Nashville man looks at steak at Kroger—and opts for the cheapest possible: ‘We’ve all thought this.. he just did it’

Nashville, Tennessee, content creator Cartier (@cartier.63)—equal parts car auction hunter, home cook, and dumpster-diving antiquarian—went to war with ribeye prices at his local Kroger and lost to a boneless chuck roast he mistook for a bargain steak.

Nashville Kroger Shopper Falls for ‘BBL’ Steak

Cartier found himself staring down an $18 ribeye and balked. “I went to go pick out my steak, and I’m like, holy [expletive]: $18 for a basic ribeye that I gotta take home and cook myself? No way.”

Sitting right beside it was a slab three times the size for $14. A freeze frame of the video reveals the label: $23 boneless chuck roast, a cut built for braises and slow cookers, not skillets. But, hey, it’s on sale, so he thinks, why not?

Cartier, seduced by the sheer square footage of meat per dollar, grabbed it without a second read. “I thought to myself, it can’t be that bad,” he says.

He laid butter in a hot pan and dropped what he jokingly called a “GMC Yukon XL-size steak” onto the surface. The sear looked gorgeous—golden, crackling, and full of false promise. He carved into it with confidence.

“I went to take my first bite, and I chewed for about three minutes. It felt like I was eating a Timberland boot,” he says.

The roast, unbothered by high heat and good intentions, had done what chuck does without hours of low, slow moisture: it seized into leather. His parting wisdom carried the resignation of a man who’d lost a fair fight: “Don’t buy these giant BBL steaks that you see at the grocery store.”

The Peanut Gallery Weighs in on Kroger Shopper’s Chuck Roast Fail

“That’s a Chuck roast bro,” one person noted. “Needs 8 hours in the crockpot on low with beef broth,beef consommé, and French onion soup.”

Another person noted a critical point: “Dude. Just get a sirloin, tri-tip or flat iron. If you can find them, hanger steaks and teres major. All cheaper than ribeye and delicious. Stop cooking roasts as steaks. There’s a reason they are cheap- they take all day to cook.”

Others just had jokes. “You fried stew meat,” said one commenter. “We’ve all thought this.. he just did it,” admitted another person.

Watching Wallets at the Store: The Beef Price Squeeze Is Real

Cartier’s failed bargain buy lives inside a broader crunch at the meat counter for budget-conscious consumers. This has been especially true since the pandemic and even more over the last year.

Beef prices have climbed more than 50% since 2020, with the U.S. cattle herd at its lowest point in over 70 years, per NPR. Ribeyes and other premium steaks now average north of $12 per pound, and shoppers are increasingly reaching for cheaper, tougher cuts. Or they end up walking past the beef case altogether and go for chicken, pork, or cheap fish like tilapia.

Chuck roast, for the record, is exceptional when braised low and slow. The connective tissue that turned Cartier’s dinner into footwear breaks down beautifully over hours of moist heat.

Now, he could have actually gotten what he wanted out of the cut if he had known what to look for. His mistake wasn’t necessarily the cut. Most skilled butchers can identify and extract a Denver steak (and a chuck eye steak) from that same chuck roast—but knowing where to carve is the whole game.

AllHipHop reached out to Cartier (@cartier.63) via TikTok message and comment, and Kroger via email. We will update this story if either party responds.

@cartier.63 The worst steak I’ve ever had in my life #cookwithme #cookinghacks #cookingfail #steak ♬ original sound – cartier.63

.mobile_only_ad{display:none;}@media only screen and (max-width:767px){.mobile_only_ad{display:block;}}

Kahron Spearman

Source link