Stefan's Florilegium

cheap-meats-msg

cheap-meats-msg - 9/4/97

Cheap meats for feasts. Cooking with them. marinades-msg.

NOTE: See also the files: roast-meats-msg, pork-msg, goat-msg, fish-msg,
food-sources-msg, ham-msg, sausages-msg, stews-bruets-msg, sauces-msg.

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mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 13:26:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Philip E Cutone <flip+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

"Melissa Martines" <melissa.martines@mail.corpfamily.com> writes:
> What cut of meat should I try to buy that would be relatively cheap,
> but not tough?

Nearly any cut of meat can be as tender as ye like depending on prep,
cooking method, and additions to it.
a couple hints for making a cheap cut taste great:

cut the meat cross grain
meat has a grain to is, it is the direction Of the individual
muscle fibers.
pound the meat
This breaks down the fibers yielding a more tender meat.
Depending on the degree of pounding, this can significantly alter the
texture and subsequently perceived flavor of the meat.
marinade the meat
most marinades will tenderize the meat.
vinegar, onion juice, and other components all help break it down.
stew the meat
a slow stew will make a cheap cut wonderful, but you said you
were grilling so this isn't an option.

Me, I tend to like butt steak. Thick and juicy, sweet and meaty. 18
pounds for dinner and 4 for dessert. ;) perhaps not...

In Service to the People of the Society,
Filip of the Marche

Date: 21 Aug 1997 10:44:00 -0700
From: "Marisa Herzog" <marisa_herzog@macmail.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

"Melissa Martines" <melissa.martines@mail.corpfamily.com> writes:
> What cut of meat should I try to buy that would be relatively cheap, but not
> tough?

Nearly any cut of meat can be as tenter as ye like depending on prep,cooking
method, and additions to it a couple hints for making a cheap cut taste great:

<snip>
most marinades will tenderize the meat.
vinegar, onion juice, and other components all help break it down.
<snip>

marinades with fruit in them are very good for tenderizing. sugar and fruit
acid I believe. for instance (it is not period but...) kiwi is supposed to
have amazing meat tenderizing potential. Though flavor wise, I'd go with
something else.

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 13:54:39 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy@asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

Melissa Martines wrote:
> I am cooking a Coronation
> feast that will include grilled beef as one of the courses.

> What cut of meat should I try to buy that would be relatively cheap,
> but not tough?

This is kind of a difficult question. Without knowing what your budget
is like, and something about the personal tastes of your attendees, I
can only generalize. You are going to have a difficult time finding
tender cuts you can afford if you have a lot of people that like rare
steak (I like it still alive, more or less). My expatriate Meridien
friend Lady Gabrielle likes steak to resemble sun-dried plywood. Things
get easier if you have people that like it fairly well done, as a longer
cooking breaks down some of the connective tissue.

The best I can suggest is that something like whole, boneless top rounds
or eye rounds can probably be trimmed and cut into steaks with minimal
waste by your cooks, which will be more likely to get you a decent
product that you can still afford.

You might be able to find whole short loins ( or loins with the
tenderloin or fillet removed, sometimes known as New York Shell roasts)
which can be cut into steaks, but that would presumably have to be done
by a butcher, which might cost extra money, and which might result in
much less edible meat than the weight of the primary cut indicates. It's
glorious meat, but there's a lot of waste, and the waste that you throw
away still costs 3 or 4 dollars a pound, if you know what I mean. Off
the bone, and trimmed somewhat, this is a secondary cut called a New
York Strip, often incorrectly called sirloin. This will run you
considerably more. I have almost no idea what it might cost far from my
locale, at an unspecified time of year. worth looking into, though, if
you have a big budget and a lot of other inexpensive items on the menu.

The same applies to boneless rib roast, cut into club steaks. There are
several variables that might indicate whether this is within your
budget, but there's no harm in looking into it.

I remember, when I was a kid, being fed both flank steak and skirt steak
pretty regularly, because they were cheap. Now they are fashionable and
expensive, for some reason. Both of these are great for grilling if you
can find them at a good price: they have almost no waste and don't
shrink much if they aren't overcooked. Also they have a nice, assertive
beef flavor, which is often lacking in eye rounds and even tenderloin
steaks.

Whatever you do, stay away from stewing cuts like bottom round and
chuck, unless you want to stew them and then reheat and crisp them on
the grill, which might not be too bad if everyone likes the meat really
well done.

Sight unseen, and everything being equal, I'd be inclined to recommend
top or eye rounds, though.

Adamantius

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:55:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: rebecca tants <becca@servtech.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

One of my favorite dishes (non period, but what the hey) is painfully
thinly sliced and marinated eye round steak really quickly grilled.
Because it's so flat, people tend to eat less pieces because they seem bigger.
(The vietnamese resteraunts often do this with a wine vinegar, ginger
and lemongrass marinade (YUMM!) and serve it raw to the table with
little hibachi's in the center for you to cook your meat to your
liking on. More table work, but it could be fun.....anyone know if
they ever cooked anything at the table short of cutting hunks off roasting
meats at a camp fire in period?)

Now if you are going for the hunk-o-meat kind of thing, I love
top rounds - flavorful, less expensive, lower-fat...also excellent
done in a marinade - you can then serve them london-broil style
with them sliced across the grain, which further tenderizes and also
portion controls. I find that in thicker cuts they are more tender
then eye round steaks.

