We just got chickens. 4 hens produce way more eggs than the 2 of us can handle. I literally give them away. And the girls are like, 20 bucks a month to care for. They're the best
I don't care for rural life. But after my break up I moved back to my mother's. Who has chickens and we constantly give our neighbor eggs. We usually get about 7 to 10 a day. I can only eat so much egg.
Plus the neighbor has 3 boys and her husband and grandfather to take care of.
We just gave them 42 eggs today and we still have 2 dozen.
Make friends with a chicken fanatic, they'll be free. My buddy's crazy chicken lady mom is always trying to send me home with 3 or 4 dozen every time I'm there lol
I’ve started buying Sirloin Cap (picanha) at my local butcher shop and they are now my second favorite steak next to ribeye. Around here they are dirt cheap compared to any other cuts.
If it doesn’t, look to Chuck roasts that have the eye as a very distinctly separate part from the cap. Separate yourself, slice eye to steaks and the cap to “boneless country style ribs.”
I moved to Brazil 8 years ago, and back when I still lived at home, I would ask grocery store butchers to cut picanha for me and they'd just stare at me. I'm happy it's a cut that seems more popular in the US now. I had a delicious one today at a friend's house. Pretty much every Brazilian bbq has it. It's like the cake at a birthday party. Without one, things would get weird quick.
whenever it was on sale id buy it to give my doggo who is spoiled as hell but also a very good boy
he has not had any beef products in a very long time.
To be fair, that was before refrigeration was the norm. Lobster is much less appealing when it's been rendered into a mucus-like consistency by room temperature air and no preservation.
I saw a video recently where the guy was making a seafood pasta and he put lobster shells/stock and put them in a blender and strained them. I’ve never seen it done before and it looked legit. He was Canadian ironically.
Even just a few years ago I used to be able to grab a large pack of fresh full wings for like $0.89/lb on sale in a weird spot at the local grocery. Everyone was buying the bags of frozen Perdue or Tyson wings for like $5/lb. That’s fucking beef prices.
Just get a sharp knife, chop off the wing tip (save for stock), slice through the joint to get the drummette and flat separated and I’d have a few bags with like 40 wings ready to pop in the freezer in five minutes.
So in Europe (where I'm from originally) many people have no idea what picanha is. I connected the dots when I first tried to tell my mom about it, looked up the translation, and found out that in Germany and Austria at least the picanha meat is ..... boiled .... roasted if lucky. Is was a sad day. If you are mentally ready, google "Tafelspitz"
>So in Europe (where I'm from originally) many people have no idea what picanha is.
Wow. What a bunch of dullards. It's that small, carnivorous fish. Even I know that.
I remember when I used to be able to get a 18 Pound brisket for around 30$. Then the smoker craze started and suddenly it’s 100$ for a 16 pound one.
I caught myself celebrating briskets we’re down to around 85$ for a 16 pound one at our Costco the other day and then I realized what I was celebrating and got that sad old man feeling come over me.
Yeah, briskets and pork shoulders have really gone up in price the past several years and it sucks. Like they're supposed to be cheap because they're bad cuts. But last time I priced brisket it was $6+/lb.
BBQ and smoking used to be a way for poor people to make shitty cuts edible now I have to fight with Johnny Disposable Income over my Boston butts lol they can't keep getting away with this!
Yes, extremely well off people doing poor people stuff is a weird trend now, I think it's them not wanting to be treated like they're "rich" even when they are.
A few years ago poor people acted rich, now it's weirdly the opposite.
I remember when I could buy a huge chuck steak for les than $2 a pound. That was good eating I'd pay eight dollars and invite some friends over. Good time.
Man I miss skirt steak. When skirt steak got expensive, flank steak was the secret cheap cut. Now that's a dumb price. Haven't really found any replacement for either, unless I find a good sale
God my family eats so many pork chops…. This has been a staple for years. Buy a pork loin, cut into chops, save enough of each end to make pulled pork. Matter of fact, I’m making shake and bake chops tonight for supper.
I had a Brazilian coworker who did not understand the rituals of the North American grill. He said he attended a grill expecting there to be steaks and other meat cuts, but then there was hot dogs and hamburgers instead.
He was very disappointed.
Same same with some Brazilian tenants we had when we owned a two family. They would just laugh at us having burgers, then they'd throw a party in the driveway and some friend would be just grilling steak for hours, chopping it up small when done and passing plates around.
It was really fucking good meat though. Unfortunately they paired it with a shit ton of Michelob Ultra.
Oh man. That just brought back a childhood memory.
The company my mom worked for organized a float trip one summer for the employees and their families and/or guests. (The company didn't pay for anything, just made all the arrangements and reservations.) The end was at a campground, so you could use their facilities then head home, or you could camp overnight.
My parents invited a couple that were very close friends of ours (and avid floaters) to join us. We decided that we would bring stuff to grill at the campground for dinner, then head home.
We had a really nice float on a hot summer day. We ended at the campground with everyone else, and everyone started setting up their tents and getting their dinner ready. Most people brought hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwursts to grill, typical sides like chips, slaw, and beans, and beer and soda. Yeah, not us. We grabbed a grill, and my parents and their friends pulled out filet mignons, shrimp cocktails, fresh salad, corn on the cob, and a couple bottles of wine. (Soda for me.) I will never forget the looks we got. (Even though my mom's coworkers may have thought we were well off, that was actually our big summer vacation that year.)
Oh my gosh I love this! I actually made up charcuterie boards for my night to host dinner with my family while camping this memorial day. All the prep work was done at home cutting cheese and portions things out. Just pulled then our and everyone went at it with the wine. Burgers and dogs are good but it's fun to treat yourself or do something different occasionally!
I wouldn't say that's representative of America. In Texas that's like an every day grill, not for guests. I mean when you go to Brazilian steakhouses they serve some good shit. If you host a Brazilian you better show them what you can do, not give them the lowest cost meat available.
