my lust for bargains and local food made me forget about my actual eating habits.
December 31, 2011 4:05 PM Subscribe
I lucked into a half of a side of some beautiful pasture raised, grass fed, organic beef from a local farmer for cheap! The good news is that we ended up getting this killer beef for less than $2 a pound and that it all fits in our chest freezer. The bad news is ... well... I've realized we don't really actually eat all that much beef. What are some interesting things to do with ground beef and potroast?
In my defense, I asked probably a half dozen times how much beef we were looking at (although more out of concern for my freezer space). They told me the hanging weight, but could never really tell me how much of that was bones and guts. The consensus was that a quarter would easily fit in my small chest freezer, so that's what I got. After processing, however, it turns out there was about 30% more beef than even they had anticipated. We are talking about a boatload of beef here. And yes, also I am a child whose mental picture of beef consisted of piles of steaks. Whoops.
When I do buy meat it's generally pork or lamb, and it's usually only once a week. I make an occasional bolognese or meatballs, but don't really know what to do with the (60 pounds!) of ground beef in my freezer. I grew up in the midwest and have had enough hot dish to last the rest of my life. What else is there outside of burgers, taco meat, meatballs, chili, meat sauce?
I also have 5 or 6 of these things called a "7-bone roast". They weigh about 6 pounds apiece. We made a pot roast with one and it was great... but that's a whoooole lotta roast we're staring down over the next several months. What else can I do with it?
And as an aside - how long will this stuff last in my chest freezer?
Additional details: Cooking for 2 adults, one picky 10 year old and a baby; portions are pretty small. I'd consider myself an adventurous scratch cook. I don't love Thai flavors, peppers, or super spicy stuff. We love Japanese and Indian food, but... yeah. I got a half of a lamb last spring and it was fantastic: gyros, pastichio, lamb burgers... I was super sad when the ground lamb was all gone. Help me feel the same way about this beef!
posted by lilnublet to food & drink (26 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
First, beef will actually keep in the freezer for quite a while--if you package it right. The people I know that buy half/whole/quarter beef generally plan to eat it for up to a year. So that might expand your time horizon somewhat. Packaging it right probably involves getting containers designed for long-term freezer use, e.g. more robust plastic containers or Ziploc bags. Just chucking it in with plastic wrap is a recipe for freezer burn. You can slow down freezer burn by sticking in an open container of water in there. Or just a bag of ice, really. Keeps the humidity up, which slows down the sublimation which is the cause of freezer burn. But even then, all that's happened is that the food has dried out somewhat. It's still edible, though you may want to cut out the affected bits if they taste funny, which can happen.
Second... heck, there's plenty to do with beef! For one thing, almost anything you can do with lamb you can do with beef. Indian food doesn't use much beef cause of the whole Hindu thing, but that doesn't mean you can't. But East Asian cuisine is lousy with beef, and there are an almost unlimited number of things you can do with stir fry. Maybe just beef and veggies in peanut oil. Or in a sweet pepper sauce. Or with soy, ginger and honey. And don't forget soups and stews. Beef-based, tomato based, even cream based, if you're up for it. There's also nothing stopping you from cooking a roast and then slicing it thin for sandwiches or whatever. That's all you really get at the deli, after all. You can also make jerky, if that's your thing. That stuff'll keep for months if you do it right.
posted by valkyryn at 4:19 PM on December 31, 2011 [2 favorites]