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Meat prices have been climbing steadily, and if you’ve been shopping the same cuts you always have, you’ve noticed. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend the same amount on meat for a single meal as you would to get three good meals and a couple of lunches just a short time ago. And there’s no sign of things getting better anytime soon.
But here’s the thing. Our grandmothers didn’t have this problem, not because meat was cheaper back then, but because they used the whole animal. They didn’t walk past the beef cheeks or the chicken livers or the pork neck. They took those cuts home, did something clever with them, and put food on the table that tasted genuinely incredible. They had to know how to cook. We mostly forgot.
These cheaper cuts are still there, still cheap, and still absolutely delicious when you treat them right. Some of them are actually better than the expensive cuts: more flavor, more collagen, more depth. Butchers who stock the whole animal are often practically giving them away because demand is so low. That’s changing as more people wise up, but for now, these are where the value is.
This is what real, thrifty, nose-to-tail cooking looks like. The kind your great-grandmother would recognize immediately.
1. Beef shin (also called beef shank)
Beef shin comes from the lower leg, which means it’s packed with connective tissue, collagen, and a large central marrow bone. That sounds like a downside. It’s actually the whole point. When you cook it low and slow, all that connective tissue melts into the braising liquid and creates the most unctuous, silky sauce you’ve ever tasted.
It typically runs about a third of the price of braising steak and produces a much better result. The collagen acts as a natural thickener, so you don’t need to mess with flour or cornstarch. The marrow inside the bone is edible and delicious. Scoop it out at the table and spread it on bread with a little flaky salt.
How to use it
Brown the shin well in batches in a Dutch oven, then braise at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours in beef stock, a splash of red wine, onions, carrots, and a few sprigs of thyme. It should fall completely off the bone. Serve over creamy mashed potatoes and make sure you spoon every drop of that braising liquid over the top.
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2. Pork shoulder (Boston butt)
Pork shoulder is one of the most forgiving cuts of meat in existence. It’s marbled with fat and connective tissue, which means it’s almost impossible to dry out, and it rewards long, lazy cooking in a way that pork loin simply never will. You can get it bone-in for even less per pound.
This is the cut for pulled pork, for slow-roasted Sunday dinners, for tacos, for bánh mì, for fried rice the next day. It does whatever you ask of it and the leftovers are just as good as the original meal. Sometimes better.
How to use it
Rub generously with smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Cook bone-in in a low oven at 275°F (135°C) for 6 to 8 hours, or until the internal temperature hits 195°F to 205°F (90°C to 96°C) and the bone pulls out clean. Rest for at least 30 minutes before pulling with two forks.
3. Chicken thighs
Chicken thighs aren’t exactly obscure, but I’m including them because a shocking number of people still reach for the boneless skinless chicken breast on autopilot and pay nearly twice as much for meat that is less flavorful, less forgiving, and actively worse in most recipes. Chicken thighs have more fat, which means more flavor and more moisture, and they don’t punish you for cooking them a minute too long.
Bone-in, skin-on thighs are the best value and the most versatile. Boneless thighs are a close second. I use them for everything from weeknight stir-fries to slow-cooked curries to grilling in summer. They’re the cut I always have in my freezer.
How to use it
Pat dry, season well, and sear skin-side down in an oven-safe pan over medium-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes until the skin is deeply golden. Flip, add aromatics and liquid, and finish in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Done. Endlessly repeatable with different flavor profiles.
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4. Beef cheeks
Beef cheeks are a muscle the cow uses constantly, which makes them dense and tough and, when cooked properly, absolutely extraordinary. The flavor is deeply beefy, almost like a concentrated stock, and the texture after a long braise is closer to butter than meat. This is a cut that genuinely surprises people the first time they eat it.
Most mainstream grocery stores don’t stock them, but any butcher worth their salt will have them or can get them for you. They’re inexpensive because demand is still relatively low. That won’t last forever. Buy them while they’re cheap.
How to use it
Trim off any thick exterior fat and sinew, then braise for at least 4 hours at 300°F (150°C) in red wine, beef stock, and aromatics. They need time; there’s no shortcut here. The finished meat is perfect for tacos, served whole with polenta, or shredded through pasta.
5. Lamb neck
Lamb neck is one of the great undervalued cuts in the American market. It’s meltingly tender after a long cook, intensely flavored, and it costs a fraction of lamb shoulder or leg. Like beef shin, it’s loaded with collagen and connective tissue that breaks down into a rich, sticky sauce. It also pairs exceptionally well with North African spice profiles: cumin, coriander, cinnamon, preserved lemon.
