People look forward to the various holidays for lots of different reasons, but I always get fired up because I plan on a shopping spree guaranteed to save a bunch of money over the course of the year - every holiday.
For me, this is an investment shopping that not only saves money; it secures a food supply into the future. Should a natural disaster hit, or an economic collapse; I'm usually in a little better shape than most because I think of my shopping in annual terms. At worst, I save a ton of money over the course of a year.
I learned how to do this when I lived at a very remote cabin for an extended period. No highways, no phone, no internet meant that a trip to town to shop meant a tremendous expenditure for transportation. We'd have to hire a plane to fly us, or in the summer, we could drive a boat nearly 400 miles, round trip. Stockpiling food simply had to become a way of life. I soon learned it is also an excellent way to save money.
This is the first in a series I intend to write about how to save money by taking full advantage of seasonal/holiday grocery savings. It's Saint Patrick's Day, Thursday March 17!
Saint Patrick was a gentleman...Who through
strategy and stealth...Drove all the snakes from
Ireland...Here's a drinkee to his health! But not
too many drinkees...Lest we lose ourselves and
then...Forget the good Saint Patrick...And see
them snakes again!
SAVINGS
We LOVE LOVE LOVE corned beef. Frequently I'm dismayed because the corned beef for four was vacuumed so thoroughly by the two of us in one sitting, there is nothing left for those wonderful Reuben sandwiches!
Where I live, the normal price of corned beef is about $3.69/lb. St. Patrick's is, in my experience, the only time of year it ever goes on sale, and boy does it! Back in my Marketing 101 days, I learned grocery stores often feature a weekly "loss leader" - something so low priced it will pull people into the store, where they will spend lots more on other stuff to make up for any profit losses from the "loss leader". Last year, I bought corned beef for $.99/lb during the week of St. Patrick's.
How much corned beef will you want to eat in a year? Once a month, at least, for us. So I go ahead and buy 12 or 13 plastic wrapped corned beef packages at the lowest price of the year. Let's say normal price is $3.00, and I get it for $1.50/lb. That's a savings of $54.00 for the year - and the truth is, savings are probably much better than that. Be sure to check the price on each package. Here, they sell either point cut or butt cut, and the point cut is cheapest.
PRESERVATION
Of course, it helps to have a freezer, which I consider to be an investment with a pretty fast return on investment. Buy some butcher paper (freezer paper), tape (it's much less expensive than ziplock bags) and you are ready to break down any cheaper "family size" pack of meat. If you worry about freezer burn, you can paper-wrap your extra plastic-wrapped corned beef, label and date it, and toss it in the freezer. I don't bother and have had no problems.
If you don't have a freezer, corned beef will keep very well. It's loaded with preservatives, and will keep even longer if you can keep it well refrigerated. You'll have to eat it up a bit faster (oh darn!), but you can still save quite a bit by buying multiple packages. Generally, you can keep it a little longer than the expiration date. Once you've cooked it, you have sterilized it, so it will keep a few days longer still.
If you have a pressure canner, even better. Corned beef cans up quite nicely and is very handy to keep on your shelves. A decent pressure canner costs about $135.00 and is an especially good investment if you also garden or can get produce in bulk from time to time. It's best to have both a freezer and a pressure canner. If you are ever without electricity for an extended time, you can save your rapidly thawing meat by canning it - something that can even be done over a campfire. Of course, corned beef or any other preserved meat would be the last thing of your stockpile to can, as it will keep better than your fresher meat. Canning meat was a spring ritual at my cabin, because that's when my 586,000 cu. mile Alaskan freezer started to slow down!
STRETCHING CORNED BEEF
Another wonderful aspect to corned beef is that you can really stretch your budget with it. Generally, I can get 3- meals (for two big eaters) out of one package of corned beef.
To start, cover it with water, add or don't add the little spice packet (I add dry mustard, about 1 heaping Tbsp.) and bring it slowly to a simmer. Don't let it come to a big boil, because that will toughen it. You can still simmer it to softness, but it will take a little longer.
A lot of people cook their vegetables in the same water, but I usually keep at least the cabbage out of the water, cooking it separately. That's because the water you cooked it in, once strained, makes a wonderful bean, lentil, or split pea soup. (By keeping the cabbage out, the broth doesn't get too strongly cabbage flavored.)
