Money Matters
Money Matters
The Secret Science of Affordable Grilling
Chef Ann Milneck from Red Stick Spice reveals how to transform inexpensive cuts of meat into flavorful grilled masterpieces through proper techniques and seasoning approaches.
• Chuck steak can rival expensive cuts when using the "reverse searing" method - cooking low and slow before finishing on a blazing hot grill
• Early salting (dry brining) is crucial for all proteins - use 1 teaspoon per pound at least a few hours before cooking
• Always let meat come to room temperature before grilling - cold protein on a hot grill leads to uneven cooking
• Sirloin offers excellent value when properly prepared - try slicing it for Latin-seasoned tacos or grilling it whole
• Handle burger meat gently and create three indentations in the center to prevent shrinking
• Smoked paprika and smoked olive oil add authentic smoky flavor without needing wood chips
• Ground chicken is an overlooked, affordable protein that works well for sliders and tacos
• A quality digital instant-read thermometer is worth the investment to prevent overcooking
• Buy spices in bulk quantities to save money - only purchase what you'll use in six months
Visit Red Stick Spice for cooking classes where you'll learn techniques you can actually replicate at home, with recipes designed for everyday cooking.
Have an idea for a show or a question for Kim? Send us a text message
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Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want. Now here is your host, ms Kim.
Speaker 2:Chapman, welcome to another edition of Money Matters. It is the summer and that means we want to go outside and grill and grilling. Well, you think about steaks and ribs. It can get a little bit expensive, but are there some low budget ways that we can grill and not break the bank? Well, guess what we're going to find out today. Joining me again is our returning guest, ms Ann Milnick, owner and chef of Red Stick Spice. How are you, ann? I'm very well, thank you.
Speaker 2:So glad to have you come back and join us. Have you been outside? Have you been grilling?
Speaker 3:Late in the evening when it's not heat index of 107. Exactly, yeah, really really hot, but still a great quick way to get dinner on the table.
Speaker 2:You know, when I think of grilling, I like to think of steaks. I mean, as a matter of fact, my oldest called me yesterday and wanted to buy a new cast iron skillet so he can grill steaks. But steaks can be expensive, especially if you want to get out every weekend and really enjoy having that grill. So I want to talk a little bit about those less expensive cuts of meat in terms of how can we actually kind of spice them up, flavor them, keep them juicy and tasting as good as a nice thick ribeye. So let's start there. What are some of those lesser expensive cuts that we might want to consider?
Speaker 3:So two come to mind. One is a chuck steak. So we think of chuck a lot of times as a well, chuck is a great. Chuck roast is a great pot roast and we all know that takes many, many hours to get there or you could speed it up in an instant pot, but a chuck roast takes a long time to get tender. But there's a way to approach a chuck roast. You need it, you need it butchered in a particular way and you approach it like a steak, and we do it in our date night cooking classes. And you approach it like a steak and we do it in our date night cooking classes and it ends up being a really flavorful cut of meat. When you think about steak, everyone likes a filet mignon, but actually a filet mignon is your least flavorful cut of steak. The more connective tissue and the more fat in the cut of steak, the more flavor you have tissue and the more fat in the cut of steak, the more flavor you have. But the more connective tissue you have, the more opportunities to that when it's overcooked, then you're going to do a lot of chewing. Exactly so we approach the chuck like a steak, but we do a very specific method and it's called reverse searing. So that chuck steak.
Speaker 3:First of all, when you look at it, you're going to see ribbons of connective tissue and it's going to be sort of in sections. So all those sections want to come apart. That's what comes apart when you cook it as a pot roast. So because they all want to come apart, the first thing you want to do is truss it. So you're going to take a piece of butcher twine and you're going to tie it around the edge to just hold it in place.
Speaker 3:Then you're going to cook it low and slow in the oven. So I know we're going to get to seasoning in a moment, but this cut of meat you will have want to have seasoned first of all generously and second, early a day before, if you can do it. That cut of meat, that pre-season cut of meat, is going to go into a very low oven 175 or 200 degrees and I know everyone's thinking what is she talking about and you're going to cook it to an internal temp of right at 135. And when you take it out of the oven it's going to be hideous. It's going to be a cooked piece of meat that doesn't have any of that beautiful brownie on it and have that.
