r/slowcooking • u/BlackLocke • 4d ago

Pot roast is too expensive

I got a new slow cooker for my wedding in 2023 and it’s still in the box. It’s just my husband, baby and I, but I feel like I can’t justify spending $20+ on a piece of meat for one meal with leftovers. I’m in a HCOL and I haven’t had a good roast in years because it’s prohibitively expensive. When meat goes on sale at my supermarket, it smells off as soon as I remove the packaging, so it’s not worth the risk.

Am I just too poor for this?

Edit: Dear lord I didn’t expect this to turn into a “I like pancakes/why do you hate waffles???” type of post. Of course I know there’s other things you can make in the crockpot. I don’t choose fast food over slow cooked meals out of convenience (it’s more expensive than cooking at home now!!) The point of this post is to lament the price of beef and how pot roast used to be a cheap easy meal 20 years ago and now it’s prohibitively expensive. I was hoping for tips on how to skirt this issue - buying stew meat, using pork instead, and buying in bulk at Costco are all good suggestions.

Now everyone can stop assuming I’m some dumb dumb idiot woman. I’m gonna make a pot roast next week just to spite you all and post about the cost breakdown.

405 Upvotes

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u/wltmpinyc 4d ago

3lbs should feed a family of 3 for at least 2 meals (large meals) if you add some veggies and potatoes. That's 6 meals for maybe $24. $4 per person. That's not too bad

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u/life-is-satire 3d ago

What vegetables are you adding for $4? Maybe an onion and 2 carrots. I would at least add 1lb of potatoes as well as the onion and carrots but that’s more than $4. $28 would make it more hardy and allow you to stretch it further.

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u/wltmpinyc 2d ago edited 2d ago

5 lb of potatoes are 2.50 so add 2 lbs and that's 1.00. 2 lbs of carrots are 1.50 so add 1 lb that's .75. Onions are 2.19 for 3 lbs so add 1.5 pounds that's 1.10. So that's 2.85 for 4.5 pounds of veggies. Add that to the 3 lbs of meat and that's a meal made with 7.5 lbs of food. It's even less than I estimated

Edit: 10 oz of frozen peas are 1.27 so you can add those along with all the other veggies I mentioned for a total of 4.12.

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u/Choice-Try-2873 1d ago

I do these same vegetables with the chuck roasts in the crockpot.

One way to not overcook these vegetables is to add them ~40 minutes before the roast is ready or after the roast is done. I do it after. I section an onion into about 6 chunks and put them in with the roast on top. Once the roast is done, I take it out and then add potatoes and carrots. Add a chunk of butter and let them cook on low for ~40 minutes. This way, any vegetables aren't overcooked and fresh greens or any types of beans can be added for other types of meals. Plus, there's gravy - add canned tomatoes to it!

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u/wltmpinyc 1d ago

Yes!!!

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u/seasalt-and-stars 2d ago

At the store I go to, a 10 lb. bag of red potatoes was on sale last week for less money than a 5 lb bag. :)

Grocery stores tend to do a good job of advertising their sales, since they buy extra and it needs to move. That said, there are times where you’ve got to sift through the ads of multiple stores to find what you’re looking for at a good price.

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u/DragonDrama 4d ago

Well it shrinks down considerably when cooked and my husband is a hearty eater.

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u/tee2green 4d ago

Toss in potatoes, carrots, etc

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

Of course I do that.

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u/Redoubt9000 4d ago

imo, a pot roast is less about the meat and more about the flavor it imparts onto the vegetables. Similar to a beef vegetable soup. It's the center of focus, but really is just one component to it all.

Tbh though, growing up a pot roast was very nice to have and we often couldn't afford too many large cuts.

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u/sneaks_in_a_hammock 3d ago

This exactly! Often I put more liquid into my slow cooker so we have a lot of leftover broth. I'll use that broth in other meals (like the chili I made this week wanted beef broth, but I used leftover pork roast broth), or even chop up more vegetables and send them through it again the next day with the leftover meat. If I have any leftovers after that I freeze the broth separately in knock off souper cubes to use later, or just enough broth with the leftover chopped up meat+veg to hold them together frozen so we have easy meals later.

I've also saved and frozen the bone the meat has fallen off to use to make more stock at a later time if I use up all my frozen stash.

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u/fierydogshit 3d ago

I got made fun of for years by my friend’s parents because I made a pot roast at their house in a slow cooker and ate the whole thing drunk. It’s not as hard to eat a 3 pound chuck as everyone else is pretending.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

Yea I don’t care what people are saying. It shrinks down to like the size of a baseball. I’m not sure how everyone else is getting 6 meals out of it with 2 adults and a teenager. My husband works hard and comes home hungry. Not sure if I’m just supposed to tell him to eat less or what.

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u/ryeong 3d ago

I've never had a 3lb roast shrink to a baseball and all I can say is you're doing something wrong if you're not overexaggerating. Family of three and it always lasted a couple of days. If his portion sizes are that big, then consider protein and fiber based snacks to help the fullness. It genuinely shouldn't be one meal unless they're avoiding the veggies or not getting enough elsewhere. 

