Hey all, been looking at YouTube slow cooker recipies on YouTube and I know meat over here is super expensive, but does anyone know if some of these cheaper cuts exist? Colesworth never seem to have any these days, and I think I’ve only seen gravy beef once at Aldi which I’m guessing is the best thing. Any idea where I’d get something that’s happy to site in the slow cooker for 8 hours that won’t cost me a kidney?
If you’re learning about meat from American youtubers you’re learning American terminology for a cow being butchered in the American method. Thats a whole other rabbit hole once you involve the british and french methods…
Chuck beef is the cheapest and best for slow cooking and its usually pretty easy to find. Its not necessarily “cheap” but it stretches.
Take my Stroganoff for example. I take 1kg of chuck, season HEAVILY and put it in a frying pan so it develops a really nice maillard, deglaze with half a litre of beef stock and put it in the slow cooker with a bag of the frozen pre chopped onions and a 375gram bag of prechopped mushrooms, and 3 of those powdered recipe sachets (I think we use the Maggi ones) then leave it for about 6 to 8 hours. Dump in a whole tub of light sour cream and thats it.
The thing is its so heavy and rich, it goes great with brown rice, mashed potatos or with pasta and thats enough to feed 8 to 10 people.
American cuts of meat and the names for them are different to Australia. For beef, look for chuck steak, gravy beef, or casserole steak. Lamb shoulder and pork shoulder are both quite economical and excellent for slow cooking. Colesworth stores do vary in their offerings depending on size of store and where they are located, so try a bigger store if the one near you doesn’t have what you need. But best option is to shop at a butcher, they will be able to tell you what cuts they have that day if you tell them you are looking for slow cooking meats. Unless you go to a very upmarket butcher, the prices will be way better too.
Corned beef is pretty good value. Cook low for about 6-7 hours with onion, carrot, celery and pepper. Colesworth also sell ‘gravy beef’ and ‘chuck beef’. These are usually cheaper and very tasty when slow cooked. Perfect for stews/etc. 6-7 hours on low in a stock works great.
Yeah I love a good silverside. So it works ok for other dishes like a beef with gravy or stroganoff?
It’s not slow cooker, but those same super cheap cuts of beef are usually excellent cooked sous vide. I made a cheap Aldi chuck roast into basically a prime rib with just salt/pepper/sugar and cooked for 24hra.
Chicken breast is pretty cheap by the kilo. 2kg of chicken breast in the slow cooker feeds the four of us and costs under $20.
That’s like 10 chicken breasts man
I don’t think it’s that many, but yeah 2kg is probably more than those large trays contain. I’ll try and remember to look on the weekend when I next go shopping. I would guess there are about 5-6 breasts in it?
Cheaper cuts are what you want - chuck /casserole meat. It’s cheaper because it’s tougher, which means it’s perfect for a slow cook to break down and tenderise
My local Aldi pretty much always has gravy beef; it’s a good cut for a slow cooker.
Or try a butcher.
Always throw chuck in the slow cooker. Or should that be ‘chuck chuck’. I’ll show myself out.