Speaker 2:Ruth Chris on the sizzling skillet appeal.
Speaker 3:That's the next part. So then you're going to go to your grill and you're going to get it blazing hot, hot that's blazing hot, hot and get some fat on the exterior of that pre-baked, that pre-roasted meat and then you're going to sear it on both sides and you're going to get a beautiful brown crust on the outside. And when you carve, the other part of reverse searing is there's no resting. You can just carve that cut of meat. We know we talk a lot about resting meat, no reason to rest. So then you're going to untrust it and you're going to look at all those sections and you're going to treat them all as a separate section. So you're going to look for the grain and you're going to carve against the grain and we carve it like you would slice thick slices of like a ribeye and we shingle it on the plate and in the class we teach a couple of sauces and then we serve it with a sauce and it is flavorful, it is beautifully browned on the outside and it is a very inexpensive cut of meat.
Speaker 2:Got me mouthwatering already. So you talked about getting it on a really hot grill. So would that be better with a gas grill, or does it matter gas or charcoal?
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter as long as you can get it really hot. So when I do this at home and that reverse searing goes really quickly so you're sub four minutes with the final sear. So I have a gas grill and I get it up to close to 500 degrees and the oil on the outside of the meat plus that, because it's very, very hot, you're not going to have an issue with it sticking. It's going to go really fast. But yeah, I get that grill really blazing hot. Probably easier to do with a gas grill, but for folks who are really skilled with charcoal grills, I'm sure they can do it as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, sounds good. Yeah, so let's talk about that marinade.
Speaker 3:So early salting, early seasoning, dry brining, all mean the same thing. Different food outlets and chefs use different terminology, but it all means the same thing and it's really really important for almost every piece of protein that you cook. It's really really important for almost every piece of protein that you cook. The ones you don't early salt is seafood, but other than that I early salt everything. So the rule around early salting is typically a teaspoon per pound. The larger the cut and the more connective tissue in the cut and of course bones, the earlier you salt. So, for example, boneless, skinless chicken breast noon to cook it at 5 pm. Okay, thanksgiving turkey Monday to cook it on Thursday. So think of it that way.
Speaker 3:So I went from boneless, skinless chicken breast to a bone-in 14-pound bird and so I took my early salting days in advance. So filet mignon that morning noon, rib eye the night before, if you can, especially if it's a bone-in rib eye, and that chuck steak I just talked about, definitely the day before the. Uh. So a teaspoon per pound so you can just do salt and then, closer to cooking time, then get your flavors on there, get, choose your favorite grilling blend or like mix one up with some paprika and granulated onion, granulated garlic, you know, or you can early salt with a blend that has a salt content. So many of our blends are marked in the store which ones have and don't have salt. So a salted spice blend. I go just a little more heavy-handed in the one teaspoon and get it on both sides. A lot of customers ask me that all the time Do I season both sides of the chicken? We eat both sides of the chicken, so we're going to season both sides of the chicken, that's funny.
Speaker 3:So get it seasoned, get it in the fridge and the next part of sort of our rules around cooking protein. There's nothing worse than a piece of cold protein hitting a hot pan. So you need that protein to come out of the fridge minimum 30 minutes prior. Again, the larger the protein, the longer it needs to be out of the fridge for the chill to come off. So boneless, skinless chicken breast 20 to 30 minutes my Thanksgiving turkey it's on the counter an hour before.
Speaker 2:So a bowl of skinless chicken breast 20 to 30 minutes my Thanksgiving turkey it's on the counter an hour before I actually learned that trick by accident had some steak sitting out on the counter that I was going to put on the grill, because I was. You know, I'd take it from the refrigerator, I'd marinate it, but I'd take it from the refrigerator and stick it on the grill. And just one day it sat that out on the counter, probably because I just took longer than I thought to get outside and stick it on the grill and I just realized such a tremendous difference and I was like it is a huge, huge difference when that piece of meat is cold and you're going for a very specific internal temperature.
