Where do you buy your meat?


 
J

Jim Smithson

TVWBB Fan
Most of us have these choices:

Warehouse clubs, grocery stores, specialty meat markets

Warehouse clubs are obvious....good prices, typically good meat as they sell high quantity. But more limited selection and have to buy more.

between grocery stores and specialty meat markets...I have a hard time. If I can find the same at the grocery store, it is almost always cheaper. Obviously some hard to find items could be the reason to shop at the meat market.

Other than supporting the local small biz owners, I have a hard time believing the meat market meat is really any better, fresher etc for the sometimes much higher price.

I get the feeling that the meat truck pulls from the grocery store lot over to the meat market lot and the same stuff gets unloaded.

Other thoughts here? Insider info?
 
For reasons of budget, I limit where and what I buy. There are many threads about the ever increasing choices in meat. There are real differences. Fat content varies. 'Additives' vary.
Free range...organic....the list goes on.
I recently read about hogs raised the ole fashioned way. We have a lot of choices and I am sure some are tastier than others and some are healthier than others.
 
Jim, et al,
In the past few weeks all of the bad news about tainted food have reinforced my selectivity on where I buy my meat. We had a couple of farms when I was a kid and I value free range meat and poultry.
We are blessed to have a butcher who raises his own livestock, orgaqnic and free range. In my opinion, if I want antibiotics or steroids I'll go to the doctor, not the meat counter for it. I am sorry, this stuff DOES get into the food chain and DOES have an effect on consumers. Good meat and poultry are really worth looking for. Sorry to pontificate.
 
Costco has high quality USDA Choice Beef. Downside is the quantity you have to buy. I look each time I go, and if they look great I buy the package of NY strips or filet's and vacu-seal individually and put in the deep freeze. These are superior to the large grocery stores. Will last a year (theoretically). Unfortunately my Costco does not sell pork butts – I usually get these at Meijers.

If I have the craving for a steak that night and am out, then there is a local, semi-yuppie store (Holiday Market in Royal Oak, MI) that has very good meat. They call it their “premium beef” – of course that is not any official designation, it is USDA Choice but usually Angus and they pick the individual sides of beef. The sirloin’s are excellent. They also sell some specialty, low fat beef (Maverick Ranch I think).

Chicken – sometimes Costco (usually $.79 or .69/lb have to buy two). Costco also now sells boneless, skinless chicken breasts and are very well trimmed and packaged in sets of two – you have to buy 6 packs I think. Quite convenient. Amish chicken is popular around here and is quite good as well.
 
BJ's Warehouse club for, Chuck Rolls $1.99lb, BB's varries between $2.99 - $3.29 lb, Spares $1.99 lb, Butts $1.39 lb, Whole Top Rounds $2.29 lb, Knuckles $2.79 lb, Whole Rib Eyes $5.89 lb, Whole Tender Loin varries between $8.99 - $9.99 lb.

Super Wal Mart for Choice Packers, $1.68 lb. All meats are from Excel NOT ENHANCED.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don Irish:
Unfortunately my Costco does not sell pork butts </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Have you ASKED for them?
My local COSTCO has them, but never out for display. They're boneless two packs, but think that the only time I've ever done only one Butt was the first one or two times I've ever done them. No way I could get away with just one now...
 
Don.

I live in Mich and the Costco in Sterling Heights and Madison Hgts have them. you have to ask. They come 2 to a pkg, about 16 lbs total.

Good luck!

Tom
 
A couple months ago I started buying my 'Q' meat from a local wholesaler. Stopped in and talked to em. They were willing to sell to me on a 'cash' basis at wholesale prices. I can't beat the quality or price from them...
 
I'm at the point where I buy nearly all my meat from Costco. Stip loin, tenderloin, pork loin etc. are purchased in cryovac, processed at home into individual cuts, vacpacked and frozen. Ground turkey is the same. Ribs and butt are purchased just prior to smoking. Then they're smoked, processed into individual cuts, vacpacked and frozen. Specialty dinners like brisket, tri-tip and rib roast are always purchased and cooked immediately. About the only thing I don't buy from Costco is ground beef.

My understanding is that once you take out the small, farm-based operations there are only a handful of processors out there. Does anyone in the business have more insight on this?
 
The Old saying " You get what you pay for." rings true with meat as far as I'am concerned.
I make every effort to buy " Free Range", or
" Organic" meat with no Nitrates, additives and the like.
I never buy from the Wherehouse Box stores, never. I realize for some folks, money is an issue, so this would be difficult.
I did hear a disturbing News story a few months back in regards to some of the larger meat distributors in the U.S.
The story went on to say that a lot of meat in this country was being imported from China where the Meat proccessing standards are much lower than in the U.S...all in the name of saving money for the U.S. distributors. Yikes!!
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is Know where your meat is coming from. Smoke On..
 
Stu - I agree and disagree.

I think meat is like most things in that you pay for what you get, but I think a lot of warehouse box stores such as Sam's and Costco offer top-notch meats.

Most of the grocery stores and markets around here actually have meats that are beneath the meat that Costco and Sam's offer. There is one good butcher in town, but it is much easier to get a beef tenderloin or a case of butts/ribs from Sam's/Costco than it is to go the butcher route.

Do you buy your meat from a butcher or an organic food store like Whole Foods/Wild oats/Trader Joe's?
 
I've really soured on the big warehouse places lately. Not for any political reasons or anything, but simply that I no longer think their quality is all that good relative to the price you pay. Plus (and this is the biggest) you get no choice. Costco, at least, it's only brisket flats, and boneless butts. Well, I don't want just flats, and I hate boneless butts. I do still get my spares there.

On top of that, the prices there have become more expensive than even my regular supermarket. Butts are $2.50 a pound and brisket at Costco where I'm at is $4.29 a pound for flats. WHAT? Sorry, but I can find brisket cheaper than that at my regular supermarket. In fact, I can get very good brisket at my specialty butcher for less than that - and I have the benefit of having them hang it for me for a few days to age it. And someone who actually understands meat to boot. All for less than Costco prices.

Once warehouse prices get more expensive than butcher shops, their use and value is way beyond my taste.

ignore my ranting. I'm just mad the dodgers are losing to the giants. That's all...
 
Pork butts from Sam's is the same way.....two to a package. I have had great luck lately with baby backs purchased from Family Fare - part of Spartan Distributing. They have 3 racks to a pack on sale for $3.49-$3.99/lbs about every six weeks.
 
If I lived in Chicago it would be Peoria Packing. Since I don't it Sam's. While you cannot pick out the exact slap, I have found the quality to be excellant. I really like to buy my beef from Sams when they have the price maked down. Why? Because most people do not know marbled meat is the best.
 
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