Now that you know how much meat you need you need to source it from somewhere. When you look at it a good option would look to be just to buy a whole, 1/4, 1/2 of a large animal. I am not fond of this method, while it is easy you don't get to choose your cuts, you end up with too much of one thing.
Some things to look for in a place to buy meat
- Buy from the meat packer or wholesaler
- If they butcher the animal on site or own the site it it butchered it is cheaper
- Look for places that offer you meat frozen and already packaged. (Usually only available for pork and beef, we freezer pack our chicken.
- Try before you buy (This is huge, you want quality)
- Talk to them about your meat, if they know their cuts that is better, how flexible are they?
- Compare prices, look for the best quality for the lowest price (I buy all my shrimp at Costco and canned crab)
- Don't dismiss cutting up whole meat yourself (We buy whole frozen utility turkeys when they are super cheap , thaw them enough to be able to cut them up then freeze in manageable portions, the Turkey Farmers of Canada has good info on that)
-Don't be tricked by pretend bulk buys,
- Know what you eat, if you aren't adventurous in the kitchen don't buy cuts you won't eat, even if they are substantially cheaper. Buy what you will eat! Just because it is cheaper does not mean buying 80lbs of ground beef is the best choice. Or now is not the time to buy 10lb of beef tongue just because you saw it on Masterchef and have decided you are going to try cooking it, by all means buy a little to experiment with, but don't count on it.
-Budget, put a little money aside every paycheck to save up for it as it is a huge investment all at once.
-Don't plan to pick up all the meat on the same day. You need time to fit it all in the freezer and time to package it up. If it isn't frozen putting all that unfrozen meat in the freezer at once could raise the temperature to unsafe levels and spoil the food, or cause your motor to burn out by working too hard.
-Know your freezer size and put your freezer through a defrost before filling it
- Invest in a freezer lock and or alarm. (Nothing is worse they having someone not notice that they left the freezer open a crack and spoiling your food)
- Buy soup bones and make stock, there is nothing like fresh stock. I save my turkey bones and chicken bones and buy beef bones make stock then can it in the pressure canner. It is well worth the effort. Not only is is cheap you know exactly what went into it, there is no hidden MSG and it tastes better then the store bought stuff anyways :)
Saturday 25 January 2014
Buying meat in Bulk Part one
This is just one part in a multiple part series on how to cut your costs and still eat well.
In order for us to eat well and on an appropriate budget I order my meat in bulk and keep it in the freezer. Depending on our budget at the time I order anywhere from 4-7 months worth of meat at a time. I have had many people ask me how I figure it out, this is my system.
We are a family of four. (Though I don't add the baby imto the calcukations as of yet)
1) First look at how many times a week you eat meat, for us it is 6 times but two of those days are leftovers. Write this number down, for my family that is 4 meat meals that I need to cook a week. Figure out how often you eat different meats. For us we eat chicken once, Beef twice and pork or seafood (usually shrimp) once a week
2) Next look at how much you cook per meal, I have found that if I average .5lbs of meat per person per meal it all averages out, sometimes it is slightly more but most times it is less,. Add up the amount of each different meat for a week, for us it is 3lbs beef, 1.5lbs chicken, and .75lbs pork and .75lbs seafood (
3) Figure out how many weeks you are buying for, write this number down this time around we are buying for 28 weeks,
4) Multiply the weeks by the amount of different meat per week. Write this number down
for us we need 84lbs of beef, 42 lbs of chicken, 21lbs of pork, and 21 lbs of seafood.
5) Look at your number and meat prices and adjust accordingly, for me that seafood number looks really high, I know that I will buy some turkeys when they go on sale I also know that I would like to order more pork then that, so maybe this time around I will plan for 1lb pork a week and .50 of seafood. So the number for pork goes up to 28lb and the number for seafood goes down to 14lbs, which is a much more manageable number.
6) Now you know how much meat to order where do you get it? How do you package it up? How much space do you need to freeze it?
In order for us to eat well and on an appropriate budget I order my meat in bulk and keep it in the freezer. Depending on our budget at the time I order anywhere from 4-7 months worth of meat at a time. I have had many people ask me how I figure it out, this is my system.
We are a family of four. (Though I don't add the baby imto the calcukations as of yet)
1) First look at how many times a week you eat meat, for us it is 6 times but two of those days are leftovers. Write this number down, for my family that is 4 meat meals that I need to cook a week. Figure out how often you eat different meats. For us we eat chicken once, Beef twice and pork or seafood (usually shrimp) once a week
2) Next look at how much you cook per meal, I have found that if I average .5lbs of meat per person per meal it all averages out, sometimes it is slightly more but most times it is less,. Add up the amount of each different meat for a week, for us it is 3lbs beef, 1.5lbs chicken, and .75lbs pork and .75lbs seafood (
3) Figure out how many weeks you are buying for, write this number down this time around we are buying for 28 weeks,
4) Multiply the weeks by the amount of different meat per week. Write this number down
for us we need 84lbs of beef, 42 lbs of chicken, 21lbs of pork, and 21 lbs of seafood.
5) Look at your number and meat prices and adjust accordingly, for me that seafood number looks really high, I know that I will buy some turkeys when they go on sale I also know that I would like to order more pork then that, so maybe this time around I will plan for 1lb pork a week and .50 of seafood. So the number for pork goes up to 28lb and the number for seafood goes down to 14lbs, which is a much more manageable number.
6) Now you know how much meat to order where do you get it? How do you package it up? How much space do you need to freeze it?
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