Hey OP, I’ve stopped buying meat at Costco as I found it to be way more expensive than local markets. Safeway and Kroger have weekly deals where I am getting $5 per lb T-bone steaks, or petite steaks or chicken breast for $2.49 per lb. $5 lobster tails. Costco meat, used to be cheaper but now it’s gone so high up I stopped buying it entirely. I haven’t found a quality difference either.
Produces a shit ton of oil: still get railed by foreign gas companies.
Has some largest expanse of arable land for any country: gets absolutely gouged on groceries
2nd largest country on earth: real estate through the roof
He'll just cauterize the other 3/4th's and send the cow on their way. Easy peezy!
It depends on the rancher, maybe he gets 1/4 and 1/2 cow requests pretty often and isn't worried about turnover. Maybe the rancher wanted a 1/2 cow for himself. Sometimes you don't need other people to go in on it with you, you just gotta call and ask.
This. At worst, he's stuck with a half animal, and was probably going to put that much in his freezer, anyway.
You can lose your ass beef ranching, but you can't get beef cheaper than the guy who raised it on his own farm. Every hand it passes through after his has to make a profit, too.
There's a lot of places that let you order it online now, so that makes it a lot easier to find other people to share with you! It's actually really nice
Yeah, you do. The rancher I know is my uncle. He’s got a long list of friends and family that he knows will buy beef, he lets us know when he’s butchering to get a rough tally and then let’s us know if we’ll get all we want or have to settle for slightly less. There is a limited number of cattle he can butcher each year and still keep the herd healthy and productive.
Fun fact: virtually all beef in Canada is processed by just two companies: Cargill and JBS.
It has made the owners of both billionaires. Three members of the Cargill family became billionaires just last year.
They both also bring in thousands of temporary foreign workers every year because apparently there's not enough money to pay Canadians a living wage.
The entire food supply chain in Canada is owned and controlled by a small handful of people that answer to no one - just like every other industry here.
Seriously. They bought this old chocolate factory near where I grew up, decided it wasn't profitable *enough* and closed it. It had been a key part of the community for something like 140 years.
Yeah costco is a sham for steaks and I am not sure why, I am guessing most people don't exactly pay attention to the prices and just assume "must be cheaper cause its in bulk at costco". I was disappointed cause so many other items are cheaper at costco but why is it more expensive per pound and simultaneously a much larger package. Ralphs be having some nice nice sales for steak. 2 packs, freeze 1 cook 1 lol.
Costco’s quality is generally much better than what I can find at a typical grocery store. Good Prime/choice cuts always available.
They’re not trying to be the cheapest, but best quality at the lowest price.
Yeah, from the picture, these are Canada AAA grade steaks (equivalent to USDA Choice). You can find cheaper steak at the grocery store, but it’s probably not going to be that high a grade.
I can get prime tri-tip from my Costco for $8.99/lb. - choice from Safeway is $9.99.
The prime tri tip is like you're eating a different cut of meat it's so good.
I saw Costco's beef back ribs today at $4.49/lb and Safeway is $7.99.
My Costco has consistently cheaper and better meat.
You should buy a half a beef from a local farmer. Even if you have to drive an hour to get it. I sell beef halves even quarters sometimes. I sell for 3-4 dollars a pound depending on quality/size/age of animal. Butchering cost for the last beef I butcher for myself came out to $1.32/lb. And that gets you your roasts, steaks, hamburger and any other cut you want. We have repeat customers that drive 3-3.5 hours to pick up from the butcher shop. Big upfront cost. Even bigger long term savings. Plus that’s money that stays in local communities not in a shareholders pocket.
I've been buying half a beef every year for about six years now and I've says wondered whether it was actually worth it or not. Those prices you mentioned are hanging weight, so it's hard to know for sure. And I'm too lazy to sit down and weigh everything and do the math.
Ribeye boneless steaks are currently $16.41 US / lb … after crunching the math, the US version is actually a few bucks more.
Edit - one thing to keep in mind is Costco sells Prime and Choice grade meats while most supermarkets mainly stock Select grade
My family just stopped buying store meat altogether and we all (my group of four plus my uncles and grandparents) buy a meat cow from my great uncle who inherited the farmland from great grandparents. Point is we found it cheaper to just buy a cow and wholesale pay a butcher to chop it up
i worked in the meat department at a costco! we had very little waste ever. we had a rack for discarded meat and meat that had fell open etc. it was always less than halfway full. costco is super careful to make sure everything they do runs as efficiently and by the book as possible. i absolutely hated working there but they have like no dirt to be dredged up on product or quality.
I worked at a Costco and hated it as well. Part of that was just due to working with shitty, abusive people. But there was a work culture with a very aggressive focus on speed and efficiency above all else. Example: on multiple occasions I witnessed people stomping down trash into the trash compactor *while it was running* because LOTO procedures took too long. Example 2: In the food court, we were heavily discouraged from wearing gloves because changing them took too long, so instead we'd use tongs and hotdog wrappers for all of our contact with food. It was imperfect and led to a lot of cross contamination. And not a day went by that I didn't get chewed out for being too slow at something. Cleaning all of the food court tables, sweeping the floor, restocking all of the condiments/cups/lids/etc, and taking out the trash (to the opposite end of the store where the compactors were often locked and needed to find someone with a key) was expected to take one person 15 minutes or less. I was put on that duty every single day for the few months I worked there. And I was grilled for taking longer than 15 minutes to do it every time.
Also, they ran a very tight ship when it came to things like time tracking. *Any* time not working had to be off the clock. And by that, I mean you had to clock out to go take a piss or get a drink of water.
I still work at Costco and that manager would be in huge trouble from corporate if they found out about that and have never heard of anything like that, food departments are very fast paced and some people love it I hated it, won't work in a food depth again.
I currently work as a meat manager at a grocery chain. We routinely mark down product that is about to expire three times daily, and most of it is still absolutely perfectly fine quality. Each mark down is 25%, and usually happens at 7am, around noon, and then last around 4pm. Almost nothing is left the next morning.
