Pork Butt Prices Are Up at Costco!

Has the price of meat gone up? Most definitely. I went to Costco yesterday to purchase some pork butt (pork shoulder) to make Chinese Char Siu. Costco packs two pork butts in one package. In the past, the cost was $1.99 per pound for BONELESS pork butt. It's now $2.19 per pound for BONE-IN pork butt.

After cooking the pork butts for char siu, I decided to weigh the two bones that were in the meat after removing all the meat from the bones.

I subtracted the weight of the two bones in the pork butt which was an additional 11 oz. from the total weight. After calculations, that made the cost of the BONE-IN pork butts at $2.31 per pound. The cost of the BONELESS pork butts were $1.99 per pound. So while you think you are only paying $2.19 per pound for the bone-in version, you don't eat the bone so you need to factor that in.

$2.31 per pound is a 13.8% increase in cost. There was also a thicker fat cap too, but I did not add this into the equation.

The Covid-19 situation is of course the reason for the increases. I think that Costco is not taking the bone out because that would require more handling of the meat.

Also, I noticed that the Smithfield Baby Back Ribs used to always have the membrane on the back of the ribs removed for you. Not this time. The membrane is still there requiring you to remove it yourself. Again, most likely helps keep handing from the packing company to be less.

Sign of the times.

By the way, I marinate the meat overnight in gallon-sized Ziploc bags.   I bought one of these Oxo meat tenderizers but keep forgetting to use it! That's three cooks I could have used it on too!  It is used to get the marinade into the meat more than if you didn't do it. Pluse I suppose it tenderizes the meat at the same time.  https://amzn.to/3eAbs08