Beef Stew Meat
Beef in the Midwest · up 12% this week
Per a typical 140g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Beef, chuck eye steak, boneless, separable lean only, trimmed to 0" fat, select, raw).
Buying beef stew meat in the Midwest saves about 8% versus the Northeast this week.
- How to pick a good one
- Convenient but opaque — it is offcuts, and you cannot see which muscle they came from. Look for pieces with visible marbling and connective tissue rather than uniformly lean cubes, and check the pieces are a similar size so they cook evenly.
- What a good price looks like
- Stew meat is usually $6 to $8 a pound — frequently more than the chuck roast it was cut from, sitting a metre away in the same case. Cubing a chuck roast yourself takes five minutes, costs a dollar or two less per pound, and lets you see what you are getting. Buy stew meat only when it is genuinely cheaper than chuck that week.
- What you actually get
- A pound of cubes gives about 11 oz cooked, serving three. Because the pieces are pre-cut, more surface is exposed and shrinkage runs slightly higher than a whole roast at around 30 to 35%.
- How to store it
- Two to three days refrigerated. The extra cut surfaces mean it spoils faster than a whole roast.
- In the kitchen
- Dry the cubes thoroughly and brown them in batches with real space between the pieces. A crowded pan releases moisture faster than it evaporates and the meat turns grey without ever colouring, which is the single most common reason a home stew tastes flat. Deglaze the pan after each batch and keep that liquid.
- Getting the most out of it
- When chuck roast is cheaper per pound than stew meat, buy the roast and cube it yourself — it takes five minutes, gives you a consistent cut, and is usually cheaper. Whatever you use, brown it in batches; a crowded pan steams the meat grey.
- Beef Barley Soup RecipeRecipe by Skinnytaste~$2.18 / serving 4 in-season
- Crockpot Beef Stew RecipeRecipe by Budget Bytes~$2.21 / serving 5 in-season
- Vegetable Beef Soup RecipeRecipe by Natasha's Kitchen~$2.79 / serving 6 in-season
- Carne Guisada (Latin Beef Stew)Recipe by Skinnytaste~$3.39 / serving 3 in-season
- Beef Soup (Kharcho)Recipe by Natasha's Kitchen~$3.45 / serving 5 in-season
- Slow-Cooked Beef Stroganoff + GiveawayRecipe by Natasha's Kitchen~$4.28 / serving 3 in-season
See all 13 recipes with beef stew meat →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.
Price from the USDA weekly retail meat report (conventional, per lb). Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.
Beef Stew Meat — FAQ
What's the price of beef stew meat this week?
As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of beef stew meat in the Midwest is $7.91/lb, up 12% from last week. Prices come from the USDA's weekly retail meat report.
Which region has the cheapest beef stew meat right now?
The Midwest has the cheapest beef stew meat this week at $7.91/lb — about 8% less than the Northeast, where it runs $8.59/lb.
How much protein is in beef stew meat?
A typical 140g serving of beef stew meat has about 29.8g protein and 200 calories (9.1g fat), per USDA FoodData Central.
What can I cook with beef stew meat?
SeasonSort indexes 13 recipes using beef stew meat, each priced per serving from this week's data — starting from about $2.18 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.