I have been living the Paleo lifestyle for over 5 months now, and I am finding it easier every day to now think about how much I miss bread. For those unfamiliar with “Paleo”, basically, it is zero grains, zero legumes, zero refined sugars. This means no oatmeal, no biscuits, and no gravy. Lots of proteins, fats, leafy green vegetables…basically, eating like a hunter-gatherer. (See the picture here for a better breakdown of allowable foods and the amounts suggested for intake.)
I refer to it as a “lifestyle” since diets are a short-term regimen. I plan on eating this way for the rest of my life, and believe I will live a longer life because of this. (Looks like I’ll have to write up more on this later, as I’m starting to slip into a long-winded tangent! Again!)
So I end up eating a lot of meat. And eggs, and fish, and, well you see the picture….But living on a 1/4 acre, its hard for me to currently produce enough of my required protein intake (stay tuned to see how I improve on this though!), so I end up having to buy meat, not an inexpensive thing to do. Luckily, I like to work the coupon and/or sale angle, and have a couple friends that also keep watch for great deals.
BT emailed me last week on just such an opportunity.
Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery chain, recently opened a couple of new stores, and they had a loss-leader in the form of rib-eye steaks, one of my FAVORITE cuts of meat. Oh, how I love the juicy medallion of fat, slightly salted, cooked to a medium rare, so that it melts in my mouth, leaving a little dribble of fat running down my chin…
Sorry, I REALLY like rib-eyes!
Publix, the Big-Dawg on the block, as far as local grocery stores go, typically sells rib-eyes for $13.99 regular price, and when on sale, as low as $8.99, Winn-Dixie sells the same on sale for $7.99 (the current sale price at both stores, btw). Save-A-Lot in PSL is selling them at $5.99, and $4.99 is you buy the whole rib-eye, uncut. *DROOOOOOL*.
Save-A-Lot did this about a month ago, and BT, being the meat aficionado that he is, HAD to try it, and without telling me. Worried about the quality of the meat being sold so cheaply (and being from Mexico), he was dubious. After taste-testing some, he went back for more. And again, failed to inform me. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve upset him….maybe it was the mothballs I hid in his truck a while back…(tangent!) So they were acceptable, and if BT says they are good, they are GOOD. He is the only person I know that has a degree in meat sciences, and went on to work in the meat industry for many years. The guy KNOWS meat!
I ended up going into the store with PG, another meat fan, and I purchased 8 steaks, about $20. I was STOKED! Right up until I saw PG put a whole uncut rib-eye AND a pack of steaks into his cart. Show-off!
I tried them, and they are mighty fine! Having bought 8, and living with non-steak eaters, I had too many, and so I ended up repackaging them into singles, vac-packing them, and freezing four. Thus the reason for my post – buying in quantity when on sale to stock up for future use! Sale ends Saturday, April 7. I plan on getting a few more. Just in case.
Notes:
I use 3Mil microchannel vacuum bags found here. This company’s bags are recommended by me as well as over at Dehydrate2store.com. Cost is about half of the Food Saver brand, and work every bit as well.
Writing this makes me want to go eat another rib-eye!
db
I LOVE rib eyes! I tried Save-A-Lot steaks three times. TERRIBLE! Tough and tasteless. Today I purchased a package two thin sliced ribeyes. Am I a glutton for punishment? Well, I’ll find out when they come off the grill. I stock up when Public’s has a sale on the roasts and have them sliced into steaks. They consistently have the most tender, flavorful ribeyes.
I’ve had very good luck with them, apparently…though possibly I am just a better cook than you are…
….
……
Or far more likely, I just have MUCH lower standards. My wife says I’ll eat things that the dog won’t touch 😛
(Sorry, couldn’t resist poking fun !)
I will say that there are times when I’ll pass on the offerings at Savalot.
Thanks for taking time to comment!
db
Ouch. Better cook? Perhaps. Grilling steaks is a no brainier. Publix steaks, always tender and juicy. Save-A-Lot, another disappointment. Update on Save-A-Lot rib eye steaks. Even the thin steaks were tough. There is definitely something wrong with the beef from Mexico. What the cattle are fed? How they are raised? I don’t know but, the texture is not the same as USA beef. Let’s do some research. Mexican beef versus USA beef. Is anyone else talking about it?
Have a blessed, smile filled day.
(If you believed me when I said I was possibly a better cook, you missed my punchline. Apparently, I’m about as good a comedian as I am a cook. Nice to know I have another skill that needs much improvement :P)
As to the Mexican beef study, I recall spending quite a bit of time looking for comparisons, and came up mostly empty-handed. I’ll agree the texture is not the same. I personally believe it has much to do with the finishing, or the diet for the last month or so of the animals life. In US feedlots, the grain feed cattle to put on extra fat. In a poorer economy such as Mexico, grain isn’t used in that manner, and if it is, is is not used at the level of our typical farm system. Again, for that reason, I prefer Mexican beef.