Speaker 3:My husband is very picky about a medium steak. It is really hard to get there properly when it's trying to deal with the cold inside and it's cooking from the outside. It's really difficult to get there with a cold piece of protein. So letting that protein sit at room temperature before you cook it is really really important.
Speaker 3:Early salting, dry brining, early seasoning, whatever you want to call it benefits you in multiple ways your protein is going to cook faster, it's going to cook more evenly and your browning is going to be more significant. So that beautiful brown color that is the color of flavor that's going to be better and more even and more significant because of early salting. Early salting is even if you, when I buy ground beef and I don't know what it's going to be yet I don't know if it's going to be a burger, a meatloaf or tacos all I do is salt it. If I don't know what that ground beef is going to be in a day or two, all I do is salt it and it's in a bowl in my fridge and then when I decide that it's going to be taco flavored or savory for a meatloaf, it's just. Everything is better about that protein because you early salted it.
Speaker 2:Oh, very good tips. So we talked about that chuck steak. What else? What are some other inexpensive cuts of meat that we can easily turn into something really flavorful and delicious without breaking the bank?
Speaker 3:So the word you want to look for when you're at the meat case and it gets confusing because butchers and grocery stores use different terminology for the same cut, but the word you want to look for is sirloin no-transcript. So one of my favorite ways to take sirloin is to pre-cut it raw against the grain, season it with Latin seasonings, saute it. Then throw in bell pepper and onion and saute that, top it with a melty cheese and use that for tacos. So that's one great approach to sirloin.
Speaker 3:Another would be on the grill to leave it whole early, salt it and then sear it. And you're going to sear it quickly. You're going to have your grill hot and you're going to sear it on one side and get a beautiful brown crust. Flip it, maybe lower your heat a little bit so that it doesn't overcook and let it cook to your internal temperature, probably 150 or so. In that instance you do want that piece of meat to rest and then you carve it against the grain. You could serve it as tacos, you could just serve it alongside some mashed potatoes. But a sirloin is a really inexpensive cut. You just have to know what you're asking for from the butcher and know that when it says sirloin steak, you probably wouldn't be satisfied treating that as like a ribeye, because it's not going to cook up the same Exactly.
Speaker 2:So everybody loves a good burger on the grill right. So how can we make just a basic pack of brown meat into a really good burger?
Speaker 3:So that early salting is really important. And when you think about the fat content in that meat, a higher fat content is going to get you a much more flavorful burger. A higher fat content is going to get you a much more flavorful burger. And that ground beef can handle a lot of big punchy flavors. So you can do things like a shawarma seasoning. Or one thing that's really popular for burgers in our shop is a coffee barbecue rub. Really, that's coffee and just pepper, chilies and pepper and paprika and just tons and tons of flavor and a spice blend. But a burger can handle that.
Speaker 3:I would never put shawarma seasoning or barbacoa seasoning or coffee barbecue rub on a filet mignon, but I would definitely put it in a burger. And so that pack of ground, that pack of ground beef, think of it as this blank canvas for big, big flavors. Another thing you want to make sure you have are lots of condiments, really simple sauces and quick pickled onions and things like that ready for dressing the burgers. I think that when we teach things like that in our teaching kitchen, it's just that light bulb moment where people are like, oh, I could have this in my fridge ready to go and make a burger so much more interesting than just a burger.
Speaker 2:So I have to ask, because of course we're talking about trying to stretch your dollar and when you're in your kitchen you make this huge big patty, you stick it on the grill and you come back a little while later and then it looks like a little biscuit. Stick it on the grill and you come back a little while later and then it looks like a little biscuit and I can remember somewhere seeing oh, if you put a little thumbprint in the middle is, is there any truth to that? Yeah, or what should we be doing?
Speaker 3:okay. So the first thing you need to be doing is handling it gently. Okay, so your patty should not be. You shouldn't be working the meat like a meatball, you should be using a gentle touch. My patties aren't pretty on the edges, they're kind of ragged. It resembles a burger, but it's definitely not one of those perfectly formed burgers. And then I take three fingers and I just poke on the inside, not through, but make a good indentation. So three and not just one little thumbprint Right.