You can buy lamb neck sliced into rounds (which are great for braises and stews) or as a whole bone-in piece. Either way, you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck compared to the premium lamb cuts.
How to use it
Make a simple Moroccan-inspired tagine: brown the neck pieces, add onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, chickpeas, a cinnamon stick, a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander, and a preserved lemon if you have one. Braise at 325°F (165°C) for 2.5 to 3 hours. Serve over couscous with fresh cilantro.
6. Pork neck bones
Pork neck bones are almost pure bone with a relatively thin covering of meat, which is exactly why they’re cheap and why they’re so valuable. They make the most flavorful, gelatinous stock you’ve ever tasted, and they’re a foundation ingredient in Southern US cooking for a reason. Slow-cooked in a pot of collard greens or black-eyed peas, they give the whole dish a smoky, savory depth that no amount of store-bought broth can replicate.
You can also use them as the starting point for ramen broth, tonkotsu-style. Simmer them hard for 4 to 6 hours and you’ll get a rich, milky, collagen-heavy broth that’s deeply satisfying.
How to use it
Add to a large pot with collard greens, onion, garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and enough water to cover. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours until the greens are silky and the meat falls from the bones. Pick the meat out, discard the bones, and stir the meat back through. Season well with salt and a splash of apple cider vinegar.
7. Beef liver
Beef liver is where a lot of people check out, and I understand that. If your only experience with liver is a grey, overcooked slab served in a school cafeteria or a care home, you’ve been wronged. Properly cooked beef liver, sliced thin and cooked fast with a pink center, tastes nothing like that. It’s rich, mineral, a little sweet, and genuinely delicious.
From a nutrition standpoint, beef liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in existence. It’s extraordinarily high in B12, iron, folate, copper, and vitamin A. Our grandparents treated it as near-medicinal, and they weren’t wrong. The key is to not overcook it. It should be pink inside, never grey. Soak it in milk for an hour before cooking to mellow the flavor if you’re new to it.
How to use it
Slice into half-inch pieces, season well, and cook in a very hot pan with butter and a little olive oil for 2 minutes per side. No more. It should still be pink inside. Serve with caramelized onions (genuinely worth the 45 minutes it takes to do them properly), mashed potatoes, and a squeeze of lemon. Classic for a reason.
8. Chicken livers
Chicken livers are cheaper than almost anything else at the meat counter and they cook in under 10 minutes, which makes them one of the best weeknight budget options going. The flavor is milder than beef liver, the texture is creamy when cooked correctly, and they’re endlessly versatile. Sauté them with shallots and herbs, turned into a silky pâté, added to a Bolognese for depth, or cooked into a dirty rice.
They’re also incredibly rich in iron and B vitamins, so if you’re eating them a couple of times a month, you’re doing your body a real favor. Buy them fresh if you can, frozen if that’s what’s available. Either works.
How to use it
For the simplest weeknight meal, sauté sliced shallots in butter until soft, add trimmed chicken livers and cook over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once. Add a splash of brandy or Marsala, let it bubble for a minute, season well, and serve on toast with a handful of fresh parsley. Done in 15 minutes, costs almost nothing.
9. Kidney (beef or lamb)
Kidney is the cut that divides people most sharply, and I’ll be honest: there’s a reason for that. Improperly prepared kidney has a strong ammonia smell and a flavor that’s genuinely difficult to love. But remove that membrane, soak it in cold water or milk for an hour, trim out the white central core, and cook it properly, and you have something completely different. Rich, savory, tender, and deeply flavored.
Lamb kidney is milder and more delicate than beef kidney. Beef kidney has the strongest flavor and benefits most from soaking. Both are nearly free, often well under $3 a pound, which is remarkable given what you can do with them. Steak and kidney pudding or pie is the ultimate British working-class comfort food and it’s incredible when made from scratch.
How to use it
Halve lamb kidneys lengthways, trim out the white core, soak in cold milk for 30 to 60 minutes, then rinse and pat dry. Sauté in a very hot pan with butter for 2 to 3 minutes total. They should be browned outside but still rosy inside. Season with salt, pepper, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and serve on toast with mustard. Or combine with beef shin or chuck in a slow-cooked pie filling.
10. Pork belly
Pork belly has had a bit of a restaurant renaissance over the past decade, which means it’s not quite as cheap as it once was, but it’s still significantly less expensive than most premium cuts and it produces results that are frankly unfair given the effort involved. The fat-to-meat ratio is high, which is exactly the point. That fat renders down during cooking and gives you crispy crackling on top and meltingly tender meat underneath.