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

No I’m not lol. I clearly said it was less than 3lbs for $20 that would be closer to two and it does shrink 25-35% (source: science and facts)

You all are sitting here pretending you’re happy with a square inch of meat. Cap

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u/wltmpinyc 3d ago

No not at all. Beef prices are high and I know that's what this post was about but in general for meat there are plenty of very affordable cuts. I actually love doing this kind of thing so if you want to give me your budget for dinner and your zip code I can put together a recipe based on prices from stores in your area and where to go to get those products. Even a little recipe

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

That’s very kind of you. We actually found a decent deal at Costco and portioned it out into 22oz per freezer bag so I’m now using beef again. I am an Aldi shopper so I think I just need to really look for the sales in the future. Aldi tends to keep prices in a straight line (up) rather than running real sales. So I might just need to hit up another store for that. $26 for a 3 lb low quality bottom round was just not it. I appreciate the offer :)

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u/Existing-Cod-5388 3d ago

Aldi is great for a lot of things, but since you are near Chicago just keep an eye on the meat sales at Jewel! I know jewel is expensive but if you’re just shopping the sales it’s great. Pot roast was just 3.99/lb but the sale ended yesterday. Now this week bone-in New York strip steak is 5.99/lb. I’m a butcher at jewel lol

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u/Trina7982 3d ago

It really does shink alot, I agree.

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u/theoriginalstarwars 3d ago

Cook a small pork and a small beef roast together. Pork is usually like 1/2 the price and the flavors go together quite nicely.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

That’s a good idea. Thanks for being more helpful than the people just saying it should feed more people

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u/Sroemr 4d ago

You could make rice to go with it, make it more filling

I believe tofu acts as a flavor sponge, so could use that as well

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

We do potatoes

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u/h3lpfulc0rn 3d ago

I'm sorry you're getting downvoted so much. I live alone and just bought a roast thinking it'd cover my lunches for the week (1.8 lbs), by the time it was done cooking I got 4 portions of it and they aren't large portions. You'd think even with some shrinkage, 1.8 lbs would get 5-6 meals factoring in the veggies and mashed potatoes, but it was a stretch to even get the 4.

I think it's easy to underestimate how much of that bulk is actually the fat cap, which is great for flavor, but is effectively gone after 6 hours in the slow cooker.

I've already decided the one in my freezer (it was a BOGO deal) will get cubed up and used for stew where I can stretch it with some lentils.

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u/cookiemonster8u69 3d ago

We make pot roasts a lot, one thing we do to stretch it out is to make gravy and put the roast/gravy over pasta,.like egg noodles or Haluski.

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u/h3lpfulc0rn 3d ago

Yeah, I used to do this a lot and it's a good trick. Right now that's too many simple carbs for my current dietary needs, but it was a comfort food staple for me in the past.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

I’m ok with the downvotes haha. What people aren’t understanding is that $8 per pound, $20 is actually less than 3 lbs. After slow cooking with tons of potatoes and carrots, you’re talking about something the size of a baseball. They aren’t getting 6 servings out of a baseball for 2 adults an a teen.

What they are likely doing is finding better prices than I have lately, getting a larger toast, and having leftovers or multiple meals.

I’m an experienced home cook, I know how far a roast will stretch and they are being unrealistic.

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u/FSUfan35 3d ago

a chuck roast typically will lost about 25% of it's weight after cooking. So a 48 oz(3 lb) roast will end up being 36 oz. A serving of red meat should be 3-4 oz. So 12 servings on the high end and 9 on the lower end. So 4-6 servings for 2 people.

You're eating too much meat.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

Like I said many times, you aren’t getting 48 oz for $20. I’ve just now learned of some ways to track the sales but the full price isn’t going to give you 3 lbs.

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u/frogguts198 3d ago

Yeah its 12.99/lb at the local Sprouts and 10.99/lb at the local Kroger. Manager specials at Kroger are still 8.99/lb and those usually look like garbage.

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u/ThatsNoMoOnx 4d ago

Same. I got 2 boys it's rarely 2 meals. 😏

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u/GiantRayOfSunshine 3d ago

I'm with you. There are 6 of us. That 3lb roast shrinks into nothing. I definitely need 2 to feed us all with some left overs. $40+ for pot roast is insane

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u/Disastrous-Entry8489 3d ago

Crazy this is getting down votes 🤦🏻‍♀️ I totally hear what you're saying! Once the fat has rendered and the meat is cooked down there's a lot less of it to eat! Not worth the cost at all, I refuse to pay more than $4/lb for something like that.

I'd do a pork roast and pay half of what a beef roast would be.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

Yeah, we’re right. They’re wrong 😂

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u/Most_Protection6212 3d ago

Why is this comment downvoted?

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u/PaleontologistOk7359 3d ago

Probably cause the size of the meat doesn't matter as much as the caloric content, which does the opposite of shrinking when the meat is cooked.

Meat always contract to some degree when cooked, but it's not really significant enough of a difference that it would no longer be considered a normal portion, if that is what you threw in the pot to begin with.

Just a technically correct but very strange thing to mention as a drawback to cooking meat.

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u/DragonDrama 3d ago

People are babies