My Favorite Budget Beef Cuts

                                                                 image from Pinterest

Last week I mentioned I'd cooked a roast and used leftovers as sandwich meat and roast beef hash.   Susanmarie asked what cuts of beef I bought and which I considered 'budget' cuts.  Years ago, I was able to keep our price per pound costs to below $2 but these days, one is lucky to keep them at about $5 a pound even for ground beef!

First let's look at this chart for beef cuts.  It's important to know where each is located because it's also a key in how the meat should be cooked.  Keeping beef costs low is as much a matter of knowing how to cook various cuts as it is of what you can expect to buy in different seasons.

I do want to say to you all to beware of those grocery store meat ads...Photos of roasts tend to be used without discretion.  You're just as likely to see a photo of a rump roast used for a sirloin or eye of round as you are for the actual photo of a rump roast.   I cannot suggest strongly enough the need to educate yourself by walking down the meat aisle and familiarizing yourself with various cuts of beef and their price points, too.  This is the very best way to learn what each cut looks like and to get an idea of what is available in your market.   Otherwise you'll never know a good sale when you see one.

Also note that cuts may vary from region to region, as well.  Briskets have been largely unknown in the south, except as corned beef, until very recently.  It is still not common to find briskets in every market but some do carry them.  With an ever increasing Hispanic population in our area, we can often find skirt steak, flank steak and cuts popular with the cultural dishes they enjoy.   Delmonico steaks are not found in the South but New York Strip is.  It's only been in the last ten years I started to see short ribs routinely.  With an increased Asian culture in our area as well, we now see some cross cut short ribs which are marinated and broiled or grilled like a steak...So again, the best way to get to know your beef is to walk down that section of your grocery store meat counter and see for yourself!

I will tell you all that cuts vary in popularity across decades.   In the 1920's  a roast under five or seven pounds was uncommon.  It's difficult now to find a roast that weighs much over two pounds.  If you ever ate at one of those cafeteria type restaurants with the huge honking beef roast that they carved as it was wanted, you're likely looking at a whole sirloin roast.  Just this past weekend a local grocery had those whole sirloins for sale and advertised that they would 'slice for free'.  That was typical in my area about 20 years ago.  It's a rarity now to see a sale on those whole cuts, much less to see a store offer free slicing of said whole cuts!

When I first began homemaking a round steak was a standard item at the market and often went on sale.  Ask for a round steak these days and the butcher will look at you as though you had three heads.  Frankly I liked round steak as a great slow cooking meat and for cubed steaks but that is no longer possible to purchase.

Beef is often sold seasonally.   In winter, you're most likely to find chuck roasts, sirloin roasts, stew beef, short ribs on sale.  Come summer, it is more likely to be steaks and ground meat.   There are less common cuts of meat that you might find in market in winter as well: shanks and ox tail, both of which are delicious in soups, stews and for making rich beef broth.  Watch for sales on those cuts as well.  I occasionally find them in the marked down bin at one grocer and I snatch them up if they are decent in price.

John and I priced out buying beef quarters but found we'd end with a few cuts we were less than fond of having and the price per pound did not average out to anything resembling a savings.  It was far less expensive to watch for sales on those cuts we knew we liked and have the occasional splurge piece.

Now I've gotten far off track, let's get back to Susanmarie's real question: what cuts of beef do I recommend?   Seriously, not being a smart aleck, whatever is the most affordable at the time I am shopping.  We mostly eat ground beef and I have a plethora of recipes that I can make with it but sometimes you just want something that isn't ground.

In the mid-Georgia area where I shop I lean hard on Sirloin steaks.   They are lean steaks with a firm texture but  usually tender.  It's versatile as a pan fried or broiled steak or good sliced thin and cooked for fajitas or stir fry meals. I sometimes cut into serving pieces and make Swiss steak in my crockpot as well.  Typically these steaks run about $4.99 a pound at Aldi.  I think they are closer to $6.99 at most other stores.   A steak usually weighs about 2 pounds and so I cut it into three sections when I get it home and use each section to feed the two of us three times.

At Aldi I can also buy a package of thin sliced sirloin which are basically  very thin breakfast steaks and this is nice for Steak sandwiches ( Italian or Philly Cheese or a knock off Prime Rib type sandwich we sometimes order at our favorite restaurant).  If it were up to John, for sure they'd be frizzled in a hot frying pan and served with fried eggs.

Very occasionally we'll get a London Broil steak  (also from the sirloin of the cow) which is usually about an inch thick and is meant to be broiled or grilled and cooked only to medium doneness and then cut into thin slices.  It leans towards being a firm to chewy texture.  London Broil can be delicious though if you like your beef rare to medium.

For slow cooking roasts: Chuck or Sirloin roasts make great choices.  The Chuck roast is a bit more marbled than the sirloin roast.  Either may be cut into stew meat (easy to do yourself).  Typically the Chuck roasts runs about $4.99 a pound but come fall we'll see some sales on this and it may drop to as low as $2.99 a pound.  Last year one store even did a buy one get one free special.  I bought four, and cut them in half, making each portion about 2 pounds which is sufficient for a meal and a leftover makeover meal.  I admittedly miss the days of 7-bone and bone in chuck roasts though.  A seven bone roast was just one bone shaped like the number '7'...However, most of all the meats we buy these dyas are bone free.

Personally I prefer the sirloin tip roast if I'm planning to make stew.  It's often far less expensive than stew beef and has the same firm slightly chewy but tender texture that you'd get from stew beef.   A sirloin roast may also be rolled into a thicker, more dense roast, tied with string and is excellent baked or grilled to the desired doneness and sliced thin to serve.

By the way, if you like Hispanic cuisine, the chuck roast is generally what is used to make Ropa Veja and Barbacoa type beefs.

Rump roasts and top or bottom round roasts are also good to use as a slow cooked roast but they have a firmer texture.  You won't get the sometimes stringy tender texture you get from a Chuck roast, nor the softer texture you get from a sirloin tip roast that has been slow cooked.  These roasts are meant to be sliced into thin slices and served. I have baked these roasts in an oven until just medium rare but you will really get a more tender roast if it's slow cooked.  Now that doesn't mean it must go into the slow cooker.  You can bake in the oven at a low temperature for a longer period of time and get the same degree of tenderness.

In Spring, around St. Patrick's day we often have corned beefs on sale.  I try to buy the flat cut corned beef but now and then we get a tip cut.  The difference is that one comes from the center of a the brisket and the other tends to be cut from an area nearer the bone and therefore isn't as flat.  Briskets are best slow cooked.

You might notice that most of what we buy are all leaner and cheaper cuts, and are best as a slow cooked roast.  Only rarely do we indulge in say a Rib Eye Roast which is usually best priced along about Christmas in our area and runs $6.99 a pound.  If I've got the budget I'll buy the very largest I can and cut part into bone in rib eye steaks (usually $8.99 a pound or more) and leave part as a 3-4 rib standing rib roast.   Now this cut is meant to be baked and only for about 20 minutes per pound at best.   However, even if you prefer your meat well done this roast will be tender and juicy and worth every penny you pay for it.  Bonus: the bones can be used for beef broth.

Those are the cuts I most commonly buy as they go on sale (or the craving for beef  other than ground meat is stronger than my budget).   I think most of what I buy are fairly common to nearly all markets