Salmon on sale: Fighting Greedflation!
Buy fish and other products at their lowest price, and make it last...
A few years ago I worked for a grocery chain in my part of the world, to be part of a team and to be part of a union. I loved the fleece they sold me that said Est. 1899 on the back. Not many companies can say that.
From their 125th anniversary photo spread in their weekly flier, Jewel may have been one of the original home-delivery services. I don’t believe Amazon delivered with a horse-and-buggy in its earliest days.
My question, though: did people telegraph their orders in? Morse code? Have one of the many children run over with a list?
Jewel was fun to work for, as a member of a few teams in the store. Though I’ve moved on to other work, it’s still one of my favorite stores for groceries and most of my vaccination and medication needs.
We love salmon every once in a while. I usually keep my eye out for the stores to put it on sale, from $11.99/lb to $5.99/lb. When you can save 50% on something you like, take advantage!
I admit that I never buy it at $11.99, but at $5.99 I’ll go into my local Jewel just about any time. Because for us, that means $1 per meal per person.
Pay no attention to the roast, but look at that salmon! Raw shrimp is also on sale at this very attractive price.
The way it works is that I cook up two pieces from the 1-pound chunk I get - including skin, of course. (When fried just right, this is a real treat. We call the skin “Bacon of the Sea.”)
I cook it in a cast iron pan with a good amount of home-made anchovy-garlic butter. You can add a small dollop of olive oil to the pan as well and turn the heat up.
Once that anchovy-garlic butter is melted and almost browning, I put the salmon in skin-side down. After 3 minutes on medium to high heat (we want that skin crispy, remember?) I add a few spoonfuls of capers on top of each fillet and then pop it into a 400 degree pan for 8 minutes.
We enjoy about a third (along with the skin) accompanied by a veggie side dish. These days I’m doing broccoli (99 cents a bunch) on a sheet pan in that 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Work backwards from that to make the timing work.
By stopping at a third of that big slab of fish, it’s costing us about $1.25 for fish and veg, per person. How much would it cost in a restaurant? With tax? And tip?
Leftovers
A night or two later I cook up one of those remaining pieces to go with pasta. While the pasta is cooking, I heat some olive oil in a small pan, I cook a clove or two of chopped garlic, then toss in the salmon, plus more capers if you like. (We like.) I then juice 3 lemons and pour that into the salmon pan. Top the pasta with the salmon and you’ve got another meal for $1.50 each (including the cost of the vermicelli or other pasta).
But we’re not done.
Final appearance
We still have that last hunk of salmon, so when we’re in the mood for an eggy breakfast, I heat up the chunked-up salmon in my frying pan with some olive oil, scramble some eggs, and we’ve got a protein-rich meal, for $1.35 per person (at $3/dozen for the eggs).
Can you get a breakfast like this for that price at your local coffee shop? I think not.
Bottom line: 3 meals for two people for $6 + accompaniments.
Store leftovers
The grocery store doesn’t usually sell out of an item like salmon, even at $5.99. Be careful about buying it the next week, however.
That’s when many stores (not just Jewel) sell “portions” at a price that looks attractive but is actually not.
One week later it looks like salmon is still on sale!
If you look at the fine print you’ll see that you only get 6 ounces for your $6 - and they’ve taken the skin off!
Doing the math, that’s just 3/8 of a pound, which now goes for $15.96 per pound. Is that convenience for the consumer, or somewhat deceptive advertising?
My advice: buy it when it’s at a good price, and have it three ways. If you really like salmon, buy a couple of pounds and put the spare in the freezer. It’ll be great next week, when the price is nearly 3 times as much.
That’s one way to fight greedflation…