[nadia105]

We recently bought our first bulk meat (1/2 hog and 1/4 beef) from a great organic local farm and I'm looking for meal suggestions. I'm not used to having this much meat to work with, and it's going to be a very different system of meal planning for us.

Where do I start? I have everything from bacon and pork chops to ground beef and porterhouses.

Any and all suggestions appreciated, I want to make good use of this and not just have a couple hundred pounds of meat hanging out in my freezer!

 

[Alyantavid]

Figure out some ways to cook everything. Like ham steaks, we only ever eat them one way. Then I just plan around that. Roasts/hams on the weekends so I can plan for the leftovers most of the week. Lots of soups with all the ham bones, ham hocks and bacon.

For meals:
steak, with leftovers turned into fajitas or steak sandwiches
pork chops, I fix a few different ways but those leftovers get turned into stir fry
bacon I use for breakfasts or soups mainly, or add to green beans
sausage I either use for breakfast in patties or brown with onions and peppers, add some frozen hashbrowns, sour cream and cheese and bake

 

[ErinBird]

How about keeping a list of what you have someplace (on the freezer door?) handy. Figure out how much meat you need to eat a week (say... 3lbs beef, 1lb pork), then aim to consume that much in some form each week. SO for your beef- a pot of beef stew would use 1.5lbs of stew meat, plus bones for flavor. Another night plan on pasta sauce with ground beef to use up the other 1.5lbs. SUnday bacon is a pound of pork. Take the tallies of what remains into account as you meal plan.

 

[nadia105]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinBird How about keeping a list of what you have someplace (on the freezer door?) handy. Figure out how much meat you need to eat a week (say... 3lbs beef, 1lb pork), then aim to consume that much in some form each week. SO for your beef- a pot of beef stew would use 1.5lbs of stew meat, plus bones for flavor. Another night plan on pasta sauce with ground beef to use up the other 1.5lbs. SUnday bacon is a pound of pork. Take the tallies of what remains into account as you meal plan.

I'm thinking we need to do an inventory like this. We came home, stuffed everything in the freezer, and that was about it, I need to see what we have to work with!

 

[MidnightCommando]

I print out freezer inventory lists from this site and find them extremely helpful - just remember to cross things off when you use them

 

[sharr610]

So we buy lots of meat at a time. I sit down with a calendar and make inventory. I start out with the greatest amount of stuff, (ground beef and pork chops) and put them each into 2 days each week not next to each other...so there is 4 days(Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat). Then I fill in with one BIG piece(whole chicken, beef/pork roast) for Sunday as we'll eat the leftovers from it as sandwich meat or other lunchables for the work week. And then fill in the next two days with the various nicer cuts(steaks, pork tenderloin....we also have a fish night)