Cheaper Cuts Of Meat Popular

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 2

Cheaper Cuts Of Meat Popular

Meat prices have been rising since March but few housewives have more money to meet the butcher’s bill. How do they manage to economise on a staple part of a family diet?

: Many now buy sides of blue stripe mutton (cheaper because it has been rejected for export selling) from freezing company meat shops; . Women are buying cheaper cuts of meat which require more preparation and cooking time, and are mUring them go further by adding other ingredients. For some families, there are now several “meatless” days in the week, when egg and fish dishes are eaten.

I Housewives questioned by “Hie Press” yesterday at first thought their local butcher was to blame for the rising costs, but soon fbund that their friends had adso noticed the increase. Advice on buying from freezing works retail shops has apparently been circulated.

"I went to such a shop in desperation, and it has been a wonderful help to me,” said one housewife with two small children.

“My husband had been oomplaining about the bill for months. Now I get a side of reject mutton for SLS5 —I was paying from $5 to $6 for a side of mutton from my butcher.

“Of course, it takes two to three times longer to cook, but it’s delicious. I put it in the oven at 10 a.m. and it’s ready about 5 p.m,” she mid. A Northcote housewife who allows S2O a week, to feed a family of six (two adults and four children, one a baby) now overspends by at least $5. She says she could not manage without her part-time job.

“I have certainly noticed the meat prices rising. A piece of pork is a luxury for us now. I buy a $2.30 chicken for our roast meal quite often and we get three meals out of that,” she said. It is served hot once, then as . a cold meal, and what is left over goes into a chicken chow mem. “I now buy sausage meat and make up sausages with breadcrumbs, and an oven loaf, mock chicken, and rissoles.

“About once every fortnight or three weeks I buy saveloys, cut them in half, and fry them. That way they are really tasty.” Steak mince—to be curried, stewed, pan fried, baked

fin a loaf, or made into rissoles—is also frequently on 1 her shopping list ; Shopping for “specials” at . supermarkets is time consumt ing, but it is a weekly task r for many housewives. ' “I buy pork pieces for stews, from the supermarket and bags of mutton chops,” ' said a Burnside housewife > with three small children. , She has served fish pies, cooked the cheaper chickens, 1 and made meat pies. “Fortunately my busband ■ likes that sort of thing,” she [ said when asked if he missed

a good, juicy steak. But her five-year-old son objected to missing a roast meal. Spaghetti and macaroni dishes with meat sauce, tinned smoked fish with white sauce, cheese, and eggs cooked dozens of different ways are frequently used substitutes for meat Bice is often used to add bulk.

However, housewives who can are spending more on meat, which now often costs as much as the groceries, and are trying to economise on other items. Most say they are saving less.