I don't use any exact recipe. Generally, it takes about 2 hours to get the meat to the desired degree of tenderness - I just keep checking the meat after about 1-1/2 hrs. I don't want to cook it too long, or too much flavor will transfer from the meat to the stock, so I also taste the stock periodically. It's about perfectly balanced when the meat is properly tender.
Next day, or that night, I'll skim the hardened fat off the broth (you can save it to make suet for the birds!) and put the beans or peas on to cook. Saute veggies like onion, celery, carrots, turnips etc. until softened. Combine the two when finished, add seasonings and if you were sufficiently constrained to have some leftover corned beef, (sliced hot dogs are a decent alternative that kids like) chop it up and toss it in to warm. (Thyme or chervil is nice with split pea.) Ina Garten's trick for split pea is to add additional split peas once the first ones are semi-soft. Then you'll get both the creaminess of the well-cooked peas, plus some with a little more "tooth".
You'll likely have leftover soup that you can freeze for a busy day. Gallon-sized Ziplocks work nicely if you don't have the tupperware-ish stuff. Don't forget to label and date!
Oh, who doesn't love a Reuben sandwich? Get some rye or pumpernickel, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, butter and thousand island dressing. Strain and then squeeze dry as much sauerkraut as you think you'll need. Butter the outsides of the bread and heat a frying pan to medium high. Place one piece of bread, butter side down to sizzle in the pan and pile on the meat, cheese and sauerkraut - add the 2nd piece of bread butter side up, and press down to make it more compact. When the first side is golden brown, flip the sandwiches (can be tricky, I use both spatula and hand to hold it together on it's journey to the flip side) and fry till golden brown on the other side, covering the pan briefly to ensure cheese melt. Then this is me, I open up one side of the sandwich, slather with thousand island dressing and yum!
CABBAGE also comes on sale for a very cheap price during St. Patrick's week, and it is very easy to preserve, so go ahead and stock up! If you want to make your own sauerkraut, stock up a LOT! I've gotten cabbage as cheaply as $.10/lb!
Sauerkraut
Most recipes for sauerkraut talk about some crock you have to have for the fermenting process, but I've found it can be much simpler than that: I found a method wherein the sauerkraut ferments right in your mason jar.
The hard part is pounding it. I get a 5 gallon clean plastic bucket, slice the cabbage as thinly as possible and toss in non-iodized salt to taste. You have to figure out what you want to use for a pounder. A baseball bat would work, or you could find a nice, big, straight branch. Just make sure you aren't using green wood, or the sap will impart a flavor to your finished product. You should be able to innovate - just make sure your pounder and bucket are nice and clean.
Now, pound away! It takes a lot of pounding, and your goal is to see liquid forming at the bottom of your bucket. Pound some more! It's good to do this with a friend and maybe put on some music with a good beat! You want enough liquid that, when you load the cabbage into your jar (leave headspace) and push it down, the liquid will cover the surface of the cabbage. (Your total volume of cabbage will be much reduced.) Please note that the fresher the cabbage, the more easily you'll get juice from it. I haven't tried this, but I think it would work if you couldn't get enough juice: just add salted water (to taste) to cover the cabbage, and let it ferment longer before trying it.
You need some way to keep the cabbage submerged under the liquid inside the jar. I filled little baggies with pebbles, then I placed the baggie on top of the cabbage, gave it one last push down before putting the lid and the ring on the jar to tighten. (Sterilize jars and lids and rings in boiling water before loading jars.)
Let it sit on your shelves in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before sampling. The longer it ferments, the better the sauerkraut, so I'd wait longer. Never have I had better sauerkraut in my whole life! Even people who didn't like sauerkraut liked it!
Cabbage Rolls
Julia Child opened my eyes when she recommended freezing your cored, whole head of cabbage prior to making cabbage rolls. When you pull it out of the freezer and let it thaw a little, the leaves peel off perfectly and are soft enough to "roll". Prior to that, I would core the head and cook it in boiling, salted water in order to soften it up enough to get nice leaves for rolling.
This also taught me that you can freeze cabbage easily. You can core it and freeze it whole, or in halves or quarters, or shred it and freeze it; and you don't even need to parboil it, as you need to with so many other veggies you freeze. The only thing you can't do with the frozen cabbage is use it like fresh, for coleslaw. You'll want to cook it with a little sour cream and onions or in a cream sauce or use it in a soup or stew.
