How is the meat supply in your area?

[tallbm]

Went to Sam's Saturday. No chicken or pork to be found. I managed to get one pack of prime New York strip. Momma wanted ribeye for her birthday but that was the best I could do. I've been trying to stock up so I have some decent things to cook in the mean time. Target was also completely picked over. Nothing was there at all. No meat, pork or chicken at all.

Don't forget the other freezer areas that may hold turkey, ducks, and smoked hams. There isn't much of a meat problem here so far (haven't checked in almost a week and a half) but when this all first hit and the initial run on the stores happened I eyeballed those areas and no one was touching them. I've seen $0.99/lb smoked hams available nonstop so worse case I'll be eating a lot of ham, and ham and mac, and ham and beans, etc. lol

 

[bigfurmn]

Don't forget the other freezer areas that may hold turkey, ducks, and smoked hams. There isn't much of a meat problem here so far (haven't checked in almost a week and a half) but when this all first hit and the initial run on the stores happened I eyeballed those areas and no one was touching them. I've seen $0.99/lb smoked hams available nonstop so worse case I'll be eating a lot of ham, and ham and mac, and ham and beans, etc. lol

I looked all around both stores. There was nothing there. I always have my eye out for a good deal. I'm what you call frug... freg.. frag... Ok fine I'm cheap!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Don’t forget, at the big retailer stores, you can order meat. They will hold it for you. Might be a week to fill the order, but they will fill it. Call them up. Get personal. This works most always.

 

[noboundaries]

My grocer's meat bins were interesting this morning. Fully stocked with beef and pork. Normal prices. Picked up two untrimmed spare rib racks for $1.98/lb. The one exception was bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs; completely gone.

No Cascade or Dawn dishwashing liquid. I guess the folks not eating at restaurants have discovered their dishwashers and sinks!

Egg prices back near normal. I paid $6.80 for 18 ct two weeks ago; $2.80 this morning for 18 ct.

 

[Fueling Around]

Friday is going to be an eye opening day.
My wife requested a trip to Costco for Mother's Day gift. 160 mile round trip is well spent.
Not a clue what we'll find. Haven't been there since before the ... (expletives and personal comments deleted) started in March.

 

[forktender]

Friday is going to be an eye opening day.
My wife requested a trip to Costco for Mother's Day gift. 160 mile round trip is well spent.
Not a clue what we'll find. Haven't been there since before the ... (expletives and personal comments deleted) started in March.

I'd go early, I was at our costco today when they were bringing out burger and pork bellies. I got a pack of ground beef and 2 pork bellys, on the way home a friend told me to stop by because he just got 1/2 of a grass fed steer and he didn't have enough room for everything. He gave me 10 2lb packs of burger and two big chuck roasts and some stew meat in trade for a 32 pack of Coors....I scored!!!

Today our costco implemented 3 packages meat per card, that only includes beef and pork out of the butcher shop not frozen beef or pork, chicken and fish is still wide open.
I'm still looking for a brisket and a whole prime New York strip and whole prime rib roast.

 

[smokngun]

I was at my local Sam's Club last Friday and the meat department was pretty much fully stocked, I was eying some Prime grade full packer briskets for $3.28lb. Didn't pull the trigger because the same day I found out at the end of the month I'm getting cut to part time. I'll smoke whatever meat I have in the freezer and when that runs out you guys might start seeing some "off the wall" smokes. Smoked corn flakes or maybe smoked ramen, could get interesting.

 

[SmokyMose]

It seems kind of hit & miss around here. I did my weekly grocery run yesterday and Meijer had some of everything except chicken. The case was filled with whole young chickens however. So I headed to Kroger after getting what I needed at Meijer because their weekly flier showed boneless ribeye family packs for $7.99#. Of course they didn't have any but they had plenty of pork and chicken as well as buy one get one free baby backs. Two pork purchases per person limit, though. No rhyme or reason.
I read this morning about two processing plants here in Indiana that are wanting to reopen after shutting down for two weeks and are getting pushback from some of the employees.
So why are so many people in meat processing plants "testing positive"?

