Price of Beef


 
Richard Garcia

Richard Garcia

TVWBB All-Star
Reported recently in our Local Nightly New Cast; Due to the many recent price increase(s) of Beef Cuts here in Costa Rica many "Ticos" are switching to Chicken and Pork. What's doing in your neck of the woods regarding the price of Beef and do you grill-up some beef at least once-a-week??

The Wife, our dog "Manchas" and I are still fortunate enough to eat some grilled beef cuts twice-a-week from my Weber Performer Deluxe Grill:)
 

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Hi Richard,
I am on the grill a couple times a week.
A lot of times it is nothing big or fancy.
I too have that grill model and like it.

As a pensioner I am somewhat frugal and buy lots of value packs and items on sale.
Safeway had top sirloin on sale for a long wile so we ate and bought a bit of that.
If we split a medium sized steak (like 3-4 dollars of meat per plate) and have veggies/ salad we are good .
It is cheaper and much healthier than fast food.
Where we are at a BigMac small fries and small coke is $13 and rather unhealthy.

Where we are at we have access to local meat and produce where you can see how the animal is raised and pick the animal while still on the hoof.
I plan on doing that.
The produce while not as great as California produce is plentiful and always at the farmer’s market.

A good portion of the people here hunt and fish to help keep their freezers full.
I can’t stress that enough and I save a lot of money doing that.

There sure are some crazy meat prices out there.
I am still shocked when I see them and I just pass on them.
$52. For 2 homely looking tri tips?
Yeah that’s not gonna happen here.
 
My wife works at Safeway which is a large grocery chain. When they have meat sales, they usually put three or four of whatever in "value Packs". Most of the time it's a hodge podge of sizes and thickness. My wife working there knows all the butchers and she will request whatever is on sale and they make up a custom package for her of all uniform nice cuts.
We also just upgraded our garage freezer from 12 cf. to 21 cf. We only buy beef on sale or from the dog food section (soon to expire sale date) of the meat dept. Example they had chuck roast for $2.49 a pound, 80/20 grind was $3.79. With the wife's discount the chuck roast was $2.12Lb. Bought 15 lbs. and I ground it myself. Saved almost $20 over the cost of the 80/20 grind even with her discount on both..
 
I was at the grocery store this morning and it was eye opening. The prices of many items were up 25 to 50 percent from what they were a month ago. I feel sorry for families renting their homes, commuting to work, and keeping food on their tables.
 
I'm in Northern California, in the Sierra Foothills and like everywhere else prices are crazy. Some have come down a bit, but definitely watching the sales(as I always have) and stocking up. What's incredibly disappointing here is that pork availability is way down due to nationwide hog farmers opting to exit the California market instead of complying with a voter-passed law(3 years ago) that just took affect that pig enclosures have to allow the animal to be able to turn around. They're digging their heels in about it despite repeatly losing in court and the result is a pound of mid-grade sausage is $6-8 or more, twice what it was in 2020. Bacon was $12-14 pound when I last looked, but maybe highly variable. I think pork shoulder prices were finally seasonally reasonable this month ($1.99-2.49) for this time of year but still twice as much as before the "turn-around space" law. The law also covered egg-laying poultry fully moving to cage-free, that industry made the investmect to comply right away. Pricing spike a bit but fell again and now just has the regular seasonal rise/fall.
 
We have become friends with a butcher at our local chain grocery store. One day I was talking with him about taking our hand picked steaks home and letting them age in our refrigerator several days before grilling them. He smiled and said that since we understand the importance of a little dis coloring as beef ages and becomes more tender he had some cuts in the back that I might be interested in. He brought out a tray of top end steaks that had "aged out" of the display case and that he could sell me for $6.99 a lb. He said this is a way they can reward their loyal/knowledgable customers. We definitely enjoy eating these rib eyes and strip steaks for about the same price as ground chuck.
Always pays to make friends with your butcher.
 
Even at the peak of high beef prices there were deals to be found. Those of us on limited incomes are used to shopping for deals, so it's nothing new for us. I've kept our freezers full most of the time since meat prices spiked, for fear that they'd go up again We now have more beef in them than ever due to finding some really good deals. They're out there. Just need to shop a bit.
 