Buy it skin-on for crackling, or skinless if you’re planning to braise or slow-roast and don’t want the effort. Score the skin deeply if you want it to crackle properly, and make sure it’s completely dry before it goes in the oven.
How to use it
Score the skin, rub with salt and a little baking powder (which helps dry it out), and roast at 450°F (230°C) for 30 minutes to blister the skin, then drop to 325°F (165°C) for another 2 hours for the meat. Rest for 20 minutes before slicing. Or braise cubed pork belly in soy, mirin, sake, ginger, and garlic for a simplified Japanese kakuni.
11. Oxtail
Oxtail is the tail of the animal, cross-cut into rounds. It’s mostly bone, connective tissue, and a thin layer of intensely flavored meat, and it makes the most extraordinary stew and broth you’ll ever eat. The gelatin content is through the roof, which means the braising liquid sets to a wobbling jelly when cold. That’s a sign of a properly made oxtail dish.
Oxtail has actually risen in price as the nose-to-tail movement caught on, but it’s still considerably cheaper than prime cuts and the flavor per dollar is hard to beat. It takes time, a minimum of 3 hours braising and ideally longer, but the process is almost entirely hands-off.
How to use it
Brown the pieces well, then braise in a Dutch oven at 300°F (150°C) with red wine, beef stock, onion, carrot, celery, tomato paste, bay leaves, and thyme for at least 3.5 to 4 hours, until the meat pulls easily from the bone. Serve over creamy polenta or wide egg noodles. Skim the fat from the braising liquid before serving; there will be a lot of it.
12. Chicken feet
This one gets a reaction, but stick with me. Chicken feet are not really a meat cut in the traditional sense; there’s minimal edible flesh. What they are is an extraordinary source of collagen and gelatin, which is exactly what makes a truly great stock. Add a few to your stock pot and the resulting broth will set completely solid in the fridge and have a body and richness that you simply can’t get from carcasses alone.
They’re also a beloved street food in several Asian cuisines when braised or fried and served with a spicy or sweet sauce. If you’ve never had dim sum braised chicken feet, you’re missing something genuinely good. Your Asian grocery store will almost certainly stock them.
How to use it
For stock, clean and add directly to your stockpot with the usual aromatics and simmer for at least 3 hours. For eating, blanch for 10 minutes, then deep-fry briefly at 375°F (190°C) until puffed and golden, then braise in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, and a little sugar for 45 minutes until tender and sticky.
13. Ham hock (pork hock)
A ham hock is the lower section of the pig’s leg, mostly skin, bone, and connective tissue, with patches of rich, smoky meat tucked into every crevice. Smoked ham hocks are one of the great flavor bombs of Southern and German cooking. They transform a pot of beans, lentils, or split pea soup from serviceable to something your family requests specifically.
One smoked ham hock can flavor a pot of soup that feeds six people, which makes it exceptional value. The meat you pick from the bone at the end goes back into the pot. Nothing is wasted.
How to use it
For split pea soup, add one smoked ham hock to a large pot with rinsed green split peas, diced onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and about 8 cups of water or stock. Simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours until the peas have completely broken down and the hock meat is tender. Remove the hock, pick the meat, discard the bone and skin, and stir the meat back through. Season with salt, pepper, and a little cider vinegar.
14. Beef tongue
Beef tongue sounds alarming right up until you eat it. The texture is similar to a very tender brisket: smooth, fine-grained, absolutely not rubbery. The the flavor is mild and beefy. It’s a staple in Mexican tacos (lengua), Jewish deli cooking (sliced thin on rye), and traditional British cuisine. Once it’s cooked and peeled, it genuinely doesn’t look like what it was, and anyone you serve it to who doesn’t know what they’re eating will just think it’s excellent meat.
It takes a long time to cook, 3 to 4 hours simmering in seasoned water, but the preparation is hands-off, and one tongue typically weighs 2 to 3 pounds and feeds a family easily at a very low cost per serving.
How to use it
Simmer the tongue with onion, garlic, bay leaves, black peppercorns, and salt for 3 to 4 hours until a knife goes in easily. Let it cool slightly, then peel off the rough outer skin while still warm; it comes off easily at this point. Slice thin for tacos with salsa verde, pickled onions, and cilantro. Or slice and serve cold with horseradish and mustard.