Speaker 2:I make three indentations and that good indentation, so three and not just one little thumbprint.
Speaker 3:Right, I make three indentations and that will help it. So if you think about a patty that's been worked and worked and worked and that edge is really refined, it when it, when it it's going to shrink. It's the nature of the fat in that meat and the liquid in that meat it's got to go away, right, so it's going to shrink. But if it's been bound by a perfect edge, it doesn't have anywhere to go. So then when it's a little ragged it stays more flat, and I think that a lot of people make their burgers too thick.
Speaker 3:I think thinner burgers are make for a better cookbook at the end and actually stretches from edge to edge on your bun, fits on the bun, whereas this little bitty patty on the center of the bun. But paying attention to the fat content and not overworking the meat is really, really important. Breadcrumbs or no breadcrumbs, that's up to you. My mother always did it, but she was stretching every bit of food we had in our home. I'm not a fan, but definitely, if that works for you, add the breadcrumbs. So definitely, if that works for you, add the breadcrumbs.
Speaker 2:So it seems like we've got a little theme here going all the things Kim did wrong in the kitchen. Like hey we're putting cold meat on the grill. We're only putting one fingerprint into the burger. What are some other common mistakes that we can make in the kitchen that can really take away from stretching our food or even just having a really good flavor?
Speaker 3:I think when a cut of meat is large, I find that cooks struggle because they've got this maybe gigantic piece of meat in a skillet or on the grill and looking at that and you know, think about what your end result is going to be. But there's nothing wrong with taking that sirloin flap and cutting it into sections. Or taking that chuck roast that I talked about earlier and cutting it and making two smaller ones. I find that that struggle with that large, large piece of protein is what ends up frustrating folks. That large, large piece of protein is what ends up frustrating folks and then they don't want to try it again because that was some money that they spent on that and it's gone. So, taking your chicken and spatchcocking it you know where you cut out the backbone and you flatten it things taking those pieces of protein and making them more manageable, even if you have to cook in batches, I find helps folks. When we explain that in cooking classes, that helps folks a lot.
Speaker 2:So to add chips or not to add chips? Obviously, you know there's this theory out there that hey, if you get you some good mesquite chips or these different woods, but those things it can be expensive. So what are some inexpensive tips that you can achieve those great rich flavors without having to break the bank and buy those chips?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so smoky flavors are are all part of the grilling that I'm doing now. My goal with grilling right now is to do it as late in the evening as possible and to get it in and out of there as quickly as possible. So smoking isn't part of that formula.
Speaker 2:Because that's just going to prolong.
Speaker 3:Exactly so. Bringing smoky flavors through spice blends and ingredients is another way to get delicious flavors. So I would say, when you go to my shop and you look at our grilling blends, 100% of them have a smoked component, and that smoked component is coming from smoked paprika. So paprika is a ground chili pepper and Hungarian paprika is from Hungary, Spanish paprika is from Spain and either one of them could be smoked. So they make that paprika and they put it in a cold smoker and it develops that chili essentially cooks a little bit and develops the smoky flavor and it is absolutely delicious. It is not an artificial flavor. This isn't liquid smoke. It's not an artificial flavor. It's a beautiful thing that happens to a chili when you smoke it. So that would be one way to get there. The other thing that we sell in the shop is smoked olive oil and it is fantastic.
Speaker 2:I don't think I've seen that one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, olive oil is put in a cold smoker and they smoke it. So obviously it's a very specific flavor and it's for very specific things. But to get that smoky flavor onto, if you're just throwing some chicken on the grill or even in in your burgers, smoked olive oil, would be a great way to get there. Oh, I'll be over today. Yeah, so you mentioned you know you want to cook late in the evening and you want to be able to do it really really quick Get what was left behind before people say oh, and then work backwards from that very high heat. So you might need that high heat essentially, or you can back it off.