The advantage of the later is that the middle will be more rare and
the edges more well done, so that you can let people get something
closer to what they like. Once again, I don't know how period that
cutting and serving tecnique would be.

I guess that brings up my question - in period did they "grill" meat?
I know they roasted it (usually on a spit), baked it, fried it, stewed
it and poached it, but i don't recall off hand seeing grilling.

Now, you may not care [about this] for your coronation feast - please don't take
offense - I was just wondering.

> Sight unseen, and everything being equal, I'd be inclined to recommend
> top or eye rounds, though.

I'm with Master A. here - good cuts, low waste, good taste that are
reasonably tender, lower in fat content and reasonably priced!

Ruadh
- --
Becca Tants, aka Roo, Lady Caitlen Ruadh, Delftwood, AEthelmearc, East
becca@servtech.com http://www.servtech.com/public/becca

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:17:29 -0500 (CDT)
From: nweders@mail.utexas.edu (ND Wederstrandt)
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

Sometimes if you go to a butcher who cuts meat for restaurants and such, you
can get a cut called a gooseneck round. It's a goos cut. This maybe a
regional term so be advised.... My friend who cooks in Steppes (Dallas)
got this all the time, but down here in Bryn Gwlad (Austin) the butcher
looked at me confused. When I lived in Bjornsborg (San Antonio) I got a
piece called a clod which was fairly tender. Sometimes you can order a
quarter of cow and get various pieces cut up various ways and it works out
cheaper.
People who start out cooking down here buy flank steak or brisket
which is tough unless you marinated it. They are used a lot in fajitas and
BBQ and it's tempting because of the price (cheap, you can get whole
briskets for as low as 89 cents a pound) but very tough if cooked
incorrectly.

Clare St. John who lives in the land of beef eaters

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:53:22 -0500
From: maddie teller-kook <meadhbh@io.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

I like whole boneless top sirloin... i have gotten it for $1.57/lb.
Also, some friends of mine use a cut called a 'goose-neck' round. They
stand by it as an excellent cut.

meadhbh

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:32:34 -0500
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr@ptd.net>
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #246

The Cheap Meat debate rages:
>
>"Melissa Martines" <melissa.martines@mail.corpfamily.com> writes:
>> What cut of meat should I try to buy that would be relatively cheap,
>> but not tough?
>
>Nearly any cut of meat can be as tenter as ye like depending on prep,
>cooking method, and additions to it.
>a couple hints for making a cheap cut taste great:
>
>cut the meat cross grain
> meat has a grain to is, it is the direction Of the individual
> muscle fibers.
>pound the meat
> This breaks down the fibers yielding a more tender meat.
> Depending on the degree of pounding, this can significantly alter the
> texture and subsequently perceived flavor of the meat.
>marinade the meat
> most marinades will tenderize the meat.
> vinegar, onion juice, and other components all help break it down.
>stew the meat
> a slow stew will make a cheap cut wonderful, but you said you
> were grilling so this isn't an option.
>
>Me, i tend to like butt steak. Thick and juicy, sweet and meaty. 18
>pounds for dinner and 4 for dessert. ;) perhaps not...
>
>In Service to the People of the Society,
>Filip of the Marche

I am instantly reminded of Collops, which can be rich, meaty, tender,
satisfying, and have the additional merits of small portions (lots of
gravy!), savoriness, and medallion sized pieces. Serve this with a blander
starch, something fruity, something green, somthing with pastry, and you've
built your remove around it.

My very best advice: Open the telephone book and look up Restaurant
Suppliers. I frequently use them, as they are the cheapest source for whole
cuts of meat (and even cheaper if you will trim and portion them yourself).
In this way, you can get a far, far better cut of meat than you thought you
could afford. The one I like to frequent even gives me a discount for being
from a non-profit group. Add that to the discount for whole cuts, still
cry-o-vac'd, and you'l be surprised at what you can afford.

Now, what exactly are you reffering to when you say "grilling"---Barbecue
(in which case spit-roast seems the obvious answer), or grilled the way
bacon and toasted cheese sandwiches are grilled (in which case I'd say go
for collops! I do love my pan juices).

Aoife

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 23:24:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Aldyth@aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

In a message dated 97-08-21 13:37:26 EDT, Morgan writes:
<< OK, all you butcher experts out there. I am cooking a Coronation
feast that will include grilled beef as one of the courses.

What cut of meat should I try to buy that would be relatively cheap,
but not tough? >>

I would ask how many you are serving first, but I usually go with a Baron of
beef, slow roasted for many hours, and if the intent is truely to grill it,
slice it up and slap it across a grill just before you serve it. Here in
Wyoming we can usually get it for under $2 a pound.

Aldyth

Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 21:26:15 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy@asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cuts of Meat

Melissa Martines wrote:
> I am planning a vinegar-based marinade at least overnight.

If the meat is in huge chunks, that's fine. Otherwise, you should
marinate it for no more than twelve hours or so, as a maximum, as you
don't want the meat to be pickled, as it tends to dry out if it's just
the right cut. Suggest you think in terms of the proportions for a
vinaigrette if you are using vinegar at all: 3 parts oil to one part
vinegar. That should help keep it moist.

Adamantius

<the end>