Not Just a Man's World

As a weight trainer living in the UK, I find myself constantly frustrated by articles written in the US or Canada that advocate eating plenty of red meat.  Don’t get me wrong, I love eating red meat and I think that there is lots of evidence to suggest that it’s a lot better for you than most people think.  The problem is how much it costs.

 Why red meat is good for you

Red meat is a good source of complete protein, including all of the essential amino acids, and it contains loads of vitamins and minerals.  A 10 oz steak and a cup of steamed broccoli is my idea of a perfect meal, providing:

• 816 calories, with 82g of protein and just 13g of carbs (of which 6g are fibre so don’t really count)
• 138% RDA of vitamin B6
• 187% RDA of vitamin B12
• 132% RDA of vitamin C and
• 132% RDA of zinc

 (Note: RDAs are based on those provided in America by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council.)

 So why the frustration?

So why does it frustrate me to see articles advocating that I eat more red meat?  Well, a 10 oz steak in my local Co-operative store costs about £3.40 for the value version (would you trust it?) and quite a lot more for the premium brand.  If the two of us each ate a 10 oz steak every day for a month I’d probably be bankrupt by the end of it.

Ok, so perhaps eating that much steak everyday is an exaggeration but it is true that trying to eat red meat daily is an expensive business.  And while meat can sometimes be available cheaper at some of the bigger supermarkets, the horror stories about how cheap meat is reared can be enough to turn you into a vegetarian.

So how can we find cheaper meat?

 1.  Find your local butcher…

 You may think that buying from the butcher will cost more because of the quality, but this is wrong for two reasons:

• At the supermarket you have to buy the quantities they sell in, even if they aren’t what you want or need.  For a long time I prepared meals for which I really wanted 800g (1¾ lbs) of beef mince, but the supermarket only sold the meat in 500g portions (just over 1lb).  At the butcher I could ask for mince to be bagged in 800g portions.
• Surprisingly, our butcher is cheaper than our local supermarket.  This may not be the case for your own butcher, but don’t assume.  Try buying a single portion and making a comparison.

 2.  …and buy wholesale

Once I knew my butcher I started buying in bulk, agreeing the quantity and the collection date a month in advance.  He bags the mince in portions and I can just throw these in the freezer and take out a portion whenever I need it.  When he could see that I was placing regular wholesale orders with him, he started to give me a 10% discount.  How many supermarkets would do that?

3.  Experiment

• Offal – I still have nightmares of being made to eat floury liver and chewy kidneys as a child, but I recently tried my hand at cooking liver and discovered that it doesn’t need to be like that.   And not only is liver hugely beneficial in the nutrient department, it is also incredibly cheap.  450g (1lb), which is all you need to feed two people, cost me £1.30 last week.  Mark’s Daily Apple has an excellent article that takes you through all the offal meats.  I think heart might be on my list to try next.
• Cheaper cuts – if offal doesn’t get you excited, then there are cheaper cuts of muscle meat.  It is possible to pick up a big piece of beef brisket for bargain prices.   Whilst it can be tougher, long and slow cooking methods such as pot-roasting can leave it moist and tender.

4.  Go wild!

Another option is to find your own.  I have recently purchased a catapult for shooting rabbits and wood pigeons in our local wood.  There are plenty of resources available to teach you what to do with your fresh kill, including wikiHow, though you need to find a good location – try asking a local farmer if you can shoot rabbits on their land. 

I also recommend the book The Wild Gourmets by Guy Grieve and Thomasina Miers which has very readable sections on how to hunt and fish as well as sections on how to then prepare the resulting kill.  I’m even tempted to try eating garden snails after reading their book!

5.  Find it yourself

Finally, a method I’ve not tried myself but have heard a lot about is collecting fresh roadkill.  Though it may be less relevant to those of you who live in big cities, roadkill is apparently very edible if you know what you are looking for when you pick it up.  If you have experience of this, please let me know how you have got on with it.

These are just a few methods I have found to deal with the ever-increasing cost of meat.  What methods have you found?

Related posts:

1. Omegas 3 and 6 – getting the correct ratio