So almost two years ago I shared a post on here regarding a meat slicer and the benefits of slicing your own meat. I've been thinking about making an update on regards to how well it's worked for me and some idea of how it could benefit others as well.
If buying a meat slicer isn't within your budget at the moment then that is understandable too, but if you have the patience of slicing by hand or if your local deli doesn't charge for slicing your meat, I highly recommend buying ham by the shank as opposed to preslice sandwich meat containers. This next bit will involve a bit of math:
It's been about 2 years of owning my slicer - and assuming I haven't bought a ham every month - let's just say for the sake of simplicity I have purchased 15 hams over the past 2 years.
*My Chard slicer cost me roughly $45
*Where I live a pound of precut/prepacked ham slices costs roughly $4.80-$5
*I typically buy Bone In Hams at about 7lbs for about $12
From these hams I am normally able to get about 4lbs of good slices and 1lb of ham chunks. Which I bag up in freezer bags per pound, freeze what I don't need right away, and use about a pound a week for sandwiches, soups, scrambled eggs, etc.
So $12 x 15 hams = $180
15 hams x 5 lbs of edible meat per ham = 75 lbs
75lbs of presliced containers x roughly $5 per lb = $375
Making a difference of $195.
This doesn't even include the amount of ham bones I get to use for soups, stock, and chili. Another benefit I had not discovered until recently was the leftover fat from each ham. I realized that I could render the left over fat in my oven to form simple lard. Lard that I can use to season my cast iron, make baked goods with, or use to flavor beans. Lard also has other great uses that I'm sure I haven't looked into so much. Overall, my meat slicer has more than paid itself off and I haven't had any issues with it at all. Let me know if you have any questions.
June 29, 2019 at 10:33PM
