I bought one whole tenderloin for $13.21/kg for a total of $49.22 and two outside rounds, one 6 kilos and the other 7 kilos and costing a total of $62.16 at $4.77/kg. This is a total of just under 37 pounds of meat for $111.38.
I cut this up myself - the tenderloin cutting I learned from Good Eats, the outside rounds I just sort of faked.
When I was done, I had about seven pounds of scraps, fat, connective issue and such which I ground up and made into dog food for Louie. This left me with 30 pounds of meat for us to eat and here is what I ended up with:
- 1.5 lb tenderloin roast
- 1 pound tenderloin scraps
- 5 pounds of fillet steaks
- 7 pounds of stewing beef
- 3 roasts of 2.5 pounds each
- 7 pounds of marinating steaks
By my estimates this is a $240 to $280 value to us for a cost of $111.38. In the hour it took for me deal with, I added close to $150 value to the meat.
The ground stuff went into the dog food for Louie. With 8 pounds of potatoes, several pounds of onions, four cups of dry rice, I made the equivalent of 30 cans of dog food.
3 comments:
Interesting. The only thing preventing me from doing something like this is my ignorance about butchering. It's a real unsung skill, and I prefer to let a professional do it. I admire your zeal for the craft.
I think the art of cutting flesh is especially important in the sushi genre. The best sushi chefs apprentice for years before graduating to true sushi chef in Japan.
I wonder if factory farming in North America (See documentary film, Food Inc for details) has pretty much snuffed out the fine art of butchery. It's all done by machines and robots now.
Good for you for keeping the folk art alive via Esquimalt! If you have an extra fillet....
All the tenderloin cuts will be gone within the week.
Butchering a whole tenderloin is not that difficult. Find a copy of Good Eats - Tender is the Loin 1 - Season 9 episode 15. A whole tenderloin from the Real Canadian Wholesale Store sells them for $13.21 a kg, Costco is much more expensive, over $25 a kg.
The first one you may 'butcher'. but even if you do, there will still usable meat. Each time I do it, it gets easier - I am better at it and faster.
It is worth trying yourself. If I did not do it myself, I would very rarely eat fillet.
What a great idea! I've thought of buying a lamb or half a cow, but never realized there was somewhere I could get a sizable amount and prep it myself! Thanks for the tip.
Patricia
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