Incidentally, there is a growing movement for grass finished beef, since mass quantities of grain are not a natural part of a cows diet. In the US, many grains are also sourced from possible (probable at this point) GMO sources. One of the reasons I avoid soy products is the fact that 94% of US soy is GMO. Sadly, 88% of corn is also GMO. Scary. (Source: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-gmo-corn-soybeans-dominate.html)
db
I wanted to add this in regards to time invested on grain vs grass fed beef:
Adena Meats figures its grass-fed cattle will take 22-24 months to reach a slaughter weight of 1,100-1,200 lbs., vs. 16 months for conventional grain-based feedlots.
Source:
http://beefmagazine.com/business/billionaire-aims-make-florida-us-grass-fed-beef-capital
I looked at your steaks again. They do not look like the ones here in the Brooksville, FL. store. Yours have a nice marbling.
Not very well trimmed, but I can live with that. Do you think that all Save-a-Lot steaks come from the same packing house?
I would try them again if they looked like that! This past week Publix had standing rib roasts for $8.69. I bought a nice big one and had it sliced into 3/4 inch steaks. I slice the ribs and throw one on grill as well. Wow, melt in your mouth delicious!
(I should start this with: I SOOO appreciate this exchange. I absolutely LOVE steaks. And writing. And exchanging ideas. Thank you for your invested time.)
I see a very wide range of marbling and texture quality in the Savalot steaks from month to month. As to the trimming, fat = flavor. I keep it on my steaks. When I can find them, I buy the ribeyes in roast form (sometimes the entire strip, 3 feet long or more), and cut them myself. This way I get the thickness I desire, and since they full cuts I purchase from the store are still in the cryovac packages, the last handler to touch the meat would have been at the point of inspection. And again, since I like the fat, I keep the “points” on my cuts. I normally have a few select pieces that I trim into “presentable” steaks for feeding guests. But most of the time, it is just me eating the steaks. Less trimming means more on the plate. It works for me. Chacun à son goût.
And there is no way that they all come from the same packing house. Too many cattle sources to not have many packing houses involved. It is cheaper to truck a cryovac’d animal than a whole one.
Just like buying anything else, you have to judge the quality of the meat offered each time. Here is where Publix shines. Publix will consistently offer a better looking cut of meat than Savalot will. But then Savalot is not Publix any more than a Kia is a BMW. The target consumer is not the same for each store (or automobile in the case of my example). You cannot expect Champagne at beer prices, so to speak. If you want a REALLY nice steak, go to a butcher shop, if you can find a REAL one. (Read about my butcher shop search briefly mentioned here: http://floridahillbilly.com/pork-fat-rules-or-how-to-render-your-own-lard/)
Part of being a consumer is deciding if the price point of a product is acceptable for the value you set on the item in question. A fast food joint sells hamburgers for $2-3. A local eatery here has $40 hamburgers. Do you think there is a difference? I won’t eat the $3 hamburger, and I also won’t eat the $40 one (unless on an expense account again :P). I’d settle for something in between the two, trading off quality for cost. A decent burger for $10 is reasonable. But there are a LOT of folks eating those $3 burgers….
As I just mentioned, I prefer cutting my own. But I never grill them anymore. Ever. Here is what I do now. Works for pork as well as beef.
http://floridahillbilly.com/how-to-cook-the-ultimate-steak/
And while I’m not a great cook, I have NAILED cooking a ribeye. I’d put my steaks up against any that you’d pay top dollar for in a high end restaurant. I’ve had my share of high-end steaks at quite a few places (gotta LOVE traveling while on an expense account!), and mine are just as good as a few exceptional ones, and better than most. While I am NOT a picky eater, I do appreciate
goodgreat food.My method can make a mediocre steak good, and a great steak into a magical meal.
If I could only get the same service at home as I get at the higher end restaurants….(Quality wait-staff service is the main reason I go out for dinner anymore. I’ll take mediocre food and excellent service over four star dining and mediocre service.)
*sigh*
I am storing and providing all types of emergency foods, but I have not dealt with steaks because I don’t know how to make them store for a long period of time. I am a student of homesteading and prepping so I welcome friendships and look to meet folks who enjoy conversation and helping newbies. I work a lot with the homeless so I don’t have much funds as I do this from my heart and it most often cost me to help them. but my reward is in heaven. My question is how long will meat last if you do what you do and is that the only way? Thanks a billion.
I have pulled out vacuum sealed steaks that were two years old and they have zero freezer burn, and tasted just fine.
At that point, they’ve been stored properly, so the onus of a good tasting steak falls to the cook, not the storage method 🙂