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When you cut-away the fat....save it to fry eggs in, that is what I do.
Chicken breasts are way, way overpriced in almost every store I go into......a terrible value. Do you ever look for marked-down meat.....that is the real way to save money.
See something that is really cheap.....load up on it, double wrap it and throw it in the freezer.
getting the best deals on meat is a real challenge, and it really depends on what the meat is, what the store is, how you cook it, and how you portion it.
For me, I've learned to not buy the injected meats at WalMart and Aldis. It may seem cheaper to buy meat with water pumped into it, but it isn't.
Some chicken leg quarter deals are good, some aren't. I recently bought 10 lbs at 60 cents per pound. There were six large legs in the package (and about 8 oz of water). Leg quarters like this include all or part of the back. I clean and cut the backs for the stew pot, then grill/roast the legs. One leg is just under a serving for two of us. The back meat goes into chicken salad, the stock becomes soup stock, the bones are treats for the feral cat that keeps us mouse free. Average cost per serving for one person is about 40 cents.
A whole chicken at $1/lb or less will work out about the same. If it is boiled and the schmaltz saved and used, maybe a little under 40 cents per single serving.
The LARGE chicken breasts can be a good deal because the percentage of bone is less. They also cook great. $1.60/lb seems to be a break point.
80/20 chuck is four burgers per pound +- At above $3.25/lb it starts to not compete unless you are adding bread scraps and such.
Turkey, even at 70 cents per pound is generally not a great deal because of the labor involved and waste. The sinews in the leg meat are problematic, and if you cook it to recommended safe temperatures (180 internal for poultry) it can often be something between a mummy and turkey jerky. It is also commonly injected with shortening. A while back, I did my usual routine of cooking one, slicing it and bagging it in 4 oz freezer bags of cooked meat. I was surprised that the meat was only a dollar less per pound than sliced turkey deli meat. Once the labor and electric are included, it isn't worth it.
Round roasts can be a decent deal if you don't overcook and have a good slicer and freeze the cooked slices immediately in 3 or 4 oz bags. You do have to watch to slice against the grain and slice thin.
Pork chops are variable. The sloppy cuts that don't make nice chops can be had inexpensively and are usually fine.
Overcooking and cooking stuff until it is dried out are the common errors with meats. If the meat is just barely cooked to safe temps, it retains more flavor and moisture. Cutting cooked meat after it has chilled also retains moisture.
Another way of stretching meats is to julienne a 4 oz package of frozen sandwich meat and make it into a couple different stir fry dishes or mix it into fried rice.
I make mini meatballs from hamburger and sausage (mixed together), and I can usually find coupons for sausage or stock up at a sale. I can stretch the mixture further by adding bread or cracker crumbs.
I use a small cookie scoop to form them so they cook evenly.
These mini meatballs can be added to soups, noodle dishes, mashed potatoes (shepherd's pie), orzo, lettuce . . . pretty much whatever, and there is zero waste.
This is my Plan B when I need to include some meat in the menu but the budget is tight.
This combination, along with whole chickens (plus some bean and rice nights) can provide some variety.
I make soups throughout the winter, so whole chickens are necessary. I can buy stock, but why? Plus it often has more chemicals in it than I need or want.
And at $1.50+ a can for some of the better soups making my own from "ugly" veggies from Aldi is a no-brainer. And the veggies look fine once I've cooked them.
I make bread, too, only a lot less of it than I used to. I am trying to cut carbs a tiny bit. (:
Well, 4 pounds of roast at $1/lb is cheaper than 4 pounds of chicken breasts at $1.69/lb.
So, I think the problem is in how you are presenting your point. Of course the roast is cheaper.
It's all in how many meals you get out of whatever you buy.
Presenting it by saying you save money by buying more expensive meat, and that the issue is a mindset about price per pound, is not an effective argument. If you do the same thing with both types of meat, you'll save money with the roast.
So, I think you just need to tweak your argument. She's right that she saves money by buying meat that is less per pound. She just needs to stretch that meat into more meals, so she saves money over an entire month.
BTW, vegetables are not that cheap, depending on what you are buying. Someone mentioned in a previous post that vegetables are taking center stage and that makes the meal cheaper. Not necessarily. You need to be frugal in the veggie dept, too.
And you can get a lot more bang for your buck buying a whole chicken than buying chicken breasts. Gotta make your own broth.
