Bummer.
Gotta love having a rancher in the family. We just picked up a new 1/2 of beef for the cost of cut and wrap. Of course, I get to help with the branding, dehorning, vaccinating, castrating, etc.
Happy California cows!:
Posted on 02/18/2009 2:24:13 PM PST by JRandomFreeper
It’s tough out there and may get tougher. Job cuts, pay cuts, and expenses are going up. What’s a conservative to do? Conserve, of course.
That doesn’t mean you have to eat less healthy food, or eat foods that aren’t so good, or eat less. With a few of the right ingredients, some practice, some planning, and some time, you can produce excellent quality nutritious meals for surprisingly little money.
The catch, of course, is the time it takes. But if you are unemployed, or under-employed (like me), you have more time than money.
Fine cooking is about treating good quality ingredients right. Inexpensive cooking is about picking the right ingredients, some planning, and some labor.
My favorite ingredients are good quality, good price, and ingredients with many uses. That means shopping fairly frequently, watching for specials in the flyers that fill up my mailbox, and talking to family and friends about the REALLY GOOD DEALS that we all run across sometimes.
Ingredients
I rarely buy canned or frozen, with a few exceptions, (canned tomatoes and frozen corn, namely) I use what is fresh and in season, and cheap. I also have a garden, and eat what is seasonal from the garden.
Basil is expensive in the grocery store, but is easy to grow. And it shows up about the same time as the tomatoes. Can you say Italian?
Meats are more problematic. I’ve pretty much given up on beef, except once a month. I’m fortunate that I can get game locally, like venison and boar, and we raise a few goats for the freezer.
Pork can be found on sale in large roasts that can be cut up and prepared in many ways.
Chicken also can be found on sale in bulk and frozen in appropriate sized portions.
Bulk products, like flour, cornmeal, rice, beans, masa, and sugar can be purchased in bulk and transferred to appropriate sealed containers to keep the bugs out.
Planning
Since I’m single, I know how much of what I’m going to use in a month and plan accordingly. Breakfast is whatever you eat for breakfast times 30. For me that means 60 eggs, 30 sausage patties, 30 frozen biscuits, and 60 oz of homemade salsa for the month. Sausage patties weigh 2 oz each, so that’s 60 oz of that pork shoulder for breakfast for the month.
A word about individually frozen biscuits. I use them, they are good. I can, and have mixed up a batch of biscuit dough to cook just one biscuit. I won my bet, and would never do it again.
Lunch and dinner I plan for 8 oz of meat, 6 oz of cooked starches, and 4 to 6 ounces of vegetables. So for planning that’s 2 meals times 30 days = 60 meals. So I need about 30 lbs of meat, 22 lbs of starches, and 20 lbs of vegetables for the month.
A word about starches. 2oz of dried beans, rice, or pasta roughly equals 6 oz of cooked starches. For things like potatoes, rutabagas, and turnips, use the full 6 oz measure when buying.
Fruit is as in season, and inexpensive. Sometimes, that means that I just get preserves.
Salads for me come from the garden if they are in season. Down here in Texas, I’ve usually got something most of the year.
I make my own breads, desserts, and lots of my own sauces.
This article is meant to stimulate discussion on cost savings and maybe provide some advice during these difficult times. There are quite a few freeper Chefs, food service professionals, and darn good non-professional cooks on this site.
They have a gallon jars of kimchi too. When it comes to kimchi the Koreans don’t fool around
Being teased by a good cook is just fine by me
His book indicates they ate like Kings in jail....(So did Goodfella’s).
Those are loins, not tenderloins, which are typically 2.5 to 4 pounds. Still, they are a great bargain. Very lean and tender and versatile. I've got half of one in my freezer right now that I'm contemplating thawing out for a weekend smoke.
“Every GI I cooked for got the same attention that I gave every VIP I cooked for.”
Well, hell, I remember you, or most likely some other cook like you, in another place, another time, after we got off the line and ate at the officer’s mess, ordering a cheese omelet and sausage and fresh-made toast and fried potatoes, many, many moons ago. One of the best meals we ever ate.
That breakfast was greatly appreciated by me and my men.
I agree - soup is an excellent strategy.
Buying and roasting a whole chicken packs a lot of bang for the buck. It’s the cheapest protein meat package on the market, provides a lot of servings, and the leftovers do great transformations i.e. chicken salad, hot chicken sandwiches, chicken fajitas, chicken a la king, etc. etc.
When I’ve picked the carcass clean, I toss it in a gallon zip bag and keep it in the freeezer until I have a cool rainy Saturday afternoon, then into the stock pot it goes with chopped celery, onion, carrots and some salt and pepper. After simmering for a few hours ladle it into plastic storage containers of various sizes and you have weeks worth of stock for quick soup, great rice, gravy and so on, all for pennies.
Exactly! Like you say salt goes in at the end
Chickpeas in chili are awesome, and I swear they produce less gas than properly soaked red beans.
Sounds great. Chickpeas and lentils are of a higher order than most other beans. They are more grain-like and less greasy. Though all beans are good. Lentils were the "mess of pottage" in the Bible
And, never forget the lowly lentil. It cooks quickly, doesn’t need soaking to become tender, and combined with regular rice, onions, celery, and some spices of your choice, a yummy main dish! (brown is best, parboiled Uncle Ben’s second best, and forget instant rice!)
