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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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  • [March 19, 2020] - Effective Mar 17, this blog will no longer accept advertising. The reason is very simple. If I like a product, I will promote it without compensation. If I don't like a product, I will have no problem saying so.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Cherry Picking the Sales - Beef & Pork

My apologies for a later than usual post. I try to get a post out daily usually in the morning hours as I know many look forward to them. I ended up doing a bit of a foodie run for the shear purpose of taking advantage of a couple of excellent sales. That ended up with me not getting home into the mid-afternoon hours so by the time I put everything away and vacuum sealed the dried foods this is the first real chance to sit and get caught up.

One of the grocery store chains is running their dollar sale. I decided this was an excellent opportunity to cherry pick the sales. Cherry picking refers to going in and buying only those items on sale. This is one way to stock your freezer and pantry without having to spend a lot of money. Pork shoulder roasts (bone in) and boneless outside round (bottom round) roasts were on sale for $1 per pound. Well this is such a good price that I just had to pick up a couple of each regardless of the fact that both the pantry and freezers are stuffed. The roasts are cryovaced so will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks or longer.

pork shoulder roast and outside round roast or bottom roundBeef and Pork

I bought 2 pork shoulder roasts totaling just slight over 17 lbs for $17.21 for both roasts. One common question regarding pork shoulder roast is "How do I cook a pork shoulder roast?". I've posted the following methods for cooking pork shoulder roast: home canned barbeque pork, maple glazed pork, slowcooker (crockpot) pork shoulder roast, and glazed pork shoulder roast. All are excellent ways to cook a pork shoulder roast! These are bone in pork roasts so I'm going to be trying at least one different method such as dry roasting with rub. I'm also considering curing one of the pork shoulders. The bones can be used to make hearty bean soup or Canadian split pea soup.

I bought 2 outside round roasts totaling just over 7 lb for a total of $7.35 for both roasts. Outside round roast is a Canadian term. The same cut of beef is also known as bottom round roast outside of Canada. The outside round roast is cut from the hip part of the cow so can have a chewy texture if cooked improperly due to connective tissues. This cut is ideal for for braising but can also be dry roasted long and slow. It is important to not over cook this cut of meat. I have a couple of ideas for cooking the roasts but haven't decided yet.


4 food lovers commented:

Anonymous said...

Dear Garden Gnome,
I love your blog and am addicted!
Is there a way to search your past posts by month so I can know what expect for the upcoming month or season?

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

I only shop at sales, my freezer is always stocked. great post and I can eat like a king for much less than people think (last time I bought pork shoulders, I got 17 pounds for under $10)

Garden Gnome said...

Hi Anonymous and thanks for visiting. I appreciate your kind words. I'm so glad you are enjoying my blog. The archives in the sidebar are sorted by months and there is a search feature available for recipes and dishes. There is nothing as far as searching by month so help you know what to expect. One of the reasons for this is from season to season and even from one year to the next what is posted about changes with what has already been posted and what I'm doing at that time. There's always hints as to what I'm doing though :)

Garden Gnome said...

Hi Year on the Grill :) One of these days I hope to be able to address you by a name even is a pseudonym. Anyway, we buy most of our beef and pork on the hoof in bulk but I'm not above taking advantage of a good deal. Now your price was even better at 59¢/lb. What great things did you make with those pork shoulders?