping it fresh longer? We have been thinking about maybe getting one of those, but I wasn't sure if the cost would be worth it.

[jenrose]

I always stock up on Ribeye steaks during the summer when they are often $4.77 or less per pound in my area.

[oregon]

Awesome info! Thanks! We do a lot of portioning our own meat and you are right, it is a real money saver!

Oregon, love your p-touched labels on the meat! So, the food saver really helps with keeping it fresh longer? We have been thinking about maybe getting one of those, but I wasn't sure if the cost would be worth it.

I've had a foodsaver for over 12 yrs now. They are a life saver! I could start my own thread on the all of the uses I have for mine!

Whatever USDA says for freezing, double it if it is vacuum sealed. I've actually kept some meats (elk) for 9 mos with no problems.

[chitownmelli]

Wow! Thanks so much for the info.

Julie - I don't know why it never dawned on me to cut my own ribeyes out of a rib roast - that is my favorite cut for steak, too! Thanks for mentioning it, I plan on doing that when the prices drop in the winter!

[mamastew]

Great thread!!!!!

I have a food saver and a slicer. I have just been catching the meat on sale and freezing it. I have bought steaks and used the slicer to make homemade jerky.

Now I know better! I'm going to start stocking up on roasts. Thanks couponmama for not only telling us how to do it, but also giving us a price point to look for.


Oregon: do you ever find the food saver refills on sale? The cheapest I have found them is Walmart, but they are still almost $10 each.

[oregon]

I do find them on sale at Bi-mart from time to time, but as a rule, I just get them at Costco in bulk. Costco once in a while has an in-store coupon for them so I grab a couple of the bulk boxes at once. Their bulk boxes are 2 big rolls and 2 small rolls. I only need about 2 boxes a year because I can most of my veggies. I save so much money on the items that I seal with them that they are worth paying for. For instance, the GB pictured above was $1.47/lb with a butcher's special of another 30% off. Can't beat that with a stick! So I broke it up into 1.5 lb. packets. With 2 teens, 1 lb. packs are a bit too small.

One thing I DO NOT do is re-use these bags. I know some ppl do but I just can't. I won't re-use sandwich bags either. EEEEKS!