My colleague, Tiffany, at Don’t Waste the Crumbs, recently wrote about making DIY lunchmeat. It sounded pretty easy, so I gave it a try. Here’s my experience:
We usually buy Black Forest Deli Ham from Aldi for $3.49 a lb. The kids love it and I buy it even though it’s “coated with Caramel Color.” That makes me cringe a little every time I put it in my cart. What is caramel color anyway? I finally decided to put aside my fears and just look it up. According to this article, it’s basically toasted carbohydrates and is not any more harmful than caramel sugar. The problem comes if you are allergic to the carbohydrate base which might contain wheat. In this case, Aldi says it’s gluten free. We’ve never had a reaction, but we aren’t sensitive to any carbohydrates.
Sodium Nitrite is the other ingredient that makes me cringe. It is added as a preservative to prevent food poisoning. You will die much faster from botulism than you will from nitrite poisoning, but it has been shown to contribute to cancer in large doses. The first Trim Healthy Mama book said that while it’s nice to avoid nitrates there are enough antioxidants in one orange to counter any harmful affects from an average serving of preserved meat. My kids won’t eat oranges :(. Sodium phosphate is a non-toxic salt used as a thickening agent. Basically you can google any ingredient that you aren’t sure about and decide for yourself if it’s something you are ok with.
I started my DIY lunch meat by buying a Kirkland frozen turkey breast from Aldi. It was $8.99 for a 48 oz package. At $3 a lb, it would save me $1.50 over buying 3 lbs of lunch meat, but there’s a catch. Inside the package was a bag of “gravy” weighing 10.6 ounces, leaving me with only 37.4 oz of meat. Uncooked I’m now paying $3.84 per pound.
I rubbed the meat all over with seasoned salt and put it in the slow cooker. I think I overcooked it a tad. I didn’t really keep track of the time and the juices were caramlized by the time I returned. It smelled heavenly. I let it cool on the counter a bit before wrapping and chilling overnight in the refrigerator. When it was completely cold I weighed it before slicing it by hand. Trying to get the slices as thin as deli meat. I wasn’t very good at it.
The finally cooked weight of the meat was 1.6 lbs. $5.61 per pound. This is 160% more than just buying lunchmeat.
I tried my mandolin slicer to see if it would be easier. It made a crumbly mess. You really need an electric knife or deli slicer if you want to automate things.
It tasted amazing, but crumbled pretty easily. This is probably because I overcooked it, which would have also reduced moisture content and weight a little bit.
I had a loaf of garlic bread on hand and used it to make an open faced baked family sized sandwich.
Too bad we were out of tomatoes, that would have been really pretty. The sandwich was delicious! A big hit for everyone in the family.
Pros:
- It was delicious and not that hard.
- It may have fewer questionable ingredients (although the turkey breast was brined with a sodium solution and I forgot to check the ingredients before tossing the package to see if there were any cringe-worthy ones)
Cons:
- It was a lot more expensive.
- While it wasn’t that hard, it took more time than just buying lunch meat.
- It was hard to slice as thin as deli meat
- It crumbled easily
Would I try it again? Probably not. It was delicious but not budget friendly for us. If I decide to give up lunchmeat altogether to avoid nitrites, cooking a chicken with bones and shredding the meat, would be more cost effective for us.
What do you think? Would you try it?
Shoot…I was hoping it would be cheaper! I have found turkeys after Thanksgiving very cheap, and hams too, but that is inconsistent. I used to just avoid lunchmeat…we homeschool, so I could be not so dependent on sandwiches, and we would just use it when we needed a “to go” lunch. But now we have kind of fallen in a rut with them again.
We used to eat cheese sandwiches without the lunch meat, and I liked it when I was a kid…a possibility on occasion?? Now I make an adult version of cheese sandwiches with slices of avocado, lettuce, and tomato–yummy! I was hoping it would work well too! Nitrate free lunch meat was $8.99 a pound when I checked!! Ouch!!
Wowsers. Homemade lunchmeat is definitely a viable alternative to $8.99 nitrate free meat. Your adult grilled cheese sound amazing…going to have to try that. The thing about going meat free is just making sure there’s enough protein in the meal. A side dish of cottage cheese or edamame would fix it.
Thank you for working out the numbers for this. I saw Tiffany’s post and thought about trying it out but I think you just saved me some time (and money)!
Julia, if you can get meat at the right price it would be worth it. It’s not a bad technique, but the regular price of turkey breast doesn’t work unless you were already paying higher prices for nitrate free stuff.
I have a large chef carving knife, similar to the Ergo Chef knife found on Amazon. We love it as we are able to slice meat very thinly. I think a whole ham would be a better item to try and slice.
There are definitely nitrite/nitrate free options at Costco and Aldi, and for not much more than regular lunch meat.
my parents have a slicer they got as a wedding gift. It’s great but I’m not sure that I would invest in one. Thanks for the budget breakdown for us it might make sense as I’m currently buying a brand-name no-nitrate deli meat for my daughter’s lunches, so permanently borrowing the slicer might be in my future.
I tried this also after reading Tiffany’s post. I bought the Jennie-O frozen turkey breast and cooked it without the gravy packet it came with. It came seasoned and it goes from freezer (comes frozen) to oven! It was on sale for $9.99. Was a piece of cake! Cooked it, cooled in fridge overnight and sliced the next day. Was a cinch to slice with regular sharp serrated knife. It makes about 2 lbs (I didn’t weigh it) of lunchmeat. I froze 1 lb of it sliced and ate the other that week. WAY cheaper than the nitrate free lunchmeat at my deli which is $10/ lb. (By the way, I tried the Aldi turkey breast as mentioned in this post and was disappointed. The gravy packet took up half the package and it was very fatty which I had to cut off. Jennie-O had no fat at all!). I thought it was sheer genius on Tiffany’s part!
Jen, Thanks for sharing your experience! You’re so right that it’s important to compare apples to apples when checking price.
Maybe buy a whole turkey and cook all up at once. Use breasts for luncheon meat and rest for loose meat sandwiches. The stock can then be saved for when you need ‘chicken’ stock. Freeze in either ice cube trays until frozen and put in bags or put so much stock into a freezer bag and lay flat in freezer. Less sodium, less preservatives, lower cost.
That’s a great idea, Tina. I think for me to be satisfied with a homemade frugal option I have to let go of the idea of thin sliced deli meat.