 

[Brokenhandle]

I believe so many test positive because of the number of employees and working elbow to elbow. I think the plant in Sioux falls had about 4000 employees, so working in close proximity and having that many people sharing cafeteria space it spreads rapidly.

Ryan

 

[Fueling Around]

Nice road trip today.
Broke Minnesota (Martial?) laws by having a dine in lunch at a restaurant in North Dakota.

Didn't get to Costco until mid afternoon.
No toilet paper, but more than a semi trailer load of paper towels in stock. (The waste water crews are fully puckered over the "flushable wipes" going into the system. The paper towels make it worse.)

Pork
A lot of whole loin at decent price. Didn't get one as i have 1 in freezer.
More belly than I have ever seen in the store and price lower than normal. Didn't purchase as the quality wasn't up to my standards. I have 1 in the freezer as well.
No intact shoulder (butt). Idiots had cut it all into boneless country ribs.

Beef
No brisket. Not worried as I have 1 in the freezer.
Lots of eye of round, but hmm price jumped a $1/# I've got enough dried beef to wait it out.
Only looked at beef from my needs. They had lots of ribeye steaks, full (boneless) rib racks, and NY strip. Considered a purchase, but we don't eat a lot of steak or beef outside of periodic ground.

Lots of fresh chicken, except for boneless skinless chicken breast. Will try tenderloins this time.

Edit: Added details

 

[uncle eddie]

still OK-ish in central Missouri. But the hoarders are doing their thing. Grocery stores are limiting people to one meat purchase per person.

 

[forktender]

It's very hit of miss out here as well one day they won't have hardly anything the next day they will have somewhat of a supply. All of the stores are limiting people to 2 packages of meat as well no matter the size of the package. They also started cutting the pork butt's in half and making small two packs of steaks.
I don't know how you would do it if you had a big family, it kinda defeats the stay at home order if you have to bring 2 family members to the store to check out separately to get enough meat for the week.
Luckily there are only 3 of us in the house, but my buddy has 5 kids, and they are having a tough time finding enough meat. Heck our produce area has been getting hammered as well, some days they only have about 1/4 of the produce that they normally have. Still no paper products most days or antibacterial wet wipes.
It's going to get dodgy out here if something doesn't change quickly, people are starting to get a little worked up and froggy. You can't really blame them they are worried about feeding their family down the road, if the supply chain got held up for a full week it would be an awful situation for a lot of people that are living without an income right now. This whole thing is still really hard for me to wrap my mind around at times.

Heck, we haven't got anything from Uncle Sam yet and we could really use it with me being retired luckily my little lady is still working, but they just laid off 25% of the nurses in her hospital... we are living through some very crazy times right now.

Stay safe.
Dan

 

[chopsaw]

I know when I was growing up , 4 kids in the family , Mom had ways to stretch the the small amounts of meat they could afford .
2 cans of pork and beans mixed with a 1/2 pound of ground beef was common .
Used to tear up a loaf of stale bread and add it in for meat loaf . About 50 / 50 sometimes .
We liked it , that's what we had .

I've been doing alot of stir fry type dishes . Small amount of meat , heavy on the veg , with rice or pasta . Just have to adjust , and treat people as you want to be treated .
I'm not playing this off . It's a serious problem .

 

[tallbm]

Well just in case anyone is watching this thread and is wondering how to stretch meals with meats, know that beans, rice, and making soups can stretch things a loooooong way.

Many of us cook and may know that already. Both of my parents came from large families and didnt have very much of anything at all. My father's side was basically dirt poor and much of what they ate they grew, raised, or mother nature naturally provided (fish, game, pecans, well water, etc.).

They grew up cooking everything and stretching everything as a way of life. That naturally filtered through to their children in various degrees. Almost all of my meals were home cooked simply because it is cheaper and man were the dishes of top quality!
I was fortunate enough to see some of that food stretching as well as how it was refined into fine meals. I learned it as well and put it all to good use in college where I had a daily food budget of $3.77 from what I could allocate to myself hahaha.

