I have received several questions over the last few months about steak. Questions like what is the best cut? What is the best price? What is your favorite cut?
These are all great questions, but here is where I admit that I have not bought beef in a grocery store in over four years. Each year we buy 1/2 of a beef from a local rancher. We get high quality meat for a good price.
Not only is it really good beef, we get some really good cuts of meat that I would not normally buy, especially when it comes to steak. We have been eating much nicer steaks than we ever bought before.
The downside is that mixed in with the good cuts are also some not so good ones, and even a few odd ones like ox tail, but over all buying meat this way works well for us.
However, since I have not looked in the beef section of the grocery store in years, I am a bit clueless as to the best cuts of steak for the best price. So, I need help with this one.
When it comes to just grilling a great steak what is your favorite cut? What is the best steak for the best price? Does anyone else buy a 1/2 or 1/4 of a beef like I do?
My family and I just ordered a 1/2 beef from a local farm for the first time that we’ll get delivered in August. I cannot wait! We decided to do this after watching “Food, Inc” documentary. It’s not organic, but it’s much more naturally raised than anything you could buy in the grocery store without paying a fortune! It’s also vacuum wrapped so will keep 2-3 years if needed…although I’m more worried about running out before next year. We’re also looking to do the same thing with pork and chicken. We bought a big chest freezer and are ready to fill it up!
@Laura, I hope you enjoy your beef. We raise hogs so I have lots of good pork. Chicken is really the only meat I buy at the store and we don’t eat that very much. A 1/2 of beef is about the right amount for us each yr, but we eat a lot of pork.
I loved it when we would buy a side of beef, except that it didn’t really work for freezer cooking. I get better prices at the grocery store even though the quality may not be as great sometimes. My target prices:
tri-tip $1.99 untrimmed
top sirloin $2.99
London Broil $1.99
My favorite grilling steak is a top sirloin. It’s not too tough but it does have enough light marbling to be able to stand up to being cooked to well-done (which is the way I like it). When it comes to steak for use in recipes in my kitchen, I almost exclusively buy london broil. Very little fat and it works in so many different applications, from fajitas, to stroganoff, roasts, stews, and shredded for burritos. It’s very affordable, often discounted, and I love it.
@Jen, Sirloin is one of my favorites too. We get quite a bit of that with our beef. I like to use it for fajitas too.
Although you can get “cheap” cuts of steak, I think if of steak as a special treat so we prefer the more expensive cuts like Porterhouse, New York, or Ribeye on the grill and they really just need salt and pepper.
Cheaper cuts, like hanger steaks, flat irons, and flank steaks work if you marinade them and cut them thinly against the grain. But honestly, the really inexpensive cuts need slow cooked. This time of year steaks seem to be on sale a lot, so you can ask the butcher what would be the best bargain.
I just got top sirloin for $2.48 at Food For Less. We have a jersey steer (last year’s 4-H project) that we are hoping to butcher soon! I hear that their meat is good, but getting him fat has been a challenge.
We bought an 1/8 of a cow a few months ago, and we also have enjoyed having much higher quality steaks and cuts than I would buy at the store. I had a hard time gauging what was a good price per pound for beef, which is probably why we didn’t eat too much of it before we bought our cow! We also buy whole chickens and eggs from the local farm, and they also offer portions of pigs, but we haven’t bought that yet.
My husband and I prefer strip steak (New York strip). Whenever we make fajitas, though, we use flank steak.
My dad prefers to grill ribeyes.
My father-in-law likes to grill filets (he buys the big beef tenderloins at Sams, and slices them up).
I prefer ribeyes, but for an “every day” steak I really like a plain ole chuck steak. Cheap, flavorful, tender.
i’d love to be able to buy large quantities of meat like that but we live in an apt with no place for a chest freezer, unless it was in our living room. 🙂 no thanks! i’m not even sure our lease would allow us a 2nd large appliance. anyway, i’m curious to hear what people say because i really only buy ground beef… but would like to expand.
Flank steak is usually the winner at our house… I usually marinate it, cook to medium rare/medium and slice really thin against the grain… totally yummy goodness, but best of all- one steak feeds the whole family (which includes 2 teen age boys and leftovers for the hubby the next day!) and I usually can get it on mark-down because everyone else in town is buying sirloin! (Until now that I shared my secret.. wops!)