I'm starting to wonder if you do really get to save that much with cheaper cuts of meat. On the surface, obviously the tougher parts of meat are cheaper so those tend to get turned into roasts or stews that require slow cooking, but doesn't that then entail that you would be using more gas or electricity? Why not just buy more tender and more expensive cuts of meat then and shorten your cooking time as well as save some of your own time and effort? Is this another food saving myth or am I just missing something? Also, I'd love to hear what you guys like to make out of cheaper cuts of meat including all types such as pork, beef or chicken.
Its interesting you bring this up. Another thing related to the cost of cooking is eating out. Purchasing a burger or chips may be more expensive than home cooking, but then again the place you are buying from has to bear the cooking costs. At least with cheaper cuts you don't actually have to bear that cost until your gas bill arrives I suppose.
It is always cheaper to cook your own meal rather than eating out, regardless of the fuel costs involved. Those businesses wouldn't be in business if they weren't making a decent profit from every meal. It really depends on what you prefer DrRipley as far as the value is concerned. Personally, I prefer chicken thighs to drumsticks for most applications, so even though it's a far cheaper cut of meat, I'd rather buy that then Chicken Breast lots of times.
As someone who is semi-versed in the culinary arts but not really, I just know a few tricks from my mother and grandmother who are excelent cooks (my grandma used to cook for the vice presidents banquets all sorts of european culinary delights back in the day so yeah ) and I think I can say that the cooking time doesn't really vary that much on the type of meat, I would usually cook any type of meat, be it harder or leaner type of meat, approximately the same amount of time, sure allocate however much is needed for it to cook properly but usually its not such a big difference that it would mean a huge difference in the cooking time regarding the gas bill and such.
I don't know that you're really spending that much more for cooking time. One of the things you could do as well is get better cuts of meat that need to be sold within a day or two, often the store will mark them down to try to get rid of them and you can either cook them right away or freeze them for a bit- that way you get a better cut of meat and a better price.
It's really time vs money. Cheaper cuts of meat (like a roast or flank steak) require more marinating time. More expensive cuts of meat require only light seasoning and take only take 10-30 minutes to marinate/cook-- like a ribeye steak. Getting a slow cooker can really save you money. You can buy inexpensive cuts of meat and then cook then on low for the day while you're at work. By the time you get home they're flavorful and tender. If you don't have the whole day, look for tri tip cuts (can be marinated for a shorter amount of time and still be good) or "chuck eye" steaks. Chuck eyes are a cut next to the ribeye, a usually expensive piece of meat. Chuck eyes have the same type of marble fatty texture that gives rye eyes its flavor. They are often sold for several dollars less a lb too! It's a steal. If you don't see it ask your grocer's butcher. If they don't have it they can set it aside the next time they have it.
The price of gas for the amount that you use while cooking a steak or boiling some chicken breasts doesn't even come close to the difference (if there is any at all) between more expensive and cheaper cuts. I don't think you should worry about this, just buy what you can and try to save money doing it if you're okay eating the cheaper cuts.
Aside from the winter months, my gas bill is rarely over $15 a month. I cook a lot, including slow roasting stuff for hours. That's a mere 50 cents a day that it averages out too, it's still far lower than the cost difference per pound between a cheap cut of meat vs. a more expensive cut. However this is just my situation. At my grocers, strip steaks fresh run about $8-$10 a piece. I can buy a whole beef roast for that much and make several meals vs. just one or two. I've even seen recipes for making your own roast beef lunch meat at home. At my deli, the roast beef lunch meat runs about $8 per pound. I could buy a two pound roast for like $7 and make twice as much lunch meat myself. One thing you do need to keep in check though, is buying all sorts of additional add-on ingredients to doctor up your cheap cuts of meat. If you're buying a $6 bottle of marinade to tenderize your cheap rump roast, along with some over priced fresh herbs to flavor it, you are kind of defeating the purpose in terms of saving money. If you are really concerned about running your stove for long amounts of time, you may want to look into a large toaster oven - something that your roasting pans could fit into. I've used mine for several years, to make roasts, especially in the summer because it cuts back on heating the whole place up like a regular oven does. Plus it doesn't have to work as hard and use as much energy to heat itself, because the space is more compact. The only issue I ran into with those were they were tough to keep clean, especially if you needed to roast something with the lid off.
Energy costs for cheaper cuts of meat versus more expensive ones are negligible. Cheaper cuts often contain more fat, so you could say that they're less healthy than leaner cuts. Obviously, some cheaper cuts make for better stews, though. It all depends upon what you're trying to make and what type of meat works best for that situation. I really wouldn't worry about the energy costs of preparing types of meat, though, unless you're trying to stew a cow's worth of meat at once.