Speaker 3:The other thing, if you're able to do it, is create zones, so a cooler zone. So my grill has three burners and so I can create a cooler zone and then a hotter zone. So managing your heat, I can create a cooler zone and then a hotter zone, so managing your heat. You know, when I went to culinary school, the first thing they told us on the first day is 90% of a chef's job is managing heat, and that is 100% true. That is your job in the kitchen or at the grill is just understanding heat and managing heat. So you're managing heat by, first of all, not putting a cold piece of protein on the grill, but you're managing heat with the knobs or the movement of the charcoal of the grill. So creating zones is really really helpful.
Speaker 2:So what are some budget-friendly recipes that? You know we've talked a little bit about steak, but what else can we use? Again, especially for barbecues, you usually have large gatherings. The neighbors are coming over because they smell it down the street. So how can we, you know, continue to have fun, enjoy food, but keep those costs down.
Speaker 3:So buying big packs of chicken thighs is a really affordable way to approach chicken. Of course, breaking down a whole chicken is the number one way, but then you end up with some pieces.
Speaker 2:Several pieces.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So those big packs of thighs or drumsticks are affordable and are smart. The darker the poultry, the dork or the meat, the less chance of it drying out. It's hard to be unsuccessful with chicken thighs, so that would be one way to get there. With ground beef, make sliders. So sliders are trendy right now. Everybody loves them and as long as you have some other hearty sides, you've gone from a pound of ground beef serving four people to a pound of ground beef serving eight people with sliders. And sliders don't have to be on slider buns, they can be on dinner rolls. So if you like those Hawaiian rolls, a slider is perfect on that and those are really fun. And if you think about, there might be members of your family who would have left half that burger behind on their plate, or children who don't want a whole burger. A slider is a great approach to stretching that ground beef.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a little bit about marinades, thinking about those everyday household items that we have. How can we make a really good, flavorful marinade and what are the keys to having that perfect time? I know you talked about the weight of the meat, but I know sometimes you can over-marinate something.
Speaker 3:Sure. So acid in a marinade is essentially denaturing, breaking down the proteins and, to a degree, cooking them. So if you think about a ceviche for seafood now seafood's a small, delicate piece of protein so that acid can cook it pretty quickly Within hours you can have cooked shellfish just from the acid from a ceviche. So you want to think about that. So you want to think about that. Now it's also a really good thing because denaturing or breaking down that exterior and sort of pre-cooking to a degree, the exterior of that meat, is going to help you have a flavorful and tender piece of meat. So for me, wet marinating is really for poultry and pork. I can't think of a red meat that I wet marinate. Now a lot of people want to say she's wrong. I do it all the time. But for me, pork and chicken, especially a boneless, skinless chicken breast, really benefit from a wet marinade, benefit from a wet marinade. And so you want to think fat, which is oil, acid and flavor, when you think about a marinade. So your acid can come from vinegar, it could come from fruit juice, but your acid in a fruit juice is pretty low. I'm talking about like a carton fruit juice, an orange juice, then your acid from fresh citrus would have more acidity in it. So a lemon juice with some olive oil and garlic and seasonings and maybe some minced onion and some herbs would be a great marinade for boneless, skinless chicken breast.
Speaker 3:Do that in the morning and you'll notice when you remove it at 5 pm or 7 pm when you go to grill. It's going to look pale white on the outside. That's the acidity has gone after that protein and essentially it's changed it, but it's essentially cooking it. Then you want to make sure that wet marinade is mostly removed. You don't have to wipe it off, but you definitely want to lift it from that liquid because you want to think about that liquid hitting a very hot grill. You're going to make a ton of steam and steaming is not what we want to do on the grill. We want golden brown situation happening. The other thing I would say about wet marinades is I don't use them. I don't meaning after I've marinated. I don't turn that into a sauce. I don't use it to. I suppose you could use it to baste during the cooking process, but I don't serve it as a sauce, nor do I cook it to create a sauce Strictly as a marinade.
