The High Price of Pre-Marinated Meat


 
Chris Allingham

Chris Allingham

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New today on The Virtual Weber Gas Grill: The High Price of Pre-Marinated Meat

Here’s the bottom line: It pays—literally—to consider the real price of convenience before buying pre-marinated meat. Marinating meat is easy to do at home, and you’ll save a ton of money.
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A butcher shop that I go to sells pre marinated tri tips. Its almost like they are disappointed when I ask for one that
has not been marinated. I am also a cheapskate and will marinate my own skirt steaks.
 
unless they know what they're doing more than I do (Mexican Grocer) I don't get the pre-marinated stuff-----not only do I not know what's in it and how it'll turn out. The pre-marinated stuff at the Mexican grocery stores is usually cheaper than the raw product at the others. Convenience is good especially if it's a somewhat complicated dish (includes chopped carrots/onions/peppers/whatever) and time is limited. I prefer to do my own seasoning though, convenience and food safety-wise too.
 
I always worry they are using pieces of beef that are not up to snuff since the marinade will mask something that might be obvious if it was by itself. There is a carneceria I buy marinated carne asada from but they make it right in front of me and I can't figure out their recipe!
 
Excellent article, Chris! Also thank you for the heads up on Ray's new book. I just ordered the Kindle addition. Hope it doesn't put me to sleep like Aaron Franklin's book does. ��
 
Len Dennis said:
"Convenience" comes at a price some are willing to pay for.
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This is true. But I get lazy sometimes, I'm on auto-pilot, and I don't think about what I'm doing. This one kind of woke me up...when I realized that I paid 4X on a whim for something I normally do myself, I felt pretty dumb, to be honest.
 
Chris, great article though I think you under calculated the true cost of that marinade. While what you purchased was $10.50 per pound, what does the same butcher sell plain skirt for per pound ?
 
For me it's what's in it. Of course cost is another factor. I very seldom use premade marinades, why because most are loaded with salt and other things like preservatives to increase shelf life. There are so many marinade recipes out there it's impossible not to find one that fits your needs.
 
The good thing around here is so many markets sell marinated Mexican meats, canrne asada, poloo asada, etc that there is usually something on sale somewhere, you just have to look. I just picked up over 10 lbs marinated al pastor for a potluck that was on sale for $1,99 a lb. I cant make it myself that cheap.
 
Same here John, if you know where to look. ($3.99 is good here, imo).

If you tried something new, and liked it (sounds like you did Chris!) it doesn't sound like a ripoff to me - you got some new flavors, ideas, and also it's probably as cheap as most restaurants.
 
Until about a month ago I'd never bought pre-marinated meat but I've started frequenting a big Korean grocery store called H-Mart, about 20 minutes from where we live. They have open trays of meat covered in marinade, covered by a sneeze glass, and ice underneath the trays. One uses tongs to select the meat so you're not really paying extra for the marinade. The meat is high quality, reasonably priced and the korean marinade is to die for...especially the pork belly which has sweetness and heat. worth a try there's if there's an H-mart in your area.

http://hmart.com/
 
It's sometimes hard to find a pork tenderloin in local stores that is not in some kind of marinade. I'm not sure what the price difference is because I refuse to even consider them.
 
A small neighborhood market near me used to have marinated filet mignon on sale for $5.99/lb. (vs. $7.99/lb. non-marinated), so when they had some, I'd pick up a few. It was good, but apparently not that popular because they stopped having that sale.

Also, our local grocery store had full racks of baby back ribs, pre-marinated, advertised for $5 each. Intrigued, I went to check them out. I'd never seen such small racks of ribs. They must have come out of suckling pigs or something. Maybe 10" long and about 2.5-3" wide and weighing about a pound (marinade included).
 
I'm with Rich on this one. If you make the marinade yourself, you get to control what goes into it. We have health issues that make us pretty conscious of the stuff we ingest. I make my own at home and control the additives while saving money. As a bonus it almost always tastes better too...

Regards,

John
 
Ugh, we rarely buy pre-marinated meat, and when we do, we rarely like it. It's usually over-marinated and ends up mealy, or the flavors aren't great. Too many of the products are full of HFCS and artificial flavors. Although I understand the convenience factor, the results are so much better when made from scratch!
 
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