Bob Bailey said:
Even at the peak of high beef prices there were deals to be found. Those of us on limited incomes are used to shopping for deals, so it's nothing new for us. I've kept our freezers full most of the time since meat prices spiked, for fear that they'd go up again We now have more beef in them than ever due to finding some really good deals. They're out there. Just need to shop a bit.
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You are right, I'm always on the prowl for deals on meat and there are deals out there if you look for them. Thats why we upgraded from a 12cf freezer to a 21cf.
 
This is right up my alley because I almost collapsed at the price of a brisket yesterday....
First here is an 11lb brisket 2018

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Now here is an 8lber yesterday...
I haven't done a brisket since covid...just not worth the cost.
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My suggestion: don't buy it if you think it is priced too high. It's simply the law of supply and demand...if the demand goes down, so will prices. We as consumers can wreak havoc on an industry if enough of us change our minds suddenly. Probably won't happen because people love meat, but more than anything else, demand sets the price, especially when it comes to perishables.
 
I saw cuts priced like that at Safeway recently.
I think my nice 18 pound packer was just over $60 and I got that recently.
Today when we went shopping the wife found some buy one get one free tri tips and we got 2 for $24.
They were right at 2 lbs each so $6 per pound for nicely trimmed tri tip.

I think I’m going to loading up on brisket when it is on sale.
Them burnt ends I made were were awesome and provided 8 meal sized portions.
The rest of the flat will me made into pastrami and hamburger.
I‘m ok cutting up the meat into portions to save a few bucks.
 
Our (no MY) issue is my wife's alpha-gal allergy. Eating any meat (or by-products like cheese) would send her to the emergency room where she can only pray they will not use any mammal based drugs on her. So yes, I shop for deals. We fortunately have a separate freezer, but with only me, there needs to be limits. Whole strip steaks or beef loin seems pretty selfish on our budget. Last week at Costco, I found a good price on beef short ribs. The price on everything else made me shudder. Like @Brian (Mass.) , I'd love to do a brisket, but (despite the freezer) that's hard to justify with only me. Inviting my daughter and grandsons is great, but doesn't change the cost. We will persevere and, as said, it does seem prices may come down -- I hope!
 
Prices of common BBQ cuts are crazy since plague times. Here in NC, Harris Teeter alternates between ribeye, strip, or porterhouse on sale each week for $7-9/lb, same price as brisket or chuck. My family doesn't appreciate heavy smoke, so why bother with a 12 hour cook and a ton of leftovers? Since the plague, I just buy one or two thick cuts of whatever is on sale and reverse sear them.

We have two friends with alpha-gal. My wife is so terrified of life without pork, she quit hiking in grassy areas with me.
 
My wife and I are both teachers, and thus phenomenally wealthy 🙄. The price of beef hasn't quite put us out yet, but I've found that simple hanger steaks have been cheap of late. Imho, this is a really under-appreciated cut. If you like inside skirt, for example, you would probably like hanger. It delivers outstanding beef flavor and effortlessly takes tons of rubs and flavor profiles. Tacos, burritos, sandwiches, straight-up, salads, etc. So good, so affordable.
 
LMichaels said:
Just paid $260 for a NY Strip primal at Costco that I likely would have paid $175 6 mos ago
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At Costco by us:

NY Strip today, while loin was $9.79#.

Tri tip was $8.99#, four in a pack, $82 for 4.

Rib Eye whole loon was $10.89#

Pork butt was $2.79#
 
Mack Manning said:
Prices of common BBQ cuts are crazy since plague times. Here in NC, Harris Teeter alternates between ribeye, strip, or porterhouse on sale each week for $7-9/lb, same price as brisket or chuck. My family doesn't appreciate heavy smoke, so why bother with a 12 hour cook and a ton of leftovers? Since the plague, I just buy one or two thick cuts of whatever is on sale and reverse sear them.

We have two friends with alpha-gal. My wife is so terrified of life without pork, she quit hiking in grassy areas with me.
Click to expand...
Mack, I wish I could be supportive, but the best I can tell you is to not let her talk with my wife. Alpha-gal has truly ruined her (to some extent, our) life. It goes way beyond pork. The tears are long past, but the misery is not. Use DEET.

As far as the long cooks, if you have the occasional time and enjoy it, then go for it. I agree, nicely grilled steaks of whatever are great. I wish good seafood in our area was more reasonable, but am glad those beef and pork sales hold up for us.
 
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