BACON

[Shallot Man]

Being partial to streaky bacon, picked some up yesterday whilst shopping with the Memsahib. Then I noticed it was dearer than best back. How come !!

[Motherwoman]

Trendy?

I like a bit of smoked back myself, or for a real treat the local butcher's smoked dry cure.

[Primrose]

Perhaps some trendy tv chef has recently come up with sone tv recipes for streaky bacon so it,s the latest "must have" on everybody's culinary shopping list.

[Elaine]

That was my first thought too Primrose.
Streaky bacon used to be the cheapest cut didn't it? I may be wrong...

I'm amazed at the price of things which used to be so cheap but are now highly priced...Corned Beef for instance. Chicken used to be very reasonably priced...I remember years ago, buying a chicken if I was too skint to afford a decent joint of beef. Not so nowadays.

[alan refail]

Barring special offers, streaky is always the cheapest and back the dearest, with middle in between.
Shallot Man - did you check the price per kilo on the packs?

[peter]

Elaine if you have beef cheaper than chicken you're very lucky.
Sainsbury frequently has whole chickens in their 3 for £10 offer.
Beef for under a tenner is either the size of a normal corned beef tin or best before now and consequently reduced.

[Elaine]

Peter, I didn't mean todays' beef was cheaper than the chicken. I was just using that as an example from a long time ago....chicken was a cheaper alternative to a decent beef joint.
Chicken is still cheaper but Asda/Morrisons sells a medium one for around £6 and it used to be a lot less than that years ago....but I suppose that applies to most things if I'm being sensible about it. Maybe it's an age thing, now I'm over 60.

[Redfox]

I buy dry cured back bacon from the local butchers, it's their own bacon and very nice it is too. Price wise it's no dearer than the supermarket and no added water

[Shallot Man]

alan refail. I have a phobia for checking the unit price, drives the Memsahib mad.

[Shallot Man]

On a similar theme. Why is oxtail [50% bone !} dearer than stewing steak [100% meat]

[Beryl]

Surely streaky is used to wrap round sausages to go round the turkey , isn't that why it is more expensive this time of the year? People just pick it up without even checking the price because they want it.

Beryl.

[alan refail]

On a similar theme. Why is oxtail [50% bone !} dearer than stewing steak [100% meat]

If you want to make an oxtail recipe , as I do regularly, stewing steak is not the thing to use. You pay for what you need!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coda_alla_vaccinara

[Motherwoman]

Oxtail makes a luscious stew because it's got the bone, lot of flavour in there. Cook once, cool and skim off some fat then cook again. Shin of beef makes a better slow cook dish as the connective tissues breakdown after about 2-3 hours of cooking and impart a thickness and flavour to the dish that you don't get from trimmed meat.

I will concede that oxtail is 'trending' at the moment though!

MW

[alan refail]

...and there is but one tail to the "ox", whereas there are many kilos of other cuts.

[Primrose]

I dread cheap cuts of meat becoming popular and being promoted by TV chefs because that immediately means that their price doubles. I can remember when hardly anybody would buy a belly of pork joint or pork strips, but now slow roast belly of pork has become a "cheffy" recipe, the price has become much more expensive.
I haven't forgotten what happened years ago when Delia Smith recommended cranberries !