Sams meat: brands and preferences and choices


 
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Tom Raveret

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Lately I've been noticing several different brands of pork shoulders and baby backs at Sams Club. I'm wondering what experience and preferences people have had with some of these.

Pork shoulders:

IBP
Morell
Excel

Baby Backs:

Excel
Swift
IBP


The morell seem to be the most recent shoulders after a long spell of IBP in our area but I'm concerned that they may be an enhanced product.

Do have a preference and why?? Does the diferent brands have an effect on your final product or do you prefer the trim of one or the other of these?

Thanks
 
I believe that the only butts that I have gotten from Sam's were from IBP.

As for baby backs, I have gotten IBP and Swift. I prefer the IBP ribs.

I prefer the IBP Spareribs as well. I have had a couple of different brands.

Now I have a question about Sam's Club...

Last week, I go into the Sam's down by my work to do a little shopping and wait traffic out.

So I mosey on up to the meat counter and take a look around.

Ground Beef??? nah...

Steaks??? nah...

Leg of Lamb??? Uhh maybe... err nah...

Pork Butts??? sheesh... nah...

Spareribs??? Whaa... $0.99 per pound!

Huh, what is this? THEY ARE ST. LOUIS TRIMMED SPARERIBS FOR $0.99 PER POUND!!!

So I tell the meat guy that I'll take all of them.

About 5 minutes later he is handing me 230 lbs of St Louis Trimmed Spareribs... AT THE CASE PRICE OF $0.79 PER POUND!!!

So anyway back to my question...

I called 3 different Sam's Clubs and all three had different prices from $3.32 to $1.99 per pound.

Why the big difference in prices? /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif

Anyway, I talked to the butcher at the Sam's by my house a couple of days later... He sold me 3 more cases of the St. Louis Trimmed @ $0.99 per pound.

So now I have ~ 350 pounds of already trimmed spareribs in the freezer. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
What brand were they Spyro? That sounds like agreat deal!! I have been getting better deals on spares from the local grocer but am paying 1.79-1.99 (these were cargill) at jewel (albertsons). They did have a sale for .99/lb a couple of weeks ago but they were abbeyland and they were all shiners with almost no meat.
 
Tom,

They all have IBP on the cryovacs. The meat manager told me that Sam's loaded up on these "St Louis Trimmed" spareribs for Memorial Day weekend because they were a much cheaper alternative to baby backs. They got stuck with tons of them because they had them over-priced as well.

Seriously, Sam's has been extremely expensive on baby backs, pork butts and on tri-tips recently. I have been getting better deals from the local grocery stores during sales.

As for spareribs, we have been finding them out here, off and on, for $0.99 per pound.
 
baby backs recently dipped from 4.67/lb to 3.73 in milwaukee at Sams

Shoulders aare at 1.44/lb which is still better than I can do at a local grocer. The spread between teh case price and the cryovac price for the shoulders has gone form >25-30 c/lb down to .08 as the shoulders case price is now 1.36

Today I'm going downt to chicago for some other things and will stop at peopria packing and see whats going on there!!
 
I just paid $3.41/lb. for loin backs at Sam's...this was a case price. That is a huge drop from just a couple of weeks ago.

This coming weekend, I am cooking for 125 people with 3 WSM's and a large Country Club grill. Chicken and ribs, baby! 30 slabs of loin backs ALL on the 3 venerable WSM's!
 
Tom & Kevin,

See that is plain strange...

Baby Backs have been rediculously expensive around here for the last 2 months or so...

The cheapest in town was a Memorial Day Sale at one of the local grocers... it was $3.49 per pound.

Tom,

I still have a few butts in the freezer that I got @ $0.79 per pound.

Kevin,

You must have some light eaters on your hands. Is this for the Ft Wayne Women's Book Club?

Just kidding... And yes, I am still just a grasshopper when it comes to loading up the WSM. I can only do like 12 slabs and 40 or so Hot Links on one of my WSMs.
 
Spyro....

LOL!!! No light weights....just another grad party. After doing many of them over the years, I cut WAAAAY back on the meat. Most folks have eaten at 4-5 other parties and only nibble. Also, I find the attendance figures are ALWAYS very misleading.

Besides, I am competing with the Polish women who are cooking like 60 lbs. of the best meatballs to be found on planet Earth! Myself..I will be skipping my own Q to fill my face with those luscious meatballs!
 
Well Peoria packing didnt offer much relief. Butts were 1.39 and baby back were 3.99/lb

oh well. they did have bonless ribeye roasts for 3.99/lb graded choice but the marbling just wasnt there.
 
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