I think this is an excellent time to stock up on corned beef. It will be at the lowest price of the year for St. Patrick’s Day and corned beef freezes well for future meals and cabbage lasts a long time too! There is a time to purchase some things AFTER a holiday and there is a time to purchase some things in bulk in anticipation of the holiday (like Turkeys for Thanksgiving) and NOW is the time to buy several corned beef and freeze them for easy crock pot cooking. I’d suggest buying 1 for March for your St. Patty’s Day dinner, 1 for April, and 1 for May. Be sure to make your crock pot meal on a day when its a little on the chilly side (not a warm day) and this may help you not to have to turn on the heat for that day.
St. Patricks Day Crock Pot Meal Recipe:
Fill crock pot with water, add corned beef and chopped onion and corned beef seasoning packet. Cook on 350 degrees (or higher) at least 5 hours (longer is better). Be sure to add additional water during the day if your water steams out of the crock pot. An hour before serving add potatoes, carrots and cabbage (quartered). Serve warm as a one dish dinner!
St. Patrick’s Day dinner Supermarket prices: (keep in mind that we will see one more sale circular cycle before St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th, Saturday, and these stores may reduce their prices even further)
Giant Foods: Looks like they are the winner this year with the best price on corned beef but fresh and greens grocery store (the old SuperFresh in Maryland) has the best price on cabbage!
Gaint
Corned Beef Brisket $1.79lb
Cabbage 33¢ lb
Safeway
Safeway brand Corned Beef brisket Flat cut $2.99 lb
No cabbage price listed
ACME:
Corned Beef Point Cut $1.99 lb
No cabbage price listed in circular but last I checked it was 50¢lb
Food Lion:
Corned Beef Brisket Point $1.99 lb
No cabbage prices listed in circular
fresh & greens:
Corned Beef Point Cut $2.29 lb
Cabbage 29¢ lb (best price on cabbage)
We have bought 3 corn beef briskets from Safeway this year, all three have been pitiful. A single brisket will feed 2 people with no left overs, that’s right, don’t even consider a rueben the next day, and if you have growing kids, you better by 3 or 4 of these things, 1 won’t even come close.
Terrible briskets, up the quality or just quit stocking them, mostly fat with a scant amount of flesh.