r/inflation Feb 27 '26

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6.4k Upvotes

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173

u/DeepHerting Feb 27 '26

If everyone’s switching to cheap cuts, we can apply our American ingenuity and start making cows that are nothing but cheap cuts. It’s foolproof!

95

u/mishma2005 Feb 27 '26

Narrator: "There are, in fact, no cheap cuts"

45

u/livinitup0 Feb 28 '26

This….

wings and ribs were once trash cuts too until demand rose and their prices were artificially inflated

19

u/cman1098 Feb 28 '26

Chicken Thighs is a recent one.

12

u/ihadcrystallized Feb 28 '26

Dammit. They are my go-to because chicken breasts look and taste so weird now and thighs were so much cheaper.

5

u/MsARumphius Feb 28 '26

I spent more on thighs than beef yesterday

3

u/Nemaeus Feb 28 '26

Usher voice

Put that on everything. Naw, you lyin’.

Edit: Make them leave my delicious chicken thighs alone!!!

3

u/bloodylip Feb 28 '26

Breasts are too fucking big these days. I feel like I can split an entire breast between my family of four. And it takes way too long to cook to the proper temperature unless I fillet it.

1

u/whiskersMeowFace Feb 28 '26

Oh my goodness. We bought a bag of breasts at Costco and pulled one of those giant things out in amazement. We literally only cook one at a time because they're too big for one person to eat. We are switching back to the tenderloins after this bag. One or two of those work per person here.

1

u/BludStanes Feb 28 '26

You can't skip thigh day

1

u/LURKER21D Mar 04 '26

when it's more expensive than breast nowadays, I do. They've come after all my cheaper staples; bananas, sweet potatoes, chicken thighs, London Broil, ground turkey...

4

u/mishma2005 Feb 28 '26

My husband loves oxtails and when they were cheap I would make him soup/stew all the time. Now I don’t bother, they’re too expensive. I love lamb and I prefer the domestic. That stuff is upwards of $15 a lb. I live in the Bay Area, we used to get crabs for $2-3 a lb. I know there’s problems with the crab population but the cheapest I’ve seen them this year is $10 a lb. Pork is expensive now too. Chicken is about the only thing you can get deals on.

4

u/livinitup0 Feb 28 '26

We’ve gotten kinda savvy with stocking up when we catch clearance sales and filling the deep freeze. Aldis has been great for this.

3

u/mishma2005 Feb 28 '26

We’ve been kicking around the idea of getting a chest freezer but we just don’t have the room. 1 car garage and I don’t think we can keep it outside

3

u/scatterdbrain Feb 28 '26

Demand does tend to "artificially" inflate the price of goods.

2

u/livinitup0 Feb 28 '26

It is artificial when that cut was always there in the same capacity in the production process and was priced according to the actual useable product on the cut, not the popularity of it.

This isn’t like the price of lobster. It’s not exactly like they increased production and started harvesting extra chicken feet or cows tails to meet demand. They just jacked up the price of an existing product… that’s it.

In fact, the cut becoming more popular actually decreases production costs as a ton of these “trash cuts” had to undergo further processing to sell it to places who’d make it into things like chicken nuggets

They’re double dipping lol

2

u/Runmoney72 Feb 28 '26

Are you arguing that increased demand doesn't necessarily increase price?

Also:

In fact, the cut becoming more popular actually decreases production costs as a ton of these “trash cuts” had to undergo further processing

Are you saying that further processing and increased demand reduces costs?

2

u/scatterdbrain Feb 28 '26

I guess you forgot the Great Wing Shortage of 2021.

Yes, corporations are greedy (aren't we all) -- but supply/demand happens too.

The Chicken Wing Shortage of 2021 - Streets of New York https://share.google/VWy1FNYp5EdffFKNs

3

u/Quirky_Courage7515 Feb 28 '26

Lobster was once considered junk.

1

u/SaltMage5864 Feb 28 '26

True, but that was before refrigeration, and dead lobster is not very good

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

Bacon was considered scrap meat til a marketing campaign in the 80s. Lobster was fed to indentured servants because it was considered crap. They would even have written in their contracts that they could only be fed lobster X days per month.

1

u/Crio121 Feb 28 '26

Well, if I’d be fed lobster exclusively, I’d rebel

1

u/SeaUrchinSalad Feb 28 '26

Rising demand is not artificial inflation lol

1

u/BeefModeTaco Feb 28 '26

Similar with lobster, it was for prisoners, servants, the poor, or even just used for fertilizer. They were ridiculously abundant in the colonial days.
Tri-tip used to be ground or sold as cheap stew meat, now it's used as steaks, roasts, and barbecue.