Speaker 3:It's the marinade, so it goes away. For me, that's a food safety issue for me, just thinking about that poultry or pork that's been sitting in that liquid. So I don't use them for serving. So I don't use them for serving. But yeah, the main pork chop that's been wet, marinated and then grilled absolutely delicious. It really helps that when you think about a boneless, skinless chicken breast or some of your pork cuts, these areloin so they benefit from the breaking down from the acid of that marinade. What are some good techniques to keep your meat nice and moist and juicy while it's on the grill? That internal temperature needs to get to having a good thermometer for you to so that you know when you're there and you don't overcook it. That's the main thing, is managing your heat and not putting a cold piece of protein on a hot grill.
Speaker 2:So time is money, Good cliche. You know you get home in the afternoon and you want a good cut of tenderized meat, but you don't have time to marinate for hours and get it there. What are some of those shortcuts, you know, aside from maybe just pounding with a meat cleaver?
Speaker 3:So tenderizing with elbow grease is helpful. I would say, if I got home and I hadn't done any early salting or any preparation of that meat, the first thing I would do is carve it. So if it were a piece of sirloin, I would cut that into smaller pieces, because I am going to salt it and season it for as much time as I do have, and what I want to do is I want to increase that surface area so that way the seasoning gets on more parts of the meat, because I've cut it and then you know. So then I have some decisions to make. So now I've carved it, what is this going to be? Well, it's probably going to get carved and put it into like pita for a wrap or taco or a tortilla for tacos. But that would be. I would start thinking about surface area and how can I quickly get that seasoning into that piece of protein? And the most important thing you can do is cut it and get it into smaller pieces.
Speaker 2:Any kid friendly recipes. You know, because kids love grill things, you know that we could just throw on there inexpensive, that they would love to be able to just, you know, snack and eat on while they're playing outside.
Speaker 3:So again back to those sliders is, kids love those. There's a TikTok, a TikTok smash burger that's on a corn tortilla, that where you spread the ground beef on a corn tortilla and you cook it on the tortilla side first and as it's cooking on the tortilla side the meat is cooking and then you flip it and finish cooking it and then you fold it with the tortilla on the exterior and so it's like a burger in a tortilla. And when one of our instructors pitched this I was like I have no faith in this recipe and it was the favorite thing in the class, so that's a really fun one. The other thing and not just for kids, for anyone, I think an overlooked protein that's affordable is ground chicken and it's delicious, it cooks quickly, it's more of a blank canvas than ground beef and can really be a great way to get protein in inexpensively, has a little bit less fat and that's another one that could be sauteed as taco meat for kids or made into a slider.
Speaker 3:But ground chicken and it might be for those with sort of texture issues it's a different texture. You treat it like ground beef but it's a different texture and it's definitely a milder flavor and it might fit the bill for some who might start having some texture issues around ground beef. My youngest did. There was a period of time when she couldn't do it and I remember she was OK with ground chicken.
Speaker 2:So are there any cooking tools that may be, you know, to start off a little pricey, but worth the investment in the long run because it will save you money time and time again.
Speaker 3:A digital instant read thermometer. So the one we sell is in the $80 range and people say what are you talking about? It is one of the best $80 investments you will make. First of all, the company that we carry backs the product so you don't have to worry about it breaking. They're going to replace it. But a one to two second instant read thermometer meaning you get your result in one to two seconds is one of the best tools you can have in your kitchen and for grilling it is really, really essential. So that is going to give you your internal temps. That's going to keep you from overcooking and drying out that piece of meat. So that is definitely the best tool you can have for grilling.
Speaker 2:So you offer a ton of different variety of cooking classes for every level. But for somebody who's out there listening and thinking about a cooking class, whether they're an expert or not, what are some of the biggest benefits somebody can walk away from a cooking one of your cooking classes.
Speaker 3:The main thing is that when you come to a cooking class, we're trained chefs so we know what we're talking about. But we make sure we definitely want recipes that are interesting, that maybe you haven't tried before, that have what I call like word appeal, like when you read the description, you're like, oh, that sounds really interesting. But we never want you to leave and go well, that was interesting, I'll never do that again. They are do. They are definitely recipes that you can and will make again at home. We don't want to have you leave with a packet of recipes where you're like I don't know where to get these ingredients. I'll never do this.
