Grocery deals!

[Jusa]

So a regional grocer in my area has Black Angus beef whole tenderloins on sale for $9.99 lb (usually about $27 lb). I bought one yesterday and the butcher cut it into 2 inch steaks and ground the scrap into burger meat for me. I separated and froze the meat except for the steaks we ate last night. They were fantastic!

Another grocery store in my area has skinless boneless chicken breasts on sale for $1.79 lb last week but they sold out the day I went. I was able to get a rain check though so I'm going tomorrow to get them.

I found Frenched rack of lamb on sale for $11.99 lb (normally about $16 lb) and bought 2 of them.

Broccoli crowns were .99 cents lb.

Aldi has Butterball turkeys for .99 cents lb. I'm gonna go get one, not for Thanksgiving but for our smoker next weekend.

What kinds of grocery deals have you found lately?

 

[pepperhead212]

If you have a lidl store in your area, and need butter for your Christmas cookies, they have a "buy 2, get one free", and the price before the free is better than most - $2.35/lb! Limit of 9, so not bad! I got 2 batches, and I freeze it in 2 lb batches, in FS bags, and it will keep 'til next season, with all that air sucked out!

I used to use over 20 lbs of butter every holiday, but nothing near that now. But I couldn't pass this up! I also got 3 lbs of salted, the second time - don't use all butter for baking and ghee!

 

[Andy M.]

I bought a rack of lamb (Australian) for $11.99/Lb @ Costco.

 

[Jusa]

If you have a lidl store in your area, and need butter for your Christmas cookies, they have a "buy 2, get one free", and the price before the free is better than most - $2.35/lb! Limit of 9, so not bad! I got 2 batches, and I freeze it in 2 lb batches, in FS bags, and it will keep 'til next season, with all that air sucked out!

I used to use over 20 lbs of butter every holiday, but nothing near that now. But I couldn't pass this up! I also got 3 lbs of salted, the second time - don't use all butter for baking and ghee!

I wish we had Lidl. We have Aldi but no Lidl. I use a lot of butter. I rarely find it cheaper than $2.99 lb, good score at $2.35 lb! I found Land o Lakes for $2.99 and bought 8 and froze them. They're almost gone so I'll be looking for a sale.

 

[Jusa]

I bought a rack of lamb (Australian) for $11.99/Lb @ Costco.

Do you cook the whole rack or do you cut it into chops? I've done both but I think I like the lamb "lollipops" the best.

 

[Andy M.]

Do you cook the whole rack or do you cut it into chops? I've done both but I think I like the lamb "lollipops" the best.

I cook the whole rack. That way most of the meat is a nice medium to medium rare.

 

[Jusa]

I cook the whole rack. That way most of the meat is a nice medium to medium rare.

I wasn't a huge lamb fan until about 7 years ago. My husband would always get it in restaurants and I would try a bite but found it gamey. I decided to buy a rack one day and cut it into chops, then made a soy, honey, ginger, and citrus marinade with butter, olive oil, roasted garlic, and fresh herbs, and I became hooked. I think I like the chops because more marinade coats the meat than when in the rack, though I suppose injection might take care of that?

Do you marinade your lamb and if so, what do you use? Always looking for new ideas!

 

[blissful]

Our employee owned grocery clears out the produce during the week, anything nearing its end gets bagged usually $1/bag. Yesterday we bought a bag of mixed fruit, 2 apples, 2 grapefruit, an orange and one lemon. We usually stop in once or twice a week to see what they have. It's done in the mornings and prime time is 8:30 am.

 

[Andy M.]

I wasn't a huge lamb fan until about 7 years ago. My husband would always get it in restaurants and I would try a bite but found it gamey. I decided to buy a rack one day and cut it into chops, then made a soy, honey, ginger, and citrus marinade with butter, olive oil, roasted garlic, and fresh herbs, and I became hooked. I think I like the chops because more marinade coats the meat than when in the rack, though I suppose injection might take care of that?

Do you marinade your lamb and if so, what do you use? Always looking for new ideas!

I do not marinate. I coat sear the rack in a skillet then coat it with a combination of olive oil, thyme, rosemary, parsley and garlic then finish it in the oven.

SO does not like lamb so I make it when she is off visiting family. I have it scheduled for the first/second week of December.

 

[dragnlaw]

Like Andy, I do not marinate lamb ribs. Other than salt & epper with the same combo of thyme, rosemary, parsley and garlic.
I rarely do a rack and I think the last time I did - took two off and cut the other into 3 ribs each. Did it entirely in the pan. Soooooooooo gooooood!!!

