With restaurants offering takeout only, I quickly discovered that I do not want to pay full price for a meal I have to eat at home. No service. I have to clean up.

And a lot of restaurants are raising their prices to make up for increased prices from their suppliers, and to make up for lost sales because the dining rooms are closed.

Now that I have to shop for, and cook every meal; I have discovered that I really enjoy the least expensive cuts of beef. Some of those cuts are no longer inexpensive. Those used to be pieces thrown into the hamburger grinder. Or they were "butcher's cuts", as in what the butchers took home at the end of the day. Top Round London Broil, tri tip, brisket, Picanha, chuck eye, flat iron, inside skirt, ox tail..... and now, beef cheeks. Look for beef cheeks. It will be the next "specialty delicacy".

 

I like flatiron steaks. They are very tasty. Also called top blade steaks or patio steaks, they are part of the chuck which is the shoulder. They aren't particularly cheap any more now that they are popular.

 

Been buying Stew meats at $6.50 a bag and making Spaghetti and beef stews with the options of frozen ingredients affordable. Also Shrimp. Staying with fresh salads also a lot.

 

I live in a small town and there are about five restaurants I like.
One has already shuttered.
I don't want them to go under.
I try to place a to go order once or twice a week and spread my business around.
A couple of them are booming with to go business, a chinese place and a breakfast diner.
A couple of others are more refined dining where brown bagging is a tough sell.
I still do it and I purchased gift cards to help see them through till better times.

If they all went out of business we would literally have a lone Dunkin Donuts for 25 miles.
I'm talking a rubber egg on a bagel.

 

Yep, there is a lot of Mental illness right now just because of these things that happened. Caused most likely because of no medical supplies for Health to wear to treat this Covid. A lady POTUS would most likely have pushed the final Red Button !

 

Remember the "7 bone" top blade chuck pot roast? It was about 2 inches thick, and a cut cross section of the top blade, so the cut bone almost looks like a #7. The flat iron steak part is in that pot roast. I remember how we used to buy those, because it was cheap. Before flat iron became popular, we actually cut that part out for grilling on skewers to make kebabs.

If you can find it, buy meat in cryovac bags from a distributor or commercial supplier. The people who supply restaurants. While you can't possibly break down and eat an entire cow, you can pick the part of the cow you want. Butcher it yourself. A lot less expensive. Where I live, we can get a large piece, break it down, then split it up with friends and family.

 

Well; I most likely would cut the tip of my stuff off with those razors. Think I will stay wid Aldi' sealed packs of meat ! I not a chicken spat but I know my experiences wid knife is I cut me a lot.

 

Pretty interesting to watch those videos. You see different skillsets from the different meat cutters. I like how some guys have on safety equipment, like chainmail and gloves. And others could care less about losing a limb or disembowelment.

 

Know of Rural people who have really not recovered from slicing an dicing their selves Yep those knives are razors to shave on if you got the balz !

 

Interesting how there are more female butchers now. That old guy in the 3rd video looks like he was going to fall asleep at the band saw.

 

Most everything beef here is in a sealed bag now. Most likely the heavy bag stops the Virus where thin film can't.

 

Cryovac. It's how meat packing plants send out subprimal cuts. Institutional buyers get a better deal this way. Final butchering for service is performed by you, the buyer. I buy most of my meat packaged like this. Either me, or my brother in law, will process the meat into steaks or roasts, and the cousins will split it up into whatever they like best. Everybody saves money because we do our own butchering. And when you have a large extended family, where a dozen or so cousins all have families.......10 - 15 families could easily devour a cow. I usually take the "cheapest" pieces, and cook it so that everybody gets a chance to see what they're missing out on. I got a few of the guys hooked on tri tip, top round, and "Picanha". Now the chuck eye is really popular, because you're getting the chuck end of the prime rib. The latest cut I've brought to the table is beef cheek. I'm cooking it with the ox tail.....my take on heads or tails.....and my plan is to add beef head meat to that dish. Some people know beef cheek as barbacoa, and cabeza tacos. My local Costco is now selling whole lamb & goat. If it weren't for Covid, I would BBQ the whole goat and have a party. We used to do that with suckling pigs. So yummy. Eating your own baby pig like it's a turkey.


In my neighborhood, the Covid vaccines have been rolled out. I got my 1st shot last week. The "numbers" are slowly decreasing with vaccination. The light at the end of the tunnel may be at the end of this year. We may not have to cannibalize each other like The Donner Party. Cocaine and hookers are on the horizon.

 

Think J&J Vaccine is a game Changer as it comes up to 10's of Millions of Doses ?

 

As the conversation locally has shifted to equality....allegedly, the race of people whom have been effected most by Covid, are also the least vaccinated. In my area, the local statistic is that only 2.8% of vaccines have been administered to XXXX population - even though their lives matter. There are "community leaders" within this demographic who state that theirs is an underserved community and that their community should be prioritized for vaccination.

I wonder how they could claim that they have been effected most by Covid. How? Just because they say so? I have a hard time accepting such a claim without facts in evidence. I am almost certain that it's not based on global statistics. Mostly Europeans died in Europe. Mostly Chinese died in China. Has the US released real numbers as to how many people of each race has died?

I have to wonder what's really going on. Is it institutional racism? Are certain people presenting themselves for vaccines, and turned away based on race? Are vaccines administered to people who actually show up at the vaccination dispensing station - and if only 2.8% of vaccines were administered to XXXX race group - you have to figure out why they are not coming for the vaccine - and not jump to the conclusion that they have been denied vaccination.

 

Have decided to Un-subscribe from this thread also.