Speaker 3:What was the name of that technique? He taught he used his $20 chef word and I don't know what that means. That doesn't happen. It is definitely broken down, because the main thing we want is for you to come back in and tell us that you made that recipe at home. So you get a minimum of eight recipes when you leave.
Speaker 3:You cook one of the recipes that night, but you get the recipe packet for all of the recipes and we make sure that we're teaching things that you want to make again, and all through the class one of the biggest parts for us for teaching, because we teach classes three or four nights a week. That's a lot to prep, and so we know what can be pre-prepped and what can't, and so we spend a lot of time explaining this is what you want to make the day before. This is what you want to have tucked in the fridge. If you make this, it holds for 14 days in the fridge. You can have that ready A lot of pre-prep information, because the way our time is so consumed these days, we know that getting home and cooking is not as easy as it sounds. So we want to make sure.
Speaker 2:TV makes it look glamorous Exactly.
Speaker 3:Exactly, we want to make sure you have tools in your tool belt so that you can have some things pre-prepped and other things you make on the day when you go to cook.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I absolutely love about Red Stick Spice is you know we're talking about these different recipes and techniques. You know somebody may think, oh, it's a little expensive. But talk about how they can come into your shop and, if they want to try one of these spices, that they don't have to spend $10 on a bottle that they may or may not ever use again.
Speaker 3:Right. So we sell in bulk. So it's at its core. We sell by weight.
Speaker 3:Of course we have spice jars if you need one. But let's say you can buy as much or as little as you like. So let's say there's a spice cake you make at Thanksgiving. You make it one time a year and you don't use the cardamom or the allspice in that spice cake any other time. There's no reason for you to have a bottle of cardamom, a jar of cardamom in your cabinet and have to buy a fresh one every year. No reason.
Speaker 3:So people come in and we get it a lot at Thanksgiving. People come in with their recipe and they literally buy a teaspoon of this spice, a tablespoon of that spice. We weigh it. Some of these are 85 cent purchases. But that's what we are at our core. Can you get jars of spices? Absolutely. And when you do bring us back a jar, it doesn't have to be our jar, it can be any jar. We give you a 15% discount for bringing in a container because packaging is. The biggest impact on my business is jars and bags and labels. So anytime you bring us that packaging you get a discount because it saves us so much. So there's no reason to have a spice cabinet stocked with spices. What should be stocked in your spice cabinet is what you're going to use and use up in the next six months.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's why I like to say just love it. So that way you can try any spice, and there are tons of them. You can really really spice up your barbecue, spice up anything you're doing. Any last final tips, or your best tip for us for summer grilling other than stay hydrated and stay inside, if you can.
Speaker 3:Yeah, stay hydrated, stay inside, for sure. But when you just I would say that early salting, that pulling the meat from the fridge, that understanding where you're going with what that meat's going to become, how you're carving it, all of that is all. When you take all of that, it's just a plan, so just kind of have that game plan ready before you turn the grill on and things will be better.
Speaker 2:We'll do this again in the fall, when it's a little bit cooler. We'll be outside in the kitchen, outside and do some of that and do some real demonstrations and then, of course, the best part we'll be tasting it afterwards. And thanks again for coming back and sharing your expertise with our listeners.
Speaker 3:Always a pleasure, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's time for Blueprint Building Blocks Small changes that lead to big financial wins. Let's stack up for success.
Speaker 2:Know your cuts of meat. Cheaper cuts like chuck flank and chicken thighs can be just as flavorable, if not more, when prepared correctly. You want to season early. You want to season early. Marinating or seasoning at least a few hours ahead, or maybe even overnight, allows those flavors to absorb and tenderize those tougher cuts of meat. And then, of course, you want to use the right spices. Affordable doesn't mean bland. Use bold spice blends with salt acids like vinegar or citrus, and herbs to enhance your flavor. And then, of course, grill. Smart, Slow and indirect heat works best for those tougher cuts of meats. Don't rush it. Low and slow keeps that meat juicy and tender.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap on today's Blueprint Building Blocks. Stay on track with your financial journey. Subscribe to the Money Matters podcast and visit neighborsfcuorg slash financial wellness for more tools to help you build a strong financial future.