 

[Jusa]

Like Andy, I do not marinate lamb ribs. Other than salt & epper with the same combo of thyme, rosemary, parsley and garlic.
I rarely do a rack and I think the last time I did - took two off and cut the other into 3 ribs each. Did it entirely in the pan. Soooooooooo gooooood!!!

I think I am more in love with the marinade than I am with the lamb, LOL. Although smaller racks (I generally cut into ribs/chops) are less strong flavored.

I like to save the bones and use them to make Bolognese (along with some pork and beef). It really makes for a rich flavor.

 

[taxlady]

By the way, according to Joy of Cooking, salted butter lasts longer than unsalted in the fridge or at room temperature. But, unsalted butter lasts longer in the freezer. I suppose if the freezer stays several degrees below 0°F, it might not make a difference. It's that bit of salt that keeps the water in the butter from freezing until the very low temperatures. That allows some microorganisms to survive. The water in unsalted butter freezes at 0°C (32°F). But, to be honest, I have never noticed a problem with salted butter in the freezer, even with butter that was frozen for many months, maybe over a year.

 

[pepperhead212]

As I noted, I vacuum sealed all that butter, other than 4 sticks I keep in a liter mason jar, in the fridge. It keeps very well in the jar - I never put a butter dish in the fridge, with all those potent dishes I make, and have leftovers from! The butter would end up smelling like something else. I put 2 lbs of butter in each bag - just one salted, since I don't use those as much - and the bags can be re-used, since it doesn't leak through. And it keeps pretty much forever that way.

 

[dragnlaw]

Ditto taxy, never noticed any - although unsalted is in there longer than salted. I don't even dput them in bags. Just the foil they came in. Once out of the freezer, yes, air tight but not in the fridge.
Recently - seem to be going thru tons of butter. I really should learn to just get along without it. So expensive now. A bit jealous of our southern neighbours!
If I was to find it for 3.50 a pound I'd buy a case!

Correction, Yes when I've cut the butter in half - or opened the foil in any way, I do put them into sandwich bags.

 

[pepperhead212]

I rarely buy the foil wrapped butter any more - it's been years, since L'O Lakes has been on sale, though it used to be, occasionally, and I had some "helpers" that would do the shopping for me, to stock up on it, for cookies. That was back in the days when L'O Lakes and Keller's were definitely better than the store brand, and would occasionally be on sale for 99¢/lb. Now, the store brands are good, but back then, when I had to use some occasionally, I'd use those in the chocolate or gingersnap type cookies, as the butter was sort of overpowered by the other flavors - shortbread, and other such cookies, I would use the better butter for.

 

[Jusa]

Dont shoot me, but I generally bake with margarine. Butter is for bread, steaks, seafood, pasta, etc.

 

[dr morbius]

Jewel Food Stores, a Chicago area chain, on several occasions over the summer featured pub burgers for $.99 each. That's 8 oz of 80% lean ground chuck, or quality ground beef for $1.98/lb. There's a limit of 8 per customer, so that's what I bought each time. The last time, they also had salmon fillets at $4.98/lb, so I jumped on that, too.

 

[Jusa]

Jewel Food Stores, a Chicago area chain, on several occasions over the summer featured pub burgers for $.99 each. That's 8 oz of 80% lean ground chuck, or quality ground beef for $1.98/lb. There's a limit of 8 per customer, so that's what I bought each time. The last time, they also had salmon fillets at $4.98/lb, so I jumped on that, too.

That's so incredibly fantastic!

 

[taxlady]

Like dragnlaw, I just put the foil wrapped butter in the freezer as is. I do use a Sharpie to write the date on it.

I can't remember the last time I saw butter in Quebec that wasn't foil wrapped or in a cute little glass container. The foil has a paper backing. Also, we usually buy one pound (yes, we do metric, so it says 454 grams on the package) blocks of butter. We can get butter in sticks, but that costs more. E.g., here are the current prices on the store brand butter that I usually buy. CAD 6.49 = USD 4.74 and CAD 8.99 = USD 6.46. You can see why we usually opt to cut up the pound of butter ourselves.

 

[dragnlaw]

Prices are the same here, taxy. The ones that taxy has shown are the store brand ones I believe, no? Brand names start at Cdn $8.00 plus. On a really rare occasion you will get a Brand name on sale but it is usually still higher than the store brand.

If you can find anything under $6.00 Cdn. grab'em and run, yelling "Start the car! Start the car!"

Jusa - until I moved here I almost always used margarine - even for toast. I did keep butter for certain things. Have no idea why I started using more butter here - but with the prices as they are - I'm seriously thinking of changing back.