Cheap Meat

Well, once again I've fallen behind in my blog entries. I have a list of entries I need to post, but just can't make the time to do it. I'll try to catch up with 3 posts today.

This post is just a short note about pork. As I've mentioned before, we raise our own beef, and I only buy pork when it's on sale in loin form. Well, this little piggy went to the market (Safeway) the other day and found pork loins on sale for $1.99 a pound. Although Sam's Club is usually cheaper at $1.88 a pound, I'd rather save my gas and buy one locally while I can. Even though I still have one in the deep freeze, it doesn't hurt to stockpile while it's on sale. By the way, they're on sale at Safeway until the end of Tuesday!

I bought a 7 3/4 pound loin, so it was almost $16. That $16 will make roughly 10 meals for my family. For a larger family, you should get at least 5 or 6 meals. From each loin, you can cut 2 roasts and 8-12 loin chops from the middle. The ends are your roasts. Here's what the whole loin looks like in the package:

Here's how to cut it:
After washing your whole loin, gently squeeze from each end working toward the middle. While "massaging" the meat, you'll feel a change in the firmness when you get to the tenderloin (which will become your chops). When you feel the meat becoming a little more tender, stop and cut. A good clue to where the tenderloin begins is where the meat becomes more narrow. Repeat this step on the other end. The ends are your roasts. Once you have your tenderloin separated, you can begin cutting your chops. I usually cut mine at least an inch thick, but it depends on what you will be cooking them for. Really thick chops aren't usually great for grilling because the outsides get way too done before the middle does, so I'd cut them a little thinner for grilling.
Here's what my loin looked like after cutting (roast ends are on top):

From your roast ends, you can make a large variety of things. Throw it in the smoker, or in the slow cooker, or in a roaster in the oven with some veggies. I usually put them in the slow cooker with a little bit of liquid smoke and a quartered onion. Once they're cooked, I shred them and can add different things to change the taste for different dishes. For instance, one night we'll have shredded pork tacos (see Carnitas recipe in next post), and another night we'll have pulled pork sandwiches with BBQ sauce.

A great investment for your small appliance collection is a Food Saver, or other vacuum sealer. It takes about 10 minutes to wash, cut, and package an entire loin for freezing. It will last a lot longer in the freezer if it's vaccum sealed. You can also vacuum seal leftover cooked and shredded meat, for a quick warm-up meal later.

Check out the next post for an awesome Carnitas recipe!