Here's a really simple, quick, easy cabbage roll recipe that you can make in advance and freeze or bake the same day; courtesy of that consummate chef, Craig Claiborne, with minor modifications:
1 head of cabbage 1/2 tsp. thyme
1-1/2 Tbsp. butter 1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil 1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 c. chopped onion 1 c. beef broth or bouillon
1 clove garlic, minced 1 c. tomato sauce
1 lb. ground chuck 1 bay leaf
2 c. cooked rice Lemon slices
3 Tbsp. minced parsley Sour cream
1. I'm assuming your cabbage is ready to go!
2. Heat butter and oil, add onion and garlic and cook till onion is transparent. Remove to a dish. Add the meat to the skillet and cook till lightly browned and add the onion and garlic back.
3. Add rice, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Place spoonfuls you think will fit into the cupped part of the cabbage, near the stem end. Roll up a little from the stem end, then fold the sides of the leaf in perpendicular to your first roll, like an envelope. Finish rolling the cabbage and place the roll, seam side down, in a baking dish. The meat should be fully enclosed in the leaf. Repeat till dish is full or filling used up. It's best to have the rolls packed closely side by side, and the pan filled completely.
5. Combine the broth and tomato sauce and pour it over the cabbage rolls. (Note: I always double the amount of both and sauce because it's tasty!) Add bay leaf to the top. You can either bake it with lemon slices or keep them fresh to serve.
6. 350F 1 hour, covered - add more liquid if necessary (one reason I double the broth and sauce). Remove bay leaf and lemon slices, if used in baking, and serve with sour cream on the side.
I have, count 'em three (3!) more cabbage roll recipes that I'll post if anyone is interested. One with an Armenian filling (involves pistachios!), one with ham and mushrooms and another with just meat, no rice (pork and veal or beef). I haven't tried them, but I will.
Cabbage can also be dehydrated. Dried foods keep for a very long time and retain much of their nutrient, so they are really good to keep around; are a very "secure" source of food.
You don't need a fancy dehydrator or even an oven, though it helps to have lower humidity. I jerry-rigged some "dryers" using nylon mesh like mosquito netting or the mesh you use to make screens for you windows. Your window screens can be brought into service here! I don't like using metal screen for dehydrating, though.
Just slice as thinly as possible and spread as thinly as possible on your screen. Toss the cabbage around once in a while to ensure good circulation. You can put the screens outside on a hot, sunny day or put them near your heater indoors. Alternatively, dry it at the lowest possible setting in your oven, tossing occasionally till nice and dry. I store my dried veggies in whatever seems like a good sized container (often yielding to the allure of Ziplocks) and then store them all in a rubbermaid tub with a lid in a cool place. If you leave too much moisture in your veggie it will spoil the whole shebang, so I store it in smaller packages, just in case.
Even that is more work than is really necessary, because cabbage just tends to keep very well in a cool, dark place. Don't cut it in any way - keep it as intact as possible. I love those rubbermaid tubs. You can wrap the heads in newspaper or some such and stick them in the tub, lid on, off to the cool basement or garage. Check periodically for any sign of rotting. You could also store the heads in sand. The most important thing is to not let the heads touch each other, because rot, if it starts, spreads quickly.
OTHER STUFF DELICIOUSLY ON SALE
Check your grocery flyer, because often root vegetables are on sale during St. Patrick's week. Turnips, carrots, rutabagas, parsnips - all store well using the sand or newspaper method, (in fact, they'll keep better there than in the humidity of your refrigerator) all dehydrate nicely (I like to shred carrots for drying - great for carrot cake!), all can be frozen if you cut them up and parboil them quickly before packaging for the freezer, all can be canned.
Love beer? Stock up during St. Patrick's week when good brands tend to go on sale. And whiskey! Need I say more, mate?
Need a houseplant? I got one of those tiny shamrock plants one year and it kept growing and growing and growing. I divided it, gave some to friends and finally killed mine off by planting it in my outdoor garden where it didn't survive the winter. When they flower, they are messy, but they sure are a cheerful plant!
Well, that concludes my St. Patrick's Day bonanza. I'll leave you with a little reverent message:
May those who love us love us
And those who don't love us
May God turn their hearts,
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limpin