How I Buy Bulk Meat and Freeze It – Save money
As many of you should know by now, I buy my beef bulk and when I say bulk I mean as in a half a beefer. It comes packaged in your preferred sizes and portions. But because we do not eat pork and chicken nearly as often I buy pork & chicken bulk from the grocery store. This week Econo had great prices on many of our families favorite pork cuts–Farmland if my favorite.
Many stores offer cheaper meat when bought in a family sized package. The problem with buying bulk meat is that it isn’t portioned to your families needs. This is how I portion it and freeze it, making it easy to make more for extra guests or less when a member will not be joining you for the meal.
First cut roasts into your family portion size or cut them into pork chops. (Roasts are often cheaper by the pound than the same thing sliced. Save yourself $.10/lb this week by buying the pork sirloin roast for $1.89/lb and cutting it into pork chops instead of buying the pre-cut pork chops for $1.99/lb!)
USE Coupons to save while stockpiling
Place the cuts onto cookie sheets leaving space between each cut of meat, making them individually frozen.
Place the cookie sheet into the freezer and freeze meat until solid.
Working quickly so that the meat does not thaw, place the individually frozen cuts of meat into freezer bags.
Squeeze any air out of the bag and seal.
You now have bags of meat that you can pick and choose from. If you need 4 pork chops, grab 4 pork chops. Need 7 the next time and you have that portion too. You will waste less food by processing the meat this way because you only defrost and cook what you needs, not the big lump of meat that is in one frozen chunk. Also, this is perfect for families with picky eaters…need 2 pork chops, 3 chicken breast, and 2 brats…no problem. It is like having IQF (individually quick frozen) portions at all times without paying the higher prices.
This work great with most cuts of meat…pork chops, ribs, chicken wings, legs, breasts, thighs, brats, sausages, hotdogs, steaks, etc… Some concept can be used for hamburger patties as well.
