As the only meat eater in my family I prefer buying smaller cuts of meat than what is often offered. Sometimes I’ll buy the larger cut and freeze half, but more often I’ll ask the butcher to cut me the size I want. Example: pork butts in the display are >5lbs, so I’ll ask for a 2.5lb cut.
The butcher (Publix) is always pleasant and accommodating, but sometimes I wonder if he considers me a pork butt-head for making these requests. I don’t overdo it and always check if a size close to want I want is in the display case before asking.
Is asking for custom cuts common in a supermarket? Do you ask for them?
I think once I asked for them to thin-slice some ribeye. It’s easier to do that off the end of a roast than from a steak.
We don’t eat a lot of meat. But we’ll make big batches of food and freeze what we don’t want immediately. So a 5 lb butt would be fine. We would just get a lot of frozen meals out of it. While fresh is tastier, I’d rather cook 5 lb once than 2.5 lb twice.
I sometime ask for a steak thicker than what’s in the case and have always been accommodated. Or have items repackaged with more or fewer pork steaks for example.
It’s fairly common for me to select a smaller shank ham from the case and ask the butcher to slice it into half inch thick ham steaks.
My local will sometimes offer 10 pound meat bundles at great prices. Inch thick ribeye for $8.99 a pound are common offers if you’re willing to buy ten pounds of them. I’m not a huge steak eater but I’ll buy these 10 pound ribeye bundles as a single large roast and have a feast day for my friends.
I choose to go to the supermarket near me that has the best in-store meat selection and a group of good butchers. The other stores near me have poorly staffed and stocked meat sections.
I’m also just a short walk from the specialty butcher shop that Julia Child used, and have gotten some amazing cuts of meat there after consultation with a butcher. But only for special occasions, you need to consult with your banker before stepping in there.
Oh, I answered wrongly. I thought you meant ‘custom cuts’ to be a specific type of cut which they may not sell normally like, I don’t know, onglet steak or lamb neck fillet.
But you meant size. Then yes, obviously. Why have a real-live butcher if you can’t ask them to cut meat to the size you want?
I give my dogs raw bones to keep them busy when they’re outside this time of year (they do not get to have them in the house). Sometimes the only beef bones available in the case are the small marrow bones (1" thick). My dogs are big and they can chomp those right in half. Then they have sharp pieces of bones which I don’t want them to have. So the only things I’ve ever asked the butcher for are longer (3-5") bones for the dogs. Sometimes he has to dig them out of the back freezer and saw them to my specifications. He never seems to be put out by my request.
I do at Whole Foods, where they don’t have much pre-wrapped. I’ve also asked for things to be salted, but they often don’t do so heavily enough for my taste, and it’s hard to judge until it’s too late.
I recently had a problem at the seafood counter. The recipe I was using called for 12 oz. of fresh salmon, which they had on sale. The clerk wouldn’t cut it to size, because then “we wouldn’t be able to sell the rest”.
I’ve never wanted smaller cuts then they sell. I go to my speciality butcher when I want things that a 10 rib standing rib roast, a whole pig or 2 pound tomahawk ribeyes. I’ve really been digging the meat selection at the grocery store during Corona since they have more commercial cuts and I can buy a whole pork loin.
I used to get steaks cut to order. The local store would have rib eyes or t-bones on sale with a ten-pound minimum, so I’d ask for ten pounds of half-inch thick steaks.
Occasionally, ground beef would be on sale for packages 3 lbs. or larger, but the only ones in the case would be 6-7 lbs. I’d ask for a 3 lb. package and they’d accommodate me.
I forget the last time I cooked beef at home. Damn gout.
What was your recipe? With salmon fillets, most are around 4 ounces so you could have purchased three four ounce fillets. If they only had big 16 ounce fillets, I’d have purchased one, cut off a 4 ounce piece and used that another day.
The last butcher shop in my neighborhood closed over 20 years ago. I really miss them. They would take a whole chicken and cut it any way I wanted — spatchcock, quarters, all the way. Since then I’ve just done it myself. I could get them to cut me a 2-3 inch thick porterhouse steak, which I would then grill like the great Peter Luger’s steakhouse, and slice just before serving.
Before the ‘rona I was getting most of my meat at Whole Foods, where they are happy to cut whatever I want.
For the past couple quarantine months I’ve limited myself to basics from the grocery store two blocks away: whole chickens and boneless thighs, ground meats, pork chops and tenderloins, and the odd beef cuts I trust them on, like flank and skirt steak. I don’t really trust their butchers and I wouldn’t buy a rib or strip steak. The most I do is ask them to poke around the back cooler for stuff like chicken gizzards when I’m making dog food.
What was your recipe? With salmon fillets, most are around 4 ounces so you could have purchased three four ounce fillets. If they only had big 16 ounce fillets, I’d have purchased one, cut off a 4 ounce piece and used that another day.