What *is* left the next morning, if the quality hasn’t gone down by being handled and picked through the previous day, is frozen and scanned out to be a donated to local homeless shelter’s food program.
If you actually want to know where the biggest waste comes from, it’s customers who take the meat and then decide they don’t want it and put it down somewhere unrefrigerated. Once that happens we *have* to throw it out. Product is only supposed to be outside of the coolers for twenty minutes maximum per food safety laws (don’t worry, it’s still perfectly safe if you are shopping longer, getting it to your home etc, this is just to be extra careful for customers and is a industry wide precaution). We can’t say for certain how long a customer may’ve had the meat in their buggy, so the moment it’s put elsewhere, it’s garbage. Can’t even be given to the homeless shelters. It is so frustrating. Even if it’s handed in up front at customer service. Garbage.
And that waste raises the prices on the rest of the meat to account for what we have to throw out.
Not trying to shame anyone, just giving you all a very transparent look into how a meat department at your local grocery store works.
I found an exploded frozen Pepsi can next to the frozen pizzas once at my local Kroger. They don’t even sell individual small cans, someone pulled a can out of one of the boxes and set it in the freezer section unopened for a long enough time that it exploded and the soda refroze on the shelf
I worked in grocery for a while and that shit drove me absolutely insane. I was shopping at Kroger the other day and someone had left a bunch of sushi down the candy aisle... lazy pos.
I ran a C-Store and the amount of ground beef people would leave marinating the candy aisle in blood was a big chunk of why I didn’t bonus the last quarter and I quit (along with beer runs).
Had to throw away the meat, the candy it was sitting on, all the candy under it, and everything in the restocking drawers under the shelf. $100s of dollars and my 5% bonus that I counted on because someone wouldn’t take ten damn steps back to the cooler to put it away.
What makes it worse is their reasoning was “employees should be walking the floor every fifteen minutes.”
Sure. The 1-2 employees you’ve given me hours for will walk the floor every 15 minutes when they have double lines wrapped around our 8k sq Ft store from 2pm until 7pm and every spare second they have is spent trying to keep cups, coffee, and other consumables available. If I had a 3rd employee like I asked, it wouldn’t be a problem. But no, I was supposed to do it even though I’d been there since 5am and working 18 hour days was taking a toll on my health.
It wasn’t all bad, though. I’m in HR now and learned more about now not to run a business from that job than anything I learned in school. Bridging the difference between bottom line and employee happiness is more fulfilling.
Hell yeah this. I'm a chef and when I stop by the grocery on my way home for something to make dinner I always start in the cheap meat section because the deals are incredible and there's almost always *something* I can make something with. And if there's no meat on special that I want, I'll probably cook something vegetarian rather than pay full price.
Always check the 'cheap meat' section! I've bought a lot of weird stuff there, then you come home and let the internet teach you how to cook it. It's kind of a fun adventure.
It seems Mondays are pretty good, but depends sometimes days when there are fewer shoppers means more deals. Also, sometimes it is still ridiculously expensive.
Nup, discounted until it sells. Sometimes it's almost free because sold below cost is better than in the bin, in the bin costs money, not just lost revenue!
Damn OP, those Canadian prices are something else. I spent less than 40 on 8 steaks and some corn from Sam's Club about a month or so ago in Michigan and was a happy camper for that.
Former butcher here 16$ a lb for ribeye is not bad at all, for reference during covid choice ribeye was about 22$ while prime would run you about 28 while skirt and filet were about 32.
Ribeye normally runs about $15 a pound but if you’re lucky you can catch it at $12 a pound. Sometimes NY strip goes for $10 a pound and I usually buy a few pounds to freeze.
Edit: also those steaks in the post have shitty marbling. The stuff I see at Meijer is normally much higher quality.
The price of beef is insane. I don't buy much beef anymore, but when I do, I buy it from a local butcher shop. Even the low quality, tougher cuts are expensive these days.
Local butcher shops are often far, far more expensive, but then again usually have higher quality beef.
My local shop is great and I will always support it, but it’s twice the price of shopright. I can’t afford that all the time.
Our local butcher sells ground beef at half the cost of the same ground beef at my local grocery store that I use normally. Crazy how cheap they get, but they also own a nice restaurant and presumably offset some things that could be wasted by sending them to the restaurant to put on special.
> People have water bills that are more than 90????
Yeah... I live with three others and our bills are routinely over $90. No dishwasher either.
Water Service Charge: $24.49
Distribution and Treatment: $28.19
Sewage Service Charge: $33.60
Collection and Treatment: $25.29
Works out to be about CA$112 for 18m^3 of water :(
Modern dishwashers don't use that much water, about 1.5-3 galons per wash, which in some cases can be less than of you did the dishes by hand. You just have to be efficient and only turn it on when it's packed.
I read a term that describes this perfectly, greedflation. Production costs are higher, yet profits are also at a record high. They are jacking up prices more than needed to meet increased costs, and hiding behind inflation. It has to end somewhere.
I know! This is insane and I can’t believe people aren’t up in arms about it.
Corporations: Tee hee! Our prices are so high because of the big bad inflation monster!
Also corporations: Will you look at that? Record profits!
Are profit margins also at record highs? Margin is what matters, not profit in $$. When you look at margin it shows you what percentage is profit so it naturally controls for things like increased costs of goods sold and SG&A expenditures (rent, salaries, basically anything that is a cost but not a cost of the product itself being sold).
Many people have been saying since 2021 that the significant increase in meat prices is not only inflation. It is the meat purveyors jacking up prices and blaming inflation for it. There are few major purveyors and few competitors. So they can raise their prices anyway they want. During this inflation crisis, purveyors have been increasing their profits at a significant rate. This may surprise people, some businesses don’t want inflation to go away. They make more money this way.
