The Costco Beef Cut You Can Make Last For Weeks Of Meals

Perhaps the biggest reason to shop at Costco is to save money, because the store offers plenty of opportunities to do so. Its membership-based business model helps support unusually low prices, and buying in bulk is generally cheaper unit price-wise. This is also true of Costco's meat selection, where the store sometimes has ways to save even more money — it involves purchasing a cut of beef that's meant to last: the full strip loin.

The next time you're thinking about grabbing a package of New York strip steaks, consider a full strip loin instead. It's a larger initial investment, but the savings per pound are substantial. In New York City, for instance, a Costco package of NY strip steaks is over $19 per pound, for a total price of around $92. And while a Costco strip loin runs almost $100 more, you're getting about three times the meat at approximately $14 per pound — over 25% less than the price of the pre-cut steaks.

Seasoned shoppers know, as one Reddit user put it, that "This is the Costco way." Another Redditor explained how they "Got nine, 2" steaks out of it, plus a mason jar of tallow I rendered from the fat, plus two burger patties I ground from the scraps." For newbie home butchers, Costco's website even has a simple meat-cutting guide. The only other thing you'll need is freezer-friendly storage, so you don't have to eat 13 pounds of steak in three to four days.

Even the pre-cut New York strips are one of the Costco steak cuts worth buying because their price is relatively good compared to other grocery stores. Yet cutting your own strip loin is by far the best value, and perhaps the safest option, too, because of what Costco does to its steaks — and does not do to its strip loins.

Costco blade-tenderizes most of its pre-cut steaks, including NY strips. This is a mechanized process that pricks the beef with small blades to create tiny holes, resulting in a tender bite. However, puncturing countless steaks with the same blades also increases the chance of bacterial contamination. It's imperative that they be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since Costco's strip loins are not blade-tenderized, you'll have to tenderize and hand-cut the NY strips yourself. Experts say to avoid meat tenderizing mistakes like using the wrong side of the mallet, hitting it too hard, leaving citrus out of a marinade, or, if you're roasting a large chunk of loin instead of steaks, not scoring it. With proper tenderization, cutting, and cooking, your Costco strip loin may turn out even better than a pre-cut steak.