I bought that 3 lb pork loin 4/30. The meat cost $9.99/lb., $1.99/lb over my preferred price of $8 or less.*
I have a cookbook which talks about dividing a 3 lb pork loin into four meals: chops, chow mein, sweet & sour, and a roast.
I cut it into 5. One smallish piece, 3 thick slabs, and a roast. Then I put the pieces into the freezer.
The cost was why I divided it the way I did. Assuming my idea works as planned? It’s 10 portions, or about $2.79 each. If I’d divided it as in my cookbook, it would have been 8 meals, $3.49 per portion.
Tonight’s dinner will be made with the smaller piece I put aside, in pork soup, using this recipe. I don’t have the specified sausage or 5 spice powder, so I’ll modify it, as usual. I do have regular pork sausage, but I’ll make the soup without it. I used a piece of fat from the pork instead of oil to cook the veggies. I’ll add bell pepper and celery leaves from the fridge, stems from the freezer, and whatever else I think it needs for flavoring.
2 p.m.: The soup is asimmer. I’ll add the minced stems, celery leaves, and apple a few minutes before serving. (The recipe calls for a sour apple and all I have is a sweet one, it seemed it would be better added near the end.)
The soup was good and we have about 1 portion left over.
5/5: We used it for 3 meals. At lunch, we use custard cups for things like soup. When soup is dinner, we use large bowls!
5/10: One of the thick pieces cut into 2 pork chops. Dinner!
5/12: Decided we’d have the 1 lb piece (the roast) as carnitas. I found a recipe for it, but I’ve never made carnitas before, so we’ll see! I’ll put in a link to the recipe when I use it, this coming Friday, along with any comments. The only comment I have now is that the recipe specifies a 4 lb roast and I don’t have one!
5/15: Made the carnitas. Two portions were dinner. What remained was split between the fridge for meals this weekend and the freezer for future use. The cost per portion has been updated to reflect the 2 meals eaten.
5/16: Two portions of shredded meat on salads with a thick slice of mozzarella and red bell pepper shreds. Just needed salt and pepper. Great! There’s a little of what I put in the fridge left, not enough for a meal. Will probably be used as a garnish or such…
It was used on our dinner, which was salad too, the count was updated to reflect two more servings.
5/20: We had one of the slabs, cut into 2 pork chops for dinner with the HM applesauce.
I made a carrot salad, this one, which I didn’t cook as long as specified, my husband doesn’t like cooked carrots. It was very spring-y looking, as the dill looks like carrot tops. It was okay. I added a little agave syrup (about 1 tsp) and used less onion to suit our tastes. I’ll make this again, but it isn’t the huge hit the jarred salad has been.
(We ate the last of the 2nd batch of jarred salad for lunch. I’m out of cabbage, so I couldn’t make more — I made the carrot salad instead.)
Total cost $27.92. Portions eaten 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 +3
Cost per portion = $13.96 $9.31 $5.58 $3.99 $3.10 $2.54 $2.14 $1.86 $1.55
*My target price of $8/lb for meat is discussed here. My goal is to have the meat in a meal cost $2 or less per portion. My conclusions about this experiment can be found here.
Photo by Simon Birt on Unsplash