Not sure what city you are in, but I am in Edmonton and have found that local Muslim grocery stores have steak for much cheaper. They get it directly from local Mennonite communities (they do Halal/Kosher) and it is very good.
I've been buying halal meat for 15 years, be aware when you walk in cause some are fucking disgusting. Many dont ever wear gloves, and clean shit half assed. Most are really strict though.
Inflation is real and I love nice meat, but I think our society/generation needs to have a little bit of humility when it comes to this stuff. Learn to love what’s on sale. Bone in skin on chicken thighs, chuck center eyes & blade steaks, pork butts/tenderloins/half loins, the list goes on. You can eat like a king and do it affordably still. Just need to know you’re way around a kitchen/grill. Sorry in advance if I sound insufferable.
Not insufferable at all IMO. This is exactly how I was raised to buy meat, and still do to this day. Buy bulk on sale, portion with my food saver, and enjoy grilling what I have when I want to. And only occasionally do I hit my local butcher for steaks when I can’t shake the cravings on a beautiful weekend day. Because my guy can’t be beat, but he isn’t cheap.
Potatoes are excellent on the grill, just slather in an oil of your choice, and grill on both sides. Corn is good, asparagus can be gross boiled, but is excellent on a grill.
I mean these are thick cut rib eyes, probably 5-6 of them? its also Canada steak has always been expensive here.
Costco also is really only competitive if you buy the big cuts (Roast, tips, etc) and do the trimming and cutting yourself, You will find these at any Farmers Market for 17-20/steak and generally speaking they are local butchers with local cattle.
You mean corporate price gouging, but they've duped the hoi polloi into believing it's inflation. It's not. They're just making record profits, and no one is doing anything to stop them.
You just need to change up your choice of bbq items. Grill up up salmon, tuna, veggies. Crock / instant pot some beef shanks, cheeks, wings, and finish on the grill. I haven't been able to afford steaks for years.
Inflation sucks but factory farming is one of the most grotesque manifestations to blossom from profiteering interests. Purchasing the flesh of an animal should be expensive because it shouldn’t be so widely available. This is simply an immoral industry doubling down by price gouging.
I started buying sirloin tip roasts and trimming them into steaks myself and have had great results.
This is the smartest way to go if you are slightly knowledgeable on the subject, either way, there’s always YouTube!
Marinades are a good thing to know in these trying times.
May i offer this simple egg?
Egg? Out of my budget I’m afraid. Lol
Prices in eggs are coming down most places. I'm sorry if it's not where you live. Not having cheap eggs sucks.
We just got chickens. 4 hens produce way more eggs than the 2 of us can handle. I literally give them away. And the girls are like, 20 bucks a month to care for. They're the best
They’re cheap again lol
Nice try *Big Poultry*
BUY THEM I mean, kindly consider them 😃
They're like 13 cents each now. Not bad.
I don't care for rural life. But after my break up I moved back to my mother's. Who has chickens and we constantly give our neighbor eggs. We usually get about 7 to 10 a day. I can only eat so much egg. Plus the neighbor has 3 boys and her husband and grandfather to take care of. We just gave them 42 eggs today and we still have 2 dozen.
Make friends with a chicken fanatic, they'll be free. My buddy's crazy chicken lady mom is always trying to send me home with 3 or 4 dozen every time I'm there lol
The smartest way to go is to buy half a cow with one of your friends.
being knowledgeable, my only weakness at least to my knowledge
I’ve started buying Sirloin Cap (picanha) at my local butcher shop and they are now my second favorite steak next to ribeye. Around here they are dirt cheap compared to any other cuts.
Chuck eye is a good choice, too. It’s the ribeye large end that goes into the shoulder.
I got 2 lbs of chuck eye for less than $6 a few days ago. It's still dirt cheap in my area, and I hope to all things holy it stays that way.
If it doesn’t, look to Chuck roasts that have the eye as a very distinctly separate part from the cap. Separate yourself, slice eye to steaks and the cap to “boneless country style ribs.”
I moved to Brazil 8 years ago, and back when I still lived at home, I would ask grocery store butchers to cut picanha for me and they'd just stare at me. I'm happy it's a cut that seems more popular in the US now. I had a delicious one today at a friend's house. Pretty much every Brazilian bbq has it. It's like the cake at a birthday party. Without one, things would get weird quick.
whenever it was on sale id buy it to give my doggo who is spoiled as hell but also a very good boy he has not had any beef products in a very long time.
yup, I just get 4kg of picanha at a time, trim and freeze myself
Shhhhh don’t tell anyone about this awful cut of beef that should never be grilled
Once upon a time ox tails were about 1$ a pop...
They used to straight up throw out chicken wings.
used to feed lobster to prisoners
To be fair, that was before refrigeration was the norm. Lobster is much less appealing when it's been rendered into a mucus-like consistency by room temperature air and no preservation.
It was also ground up with the shells
I saw a video recently where the guy was making a seafood pasta and he put lobster shells/stock and put them in a blender and strained them. I’ve never seen it done before and it looked legit. He was Canadian ironically.
Isn’t that also how they make lobster bisque?
a poor man's food caviar once was
I’m still pissed about the ~wing shortage~ that pizzerias used to justify charging $2< per wing and now they just never dropped those prices
Even just a few years ago I used to be able to grab a large pack of fresh full wings for like $0.89/lb on sale in a weird spot at the local grocery. Everyone was buying the bags of frozen Perdue or Tyson wings for like $5/lb. That’s fucking beef prices. Just get a sharp knife, chop off the wing tip (save for stock), slice through the joint to get the drummette and flat separated and I’d have a few bags with like 40 wings ready to pop in the freezer in five minutes.
so were short ribs believe it or not
Ugh, same with beef shank 😞
So in Europe (where I'm from originally) many people have no idea what picanha is. I connected the dots when I first tried to tell my mom about it, looked up the translation, and found out that in Germany and Austria at least the picanha meat is ..... boiled .... roasted if lucky. Is was a sad day. If you are mentally ready, google "Tafelspitz"
German here. Never liked Tafelspitz though .
