Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Cheap Meat Cuts To Save Money

cheap meat cuts

Cheap meat cuts like oxtails are full of flavor and have higher concentrations of some nutrients than more expensive cuts of beef.

Cheap meat cuts can stretch your food budget without sacrificing flavor or quality

I eat a healthy whole food diet and I believe in the health benefits of meat from animals raised on a natural diet: grass and other naturally occurring pasture plants for grazing animals and the availability of roots, grubs, insects, etc… for pigs and chickens. A natural diet grows healthy animals without the need for antibiotics or growth hormones and an omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid ratio and nutrient content that is much healthier for us than the meat from grain-fed animals. But this natural way of raising animals is now so rare that their meat is much more expensive than grain-fed meat, often nearly twice the price for the same cut of meat. This high cost can make buying naturally raised meat hard to justify even for the extremely health-conscious.

One way to save money is to look for less popular cheap meat cuts. I love bone-in rib-eye steak and so does my wife but we only buy it twice a year. This makes it a true treat that is savored as a special event. The rest of the year, I eat beef about once per week and mostly buy oxtails, chuck or ground. I will make pork or poultry another one or two nights each week and the rest of the time is vegetables, grains, dairy and eggs. I try to do at least one vegan day each week.

oxtails

Oxtails need a long, moist, low-temperature cooking method to get them tender by breaking down the collagen.

The same principle applies buying to pork and lamb. Always look for the cheap meat cuts such as hocks, shanks and neck bones. I will buy only grass-fed lamb(which, unfortunately, usually means from New Zealand) and try to buy pasture-raised pork(but this is much more difficult to find). Lamb shanks are much cheaper than legs or chops, as is ground lamb. Fresh, uncured pork hocks and whole racks of ribs are cheaper than chops or shoulder roasts.

lamb shanks

Lamb shanks can be braised or cooked in a clay pot.

Nutritional advantages of cheap meat cuts

There is another health advantage to buying these cheap meat cuts: they have much more cartilage, connective tissue and bone marrow than the more sought-after cuts. While many think this makes them tough and more difficult to eat, a lot depends on the preparation. The extra collagen from the tendons and connective tissue is a fantastic bonus for our joint health that is almost totally missing from most steaks and roasts. The marrow adds an incredible amount of extra nutrients to any dish made with these cuts of meat.

The key to making oxtails, shank and hocks tender is long, moist, relatively low-temperature cooking. They can be pan seared and then braised, cooked in a clay pot or simmered in a covered casserole in the oven or on the stove. Using wine or beer for the liquid adds flavor and extra tenderness as the alcohol helps to break down the proteins. The collagen(tendon and other connective tissue) will start to break down and become jelly-like at 165-degrees. I usually plan on 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours with the oven at 225-degrees and turn the meat every 20-30 minutes during the cooking time. This is not the kind of meat to try to eat rare or medium-rare or anything less than well-done.

pork hocks

Fresh pork hocks can be cooked just like beef oxtails or slow cooked in the pot with dried beans instead of using bones.

Chuck, another cheap meat cut, is much more versatile. It can be dry-rubbed or marinated several hours to several days ahead of cooking to season and/or tenderize. It can then be seared rare to medium-rare on a grill or in a pan like any other steak and sliced very thin across the grain to prevent it from being chewy. Or it can be slow-roasted or braised similar to the shank cuts described above until tender enough to fall apart. Either way it has more rich flavor than most other steak cuts.

cheap meat cuts

Chuck is a versatile cheap meat cut and can be prepared as a steak or as a roast.

Eating less meat for better health

Another solution to this situation is simply to reduce the amount of meat in the diet. This is good for us and good for the environment. The “modern” American diet contains much more meat than we ate even fifty years ago, in large part because for decades meat became relatively cheaper as average wages were rising. Meat portion sizes also increased rapidly in recent years and the amount and variety of vegetables served decreased. I like meat and think meat has a place in a healthy diet, but it is not necessary to have meat every day, let alone at every meal. Decreasing both portion size and number of servings per week can easily cut the amount of meat purchased by half.

pork ribs

Pork ribs can be used in many different recipes for the grill or in the oven. An entire rack like this is much cheaper than buying pre-cut individual ribs and also cooks up better.

These two strategies, used together, can add up to considerable savings on meat, allowing the use of more nutritious and earth-friendly grass-fed and pasture-raised meats. Shopping this way will probably even allow more vegetable and fruit purchases to be upgraded to organic. So buy smart, eat well and be healthy.

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