I believe @Shalmanese was answering the question in the thread title, rather than Whack-a-Mole’s question about cheap pot roast (the bottom of that post currently shows zero replies).
However, the phrasing of Shalmanese’s post sure as hell seemed to be directly answering the pot roast question — even using “it’s cheap” instead of “they are cheap”.
You can’t go wrong for size and flavor with a bone-in pork shoulder roast. I got a 9+ pound one recently for just over $20, I used about 75% to make carnitas that will last about 7 meals plus a batch of enchiladas (some of it frozen for later use) and still had about a 2 pound loin-type piece I cut off to make a smaller roast another day. Chicken thighs are the next best bet- I can get 10 of them boneless/skinless for $10 or so and even less if I want them with the skin. Beef prices are terrible here.
I try to buy the trifecta of post holiday meats - Turkey after Thanksgiving, Ham after Easter, and Corned Beef after St Patrick’s Day.
Right after Thanksgiving I got this 20 lbs bird for less than $6. It was yummy.
This is what we do- buy in bulk and freeze. I don’t have a vacuum thingy, though I should get one. I either use a straw to suck up the excess air before sealing the zip lock package, or I’ve heard if you submerge the bag in water it forces out the air before you seal it. Or yeah, just buy the vacuum device, like I should.
Find a quality meat market. Their prices are a little better in general than a grocery store, and they have sales all the time, especially if you get on an email list.
My wife has purchased whole beef tenderloins from Costco and I’ve cut them up into filet mignon-sized portions and frozen what we didn’t cook right away. Still pretty expensive, but cheaper than buying pre-cut filet mignons.
When I shop at a general grocery store like Kroger, I look for what’s on sale and base my menu for the week around the meats I buy on sale that day.
Specific cheaper cuts have already been mentioned. Know how to properly cook it and it’ll be as tasty as any top priced cut of meat. Pork butts and shoulders need to be cooked low and slow for a long time. BBQed pulled pork freezes very well. Freeze into portions and reheat for a killer pulled pork sandwich.
Chuck roast I like to braise or stew for a long time to make stews, chilis and Spicy Beef Rendang, one of my and my family’s very favorite dishes.
Pork tenderloin, the filet mignon of pork, is much cheaper than beef tenderloin, and if cooked properly is delicious-- use a meat thermometer and cook to no more than 145 degrees internal temp. 160 and it’s dried out and not nearly as good.
Around here (CA Central Coast) major chain grocery stores don’t carry the cheap cuts, but plenty can be found at the local Mexican supermarkets like Vallarta. It’s literally pig heaven for cheap cuts of pork that need to be stewed all day. I’ve even bought frozen mutton joints there that make great tacos after 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.
Yes, it was a reply to the OP
I get that reference.
Maybe fish heads are available at a low price somewhere but there isn’t much seafood that qualifies here. Calimari (squid) and mussels are rare exceptions. The industry around here has changed to charging for hard shell clams by the pound instead of the piece which is ridiculous since there may not be much meat in a heavy clam. This shell clams and mussels are a substantially better deal even when sold by the pound.
As evidenced by the amount of ‘frost’ in my veggies for ramen bag even freezer weight re-sealable bags are not for long term storage no matter how much air you get out before ‘’‘sealing’‘’ them.
I’m not exactly sure what a ‘veggies for ramen bag’ is, but in my experience, meat in a properly sealed freezer bag with the air removed will do fine frozen for several months at a time, even as long as a year.
Aren’t you in Chicago? We have an AMAZING grocery and retail food scene and you really ought to shop around.
However, I can’t feel too sorry for the prime beef consumer. It’s a luxury product and an easy one to find if you care to. It’s also an easy one to downgrade or skip altogether for the price-sensitive.
None of these seem particularly cheap when I see them in Toronto grocery stores. Pig’s feet in particular seem rather expensive, when you consider how little actual meat they have on them.
In my experience:
Liver: the only liver for sale at my supermarket is chicken liver, which is delicious, but not cheap.
Heart: the only place I’ve seen it was at an expensive farm store, and it cost as much power pound as chuck or round.
Tripe: other than cooked at a Chinese restaurant, i have no idea how to buy this.
Sweetbreads: ick. But also not acceptable.
Pigs feet: i sometimes see them smoked. Price is okay.
Chicken feet: i can only buy these from the farm store, and only right after a harvest. Cheaper per pound than a whole chicken from the same store, but as much as chicken at the supermarket. They make great broth, though.
Pigs tail: I’ve never seen this for sale.
Blood: ditto. I had a friend who used to special order it from a butcher for a holiday soup. Special orders are rarely cheap.
Suet: regularly available at my supermarket. Butter is more affordable and not quite as artery-clogging.
Fish heads: I’ve never seen these for sale, except attached to whole fish. I’m told they make excellent broth.
