Price of Beef


 
LMichaels said:
Odd. Our top freezer in the basement fridge ices up even worse than the bottom unit on our upstairs fridge and it's lots newer. The only place I can freeze anything without having it go bad quickly is in the stand alone freezer. IDK why this is. But I even recall reading an informational article about it (maybe it was Consumer Reports?) with the advice being if you buy a stand alone freezer to only buy manual defrost ones. I'm not wanting to rehash the whole brue ha that went on earlier about this. If someone is having luck with a frost free, good for them. All I can say is my track record is not good with frost free freezers. I'm at 2 years on my stand alone one and it's only now beginning to look like it might benefit from a defrost. But actually very little buildup is in it at all
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Wonder if it might be the humidity, you have there. Very dry here, only time it gets somewhat humid is when the monsoons are active.
I remember when I lived in Franklin Park, and I would go down into the basement in the summer. You could see the puddles on the floor from the condensation dripping off the water pipes. Ugh! I don't miss that.
 
Yeah sometimes it gets so bad I see water on the basement floor and wonder what's leaking. It's just the cold water pipes sweating. Luckily on my new HVAC system I can control the indoor humidity levels separately from the "cooling" levels. So I can set my stat to keep indoor summer humidity down to say 46% but keep my temp at 77 so you don't have that huge temp change when coming inside. It allows me to keep the house very comfortable without over cooling. I guess it hinges on the very low speed and output the AC system can do. I swear you can literally watch and count the fan revolutions on the outside condenser when it's doing that. And it's so quiet you have no clue it's running unless you look down into it. Nice system
 
I grill, smoke, or use the flattop almost every day. My outside kitchen gets a workout. I usually only by meats from Harris Teeter and then only when on sale. Sale price for choice Prime Rib or NY Strip steaks is usually around $8.99 a pound. Whole chickens are holding steady at the sale price of 99 cents a pound. Pork on the other hand has skyrocketed to over $4 a pound for most ribs. I only buy ribs when they are on sale. This in the Maryland suburbs of DC.
 
I like to freeze crab and other shellfish for the off season.
It doesn’t taste as good as fresh.
They do taste about 90% and I can live with that.
If I mix them with something else like cocktail sauce or deep fry I can’t tell any differenc.
Regular meat wise I can’t taste the difference when it is properly stored.
I regularly go through our freezers and rotate items.
Last week I found some poorly stored jumbo shrimp that had freezer burn.
I wasn’t to happy about that but I use stuff like that for crab bait.

I figure I might loose about 5% and that number would be a lot more if I didn’t go through and rotate our freezer stock.
Having a bait section in the freezer really helps when you live on the waterfront.
 
Fridges with bottom freezers get a work out every time the freezer door is opened, all your food is subjected to room temp , all the cold air falls out and is replaced with room temp which the packages absorb, same deal with stand up freezers even if not a self defrost, the best freezer for long term storage is a chest freezer, when the lid is open the cold stays in and little is lost. look at the data for frost free and non defrost for length of time food stays good. vacuum packing really can extend the life of any food. Kroger had some great sales lately and wish we had bought more, 4-5 packs of ribeye and NYS with 3-4 in each pack the RE were $5.99 and the NYS were close to it, brisket was $1.99 and we bought 8, smoked 1 gave my son 1. I ground 1 for burger, also have a wedding I am catering for 80 and plan to smoke several next month some time. Hunting season starts soon and hope to add a few grocery's on the cheap as I have lifetime license and everything I need to gather said critters lol.
 
Yeah, I kinda wanted a chest type, but wife is short and when we went to store she said all she could imagine was her half way falling in feet dangling and calling for help all the time. So best compromise was standup manual defrost. Same reason we bought another FL washer. She could not reach in easily
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah sometimes it gets so bad I see water on the basement floor and wonder what's leaking. It's just the cold water pipes sweating. Luckily on my new HVAC system I can control the indoor humidity levels separately from the "cooling" levels. So I can set my stat to keep indoor summer humidity down to say 46% but keep my temp at 77 so you don't have that huge temp change when coming inside. It allows me to keep the house very comfortable without over cooling. I guess it hinges on the very low speed and output the AC system can do. I swear you can literally watch and count the fan revolutions on the outside condenser when it's doing that. And it's so quiet you have no clue it's running unless you look down into it. Nice system
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Barb being a southern California girl was shocked when we hit 105 and 86% humidity the other day. Been there done that and it ain't fun. We keep our A/C at 77 also. But if the pups had their way it would be at 65.
 