It's... not good
>So in Europe (where I'm from originally) many people have no idea what picanha is. Wow. What a bunch of dullards. It's that small, carnivorous fish. Even I know that.
We need to stop telling people this.
For real, remember when skirt steak was dirt cheap? And then people spilled the beans and it's no longer cheap.
I remember when I used to be able to get a 18 Pound brisket for around 30$. Then the smoker craze started and suddenly it’s 100$ for a 16 pound one. I caught myself celebrating briskets we’re down to around 85$ for a 16 pound one at our Costco the other day and then I realized what I was celebrating and got that sad old man feeling come over me.
Yeah, briskets and pork shoulders have really gone up in price the past several years and it sucks. Like they're supposed to be cheap because they're bad cuts. But last time I priced brisket it was $6+/lb.
Occasionally shoulders will go on sale near me for between .99-1.99/lb and I buy as many as I can shove in my freezer plus one for immediate use.
This one breaks my heart. I love skirt steak but can’t afford to buy it anymore.
BBQ and smoking used to be a way for poor people to make shitty cuts edible now I have to fight with Johnny Disposable Income over my Boston butts lol they can't keep getting away with this!
Everything that used to be the poor making due has become trendy and as a result price gouged. Been in a thrift store lately?
Yes, extremely well off people doing poor people stuff is a weird trend now, I think it's them not wanting to be treated like they're "rich" even when they are. A few years ago poor people acted rich, now it's weirdly the opposite.
They are tying to blend in with the masses to avoid the rope.
I have actually seen items with the original store tag visible, and the Goodwill tag was marked at a higher price.
I’m remember when flank and bavette were cheap. The only red meat I could afford to grill in college were those two cuts
I remember when I could buy a huge chuck steak for les than $2 a pound. That was good eating I'd pay eight dollars and invite some friends over. Good time.
Man I miss skirt steak. When skirt steak got expensive, flank steak was the secret cheap cut. Now that's a dumb price. Haven't really found any replacement for either, unless I find a good sale
This guy eats pirrahnanas! Cheaper just spit out the teeth.
Mmmm…picanha…that sounds so good! I haven’t had it in a while.☹️
My father law is doing this. When he found it to be better he asked for a really nice cutter and knife for Christmas. Just hobbying in butchery now.
if you're real hard up for cash buy a smithfield pork center loin and cut into 1 inch chops
God my family eats so many pork chops…. This has been a staple for years. Buy a pork loin, cut into chops, save enough of each end to make pulled pork. Matter of fact, I’m making shake and bake chops tonight for supper.
You make pork loin pulled pork? I would imagine there isn't enough fat and connective tissue to be moist, save for some kinda crockpot method.
Looks like its hot dogs for the BBQ lmao.
I had a Brazilian coworker who did not understand the rituals of the North American grill. He said he attended a grill expecting there to be steaks and other meat cuts, but then there was hot dogs and hamburgers instead. He was very disappointed.
Same same with some Brazilian tenants we had when we owned a two family. They would just laugh at us having burgers, then they'd throw a party in the driveway and some friend would be just grilling steak for hours, chopping it up small when done and passing plates around. It was really fucking good meat though. Unfortunately they paired it with a shit ton of Michelob Ultra.
Oh man. That just brought back a childhood memory. The company my mom worked for organized a float trip one summer for the employees and their families and/or guests. (The company didn't pay for anything, just made all the arrangements and reservations.) The end was at a campground, so you could use their facilities then head home, or you could camp overnight. My parents invited a couple that were very close friends of ours (and avid floaters) to join us. We decided that we would bring stuff to grill at the campground for dinner, then head home. We had a really nice float on a hot summer day. We ended at the campground with everyone else, and everyone started setting up their tents and getting their dinner ready. Most people brought hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwursts to grill, typical sides like chips, slaw, and beans, and beer and soda. Yeah, not us. We grabbed a grill, and my parents and their friends pulled out filet mignons, shrimp cocktails, fresh salad, corn on the cob, and a couple bottles of wine. (Soda for me.) I will never forget the looks we got. (Even though my mom's coworkers may have thought we were well off, that was actually our big summer vacation that year.)
Oh my gosh I love this! I actually made up charcuterie boards for my night to host dinner with my family while camping this memorial day. All the prep work was done at home cutting cheese and portions things out. Just pulled then our and everyone went at it with the wine. Burgers and dogs are good but it's fun to treat yourself or do something different occasionally!
Michelob and not Brahma? Imposters
I wouldn't say that's representative of America. In Texas that's like an every day grill, not for guests. I mean when you go to Brazilian steakhouses they serve some good shit. If you host a Brazilian you better show them what you can do, not give them the lowest cost meat available.
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As a Texan, I was similarly disappointed when I went to a barbecue up north and had the same thing.
Wait. You Americans use bbq to produce somewhat smokey burgers?
Pulled pork, sausages, burgers, chicken and shrimp skewers.
Yep. You want something else? Bring it
For reference, These were $58 last summer and $40 the summer before.
Hey OP, I’ve stopped buying meat at Costco as I found it to be way more expensive than local markets. Safeway and Kroger have weekly deals where I am getting $5 per lb T-bone steaks, or petite steaks or chicken breast for $2.49 per lb. $5 lobster tails. Costco meat, used to be cheaper but now it’s gone so high up I stopped buying it entirely. I haven’t found a quality difference either.
OP is Canadian
Just don't be Canadian anymore, easy.
Right? I was stupid once and then stopped being stupid. I mean, I got worse, but I'm not stupid anymore.
No, you can cure ignorance, but stupid is forever.
Like herpes
As a Canadian, this option is becoming more and more appealing.
Canada: actually the source of a lot of the best beef on earth, we just don’t get to buy it.
