Tag: meat

Clever Cooks, Footnote Frivolity***, Thrifty Asian

Mystery meats terrine

Posted on by must be thrifty

After reading half a dozen frugal-themed cookbooks for the blog, I’ve noticed that most focus on Western traditions: Urban Pantry turns stale bread into breadcrumbs, crostini and easy bread pudding, Smart Food has a whole section dedicated to pasta, and every book I’ve picked up has a variation of roast chicken with forty cloves of garlic. There’s the token oriental recipe thrown in, such as Vietnamese chicken meatballs (The $120 Food Challenge) or Sichuan-style eggplant (The Thrifty Kitchen), but I believe Asian cuisine has so much more to offer. Hence I’ve started ‘Thrifty Asian’, a new category on thrifty culinary practices from the region.

The first recipe that I would like to share with you is courtesy of Trang from Hai Phong, Vietnam. She’s been trying to replicate her mother’s giò tai heo (pork-ear terrine) and was kind enough to share her version of the dish with me. Continue reading →

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Clever Cooks, Footnote Frivolity***

Cheap meats

Posted on by must be thrifty

Blade, chuck, and brisket. Overlooked by most Australians, these tend to be the cheaper cuts. Unfortunately, even blade and chuck is approaching the $10/kg mark nowadays.

‘Food writers…are partly to blame,’ British foodie and historian Bee Wilson writes, ‘We bang on about a particular cut of meat – how undervalued it is etc, etc. This drives up demand, which drives up the price. Before you know it something that used to be dirt cheap – practically given away like sacks of stock bones* – turns into a premium delicacy’ (via The Telegraph).

So when my friend Sarah asked if I could do a post on thrifty cuts of meat, I didn’t know what to write. Continue reading →

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