Oh and about cooking turkeys: I cooked my last one in my 16 quart pressure cooker/canner. Turned out amazing - falling off the bones, succulent. Didn't look like the poster Thanksgiving turkey, but that didn't matter. I wanted juicy, tender meat. Took the meat off the bones, froze in separate baggies in burrito portions (which also happens to be the right portion for a meal for my dog). I save all the lovely gelatin from the pot, cool overnight, scrape off the fat and cook up the jelly/broth along with the bones in the pressure cooker and some veggies and make incredible turkey broth. I use the broth for my cooking and also pour it on my dog's food - lots of vitamins and minerals in broth made from bones. So, for me, turkey is a great deal.
It isn't so much the price per pound as it is how you cook it and serve it.
If chicken breast is more per pound than roast, then it doesn't save any money if the friend eats 4 pounds of chicken breast instead of 4 pounds of roast.
The roast, at less per pound, will be cheaper to eat at each meal if she cuts it up and serves 4 ounces of beef instead of 4 ounces of chicken.
All of which is an academic exercise because beef costs more than chicken, so, at least where I live, a boneless roast is nowhere near as cheap as chicken.
But it is how you serve it that counts. I just bought 2 chunks of beef shoulder, about 25 pounds each. One shoulder was ground and made into 6 ounce patties. One of those patties that cost me $3.50 a pound is a better budget item than the same 6 ounce patty bought at the market for $5 a pound (for the good burger, but not as good as home ground). So the price per pound gives me a cheaper meal.
The other shoulder was cut into 4 pound chuck roasts and those will cost me more per meal, at $3.50 a pound, than it would cost to feed my family a chicken stir fry, or to feed my family the exact same price per pound of ground meat in a small patty. However, my family likes pot roast and I cook it on days when everyone has to put in a full day's work and everyone will get home late, tired, and hungry. There will be a couple of meals done with the leftovers, but yes, the pot roast dinner costs some serious money.
I just looked, yesterday at the chuck roast at Costco. Almost as good meat and a dollar a pound more than the shoulder I just bought. So the same roast, the same size, cooked and served and eaten the same way, would cost me $4 more for dinner if I paid $1 more per pound. So price per pound does matter.
Hopes, going back to your OP, there are fundamental flaws in your premise. You claim you can make four meals for two people from $20 of chicken breast, but can't do the same with a $20 roast.
First off, why isn't your gf shopping the BOGOs at Jint Iggle? I can usually come up with two pieces of meat for $20 that's closer to 5 lb than 4 lbs total (for non-Pittsburgh readers, that's the regional 800-gorilla supermarket chain).
Second, look at how you use the chicken. Small portions fit into other dishes. You can do the same with meat. If I were to take these roasts and make barbacoa tacos/fajitas or steak salads or bimbimbap or even a stir fry, I can make those stretch out too.
Third, I can get even more out of chicken parts. I'm not much of a breast guy (well, when it comes to chicken anyway). Last week I made dinner and several lunches out of a couple packs of drumsticks, oven fried, for less than $5.00.
Example: a store nearby was selling rib eyes for $4. Unfortunately, there was a huge chuck of fat in each of the cuts.
Which is why those steaks were only $4/lb. Well marbled, aged ribeyes command $12+/lb.
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Beef is high right now due to drought and other factors. Pork and chicken are the better buys in most markets. However, it's true that she will save money by using less meat overall.I serve beans and rice twice a week to stretch the budget.
I sold four bull calves this weekend for 4H @ $200 each. If I had raised them to market weight I would have received $134/hundred weight or $938 each. On that I would net about $100 each, so I'm losing money going to market weight. Of that 700# steer - about half is waste - hooves, bones, guts, blood and skull.
Hogs aren't much less than beef. Turkey is slightly cheaper than chickens - per pound, but it has more waste.
When you cut-away the fat....save it to fry eggs in, that is what I do.
I cut away the fat from meat and toss it out in order to reduce the amount of fat I put into my body.
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Originally Posted by tickyul
Chicken breasts are way, way overpriced in almost every store I go into
The HT stores by me always have them behind the meat counter for $1.99 / lb, which is a pretty good deal, and these get used in a couple of meals per week at home.
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Originally Posted by tickyul
Do you ever look for marked-down meat.....that is the real way to save money.
Hm...why is it "marked down"? Is it older? is it a fattier cut? No thanks, when it comes to something like meat or seafood, I don't mind paying more for fresher or a better cut, rather than risk something in quality just to save a few pennies.
She's the one with the food budget problem. She's spending more on food than I am.
If she was right, I'd be spending more on food than her.
I suspect you're stuck in the price per pound mindset and wasting money too.
No; she is eating larger portions. Even so comparing chicken to beef is like apples to oranges.
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