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On the fresh vs frozen, I can't tell a flavor difference, but there is a slight texture change with frozen. Freezing bursts cell walls and the meat actually becomes more tender, but sometimes can be a bit "mealy".
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah, I kinda wanted a chest type, but wife is short and when we went to store she said all she could imagine was her half way falling in feet dangling and calling for help all the time. So best compromise was standup manual defrost. Same reason we bought another FL washer. She could not reach in easily
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Wife wanted a top loader recently. Got a large one. I get called on to reach down to the bottom. I gave her some bbq tongs. :LOL:
 
We have a form we fill out that is designed to keep track of what is in our freezer. Chicken, Beef, Pork are the main categories. Of course, we sometimes forget to add or delete from the list, so about every 3 months or so, we take everything out and make a new list. After all these years of doing this, you would think we could do it right. lol

No, we don't take everything out at once, so nothing is getting defrosted.
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah, I kinda wanted a chest type, but wife is short and when we went to store she said all she could imagine was her half way falling in feet dangling and calling for help all the time. So best compromise was standup manual defrost. Same reason we bought another FL washer. She could not reach in easily
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We have an upright freezer that generally works well. I use it for longer term storage. Our double-door refrigerator has two independent lower pull out drawers. Each is a separate tub -- opening one does not affect the other so more like a chest function. One for my wife one for me. This has worked well for us though I don't much like the fridge itself. It has a large full-width lower drawer which requires opening both doors to get to -- what a waste!
 
Chicago local grocery chain Tony's (not me) weekly sales ad: Choice brisket point $4.99 LB (I went last night and the 2'x4' bin was EMPTY). Pork Shoulder Butt $1.49 LB, Choice boneless short rib $4.99 LB, Choice Boneless chuck $3.99 LB.
 
TonyS T-Bone said:
Chicago local grocery chain Tony's (not me) weekly sales ad: Choice brisket point $4.99 LB (I went last night and the 2'x4' bin was EMPTY). Pork Shoulder Butt $1.49 LB, Choice boneless short rib $4.99 LB, Choice Boneless chuck $3.99 LB.
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I've never been there but there are a few out my way in Plainfield and Bolingbrook.
I checked out the sales flyer, good prices!
 
Chicagoland Jewel stores have 6 oz filets for $4.99/ea (limit 4).
Mariano's has black angus tomahawk steaks for $9.99/lb (avg size is around 3 lbs)
Both are listed in this weeks sales flyers
 
LMichaels said:
Odd. Our top freezer in the basement fridge ices up even worse than the bottom unit on our upstairs fridge and it's lots newer. The only place I can freeze anything without having it go bad quickly is in the stand alone freezer. IDK why this is. But I even recall reading an informational article about it (maybe it was Consumer Reports?) with the advice being if you buy a stand alone freezer to only buy manual defrost ones. I'm not wanting to rehash the whole brue ha that went on earlier about this. If someone is having luck with a frost free, good for them. All I can say is my track record is not good with frost free freezers. I'm at 2 years on my stand alone one and it's only now beginning to look like it might benefit from a defrost. But actually very little buildup is in it at all
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I read a similar article when shopping for a deep freezer. A self defrosting freezer does it by periodically warming enough to melt the ice buildup. This can just slightly thaw the food before refreezing it. OK for short term, not great for long term storage.

I bought this manual model August 2020 and just defrosted for the first time. Never any freezer burn.

 
TonyS T-Bone said:
Chicago local grocery chain Tony's (not me) weekly sales ad: Choice brisket point $4.99 LB (I went last night and the 2'x4' bin was EMPTY). Pork Shoulder Butt $1.49 LB, Choice boneless short rib $4.99 LB, Choice Boneless chuck $3.99 LB.
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If Tony's has something check Valli (if you have one). I swear they have to be the same parent company. My dad has both close by. When he gets his flyers both have identical ads, and pricing, you go into either one and they're identical stores. Maybe run by same family. He used to have Caputo's but they went belly up
 
Good news?

www.wsj.com

Your Steak Is Getting Cheaper at the Supermarket

Prices of beef, typically among the costliest grocery store purchases, are falling after more than a year of increases, as consumer demand softens for some cuts.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com

Prices for rib-eye and beef loin are down nearly 10% for the four weeks ended Aug. 7 compared with a year ago, while brisket decreased about 18%. Ground beef prices—among the cheapest beef products and still in high demand—increased about 7% over the period, compared with a roughly 20% increase in January.

“The cost of all the stuff is piling up and it’s starting to hit people’s pocketbooks,” said Carey Otwell, director of meat and seafood at Mitchell Grocery Corp.
 
Not beef but ribs, just got back from Walmart. Smithfield extra meaty, tender baby back ribs on sale $2.98 a pound these are individually cryo wrapped no need to buy a multi-pak. Don't know why I did not buy 2 and throw one in the freezer as I would not need the wrap the 2nd one. They say baby back but I doubt they are pretty big for true baby backs but whatever they are for sure back ribs.
 
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