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I rarely buy groceries at Walmart because we don't have one locally. But good to know their chub pack of hamburger sucks. I rarely eat ground beef of any kind. It doesn't agree with me.
We make a lot of great dishes with ground turkey, you just have to flavor it more with herbs and spices. My wife makes a great meatloaf with it and adds a few jalapeños and feta cheese to add flavor. Taco salad is another ground turkey favorite of mine. Much better to eat turkey for the ticker.
By the way, anyone who grinds their own and wants a bargain, I picked up 40 pounds of boneless uncured pork leg at Cash And Carry yesterday for $1.19 a pound. It looks really nice. They had boneless pork shoulder on sale for $1.29, which is a good price.
Their pork is always good, but ground pork lacks flavor compared to beef. It's good for meatballs and spaghetti sauce and really good for Mexican dishes. That's some good quality protein for cheap.
I would urge those of you who think about what you eat to reconsider buying ground meat at a supermarket. I'm no organic vegan or food alarmist or anything like that but the mere necessity of having to grind up the carcasses of millions of animals to meet our huge demand for ground beef or turkey or whatever ensures that things we don't like to think about are inevitably included in the mix.
The larger the purveyor's consumers the more likelihood of insects, rodents, sick animals, dirt, etc.. is included with your meat, & I haven't even mentioned "pink slime" which is deliberately added. There is actually a government percentage allowable for most of those "ingredients". Some places have been found to layer fresher meat over older meat before wrapping for sale.
I won't go on, but for me I've decided that hitting up a local butcher for a nice freshly ground piece of beef is safer as well as much, much tastier. I suspect most will also grind chicken or turkey but try to be sure that they clean the blades otherwise I will just chop it at home.
As I said not only is it safer for you & your family, it also tastes so much better than the prewrapped stuff at the supermarkets.
1) Never buy beef at WalMart
2) Never buy a chubb of ground beef **anywhere**
What is a Zaycon?
Zaycon is a meat supplier that operates all over the US. No stores. You buy and they tell you where and when to pick it up. Usually at a local church or school right off the back of a truck! The meat is fresh and excellent!
If you want good beef, go to the producer, buy a live weight yearling, and have it processed.
Current prices for feeder cattle run about $2.90/lb, give or take depending on the market.
A live beef will dress out at about 50%, so an 800 lb steer would be about 400 lbs hanging weight.
From that you get your hamburger, (whatever grind you want), steaks, roasts, stew meat, whatever including Fillet and Prime Rib as well as T-bones, or New York Strips and Sirloin.
The butcher will charge usually around .60/lb for processing, so for 400 lbs hanging weight, look at around $200 for processing, wrapping and freezing.
A hanging side looses around 5-10% of weight during aging.
SO, an 800 lb animal would cost around $2,520.00, for roughly 360-380 lbs of meat for a per pound cost of roughly $6.50 -$7.00 a pound.
Hamburger alone in my area in the store is over $5.00/lb, Steak can be up to $14/lb for rib steak, so if you have a freezer, you can get high quality fresh meat including premium cuts at a price pretty close to hamburger.
Just a thought as I raise my own cattle for eating.
I really like knowing what I eat hasn't been given any antibiotic feeds or hormones, and hasn't been penned in a feedlot to slap on fat.
If you want premium, grass fed beef, go straight to the guy that raises the beef.
Same thing works for Lamb or Mutton, Pork, whatever.
Amen! I am spoiled. My inlaws owned a cattle ranch and I always had a freezer full of grass fed beef! I so miss it!
I am fortunate my local market grinds all its beef every day & what doesn't sell at the end of the day they freeze. I can buy yesterday's ground chuck for $1.49 lb and yes I do stock up.
Wow! I wish I could do that here! I would be stocking up too!
Ground Beef and Hamburger can both contain 30% fat per USDA guidelines. Some suppliers use the 73/27 designation to differentiate between ground beef and hamburger, but it's not a USDA requirement that ground beef be 73% lean.
The only difference between the two is that beef fat can be added to hamburger. In other words, if the processor has some leftovers that measure 80% lean that can't be sold as ground chuck because it includes other cuts, they can throw in some fat to pad the weight and sell it as hamburger. Whether or not they would do this depends on the difference in the wholesale value of ground beef vs. hamburger.
Both ground beef and hamburger can come from any part of the animal except the heart, tongue, and organs (cheek meet can be used but must be declared in the ingredients up to 25% and must be prominently listed for higher quantities), where chuck, sirloin, and round have to come from those specific cuts.
I don't have a problem using hamburger in chili, casseroles, and such. I just to a cost analysis to make sure that the price I'm paying for the meat content is still lower. I'll usually go for a better cut if I'm grilling hamburgers, though.
And as at least one other person mentioned, with prices the way they are today I'm more likely to go with ground turkey or pork.
Duster is right, I stand corrected. Thank you for the clarification. Ground beef is also permitted 30% fat content. Personally, I don't buy either one, but among the meat cutters I've known, they unanimously recommend avoiding hamburger. It just seems to be viewed as far inferior in the industry and is treated accordingly. "Just throw it in the hamburger" was apparently a common phrase in the processing room. And these guys worked for major retailers, not some ghetto mom and pop shop. That was enough to keep me away.
Zaycon is a meat supplier that operates all over the US. No stores. You buy and they tell you where and when to pick it up. Usually at a local church or school right off the back of a truck! The meat is fresh and excellent!
I checked out the Zaycon website, and the meat and prices look great! The only drawback is that they only sell by the case, so I'd have to find someone to split it with. I have no idea where I would put 40lbs of chicken breasts, even though I have a small chest freezer (5.0cuft).
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