Here’s a Money Saving Tip

Ask the Butcher.

I  was looking to  buy a pork  Picnic Roast (or  ‘Boston Butt’ or ‘Pork Shoulder’ depending on where you live) for a braised  chili  recipe  I am concocting.  This cut of pork is excellent for pulled pork as well as a regular pork roast. I needed something in the range of 4 to 5 pounds.  In the supermarket’s meat isle they had a bunch of pre-packed, shrink wrapped  2 to 3 pound  roasts for about  $3 per pound. I didn’t like any of them. They were too small, not marbled well enough, and would  shrink off to  nothing  in the braising liquid over the  few hours I planned on cooking  the meat in order to break it down.

It was time to  walk over to the  butcher’s meat counter (which is  about 5 steps  from the meat isle) and seek professional help. I asked the butcher  to cut  me  an approximate 5 pound  picnic roast, which  he gladly did for free– At cost of  $ 1.69 per pound.  I was able to  select the  roast and have it  sized  to what I required. So for  around $ 8.00 and change I got a better piece of meat at a lower  price than the smaller ones in the meat case.