| Slicing the cost of a backyard barbecue
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| By Dana
Dratch • Bankrate.com |
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Ready to fire up that grill, but don't want to fork
out big money for meat?
Relax. You don't have to spend a ton to get tender
steaks, chicken or chops. There are plenty of cuts with great flavor
that won't take a giant bite out of your wallet.
Pricewise, summer is the "season for bad buys,"
says Bruce Aidells, co-author of "The
Complete Meat Cookbook" and founder of Aidells Sausage
Co. "Things that go on the grill this time of year -- steaks,
ribs, hamburgers -- this is the worst time of year to buy them.
This is when they tend to be most expensive. But this is when people
want them."
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Want good taste and a good bargain? Buy what's fresh,
cheap and plentiful.
"My advice would be to not plan the menu and
buy the product," says Peter Vaillancourt, instructor with
Johnson & Wales University, a culinary arts and food service
school. Instead, "Check out the meat, the price, then plan
the menu."
Many times, you can get the same cut, or something
as good, just by learning where on the animal a particular piece
originates. One example: Blade-end pork chops run $2 less per
pound than a popular pork item known as "country-style spareribs," says Vaillancourt. But it's the same meat,
cut differently.
"Every time you touch meat with a knife, you
change its name and its price," he says.
Get the best from beef
Want good, high-quality beef? Look for "fine-needled
graining throughout the meat," says Stanley Lobel, partner
with Lobel's of
New York and co-author of "Lobel's
Prime Cuts: The Best Meat and Poultry Recipes from America's Master
Butchers." The color of the fat around the outside should
be white, not yellow, he says. (Any variation in that color means
the beef is not high quality, he says.)
Want an inexpensive and flavorful cut? Try hanger
steaks. "Marinate and broil, like you would a regular steak,"
Lobel says. "The trick to cooking any steak is putting on kosher
salt and fresh pepper. The less you put on a good steak, the better
it will be."
Another good cut: a center-cut chuck steak. But stick
to the center, says Lobel. "The further back you get, the tougher
it gets."
Another good cut: sirloin. "The most reasonable"
is top sirloin or butt steak, says Vaillancourt. "It's moderately
priced and reasonably tender."
The reason the price is right: It's muscle, and it's
not uniform. "Uniformity is what the restaurant world demands,"
he says.
Another good buy: shoulders, also called chuck. Look
for the "shoulder clod," he says. To break down the fibers,
marinate it, grill it and cut on the bias. "And it's flavorful
and tender," Vaillancourt says.
In that same area, the undercut "is more suitable
for pot roast," says Vaillancourt. With the bone, it's often
called a "chuck steak."
Want to drag out the slow-cooker or make a pot of
chili? "Chuck is really good for that," says Aidells.
"It's often on sale. It has lots of different names, but anything
with the word 'chuck' is fine."
For a good deal, pick up what's known as a "full
strip loin" or "top loin," says Aidells. It can weigh
10 pounds to 12 pounds, and it's where the New York strip steaks are cut.
Buy it whole and slice off equal 1- to 1½-inch slices. "Basically,
you get about a dozen steaks," he says.
Or do the same with a boneless rib-eye. The whole
piece will run 5 pounds to 15 pounds, says Aidells. Estimate roughly
one steak per pound.
"One other advantage is you get the thickness
you want," says Aidells.
Some lesser-known chuck steaks that are high on flavor:
the flat-iron steak, the ranch steak and the petite tender, says
Aidells. "The trick is to be in front of the curve, before
it gets discovered," he says.
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