15. Pork ribs (spare ribs, not baby back)
Baby back ribs are the premium rib cut and they’re priced accordingly. Spare ribs come from further down the rib cage, have more connective tissue and fat, and cost noticeably less. They also have more flavor, because fat equals flavor, always. The extra connective tissue means they benefit from a longer, slower cook, which is easy to do and produces results that restaurant baby backs can’t match.
St. Louis-style spare ribs (which are spare ribs trimmed to a rectangular rack) are a good middle ground: slightly more trimmed than untreated spare ribs, but still much cheaper than baby backs and far more interesting to eat.
How to use it
Remove the membrane from the back of the rack, apply a dry rub of brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne, and let sit for at least an hour, ideally overnight. Roast at 275°F (135°C) wrapped in foil for 2.5 to 3 hours, then unwrap, glaze with your preferred BBQ sauce, and finish under the broiler or on a hot grill for 10 minutes.
16. Chicken backs and carcasses
Chicken backs aren’t something you cook and eat as a main course; there’s very little meat on them. But they are extraordinary for stock, and they’re often sold almost for nothing. Many grocery stores that break down whole chickens in-house will bag up the backs and carcasses separately for under a dollar a pound. Asian and Latin grocery stores often sell them at similarly low prices.
A proper homemade chicken stock made from roasted backs and carcasses with aromatics is something fundamentally different from anything in a carton. It has body, depth, and real chicken flavor, and it makes every soup, risotto, braise, and pan sauce you use it in noticeably better.
How to use it
Roast the backs and carcasses at 425°F (220°C) for 30 to 40 minutes until deep golden brown. Transfer to a stockpot with onion (halved, unpeeled), carrot, celery, a whole head of garlic cut across the middle, peppercorns, and a bay leaf. Cover with cold water and bring slowly to a simmer. Skim, then simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours. Strain, cool, and skim the fat. Freeze in ice cube trays for easy portioning.
17. Lamb breast
Lamb breast is one of the most overlooked cuts in the butcher’s case and I have no idea why, because it’s genuinely remarkable. It’s a fatty, layered cut with thin seams of meat and a lot of connective tissue, which yes means it needs long, slow cooking, but the result is extraordinary. It’s the lamb equivalent of pork belly in terms of richness and texture, and it costs a fraction of what shoulder or leg runs.
You can braise it whole, slow-roast it, or roll it around a stuffing and tie it into a neat roast. It’s also very good deboned, stuffed with herbs and garlic, rolled tightly, and roasted low and slow until completely tender.
How to use it
Ask your butcher to bone it out flat. Spread the inside with a mixture of breadcrumbs, lemon zest, fresh rosemary, garlic, and a little olive oil. Roll tightly and tie with kitchen twine. Roast at 325°F (165°C) for 2.5 to 3 hours, then blast at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes to crisp the outside. Rest for 20 minutes before slicing.
18. Heart (beef or chicken)
Heart is a muscle, full stop. It doesn’t have the mineral intensity of liver or kidney, and the flavor is clean, beefy, and straightforward. Beef heart has a dense, almost steak-like texture when sliced thin and cooked quickly over very high heat. Chicken hearts are small enough to cook whole on skewers and are popular street food in Brazil, where they’re grilled with salt and served straight from the fire.
Both are packed with protein and CoQ10 (a compound your own heart actually uses for energy production), and both are drastically underpriced. Beef heart in particular gives you an enormous quantity of meat. A whole beef heart can weigh 4 pounds, all for very little money.
How to use it
For beef heart, trim any exterior fat, valves, and connective tissue, slice against the grain about a quarter-inch thick, and marinate for a few hours in olive oil, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and a splash of red wine vinegar. Cook on a screaming hot grill or cast-iron pan for 1 to 2 minutes per side. No more. It should be medium-rare or it turns tough. Serve with chimichurri. For chicken hearts, thread onto skewers, season with salt and pepper, and grill over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once.
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A note on where to find these cuts
Your standard grocery store may not carry all of these, and that’s fine. Get to know a local butcher, one who breaks down whole animals in-house, and ask. They often have these cuts in a back cooler or can order them for you with a day or two’s notice. Asian and Latin grocery stores are consistently excellent sources for organ meats, pork cuts, and chicken parts that mainstream stores don’t bother with.
It’s also worth buying in bulk when you find a good price. Beef shin, pork shoulder, and liver all freeze exceptionally well. A vacuum sealer pays for itself quickly if you’re buying and freezing in quantity.
The cuts on this list are where real cooking lives. The kind that takes time, rewards patience, and produces food that’s genuinely better than anything you can get from a quick meal of expensive fillets. Your grandmother knew this. Now you do too.
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