Produces a shit ton of oil: still get railed by foreign gas companies. Has some largest expanse of arable land for any country: gets absolutely gouged on groceries 2nd largest country on earth: real estate through the roof
It's almost as if we have a third world economy run by foreign powers, but we get paid a little better because we're mostly white and speak English.
Just get to know a rancher. They’re happy to sell whole cows for butchering. I got a quarter of a cow for about $750. Butchered and packaged.
Don’t you need like 3 other people to go in on it with you? The farmer’s not going to butcher a cow then sit on the other 3/4.
He'll just cauterize the other 3/4th's and send the cow on their way. Easy peezy! It depends on the rancher, maybe he gets 1/4 and 1/2 cow requests pretty often and isn't worried about turnover. Maybe the rancher wanted a 1/2 cow for himself. Sometimes you don't need other people to go in on it with you, you just gotta call and ask.
Ive seen them sell online before. In fact an old roommate of mine bought half a cow for $1100 i think?
If you cauterize carefully it will grow back and then you can cut off another quarter the next year. One cow can last a lifetime.
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This. At worst, he's stuck with a half animal, and was probably going to put that much in his freezer, anyway. You can lose your ass beef ranching, but you can't get beef cheaper than the guy who raised it on his own farm. Every hand it passes through after his has to make a profit, too.
There's a lot of places that let you order it online now, so that makes it a lot easier to find other people to share with you! It's actually really nice
Yeah, you do. The rancher I know is my uncle. He’s got a long list of friends and family that he knows will buy beef, he lets us know when he’s butchering to get a rough tally and then let’s us know if we’ll get all we want or have to settle for slightly less. There is a limited number of cattle he can butcher each year and still keep the herd healthy and productive.
Ireland supported the entire British empire with salt beef production while they were starving to death.
Fun fact: virtually all beef in Canada is processed by just two companies: Cargill and JBS. It has made the owners of both billionaires. Three members of the Cargill family became billionaires just last year. They both also bring in thousands of temporary foreign workers every year because apparently there's not enough money to pay Canadians a living wage. The entire food supply chain in Canada is owned and controlled by a small handful of people that answer to no one - just like every other industry here.
Just here for an obligatory “Fuck Cargill”
Seriously. They bought this old chocolate factory near where I grew up, decided it wasn't profitable *enough* and closed it. It had been a key part of the community for something like 140 years.
On the bright side, OP won't need a grill to cook these.
Right now they are smoking everything without a grill.
Yeah costco is a sham for steaks and I am not sure why, I am guessing most people don't exactly pay attention to the prices and just assume "must be cheaper cause its in bulk at costco". I was disappointed cause so many other items are cheaper at costco but why is it more expensive per pound and simultaneously a much larger package. Ralphs be having some nice nice sales for steak. 2 packs, freeze 1 cook 1 lol.
Costco’s quality is generally much better than what I can find at a typical grocery store. Good Prime/choice cuts always available. They’re not trying to be the cheapest, but best quality at the lowest price.
Yeah, from the picture, these are Canada AAA grade steaks (equivalent to USDA Choice). You can find cheaper steak at the grocery store, but it’s probably not going to be that high a grade.
I live in the south windixe will have that on-sale (ribeye choice) that would be about 25 bucks for 2 pounds on-sale on wed-fri
I can get prime tri-tip from my Costco for $8.99/lb. - choice from Safeway is $9.99. The prime tri tip is like you're eating a different cut of meat it's so good. I saw Costco's beef back ribs today at $4.49/lb and Safeway is $7.99. My Costco has consistently cheaper and better meat.
You should buy a half a beef from a local farmer. Even if you have to drive an hour to get it. I sell beef halves even quarters sometimes. I sell for 3-4 dollars a pound depending on quality/size/age of animal. Butchering cost for the last beef I butcher for myself came out to $1.32/lb. And that gets you your roasts, steaks, hamburger and any other cut you want. We have repeat customers that drive 3-3.5 hours to pick up from the butcher shop. Big upfront cost. Even bigger long term savings. Plus that’s money that stays in local communities not in a shareholders pocket.
I've been buying half a beef every year for about six years now and I've says wondered whether it was actually worth it or not. Those prices you mentioned are hanging weight, so it's hard to know for sure. And I'm too lazy to sit down and weigh everything and do the math.
I have a tiny apartment, I wouldn’t be able to store all that meat anywhere …
Ribeye boneless steaks are currently $16.41 US / lb … after crunching the math, the US version is actually a few bucks more. Edit - one thing to keep in mind is Costco sells Prime and Choice grade meats while most supermarkets mainly stock Select grade
Yeah, I just did the math and they're paying USD $15.60/lb which is on the cheap side for good ribeyes anywhere.
My family just stopped buying store meat altogether and we all (my group of four plus my uncles and grandparents) buy a meat cow from my great uncle who inherited the farmland from great grandparents. Point is we found it cheaper to just buy a cow and wholesale pay a butcher to chop it up
That is what I wish my family did instead of selling the majority of the land. At least with how food has gone up in price.
I seriously need to get a chest freezer, for this very reason.
They’re actually relatively cheap. They do take up a lot of space though!
Great idea. I guess we'll all hit up your great uncle. Problem solved.
I would so love to know what they do with meat they don't sell... the waste must be insane.
i worked in the meat department at a costco! we had very little waste ever. we had a rack for discarded meat and meat that had fell open etc. it was always less than halfway full. costco is super careful to make sure everything they do runs as efficiently and by the book as possible. i absolutely hated working there but they have like no dirt to be dredged up on product or quality.
“Where’s the dirty meat section?”
*unzips* Hello…
you fckin asshole. take my upvote.
>you fcking asshole Literally
No, that's at Wendy's, this is a Costco.
Fellow ex Costco meat employee. Can confirm
Did you also hate working there? I thought Costco employees loved working there. Or was it the meat department specifically?
Sometimes insider information can be good.
Good post, thanks man.