Beans are a complete protein but only with brown rice and other whole grains
But that doesn't happen often.
In a month or so, neighbor and I are going to the auction, buying a calf and slaughter and process it ourselves.
Give it a week to calm down after we bring it home, and get the stress hormones out, and then it's over. No feed cost to speak of.
We're figuring we can take it primals and offal(I'll use the offal for charcutrie) for about $0.60US/lb + our labor and time.
/johnny
There was an infamous wing of a Massachusetts prison where the good fellas cooked up feasts. Concord maybe. They has hot plates rigged up and were allowed to bring in shrimp and lobster via the commissary. They had tomato sauces simmering for hours on Sundays
You know you've made good stock when it turns into meat jello in the refrigerator.
In fact, I think Alton Brown has said that is the difference between stock and broth.
I have been doing this for 45 years, and it is completely worth making your own bread and soup!
When I was feeding 4 hungry kids, and hubby was starting a business, cooking from scratch was essential, and getting weaned from recipes was more important than cooking from scratch.
Now, stay with me here. Learning to have a house full of staples, and then combining them into simple healthy meals is the secret. Every time you “read a recipe”, and have to go to the store to buy an ingredient, you are wasting time, energy and money. And, if you are hauling kids along, you know what happens! They beg for stuff, and it becomes a negative experience for all.
So, learn to cook the basics. Rice, baked potatoes, pasta, (legume beans).
Get the spices, seasoned salt, and dried herbs you like. Stock your favorite pasta sauce, broth or bullion, canned items like clams, anchovies, olives, tuna fish, salmon, etc...Dehydrated chopped veggies, like in my last post...
Add sausage, hamburger, stew beef, other cheaper cuts of meat and fish to your freezer, buy butter in season, and freeze it. Powdered buttermilk is great for baking, which leads me to....
You get the idea. You make your meals from what is in the house. Learning to bake your own bread actually saves you a lot of money, so take the time and learn how. I used to do it by hand when I was young and energetic.
Start with basic white sandwich bread until you get the feel” for what the dough should look and feel like. Buy yeast in bulk, and store it in your freezer. Learn the basic proportions from the back of the bag of flour, and I recommend King Arthur flour, and keep trying until you get good at it.
My family got together and gave me a wonderful mixer two Christmases ago, and my bread is even better than ever. It is a Bosch Concept 7000, and I adore it! Much better than the Kitchenaid, in my opinion.
If you combine good ingredients, go lightly on the salt and other seasonings until the end, when you taste and adjust according your preferences, you will be a great cook before you know it.
The secret is to stay out of the market except for weekly or bi-monthly trips, and learn to cook from your pantry.
As an NCO, I loved the flat-top and dealing with customers, and training the airmen. Not as much stress on the airmen as breakfast grill. That was a rush for old hands at busy bases.
Midnight chow was just pure love of job, love of teaching, and service to the guys at the pointy end of the spear.
I hope your meal was good.
Fond memories.
/johnny
Bummer.
Gotta love having a rancher in the family. We just picked up a new 1/2 of beef for the cost of cut and wrap. Of course, I get to help with the branding, dehorning, vaccinating, castrating, etc.
Happy California cows!:
Home made pasta is easy to make and much better than boxed. It can also be made in large batches and frozen. I’m also a big soup and stew person. It’s very cheap to make and goes a very long way. What we don’t eat up I put into canning jars and freeze making sure to leave space for expansion. I also make most of ur breads. If you have a stand mixer it is easy to do and costs next to nothing compared to $2 or more at the store. I’ve in the past year made my own sourdough starte so no longer even need to buy yeast. :)
>>>>But we are blessed with lots of game in the US. The Lord provides.<<<<
Well, we feed 3 for about $2.00 each per day - counting garden supplies canning lids and all... Large garden, save seeds from all heirloom open pollinated seeds,. 4 deer and about 45 chickens either canned or frozen - can/pickle/freeze just about anything from Apples to Zucchini (currently have about 80-85 cases of home canned foods)
Hard times? Not here - life is good!
Beans, beans, beans. Lentils, butter beans, dried peas. The best nutritional value, will keep a long time. It’s BEANO that’s expensive.
I use a hand sprayer (like the ones you get at the garden center, and some hearth tiles left over from when we put in our wood-stove...
I spray the loaves right before putting them in the oven, then spray the interior of the oven as fast as I can every few minutes after popping them in the oven for the first 10 minutes or so.
Then, after baking, I open the oven door a crack, and let the loaves slowly cool for 5 or 10 minutes in the oven.
Another secret is learning how to make a “biga” the night before, and using less yeast than many recipes call for, and allowing for a longer rise. A lot of yeast and a fast rise makes a less flavorful loaf, in my opinion. I bake bread around my schedule, timing the rise according to whatever I have to do that particular day.
Henry’s book has the great “cooking in prison” recipes...like “Penitentiary Sauce” and “On The Run Pasta”.....and Witness Protection Recipes (living in Nebraska and Seattle)....I gave my brother in law the book for his birthday and he hasn’t gone a weekend without making one of his recipes.
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