Just Buy the Freakin' Piece of Meat - Add Your Thoughts

[Mark Schnell]

Hey everyone, I know most of you would know all this already, and probably live by it too - but I'm writing this to some of you that might balk at meat prices. Also, I write it to remind myself too. 

It's easy to go into your local grocery store or butcher shop and gulp when you see the price for a quality hunk of meat. But think about it for a second - when I take my family of four out for dinner, even at a fast food place where we'll be eating crappy food, it costs around thirty bucks often. If we go to a decent, order off the menu kind of place it's getting closer to fifty buck. Then, anywhere nice and the sky's the limit.

When you take that into account, buy the freakin' piece of quality meat and slap it on the Weber!

1. You'll be eating whole food, not processed, who knows what crap is in it type stuff.

2. You control the sodium levels and even when I season up a steak liberally I'll bet it doesn't even come close to the levels of sodium I would get at an Applebee's type restaurant.

3. When you drive to the restaurant, wait for your seat, wait to order, yada, yada, yada - You ain't saving that much time. And if you're like me, you're adding to your whole frustration level too.

4. A good quality meal on the Weber doesn't have to be that fancy and involved. A steak or piece of chicken, a baked potato or some made in a CI skillet, a Veg on the Weber or not, and/or a salad and you're set. I like to grill a simple bagette on the Weber too. Yum.

5. Dude, you're grilling on a Weber. That should be numbers five through 100. We should form a special detail that would do like that office linebacker guy on the commercials. When we see one of us going into a restaurant we should tackle that guy and yell in his face, "Buy the freakin' piece meat!! It just makes sense!!!"

So add your thoughts on why it just makes sense to grill at home.

P.S. For full disclosure, I've still never been able to pull the trigger on a really pricey raw steak or prime rib type of meat. I'm working my way up to it though.

[Ted B]

Totally agree. Restaurants are just disappointing now. I enjoy the prep and cook more than the eating anyway. Plus the beer/alcohol is cheaper at home and no designated driver needed. 

And sometimes the meal ends with a happy ending. That would just be awkward at Applebee's.

[jcnaz]

Mark, you make some great points.
While I hate to pay high meat prices,  I wonder how many times I have spent over $50 for take-out pizza/salad/wings/etc. $100 or more for family and friends to sit down, have a few drinks and a nice dinner.

I sure could get plenty of meat, produce, bread and booze for $100...

[1buckie]

Criminey......me & the wife can spend $28 at Wendy's on any given occasion.....of course it's a better deal, plus a FoodSaver or at least some reasonably worked out system for leftovers makes that "big expensive piece" go & go & go....

Pulled pork freezes REALLY well & all kinds of deals can be had by just paying attention to sales, two-fers & near end-of-date items (the wife's a monster when shopping that stuff, unbelievable scores)

And, it's a WEBER !!!!!


I need to fix up the story I've been thinking about for awhile.....got all these kettles & she does up dinners & various dishes in the house that go for several days & I can't sometimes get a grill in edgewise......

[Mark Schnell]

Great stuff guys. Not to be too sappy about it, but like Ted said, the prep and cook time are enjoyable. I think I can actually feel my blood pressure going down when I'm working on the Weber. No joke. It's like a deep exhale where things that are stressful fall into clear perspective and life just feels better.

[addicted-to-smoke]

I typically browse grocery stores and pick up what's on sale for a cook that day, and so, let that purchase decide for me what to cook. Thankfully, over the course of a week, pork, chicken, beef often rotate being on sale and if not, another store's will.

If I buy sale meats and freeze them for later I'm bad about forgetting them until it's too late to thaw for that day. Rinse and repeat. I'd rather freeze leftovers. No, I'd rather eat leftovers. I basically would prefer not to have to deal with a freezer LOL. Except, ice cream.

What I've almost never bought is pre-seasoned meat. That seems to be the purview of the bachelor or working' man I suppose --- time savers. Not only is it significantly more expensive, when you read the packaging you learn they're adding the same processed crap and preservatives you're trying to avoid. If I'm that much in a hurry or bereft of ideas I'll eat out.

[Mark Schnell]

I like that method, A to S, let the sale for the day decide. I'm the same way about the frozen meat thing. Unfortunately, I need to do better about not letting the fresh meat go bad because something else came up.

I'm the same with the pre-seasoned stuff too. But as far as a time saver, it's amazing how tasty a flaky kosher salt and fresh ground pepper can be on burgers or steaks. I'm not against lots of other spices and rubs, I love to use them too, but I don't know how many times I used good ole' S & P and my guests ask me what kind of spices I used on the meat as if it was something fancy.

[effinUker]

My wife and I have this discussion all the time. It really cheeses me off to go out for a meal, pay 30-40-50 bucks or more for food that ain't half as good as I can get at home.

[Mark Schnell]

Oh, yeah, effinUker, I'm a total snob with meat at restaurants. It's been a looong time when I didn't think (or usually say outloud) "Meh, not as good as I could have done." I'm usually right too!

[Saugust]

Couldn't agree more! Plus, @Mark Schnell I grew up in Marion! Small world.

[Mark Schnell]

Awesome, Saugust. Small world indeed.

[MINIgrillin]

Think the movie theaters would get a bit hacked off if they started finding rib bones under the seats?

[WNC]

Totally with you all, time at home with family and friends, no designated driver, better quality, and service, plus you get to play with your toys!

We go grocery shopping once week and get everything we need in one shot. We'll use these meals all week, like left overs for lunch. We've worked the numbers a couple of times and we usually come out somewhere just under $2.00 a meal per person. And we eat well too (my wife is making shrimp right now), we try to eat only whole foods with little processed stuff. And we're good about eating everything we buy, so we don't waste. If you'd come over on a Sunday before we went shopping you'd think we were food poor and starving. It's more about being smart, eating right, not over eating, and not wasting. I mean under $2 a meal, it's crazy.

When I think about it that way I guess I don't feel that bad about dropping $30-40 for some meat for a cookout with friends and family!

[toolhead]

I cant buy the quality and taste of what comes off my wsm and kettles in any restaurant...."other than prime steakhouses"

For the price of one steak at prime steakhouse ..i can feed 4 at the table..without tipping for bad service

[Fishawn]

Good stuff! As mentioned, cooking to me is therapy also. Grab a beer/cocktail etc. put on some tunes and enjoy the winding down process.

Watch sales and buy on sale, get a good vac packer, spend a little time cutting/processing and build up your freezer stash at home. I typically buy fresh when cooking for guests, but I don't know if I can tell much of a difference from vac packed/frozen and properly thawed. For example, a local butcher shop had filets on sale about 2 months ago at $9.99 lb (FILETS!) ... Most places like Costco, etc. start at about $17 lb. Last week Cash n Carry had Tri Tip on sale $4.17 lb, cryovaced untrimmed pack of 5. Bought a pack (16+- lbs) trimmed them up and vac packed 2 full roasts and cut the rest into steaks about 3/4" thick. Great for grilling and being busy, they will thaw in the sink in cold water pretty quickly for grilling. Probably trimmed about 2.5 lbs of fat. In the end, a pretty reasonable price for some steak grilling, and no trip to the store.