I fear you may have gotten a bad machine and/or bad bags/rolls. I never have any problems with ours.
Get the Flipp app or go to the website and find deals around s you. Shank is typically the cheap beef cut. I see Cermak Grocery has it for $4/lb. Tony’s has the whole shank cut up for $3/lb starting tomorrow. Pork has gotten more expensive, but typically $4/lb and up, on sale for $3-$4 and up, but Tony’s has the whole shoulder at $3/lb. Chicken legs, in bulk, or quarters are often $0.99-$1,49/lb. Those are the cheap meats. Even liver isn’t what I’d consider particularly cheap.
Do you have room for a freezer?
Freezers are very much the single cook’s friend. But I know not everybody’s got room for one. (Or money for one, for that matter.)
Freezer bags or freezer paper both work fine without the $100 unit if you know how to use them. The thinner plastic bags sometimes don’t. The packages you get meat at the store in vary, and some of those don’t work well for longer term freezer storage either, unless you overwrap them with something better.
Only relatively.
Some cuts are still a lot cheaper than others, and pot roast / chuck roast is usually at the cheaper end. What’s happened is that “cheap” has moved upwards and of course the more expensive cuts further up yet.
I am old and remember cheaper cuts of beef being under $1.00 / lb USA. But I also remember brand new Levi’s at ~$5.00 a pair and minimum wage at $1.65.
I like liver just fine; but liver’s not cheap any longer either, except in the relative sense. Most of the rest of that list I don’t even see in the stores around here. I suspect in the USA they get the meat mechanically stripped off them at the processor’s and added either to pet food or to some of the relatively cheaper lunch meats.
A pot roast to me is a large chunk of beef, preferably chuck, put in a pot with onions and probably bayleaf; seared on both sides, then cooked on top of the stove long and slow until ordinarily tender, adding a small bit of water only when and as necessary to prevent burning; then add potatoes, and carrots etc. if you want them, and cook until the potatoes are tender and the meat can be cut with a fork; then add any green veggies for about the last five minutes.
Or somethng pretty close to what @wolfpup said.
You could cook it in the oven, but I’ve never seen a requirement to do so. And I suppose some people flour it, but I’ve never had it that way. I do add salt and pepper.
A “hot pot”, as I understand it, can contain nearly anything. But it’s not a common term around here, so I may be misunderstanding it.
I don’t know about the prime rib except that I can’t afford it. Reasonably low-fat hamburger about $5/lb around here. Chuck roast and some other of the cheaper cuts between $5 and $6 per pound. (A butcher shop near me sells something called “ranch steaks” in that price range; they are lean and tender and good IMO for broiling.) Lamb starting around the same or a bit higher, again for cheaper cuts. Pork and chicken cheaper, but still a lot higher than they used to be. Humanely raised pork may not be any cheaper than beef for similar cuts (beef cattle are likely to spend some of their lives on pasture in any case, and then grouped in feedlots; for pigs, who are probably even more bothered by it, the situation is likely to be much worse.)
Beef shanks and lamb shanks are relatively inexpensive by the pound and very good eating for stews – but remember that a lot of that pound will be bone. The bone adds flavor and some nutrition when cooked long enough, but you’re paying more per pound of what you actually eat than you are for cuts that have less or no bone.
Or longer.
The freezer can make a difference, too. I think most things keep better in a chest freezer; they’re getting much less of a blast of warm air every time you open the door.
Lamb shanks have to be dirt cheap to be worth using. Cross cut beef shanks can still be a good deal. There won’t be that much bone relative to the meat, and well worth it if you like marrow. If you don’t like marrow I’m sure your dog will (many dogs can’t digest the bone though so take the marrow out to give them that treat).
Do you have an app called Flipp?
If you put in your zip code, it shows you the flyers for all the stores near you. If you search for a term like ‘steak’ you can find all the different kinds of steaks on sale at the grocery stores near you. In my experience, various cheaper steaks go on sale for $7 a pound (round, ribeye, t-bone, etc), but that was before the tariffs. I’m not sure what they’re going for now.
Then there is processed meats like hot dogs.
You can always buy a rotisserie chicken at costco for $5.
Pork is still cheap too. I’m seeing pork chops and tenderloins for $3/lb. So is ground beef.
But if you’re looking for steak, again last time I checked the lowest steaks went was for about $7 a lb. But its probably more now.
I don’t see a mention of chuck eye steaks. The poor man’s ribeye. They can be hard to find since there are only two (?) per cow, but Walmart carries them. They are excellent. After the sear you need to cook then slow so all the fat melts, like a ribeye. You don’t want them medium rare. And Walmart also for tomahawk steaks and filet mignon at good prices. They occasionally have an “assembled” filet mignon made of small pieces tied together at a much lower price. They tend to be the filet tips and are extremely tender.
I do have a freezer (part of my fridge).
I need to make better use of it.
I just generally dislike reheated food.