Why is lengua considered cheap when i can only find it at like 10-15$ a pound?
Am i looking in the wrong places? ive checked a variety of markets and butchers and 10.99$ was the cheapest i found
>>7492432
it was cheap, now that eating organ meat and off cuts of meat are a meme the prices are up
>>7492432
$10 a pound is cheap though, for meat that's fit for human consumption.
Anyone who eats CAFO shitmeat by choice ought to have his head examined. For prions.
I remember when stuff like ox tail and beef shanks where dirt cheap, like, 2$ a lb max. Now everyone is all about "muh marrow bones" and "muh stews" so theyarked that shit up way more than its really worth.
Fuck I miss my ox tail and root vegetable stew and my braised beef shank
>>7492432
The poor man's cuts used to be cheap back when the butcher did the butchering himself. Because he'd be stuck with the variety meats and have to sell them cheap to get rid of them before they went bad.
But butchers today aren't breaking down whole cows anymore. So tongue, tripe, kidney and even liver have to be ordered specifically. When something becomes a special order it raises the price due to simple economies of scale.
>>7492454
I can get Prime ribeye for $8.99/lb here, where do you live?
>>7492589
Jesus Christ how horrifying.
>>7492454
I got 6 pounds of boston butt from a nearby asian market for a $1.69 a pound on sale...
>>7492589
Almost all prime beef is CAFO, anon
You are not getting prime rib eye from pasture raised small operation cattle for under $30/lb unless you're driving to the farm and picking it up yourself
Mexican markets brah
>>7492446
>>7492500
This.
I moved to Memerica 15ish years ago. Back then, tongue and tail, two cuts that are common in my native cuisine, were super cheap, around $3/lb. I began noticing young whites in fashionably unfashionable clothing frequenting the stores I shop at and buying them and other off cuts.
Fast forward to today and the price has inflated three to four times its price back then. To put it into perspective, a gallon of milk at the time was $3.49 and is now $3.89. Goddamn tenderloin, when on offer, can be had for less than tongue or tail (which never go on offer)!
I still buy tongue and tail from time to time, but being the cheap son of a bitch I am, it's nowhere near as common now.
I'm a dirty mexican that goes to molinos and find it cheap there. If I go to heb it's about $5 a pound.
Eating tongue
I don't get it, never liked it tho.
>>7492619
I wouldn't paint it as a hipster thing, it's a popularity thing. Chicken wings and beef short ribs used to be cheap as fuck as well. Then they became really popular, and the prices went up.
Tongue is increasing in popularity because more real Mexican style taquerias are opening up in the US, more people who have never eaten tongue before are trying a lengua taco and deciding it's fucking delicious. That's driving the demand, and thus the price up.
At the higher end the same thing is happening. Chefs at good restaurants are only going to sell so many $60+ fancy steak dinners. They need to have delicious entrees in the $20-$40 range as well. That gets harder to do as the prices of the most desirable cuts of meat keep rising. Especially if you're dealing with a clientele that expects the provenance of the meat to be better than commodity grade CAFO shit, so you're already paying a premium for it. The beef cheeks and short ribs start looking pretty good, and you begin to wonder whether or not you could get away with tongue or a tripe dish.
>>7492719
The popularity is a part of it, but so is the trend in butchering that 7492538 mentioned.
It used to be that butchers would break down whole carcasses in their shop. The premium cuts were always the most popular so that would determine how many animals they'd order, and the less popular (relative to steak and chops) cuts were sold cheap as the supply exceeded demand. That's why they were commonly used in "poor/peasant" cuisine. These days the carcasses are broken down at the packing plant and the individual cuts are shipped out as needed meaning there is no surplus at the local butcher anymore. If a supermarket carries those cuts at all they will be carrying them specifically for a fairly trendy demographic.
You're right about certain dishes helping to drive the price up though. The same thing that is happening with Tongue right now happened to skirt steak (Fajitas) about 15 years ago.
>>7492703
It's amazing when cooked right. Good tongue, when done well, is almost indistinguishable from a very tender roast
>>7492719
>short ribs
Are still really fucking cheap around here. From time to time, I can catch them as low as $2.49/lb at manager's special (shortsale at 50% off regular $4.99/lb pricetag). The usual special offer price is 3lbs for $10, which is about a third the price (or less) of tongue and a little less than half the price of tail.
>>7492738
>broken down at the packing plant
Yeah, the abatoir. I didn't know what you call these places in America. Packing plant makes sense, though, I guess.
The local ones in my area won't sell the tongue on its own and I've never bothered trying to buy sides of beef from them, just goats and lamb.
Is $3.29/lb a good price for a side of beef? Last time I was there, that was the price I saw. Considering an average weight of about 250ish/lbs per side, that'd be around $820 for a whole side. They charge 70ยข/lb to break it down, so a grand or so for a cut up side. Never bought one myself because I have no idea what in the fuck I would do with 200lbs of meat.
>>7492602
cafo?
>>7492840
Factory farm.
>>7492840
it means pretentious upper middle class fags and dogmatic vegans don't like it, wear it as a badge of pride anon
>>7494121
>shitting on manager's specials
Oh, you fancy, huh? With your fancy meat and 2-ply toilet paper.
>>7492432
it is expensive if you get it from a grocer because they have to order it special. If you get it from a butcher it will be less expensive
Because the goddamn Mexicans came into America and started buying it all up creating a demand. THEY'RE TAKING OUR TONGUE!
>>7492538
>When something becomes a special order it raises the price due to simple economies of scale.
I don't believe you know what "economies of scale" means. If what you said were actually economies of scale then we would see the price decrease because it's being done cheaply in bulk by a factory farm, but instead they are jacking up the price to meet a previously unneeded demand. Has nothing to do with economies of scale.
>>7494250
While I suspect you're right and he's wrong, could the fact be that there's only one tongue per animal be a factor to its price? I've never seen a piece of tongue sold, always the whole thing, unlike heart or tail, two other one-per-animal cuts.
So one animal = one tongue, yeah? That means scarcity. Couple that with its recent surge in popularity and we can see why it might have become as costly as it has.
It's a shame I don't like heart because that's quite cheap still.
>>7494224
Yep, I'm posting from Mexico. Tongue here is the same price as fucking rib eye, more than T bone and ever other cut off the cow except for the fillet.
>>7494134
>meat not from a CAFO is vegan
You're the GMO shill from the other thread, aren't you
>>7494250
My point about economies of scale is that the industry is pretty much geared up to deliver cheap chicken breasts and ground beef. Those are the big sellers. Tongue is still an oddball item. An oddball item becoming slightly more popular is not going to result in an increase in availability, just an increase in price. Same thing happened with chicken wings.
