My family generally doesn’t eat a whole lot of beef. Not on purpose or for the health benefits. Just because if you want a quality piece of beef, it gets expensive quickly. So we usually just heat ground beef and the occasional pot roast. Otherwise, we stick to chicken and pork as sources of protein.
So, if you are looking at your grocery bill and trying to maybe shave a few dollars per week without sacrificing quality and flavor, dive in and check out some of the ideas we use to save money.
Now, according to the National Chicken Council, in 2019 American’s ate 55 lbs of beef a year, per person! If we extend that to the whole family, its 2-4 lbs a week. It all depends on what type of beef you enjoy, but the cheapest beef I am willing to eat is about $4-$5 per pound. There is cheaper beef at Aldis, in a tube, in the freezer… but the quality of that meat has failed me more than once.
I digress. I’ll try to be concise instead of waxing poetically about how to save money on meat in your daily cooking. Maybe I’ll do that later…
My brother in law who grills routinely and used to be a butcher is my go-to for preparing meat outside. So when he called me all excited about Aldi’s prices on Beef Tenderlion, I needed an explanation. Long story short, he explained that Beef Tenderloin can be cut up and its the same damn things as filet mignon…
Wait… what? It turns out, he’s right and it’s not that terribly difficult to do. So I went and grabbed a $35 beef tenderloin from Aldi’s and set out to stock the freezer with tasty meats. As I don’t actually know what I was doing, but it was easy enough and the steaks were quite tasty.
So, I took my 4 pound tenderloin and carved it up into the following:
- Nine 1.5″ filet mignons
- A petite roast
- Some stew meat
- A lot of fat and connective tissue
The steaks will be saved for special occasions. The petite roast will make a nice little dinner for our family. The stew meat will make a nice stew this winter, and the fat will be added to the stew for flavoring. It’s nice to take 4 pounds of meat and not have any waste at the end.
The Numbers Behind Making Filets From Tenderloin
The price per pound of a filet mignon can range between $25 to $40. My 4-pound tenderloin yielded nine filet mignons, a petite roast, and a handful of bits for $7.99/pound. If we call it $10/pound for the steaks and roast and don’t count the extra bits, that’s a savings of $15/pound at minimum. The time needed for the whole thing was less than an hour, so it was well worth it in my opinion.
Does This Work for Pork?
I checked into if you could do this with pork, and the answer is yes, but a bit different. First, a pigs tenderloin is quite a bit smaller and is frequently cooked by itself for tasty meals. So, to apply the above to pork, you have to start with a pork loin instead of the tenderloin. I haven’t tried it yet, but the below video shows how you can butcher it up chops, butterflies, and a little roast for a very similar result.
The price savings mentioned in the video are off the chart too, and I will add to this article when I do this myself and have a real example to reference.
Conclusion- Butchering is Simple and Rewarding
The combined benefits of cost savings and being able to carve exactly the cuts you prefer to cook and eat are a no-brainer for me. We don’t eat a lot of fancy steaks, but I can no longer see myself buying horribly expensive steaks for special occasions.
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