Q&A: Frugal Cuts of Meat, Cod Liver Oil + Butter Oil, and General Announcements

First, a few announcements…

• I have not written about salt yet on this blog, but have an article in the works for next month detailing my thoughts. But this morning I ordered celtic sea salt for the first time and found a great deal on it. (Or maybe that’s the regular price and I’ve just never seen it before?)
  
• I switched hosting services over the weekend and while everything looks ok from my end I was wondering how it is for you? Do you notice anything unusual or out of whack?
  
• Early February we will celebrate a one year blogiversary with a week of giveaways. I am very much looking forward to that and a few other happenings that will be revealed then.

It seems like I have been receiving a lot of questions regarding various topics lately. Many of the answers may get lost in the comments so every now and again I like to put answers in article form and allow for further discussion. I know many of you may have better answers than I to some of these questions, so let’s get to it.

Inexpensive Cuts of Pastured Meats

One reader asks:

Could you share which cuts of grass-fed meat you buy in order to stay in budget?

That’s a great question. We are blessed to live in an area where we have access to a lot of different options for grass-fed meats and animal products. If you are looking for farmers in your area check out Local Harvest. Now let me share a breakdown with you.

• Chicken – I primarily buy whole pastured chickens from a local farmer for $2.75/lb. This one bird gets roasted for one meal, made into stock for several other meals, eaten for lunch the next day, and the leftover meat gets made into something like chicken curry. So we probably get 3-4 meals out of one $13-$15 bird.
• Beef – We buy most of our beef from a locally-owned health food store that outsources grass-fed beef from a local farm. Ground beef is the least expensive so we primarily eat that, though occasionally I will spend the extra $1/lb for roasts. I purchase the ground beef for $3.49/lb. We eat a lot of ground beef.
• Pork – We don’t eat a lot of pork, partially because we prefer beef and partially because finding pastured pork requires extra ordering and delivery because only "natural" pork is available at our health food store. When we order pork it is usually bacon, which we use in smaller quantities to flavor a greens quiche or liver. Occasionally we purchase pork steaks or roasts, the least expensive cut.

If you can’t find pastured meats locally you can order them online and take advantage of weekly sales (see sources).

Butter Oil Necessary for Cod Liver Oil Absorption?

I got a lot of comments and questions regarding my cod liver oil article and whether or not butter oil is necessary for absorption. I found this article from the WAPF saying:

Dr. Price always gave cod liver oil along with high-vitamin butter oil, extracted by centrifuge from good quality spring or fall butter. He found that cod liver oil on its own was relatively ineffective but combined with high vitamin butter oil produced excellent results. The butter oil contains what he called Activator X, now considered to be vitamin K₂, which works synergistically with vitamins A and D. Your diet should include sources of vitamin K, such as good quality butter from grass-fed cows and/or high-vitamin butter oil, fat from grass-fed animals, cheeses from grass-fed animals and duck or goose liver, along with cod liver oil.

So perhaps if you are trying to maintain your health having plenty of healthy fats would do the trick. But if you’re trying to regain health through cod liver oil you might want to consider taking the combination CLO/butter oil, which I am currently taking. (see sources)

Also, Diane shared her story of recovering her health through CLO and raw butter:

CLO and high vitamin raw butter saved my life! Weston A Price found the best healing results occurred as they were taken together! I ATE 5 Tbsp of butter a day as well as swigging CLO first thing in the AM on an empty stomach. The proof is in the puddin! I like to say, “it works if you work it”!

Those are my thoughts… do you have any thoughts regarding inexpensive pastured meats or butter oil?