perfectly cooked steak the moment you begin  to approach your grocery store's meat counter.  

But not everything on display deserves  to make its way to your dinner plate.  

Since fresh meat is expensive, making the  wrong choice can be a huge waste of money.  

In fact, choosing the right cut at the grocery  store can sometimes be the most difficult part  

about cooking meat. Your mission, should you  choose to accept it, is to find a cut that's  

full of flavor, and has the right balance of fat  and protein to make it perfectly tender and juicy.  

Yet surprisingly, some of the most popular options  fall short when it comes to texture and taste.

So how can you choose wisely? In  an exclusive interview with Mashed,  

a butcher who has worked at a large national  grocery chain since 2013 shared some intel  

on which meats you should never buy at the  grocery store. It turns out that some of the  

priciest and prettiest meats aren't actually  grill-worthy. Even if it looks good and is  

described with adjectives like "grass-fed"  or "tender," not every meat makes the cut.

"I call this turf and turf. It's a 16  oz. t-bone, and a 24 oz. porterhouse.”

Meat that comes ready to fling on a  grill appeals not only to our appetites,  

but also to our busy schedules.  However, ready-to-cook meat is  

often a huge waste of money. Instead,  the butcher we spoke with advises:

"Pick out your meat option (look for  something on sale!) and then ask your  

butcher what [their] favorite seasoning or  marinade is that they sell in the store."

While marinating your meat yourself may seem  like an unnecessary step, pre-marinated meat  

is likely over-marinated, making the meat  mushy. Similarly, skip those ready-to-grill  

kabobs, which don't offer a very creative  selection of produce. The butcher advises,

"I would recommend asking your butcher to cube  the meat for you. If you make them yourself,  

you can add other options like mushrooms,  pineapple, and cherry tomatoes."

Not only does this allow you to customize your  kabobs with fruit and veggies you actually enjoy;  

it saves you from the 60 percent  mark-up on those kabob kits.

Shockingly, the butcher also advised  against buying filet. He told us,

"I know filet is typically known as an optimal  cut of meat and traditionally priced for it, too,  

but it's pretty overrated when compared to  other beef cuts. I would recommend purchasing  

a cut like teres major, which is also a lean  and tender cut, but about 1/3 of the price."

Not sure you can score this  cut at your supermarket?  

Opt for a New York strip steak instead, which  has a good balance of flavor and tenderness.

If you're in the market for poultry,  make sure you avoid chicken labeled  

as "water chilled," the butcher we  spoke with said, cautioning us that,

"It absorbs some of the water  which evaporates when cooking,  

resulting in smaller and  potentially-rubbery chicken."

It turns out that the majority of grocery store  chicken is chilled by submerging chickens into a  

giant vat of chlorinated water, causing the birds  to absorb some excess water in the process. If  

you can't tell from a glance how the chicken was  chilled, it was likely done in water. Most grocery  

stores label the poultry when it is air-chilled,  so if you don't see those words, assume the  

chicken is water-chilled and avoid it. And it's  not just the taste of the chicken itself that's  

impacted by water-chilling. Speaking to Bloomberg,  Chef Doug Psaltis of RPM Steak in Chicago said,

"While preparing the bird, if you do choose  to brine the bird, air-chilled will allow you  

to absorb great flavors and aromatics, whereas  water-chilled has already absorbed chlorine."

Speaking of labels, the best poultry should say  "no antibiotics" — not just the usual "no added  

hormones," which is required by the United States  Department of Agriculture anyway. And make sure  

to look for the USDA Organic label, which means  the chickens were not genetically engineered.

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