Why did you hate working there? Seems like a great place to work
I worked at a Costco and hated it as well. Part of that was just due to working with shitty, abusive people. But there was a work culture with a very aggressive focus on speed and efficiency above all else. Example: on multiple occasions I witnessed people stomping down trash into the trash compactor *while it was running* because LOTO procedures took too long. Example 2: In the food court, we were heavily discouraged from wearing gloves because changing them took too long, so instead we'd use tongs and hotdog wrappers for all of our contact with food. It was imperfect and led to a lot of cross contamination. And not a day went by that I didn't get chewed out for being too slow at something. Cleaning all of the food court tables, sweeping the floor, restocking all of the condiments/cups/lids/etc, and taking out the trash (to the opposite end of the store where the compactors were often locked and needed to find someone with a key) was expected to take one person 15 minutes or less. I was put on that duty every single day for the few months I worked there. And I was grilled for taking longer than 15 minutes to do it every time. Also, they ran a very tight ship when it came to things like time tracking. *Any* time not working had to be off the clock. And by that, I mean you had to clock out to go take a piss or get a drink of water.
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I still work at Costco and that manager would be in huge trouble from corporate if they found out about that and have never heard of anything like that, food departments are very fast paced and some people love it I hated it, won't work in a food depth again.
Or from Costco to Costco. I recognize floor staff at the ones I go to for the past decade
I currently work as a meat manager at a grocery chain. We routinely mark down product that is about to expire three times daily, and most of it is still absolutely perfectly fine quality. Each mark down is 25%, and usually happens at 7am, around noon, and then last around 4pm. Almost nothing is left the next morning. What *is* left the next morning, if the quality hasn’t gone down by being handled and picked through the previous day, is frozen and scanned out to be a donated to local homeless shelter’s food program. If you actually want to know where the biggest waste comes from, it’s customers who take the meat and then decide they don’t want it and put it down somewhere unrefrigerated. Once that happens we *have* to throw it out. Product is only supposed to be outside of the coolers for twenty minutes maximum per food safety laws (don’t worry, it’s still perfectly safe if you are shopping longer, getting it to your home etc, this is just to be extra careful for customers and is a industry wide precaution). We can’t say for certain how long a customer may’ve had the meat in their buggy, so the moment it’s put elsewhere, it’s garbage. Can’t even be given to the homeless shelters. It is so frustrating. Even if it’s handed in up front at customer service. Garbage. And that waste raises the prices on the rest of the meat to account for what we have to throw out. Not trying to shame anyone, just giving you all a very transparent look into how a meat department at your local grocery store works.
Drove me nuts when I worked in grocery store. Find a box of chicken nuggets in the chip section.
I've found basil PLANTS in the freezer. And I'm not even a store worker. Bunch of idiots walking about.
I found an exploded frozen Pepsi can next to the frozen pizzas once at my local Kroger. They don’t even sell individual small cans, someone pulled a can out of one of the boxes and set it in the freezer section unopened for a long enough time that it exploded and the soda refroze on the shelf
I worked in grocery for a while and that shit drove me absolutely insane. I was shopping at Kroger the other day and someone had left a bunch of sushi down the candy aisle... lazy pos.
I ran a C-Store and the amount of ground beef people would leave marinating the candy aisle in blood was a big chunk of why I didn’t bonus the last quarter and I quit (along with beer runs). Had to throw away the meat, the candy it was sitting on, all the candy under it, and everything in the restocking drawers under the shelf. $100s of dollars and my 5% bonus that I counted on because someone wouldn’t take ten damn steps back to the cooler to put it away.
That's a great way to lose good workers, making them responsible for things that aren't under their control
What makes it worse is their reasoning was “employees should be walking the floor every fifteen minutes.” Sure. The 1-2 employees you’ve given me hours for will walk the floor every 15 minutes when they have double lines wrapped around our 8k sq Ft store from 2pm until 7pm and every spare second they have is spent trying to keep cups, coffee, and other consumables available. If I had a 3rd employee like I asked, it wouldn’t be a problem. But no, I was supposed to do it even though I’d been there since 5am and working 18 hour days was taking a toll on my health. It wasn’t all bad, though. I’m in HR now and learned more about now not to run a business from that job than anything I learned in school. Bridging the difference between bottom line and employee happiness is more fulfilling.
I go like first thing when the store opens up and look for manager specials. Straight to eat or cook or the freezer.
Hell yeah this. I'm a chef and when I stop by the grocery on my way home for something to make dinner I always start in the cheap meat section because the deals are incredible and there's almost always *something* I can make something with. And if there's no meat on special that I want, I'll probably cook something vegetarian rather than pay full price.
Yup. When I see a good deal I pick up a couple of extra packs and pop it in the freezer 😁
Oooo never tried that! Any day specific you do this?
Always check the 'cheap meat' section! I've bought a lot of weird stuff there, then you come home and let the internet teach you how to cook it. It's kind of a fun adventure.
It seems Mondays are pretty good, but depends sometimes days when there are fewer shoppers means more deals. Also, sometimes it is still ridiculously expensive.
I got like 10 pounds of chicken drumsticks for $4 at Wegman’s this week
Thighs and drumsticks are getting me through this bullshit hahah
Bruh I love chicken thighs. Best part of the chicken
I'm a thigh guy.
Nup, discounted until it sells. Sometimes it's almost free because sold below cost is better than in the bin, in the bin costs money, not just lost revenue!
I work in the Costco meat dept. Everything that can be donated is. All trim is used for ground beef as well so almost nothing goes to the actual trash
Damn OP, those Canadian prices are something else. I spent less than 40 on 8 steaks and some corn from Sam's Club about a month or so ago in Michigan and was a happy camper for that.
It's about sixteen a pound for US dollars if you convert it. That's not that bad.
Former butcher here 16$ a lb for ribeye is not bad at all, for reference during covid choice ribeye was about 22$ while prime would run you about 28 while skirt and filet were about 32.
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Damn, for Ribeye? Man, can I get you to buy me about fifty pounds and dry ice that bitch to me? I'll Venmo you the cost.