Long story short, there are plenty of ways to mix smaller amounts of meat with beans or with rice or with both. Same goes with noodles. You can mix in fresh or canned veggies (discounted cans usually) as well.
When talking about mixing, soup, chili, stew, goulash, hamburger helper type dishes are about as efficient as you can make things. ********(important) Also know that you don't have to used deboned meat for this, especially in soup forms. Bone in, skin on, chicken parts do perfectly fine in soup dishes. Bone in pork chop that are cut down to not be giant chops work the same along with pork neck bones and pork feet. Beef ribs and oxtail work the same (though they cost an arm and a leg). All shanks that are small enough or cut down to manageable size work as well.

Anyhow u guys get the idea. Hmmmm I bet it would be a good idea to start a "Stretch Your Meals" recipe thread since SMF is a publicly open forum AND so many people join simply by finding recipes and help with online searches. What do you guys think????

 

[Bearcarver]

I'll take a picture and Costco and Sam's to show you how much the sky has fallen.

Same here!
LOL---Kinda like "The Sky Has Fallen" a little better than a month ago, before the 80,000 American Deaths (and counting), making people think Vietnam was fun & games.

Bear

 

[bigfurmn]

Bear in total respect to you and my uncle (Green Beret Vietnam veteran God rest his soul), I don't think these situation are even on the plane. That having been said I LOVE anyone's ideas how to stretch a meal into something more.

 

[chopsaw]

, I don't think these situation are even on the plane.

I think the point is why are they comparing covid 19 deaths to the total number killed in the Vietnam war . The uninformed hang on the number and not the way it came about .

 

[noboundaries]

We love rice and beans. Usually I make them with brown rice, but switched to a big bag of white medium grain rice due to some stomach issues. Talk about a great base for creative variety!

I make a 6 qt pot of "sticky rice," store it in the fridge, and have used it for breakfast fried rice with eggs, all kinds of sauces with chopped/pulled meat, baked beans with bacon, sweet rice, and rice pudding. Heck, it's even good with a pat of butter, salt and pepper. We've discovered we like adding cooked rice to our soup bowls instead of cooking it in the soup like we've always done in the past.

My grocer was out of black beans last Thursday, but I picked up red beans and Navy beans. Smoking spare ribs for Mother's Day. Might have to make some red beans for rice and beans, too.

 

[tallbm]

We love rice and beans. Usually I make them with brown rice, but switched to a big bag of white medium grain rice due to some stomach issues. Talk about a great base for creative variety!

I make a 6 qt pot of "sticky rice," store it in the fridge, and have used it for breakfast fried rice with eggs, all kinds of sauces with chopped/pulled meat, baked beans with bacon, sweet rice, and rice pudding. Heck, it's even good with a pat of butter, salt and pepper. We've discovered we like adding cooked rice to our soup bowls instead of cooking it in the soup like we've always done in the past.

My grocer was out of black beans last Thursday, but I picked up red beans and Navy beans. Smoking spare ribs for Mother's Day. Might have to make some red beans for rice and beans, too.

Yeah man lots of versatility with beans and rice. I've but out a ton of carbs so I rarely eat either these days but when I do, they are usually mixed together. My favorite is to put Mexican/Spanish rice in a bowl and then borracho beans on it and mix in pico and salsa and go to town on that!
Or mix beans, rice, and salsa together and put it in a tortilla with some fajita meat, cheese, and sour cream for amazing tacos hahaha.

Hell just making some well seasoned rice and mixing with a can of ranch style beans is great too! Endless possibles :)

 

[SmokinEdge]

I believe so many test positive because of the number of employees and working elbow to elbow. I think the plant in Sioux falls had about 4000 employees, so working in close proximity and having that many people sharing cafeteria space it spreads rapidly.

Ryan

That plant in South Dakota has 3700 employees. They have 518 cases in that plant in Sioux City South Dakota, with an additional ~150 cases attached to that plant. Bringing the total in that Smithfield plant in Sioux City alone to 668. The entire state has a total of 1300 covid-19 cases. Meaning that more than half of all cases in the State are in that plant alone. The town of Sioux City has hardly any Covid, except at that plant. It is very interesting indeed. All of the other plants with the outbreak are in towns with little infections except at those plants. Makes you think. Does me.