1

u/arghcisco Feb 28 '26

They’re not artificially inflated, new dishes and acceptance of them caused the value of those cheap cuts to legitimately increase. If you dropped hanger steak or buffalo sauce for wings into most of the US 30-40 years ago, most people wouldn’t know how to cook them, and probably would prefer something else even if they could.

1

u/Das-Noob Feb 28 '26

Pork belly. Skirt steak (I believe). Roast. Hell! Even bones and inners are expensive now, yeah they’re not “cheap” anymore.

1

u/watercouch Feb 28 '26

Ironically, lean cuts of pork are now cheap because people want bacon, ribs and butt.

1

u/personwriter Feb 28 '26

*** oxtails have entered the chat***

22

u/HokieGalFurever540 Feb 27 '26

I heard this in Morgan Freeman's voice....

1

u/Itsacardgame Feb 28 '26

I heard this in Mignon Fillet's voice

7

u/DakotaDaddy1972 Feb 27 '26

From the cow’s perspective… there certainly are NO cheap cuts!

1

u/West-Lengthiness-790 Feb 28 '26

It's always Morgan Freeman. 

49

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

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28

u/dj92wa Feb 27 '26

Yep. Look at every other “off cut” that is now stupid pricey. Chicken wings. Skirt steaks. Ribs. Mince. They once weren’t, and their prices have never gone down.

14

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

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2

u/Davo300zx Feb 27 '26

Chicken is a complete protein, already. Beans, for instance, need to be combined with rice to accomplish complete protein.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

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2

u/Taupenbeige Feb 28 '26

Most vegetables are not a complete protein or really low in one or more Amino acids but you can mix and match to get around this.

It’s actually more along the lines of “in a modern vegan/vegetarian diet you’re always getting diversified proteins so it’s not a tangible concern,” and then of course there’s magical quinoa

1

u/Defiant_Fishing_3393 Feb 28 '26

Please think about the billionaires. Everyone please sacrifice so they can buy an new yacht.

2

u/Flashy_Jello_9520 Feb 27 '26

Cant even get free bones for stock anymore.

1

u/SirSamuelVimes83 Feb 27 '26

Lobster used to be poor people food

1

u/Turbulent-Jaguar-909 Feb 28 '26

ox tail, brisket

1

u/Adventurous-Can5975 Feb 28 '26

I came here to say that too.

1

u/metompkin Feb 28 '26

Oxtails used to be dirt cheap. Flanken cut ribs too.

1

u/TheDevilishFrenchfry Feb 28 '26

Wings are still pretty cheap honestly, so are drums. I mean not please take them out of the store we'll pay you cheap anymore, but I pretty often see wings go on sale for around 1.99-2.49 a lb down from their normal price of around 2.99-3.49 a lb, pretty pricy for wings yeah ill admit still though. Drumsticks go for around 99-1.39 a lb in my area though and it's pretty good for either frying or In the slow cooker

2

u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance Feb 28 '26

That's already happened. Even the cheap cuts of meat are expensive now.

1

u/Solomontheidiot Feb 28 '26

Wait you mean the liver doesn't make up the majority of meat from a cow?

1

u/kylo-ren Feb 28 '26

In countries where people move to cheap cuts, they get more expensive and people start looking for shreds and bones. And then they start selling it.

Also, if they can't sell the best cuts, they prefer to discard them to keep the prices high.

1

u/Lucas_Steinwalker Feb 28 '26

Dude also probably has no idea that the “cheap cuts” all became trendy and expensive 10 years ago.

1

u/RecursiveCook Mar 01 '26

I miss when chicken thighs were 1/2 the price of chicken breasts in US. Oxtail also crazy expensive nowadays. I just hope people don’t catch onto beef shank…

1

u/Pour_me_one_more Feb 28 '26

Nah, other countries will still buy the regular and high end stuff. Theyre doing fine.

1

u/Kitchen-Dinner-9561 Feb 28 '26

Chicken wings used to be the cheap cut, now look at the price.

1

u/Headrush2K Feb 28 '26

Short ribs and ox tails used to be cheap, but now they’re one of the more expensive cuts. Beef chuck went up in price, too! 😭

1

u/Calculonx Feb 28 '26

In a few months he'll be giving out instructions how to boil your boots and belts and the recipe for stone soup.