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Saving on Quality Meats
There are a variety of ways to save on meat. If you have a freezer and are looking for the best deal, contact your local Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader, look on Eat Wild, Nourishing our Families area boards, your local tribe on Mothering.com tribal areas or other local boards or information sources for farmers who sell their animals directly. Find a local farmer and talk to them about their breeding, feeding and housing methods, whether they're organic or not or have organic practices, what type of foods the animals eat, and the like until you find one that meets your satisfaction. Then find out when they process animals and how much it costs.
Doing this has allowed us to find a local farmer who will sell us a quarter of a
cow at a time, which is about a year's worth of meat for us (2 adults and 2 children).
From this we get ground beef, roasts, steaks and ribs. The cow is processed to your
specifications and so you get to choose whether you want the roasts ground into ground
beef, prefer more steaks, or the like. You can also get the bones and some organs,
depending on your state and the processor. Our last round turned out to be around
$3.50 per pound for everything, even steaks. That's an excellent price for organic-
Pork is often sold by the quarter or half as well. If you can't buy a whole quarter or half at a time or can't find a local producer, there are some farmers online who will sell you an 1/8th or 1/16th and ship it to you. But local and buying in quantity will net you the most discount.
For chickens, many farmers will give you a price break if you buy a certain quantity of whole chickens at one time, as often the farmer processes the chickens himself. Buying whole chickens and cutting them up yourself can save a significant amount of money compared to grocery store individual cuts, and will give you plenty of backs and wings for the stock pot. Also, organic and pastured chickens can be difficult to find already cut in many areas of the country. The Gourmet Sleuth gives directions on how to do it yourself.
If you must buy your meats directly from a grocery store, find out when they mark down their meats, and ask if any cuts are available over the counter that are not out on display. Often you can buy bones for stock and cheaper cuts of meat by asking. Also, many butchers will give you a hunk of fat for seasoning cast iron for free if you ask.
Finally, understanding different cuts of meat and their uses can allow you to save on meat by using cheaper cuts than what a recipe calls for and cooking them correctly so they turn out tender. Alton Brown has some wonderful information on this on his TV program, Good Eats. Alton's beef map can be viewed here. The National Pork Board has some basic cooking information without a 'map' to help beginners learn about the different cuts and their origins. Also, you can find a knowledgeable butcher who can help you choose the cheapest cuts based off of the cooking method, time and temperature.