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how much do you expect to spend on quality meat?

post #1 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:12pm
Thread Starter 
my meat merchant seems pricey. they always have amazing cuts, know the name of the cow as well as it's diet, time of death, etc... but you'll spend $30 for a two pound branzino, $30 for a pound of diver scallops, $22 for a pound of lamb loin, $12 for a little container of duck fat. not even getting into the beef. is this normal? if so, will stop bitching. also curious what others spend on good stuff.
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post #2 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mharwitt View Post
my meat merchant seems pricey. they always have amazing cuts, know the name of the cow as well as it's diet, time of death, etc... but you'll spend $30 for a two pound branzino, $30 for a pound of diver scallops, $22 for a pound of lamb loin, $12 for a little container of duck fat. not even getting into the beef. is this normal? if so, will stop bitching. also curious what others spend on good stuff.
I don't normally buy good shit as I don't cook but I will say that those prices are pretty high. 2 things came to mind: 1) I'd recommend buying your fish from a fish monger rather than a butcher. You might not see better quality necessarily but you'll probably be able to get a better price. 2) You're paying for their expertise. All that knowledge you enjoy you might not be able to find elsewhere. Even still, seeing as you're in LA, you're bound to be able to find another quality butcher to compare with.
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post #3 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:38pm
if you want good products, sometimes you have to pay for it. that said, if you're willing to drive around some, you can often find some products cheaper. You're probably not going to do better on diver scallops, but branzino you can find at Asian markets, too. If you want grassfed beef, there's just not that much of it. same with specialty pork. But you can do better with wagyu-like beef at Japanese markets (i know, wagyu is not at all the same as grass-fed), and they also have black pig. but it's a matter of getting out of your comfort zone and going out to find them.
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post #4 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:38pm
If your goal is to save money, then watch the sales at Safeway and stock up on deals and Value Packs in your freezer. If you want the best cuts, when you want them, then you need to step up and pay more for them at the market rate.
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post #5 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:43pm
Lamb has gotten outrageously expensive for racks. Not so for shoulders. We're lucky, or I am, since my wife works out right across from the wholesale dept of the best fish monger in town every morning at daybreak, so she just goes to the docks and pays less, gets better.
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post #6 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:46pm
Thread Starter 
better quality is more important to me than a deal. i'm comfortable with the Thai and Mexican markets around my neighborhood, but when I can hardly see through the glass and the beef is shiny and costs $2 a pound, or when the fish market occupies a space that was a gas station until recently (not joking), I think that maybe the extra money is worthwhile. matt may wish IBS on me for this, but i also like to know something about where my food comes from. this usually necessitates speaking more English than any of the other butchers I've visited in the area are capable of.
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post #7 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:51pm
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post #8 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
those prices seem outrageous for
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post #9 of 22
1/7/11 at 8:55pm
I recently started getting all of my meat from a farm about a half hour away from my home here in CT. While the price has definitely increased, even from the already steep prices for grass-fed at Whole Foods, the quality has increased concurrently. Not to mention how gratifying it is to visit the exact source of your meal. For this, I am definitely willing to shell out the extra few bucks per pound. I purchased a tenderloin from said farm for Christmas, and when I got it home and unwrapped it I could actually detect a faint scent of grass coming from the meat. It was unlike anything I had ever smelt before. Not to mention, easily the best tenderloin I've ever tasted.
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post #10 of 22
1/7/11 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mharwitt View Post
better quality is more important to me than a deal. i'm comfortable with the Thai and Mexican markets around my neighborhood, but when I can hardly see through the glass and the beef is shiny and costs $2 a pound, or when the fish market occupies a space that was a gas station until recently (not joking), I think that maybe the extra money is worthwhile. matt may wish IBS on me for this, but i also like to know something about where my food comes from. this usually necessitates speaking more English than any of the other butchers I've visited in the area are capable of.
I like to know where my food originates, I just don't like pompous ass waiters to tell me about all the cute little streams from which the cows drink.
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post #11 of 22
1/7/11 at 9:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iammatt View Post
I like to know where my food originates, I just don't like pompous ass waiters to tell me about all the cute little streams from which the cows drink.

maybe i'm glad that most of my neighborhood butchers can't do that. i feel like their cows may drink a lot of santorum.
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post #12 of 22
1/7/11 at 9:47pm
I tend to buy grass fed meats from another state and ship them here, so it can be a bit pricy. But the quality and flavor is fantastic.
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post #13 of 22
1/8/11 at 9:47am
pay about the same as OP although meat is generally much more expensive in Australia than the US. The cheapest you will ever find pork shoulder or boston butt (if that is what it is) for less than $9/lb. Although factory farming is much less established and much reduced economies of scale. dont mind paying for ethically raised healthy meat and make savings by eating cheap cuts more often.
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post #14 of 22
1/8/11 at 12:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iammatt View Post
I like to know where my food originates, I just don't like pompous ass waiters to tell me about all the cute little streams from which the cows drink.

+1

Sometimes I think Goebels would have been jealous about how some restaurants talk about their suppliers on menus.
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post #15 of 22
1/8/11 at 1:57pm
Mharwitt, please tell me they don't actually tell you the name of the cows...
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