Company's coming: Time to buy cheap meat

If you are lucky enough to have your grandmother's recipe box, chances are you'll find lots of stews and braises, and very few recipes for, say, Chateaubriand. That's because your grandmother knew a simple truth: Tough cuts of meat, cooked slow, will serve a lot of people very well for very little money.

In our rush for "convenience" (read: "pricier") foods, we have lost sight of this truth. We have collected dozens of recipes for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pork tenderloin and steak, but few of us know how to turn a Boston butt into dinner. The reason is that few of us know what a Boston butt is.

It's time to reacquaint ourselves with tougher (read: "cheaper") cuts of meat. First, consider the Boston butt, which got its name from the way Boston butchers cut this shoulder meat and stored it in barrels (butts). Second, consider the chuck roast, also a shoulder cut.

These cuts require long, slow cooking, but don't panic: If you have an oven and a slow cooker, both of the recipes will cook themselves.

Depending on where you live, you can probably buy a 5-pound Boston butt for well under $10. This will feed 12. Chuck roast may be closer to $4 per pound, but it's still a bargain: A 4-pound piece will feed 10 to 12.

The pulled pork comes from my friend Jimmy Kennedy, owner of River Run in Plainfield, Vt.

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (Perigee, 2005). For more information, go to marialisacalta.com.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>Recipes</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> </div> <div class="recipeLink"> <ul class="moreLinks"> <li><a href="/story/?id=303819" class="mediaItem">Pulled Pork</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=303820" class="mediaItem">Pot Roast with Onions, Carrots and Potatoes</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>