What cost-effective cuts of meat should I be buying?
Joe, Liverpool
“A lot of the meat price increases we’ve seen in the past eight months have gone into the cheaper end of the market,” says Ian Warren, of family-run Philip Warren Butchers in Cornwall. That’s not to say you can’t save money on meat; it’s just more a case of what’s less spendy, as opposed to actually cheap. For example, Warren suggests “a nice bit of pork. Yes, it has probably seen the biggest rise, but it’s still a damned sight cheaper than beef.”
In terms of cuts, chef Henry Harris, whose new venture Bouchon Racine opens at the Three Compasses in Farringdon, London, next week, suggests trying forequarter, or “the pieces towards the shoulder and up near the neck”. It’s great in casseroles with hard herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme), cider and pig’s trotters, which, he says, “are always cheap, and add a lovely richness”.
