Save money and get a delicious meal? Yes please! Lazy weekend afternoons are the perfect time for cooking something low and slow, filling the house with yummy smells. And even better, the best cuts of meat for these braises are also very often the less expensive cuts. Let's take a look!
Weekend Cooking: What to Cook with Cheap Cuts of Meat
The less expensive cuts tend to come from the front and hindquarters of the animal. This meat is tougher because it was the most exercised while the animal was still alive. For this reason, these cuts can be more difficult to cook and take longer to cook, hence they are often passed over in favor of marbled steaks and tenderloin. Ipso facto, they end up being less expensive per pound.
The other thing to keep in mind with these cheaper cuts is that you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. You might pay $10 or more for a pork shoulder while you pay $4 for a steak, but the dish you make from shoulder will stretch out into multiple meals.
This weekend, check the meat department at your grocery store and try one of these recipes!
Cuts of meat that are listed together can generally be used interchangeably in a recipe (like top, bottom, and eye rounds), unless specifically instructed otherwise.
Shanks - beef, veal, lamb, and pork
• Braised Pork Shank
• Braised Lamb Shanks from Simply Recipes
• Osso Buco from Epicurious
Top, Bottom, or Eye Round - beef
• Grilled Balsamic Marinated London Broil with Red Onions from Epicurious
• Sauerbraten from Alton Brown and the Food Network
Beef Shoulder or Chuck Roast
• Slow-Cooker Pot au Feu (can also be made with shanks)
• Pot Roast from Simply Recipes
• Beef Bourguignon from Epicurious
Beef Brisket
• Friday Night Slow-Cooked Brisket and Onions
• Corned Beef
Pork Shoulder (Picnic or Boston Butt)
• Slow-cooked Pork Roast Two Ways
• Pulled Pork from Simply Recipes
Related: Why Tougher Meats Make Good Braises
(Image: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan for the Kitchn)
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Inspiration, Ingredients - Meat, Meat Products, Recipe Roundup, Frugality, Food Science, brisket, bottom round, cheap cuts, chuck, eye round, shanks, shoulder, top roundRelated Links
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I love this post...thank you!
view suewanda's profile
does anyone know of a place in new york that is good for inexpensive meats like this ? I know any supermarket with a meat section is worth it... but what's the place that i can get the most bang for my buck, but yet still get something of good quality? all i know is a local supermarket in brooklyn, which i feel has subpar pieces of meat, whole foods, which is too expensive, and then we have trader joes which I guess could be in between"?
view MikeyV's profile
Mikey, I've always had good luck with Costco, if you guys have them in NY (I'm in Cali). Just be prepared to have to freeze some of the meat because you get HUGE quantities.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
There's a butcher shop on 9th Ave somewhere between 38th & 40th, they've got everything and it's cheap!!!
view amanda25's profile
My partner and I bought a 4 lb pork butt last week for $7.55. I boned it out, and made 1) porchetta (or a manageable variation on it); 2) caramelized shredded pork with onions and balsamic glaze on frisee; 3) warm pork crostini with ricotta and rabe. That's roughly $1.25 a meal, cheaper than McD's, even.
view Elissa at Poor Man's Feast's profile
Mandarin stewed beef with carrots. Any cheap cut of beef. Slow cooker or stovetop.
view whytephoenix's profile
What about Turn Cheap Cuts of Meat into Delicious Steaks. I've experimented with quite a few different cuts and techniques for inexpensive cuts of meat. Here are some things I found out:
Skirt steak works great when it's marinated for several hours. Either have your butcher cut it in strips (make sure against the grain) or cut it yourself, before or after grilling -- again, against the grain. It is delicious and a classic in fajitas. online payments - dedicated hosting and search engine placement 3 big names in market now.
view ethan's profile
I've experimented with quite a few different cuts and techniques for inexpensive cuts of meat. Here are some things I found out:
Skirt steak works great when it's marinated for several hours. Either have your butcher cut it in strips (make sure against the grain) or cut it yourself, before or after grilling -- again, against the grain. It is delicious and a classic in fajitas.
Flank steak is often mentioned as an inexpensive cut. But where I live, it's sort of mid-range in price. Like skirt steak, it has a pronounced grain and works well with a marinade, online payments and cut across the grain, as in Korean-Style Beef.
Flank steak and skirt steak are best medium-rare, or, most, medium. This happens quickly since the steaks are thin. These meats also cook more evenly if they are flipped more often -dedicated hosting- once every minute or so. search engine placement
view ethan's profile
OK, this is kind of scary. online payments I made the exact same cut of meat, marinating it first in a blend of olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. dedicated hosting I had the same experience - it was very tasty, although you had to eat around the extra fat and gristle...and I wished I was able to get a bit more char on it. Of course I served it with roasted asparagus. search engine placement They say that the older you get, the more you become your mother - except in this case, I am becoming my daughter!
view riyan jason's profile