ormandj
Assistant Cook
Hi,
I live in Hawaii, and we have very few good butchers (if any.) Most of our meat is imported for obvious reasons. So, as a result, good meat is hard to come by.
The best place I've found good cuts of steak/good poultry at has been Costco. The unfortunate (or could be fortunate, depending on your replies) problem is Costco obviously sells in bulk.
I am single and do not each huge amounts of food!
For instance, this weekend, I went shopping there. I purchased NY Strip (8.69/lb). The smallest package they had was ~3lbs. This is enough steak to last me for 4 BIG meals! I don't want to eat the same thing back to back, so it would probably be consumed over 2 weeks. I'd probably save half of each steak for later consumption (at work for lunch or something...)
I also got chicken breast, I think it was about 5lbs worth. Looked like 8 breast pieces or so. This will last 3-4 weeks, easily.
My problem, how do I store it? I believe the "sell by" date on the steak was Feb. 07 and on the chicken Feb. 10. Might have that reversed.
I bought ziplock bags, I was thinking to put the steak/chicken I would not eat in the first week since the purchase into individual ziplock bags, and store them in the freezer. The steak/chicken I would eat within a week, keep in the fridge. Is this the best way to go about this?
When I am ready to cook the steak/chicken that has been frozen, how best to unthaw/how long/what process/etc?
I really appreciate this, Costco certainly saves me a lot of money on top of having better quality food that the rest of the places around here, but everything comes in bulk!
Thank you very much in advance,
David
I live in Hawaii, and we have very few good butchers (if any.) Most of our meat is imported for obvious reasons. So, as a result, good meat is hard to come by.
The best place I've found good cuts of steak/good poultry at has been Costco. The unfortunate (or could be fortunate, depending on your replies) problem is Costco obviously sells in bulk.
For instance, this weekend, I went shopping there. I purchased NY Strip (8.69/lb). The smallest package they had was ~3lbs. This is enough steak to last me for 4 BIG meals! I don't want to eat the same thing back to back, so it would probably be consumed over 2 weeks. I'd probably save half of each steak for later consumption (at work for lunch or something...)
I also got chicken breast, I think it was about 5lbs worth. Looked like 8 breast pieces or so. This will last 3-4 weeks, easily.
My problem, how do I store it? I believe the "sell by" date on the steak was Feb. 07 and on the chicken Feb. 10. Might have that reversed.
I bought ziplock bags, I was thinking to put the steak/chicken I would not eat in the first week since the purchase into individual ziplock bags, and store them in the freezer. The steak/chicken I would eat within a week, keep in the fridge. Is this the best way to go about this?
When I am ready to cook the steak/chicken that has been frozen, how best to unthaw/how long/what process/etc?
I really appreciate this, Costco certainly saves me a lot of money on top of having better quality food that the rest of the places around here, but everything comes in bulk!
Thank you very much in advance,
David