And meat can stretch. I recently turned onions, garlic, lentils, carrots, herbs, mushrooms and 1 pound of beef into a great stew that lasted two people (plus guests one time) many days. If one doesn’t want to eat the same thing a number of days in a row, a small freezer can hold half.
I had a nutrition major do a project with me on policies and local efforts focused on teaching SNAP recipients and others how to cook. If you didn’t learn those skills when you were a kid, it is necessary to learn somehow.
I think cooking in the home is just less common now and so people don’t learn how to do the basics. My parents used to just throw chicken, flank steak, or pork chops into the broiler ok weeknights. I think food culture has also made it so people don’t want to eat simple things.
It's great that we have more food options than we did 30-40 years ago, but not every meal has to be gourmet or exciting. I don't mean "live on rice and beans." It's fine to have a peanut butter or bologna & lettuce sandwich with carrots or an apple for lunch regularly.
This is an excellent point. I’m curious about what you found. In addition to needing to learn cooking skills, did the SNAP recipients have the utensils/pots/pans needed to be able to cook? I would think that could prove challenging for some households as well.
There is a program called SNAP-Ed but it’s not big. Groups can get grants.Student found some learn to cook programs linked to farmers’ markets, which can take SNAP. And, yes, people sometimes need basic pots and utensils; could add to SNAP for those, encourage buying used. Need to expand all.
And some basic skills do matter for how tasty food is — cutting and cooking an onion, for instance, or making gravy or a white/cheese sauce. People talk about bringing back home economics courses but the one I had was bad. The teacher had us make boxed meals involving noodles and can or pouch.
Last two weeks I made massive portions of Hoppin' John, Split pea soup, and chili. All divided out into portions in the freezer for days I don't feel like cooking after work. All 3 were very economical per serving.
Thighs and drumsticks are still the cheapest parts of the chicken in the US, if buying separately. It's wings that went from "trash" to "luxury" under high demand.
In my experience thighs are actually more forgiving for the “don’t know how to cook” set. You can over cook them and they stay juicy way longer than white meat.
Yep. Their cost-effectiveness is intensified by their, er, cooking tolerance (for lack of a better term).
The idea of spending extra on heat-finicky breast meat that might go to waste because no one wants the dry-ass, chewy leftovers... Thigh meat, every time.
I consider myself a pretty good cook and I am consistently way happier with how thighs come out than breasts. just very hard to screw up and, as far as I can tell, a higher flavor baseline
Air fryer makes breasts way easier imo. Butterfly, dry brine 10 minutes, max temp 8 minutes, flip and another 8 minutes. Test temp, if it's slightly under just another minute or 2.
An irony about this discussion is my oven broke, the normal repair that I can do (a new igniter) did not work, and I can’t afford a new one yet (bc plumbing repairs!), so we got a cheap air fryer/toaster oven, which has worked out really well w this kind of dish
"chop thighs in chucks, bread thighs, shallow fry thighs, make sauce" is a pretty easy technique to pick up (much safer than deep frying) and can be adapted into a huge variety of meals. especially if you also make rice or potatoes or something.
If only we held something in our hands most hours of the day with infinite instructional videos on how to do anything with every food item that exists. People that whine about not being instructed on how to do something as children and that’s why they can’t do it now are amusing.
Of course. But to even get to that, you need to have the cultural value for how cooking fits into your life. As someone with a standard upbringing, I also found it surprising that people lacked this value
I would suggest that a great gift for someone who just moved out from the parents' place, is a decent set of spices. You can make tons of delicious meals from scratch but the most expensive component to get started with is often the spices. A good starter set can run $50 to $100 and last for years.
Also a good cookbook. My parents gave me this one when I moved out over 50 years ago, I could make maybe 8 things at the time. This teaches everything from skinning a rabbit to Crepes Suzette. I still use it. It can still be hunted down. I gave one to my youngest. He loves it.
(This is an expression of surprise, not doubting your statement. As long as I've been paying attention to prices, it's been one of the more expensive cuts. Not even sure I've ever had it precisely because of that.)
p.s. Though I haven't explicitly asked, I am open to suggestions on how to get flank steak tender. My family likes my spice blend better than the restaurants near me, but I would love to learn how to make the steak better.
Acid, salt, tenderizing mallet, and baking soda are the four most often used tricks, or a combination of the above. I go heavy with lime, lemon, and orange juice in my marinade and typically put it in the night before I am cooking.
Yes ~ I grew up in a Mexican German family and my mother and I used to make wonderfully delicious meals made with flank steak, ox tails, beef tripe and cheeks, and I distinctly recall seeing this phenomenon in real time.
Yup it was cheap until Mexican food really kicked off across the country. Flank and skirt used to be some of the cheapest meats you could buy at one time.
Comments
It's great that we have more food options than we did 30-40 years ago, but not every meal has to be gourmet or exciting. I don't mean "live on rice and beans." It's fine to have a peanut butter or bologna & lettuce sandwich with carrots or an apple for lunch regularly.
A lot of this discourse is a cry of pain by people who did not grow up learning to cook
The idea of spending extra on heat-finicky breast meat that might go to waste because no one wants the dry-ass, chewy leftovers... Thigh meat, every time.
I just put fajita seasoning on them, then cook them skin side down in the air fryer. And they always come out great
I'd rather spend more time prepping fresh vegetables
(This is an expression of surprise, not doubting your statement. As long as I've been paying attention to prices, it's been one of the more expensive cuts. Not even sure I've ever had it precisely because of that.)
(I do fine with other expensive cuts, just not flank)
And yeah, $50 to make one meal of fajitas for my family 🫤
I don't get the concept of baking soda for tenderizing - do you use it like a marinade or rub?