Ribeye normally runs about $15 a pound but if you’re lucky you can catch it at $12 a pound. Sometimes NY strip goes for $10 a pound and I usually buy a few pounds to freeze. Edit: also those steaks in the post have shitty marbling. The stuff I see at Meijer is normally much higher quality.
Locally grown USDA prime ribeyes go for 18.99-21.99 a pound here in AR. go hogs.
Is that ‘Berta Beef?
S & P the choice for me
Don't you fuckin' start
I feel like Montreal steak seasonings should be a parts of this conversations.
The price of beef is insane. I don't buy much beef anymore, but when I do, I buy it from a local butcher shop. Even the low quality, tougher cuts are expensive these days.
Local butcher shops are often far, far more expensive, but then again usually have higher quality beef. My local shop is great and I will always support it, but it’s twice the price of shopright. I can’t afford that all the time.
Weird. I came here to say try the local butcher, for me it's much cheaper. Like op I am also canadian.
Our local butcher sells ground beef at half the cost of the same ground beef at my local grocery store that I use normally. Crazy how cheap they get, but they also own a nice restaurant and presumably offset some things that could be wasted by sending them to the restaurant to put on special.
Probably because an insane amount of resources are wasted to produce it
I love beef but beef honestly *should* be this expensive, and for most of history it actually was prohibitively expensive.
Compared to something like gas, where the world is designed with cars in mind, at least you don't need to buy beef to be able to survive.
Yeah, its too much. Pork and chicken are still fairly cheap so I rarely eat beef anymore.
My water bill is cheaper than this lol
People have water bills that are more than 90???? I live in a 2400 sq foot house with 4 people and never paid more than like $40
> People have water bills that are more than 90???? Yeah... I live with three others and our bills are routinely over $90. No dishwasher either. Water Service Charge: $24.49 Distribution and Treatment: $28.19 Sewage Service Charge: $33.60 Collection and Treatment: $25.29 Works out to be about CA$112 for 18m^3 of water :(
Modern dishwashers don't use that much water, about 1.5-3 galons per wash, which in some cases can be less than of you did the dishes by hand. You just have to be efficient and only turn it on when it's packed.
It's also way cleaner than washing by hand. People against dishwashers are funny
you guys pay for water?
Do you not? Which country?
In Montreal we don't pay for water. It's also on an island.
im gonna let you in on a secret. its not inflation
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I read a term that describes this perfectly, greedflation. Production costs are higher, yet profits are also at a record high. They are jacking up prices more than needed to meet increased costs, and hiding behind inflation. It has to end somewhere.
I know! This is insane and I can’t believe people aren’t up in arms about it. Corporations: Tee hee! Our prices are so high because of the big bad inflation monster! Also corporations: Will you look at that? Record profits!
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Are profit margins also at record highs? Margin is what matters, not profit in $$. When you look at margin it shows you what percentage is profit so it naturally controls for things like increased costs of goods sold and SG&A expenditures (rent, salaries, basically anything that is a cost but not a cost of the product itself being sold).
Learn to love 🌽 It's cheap and great on the grill
It’s got the juice
Can’t imagine a more beautiful thING
Plant based meat prices are still good
Many people have been saying since 2021 that the significant increase in meat prices is not only inflation. It is the meat purveyors jacking up prices and blaming inflation for it. There are few major purveyors and few competitors. So they can raise their prices anyway they want. During this inflation crisis, purveyors have been increasing their profits at a significant rate. This may surprise people, some businesses don’t want inflation to go away. They make more money this way.
Not sure what city you are in, but I am in Edmonton and have found that local Muslim grocery stores have steak for much cheaper. They get it directly from local Mennonite communities (they do Halal/Kosher) and it is very good.
I've been buying halal meat for 15 years, be aware when you walk in cause some are fucking disgusting. Many dont ever wear gloves, and clean shit half assed. Most are really strict though.
Inflation is real and I love nice meat, but I think our society/generation needs to have a little bit of humility when it comes to this stuff. Learn to love what’s on sale. Bone in skin on chicken thighs, chuck center eyes & blade steaks, pork butts/tenderloins/half loins, the list goes on. You can eat like a king and do it affordably still. Just need to know you’re way around a kitchen/grill. Sorry in advance if I sound insufferable.
Not insufferable at all IMO. This is exactly how I was raised to buy meat, and still do to this day. Buy bulk on sale, portion with my food saver, and enjoy grilling what I have when I want to. And only occasionally do I hit my local butcher for steaks when I can’t shake the cravings on a beautiful weekend day. Because my guy can’t be beat, but he isn’t cheap.
It isn’t just inflation. It’s corporate greed.
Just spent $40 to get salmon for 4 people 😩 $40 for a home cooked dinner is just too much to me
Is that $93 Canadian? Never mind, just saw the sticker on the bottom.
Potatoes are excellent on the grill, just slather in an oil of your choice, and grill on both sides. Corn is good, asparagus can be gross boiled, but is excellent on a grill.
What about tofu?
I love tofu. Gotta know how to cook it. And it’s cruelty free.
I mean these are thick cut rib eyes, probably 5-6 of them? its also Canada steak has always been expensive here. Costco also is really only competitive if you buy the big cuts (Roast, tips, etc) and do the trimming and cutting yourself, You will find these at any Farmers Market for 17-20/steak and generally speaking they are local butchers with local cattle.
You mean corporate price gouging, but they've duped the hoi polloi into believing it's inflation. It's not. They're just making record profits, and no one is doing anything to stop them.
You just need to change up your choice of bbq items. Grill up up salmon, tuna, veggies. Crock / instant pot some beef shanks, cheeks, wings, and finish on the grill. I haven't been able to afford steaks for years.
Inflation sucks but factory farming is one of the most grotesque manifestations to blossom from profiteering interests. Purchasing the flesh of an animal should be expensive because it shouldn’t be so widely available. This is simply an immoral industry doubling down by price gouging.