The Stuff I like at Costco

I'm a bit of a Costco junkie: Part 1

What can I say, I admire the company, how they treat their employees, their product selection and format of quantity and quality. (who doesn’t love a foot tall stack paper coffee filters?)….. Even the generic Kirkland brand, if its in the store, you know there is very high probability it will be great quality and if its not, they take it back no questions asked. Hell, I’m a shareholder and even the stock has done 100% for me over the time I’ve had it.

Besides the obvious no brainer stuff like paper towels (excellent) and TP (no annoying pooing bears commercials), this is part 1 of the stuff I buy all the time. I’ll even go if I only need a couple of them.

Meat

I like to test stuff back to back, blind tests etc. Costco meats are never beat.

Strip Loins:

To me this is the always the best cut of steak period. Its all I order when having steak in a restaurant, so I know the cut well. I have not been able to top the Costo strips. Back to back blind against great butcher cuts….equal or better always. They occasionally have AAA “Prime” in a blue foam tray. More expensive but not sure worth the extra. The regular AAA are always fantastic. Make sure the label is “Strip Loin Grilling Steak”. Perfect for, and all we ever do, for the reverse sear treatment

Ground Beef:

The standard large quantity of lean ground beef is a no brainer. When I get it home, I immediately divide it into roughly 1/3 chunks using, what else, Large Costco sourced Zip-lock bags and toss them in the freezer. Fantastic for smash burgers, chili, Tacos etc.

Boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs:

Grilled chicken recipes are almost always better done with thighs. They don’t dry out. Same drill, divide into thirds and freeze.

Boneless Simmering Ribs: These things are interesting….big thick strips of beef rib area meat without the bones. Nicely marbled. I smoke them like brisket and they turn out very well in about 6 hours. Article coming on this, but I tie them in pairs to give them a bit more thermal mass….so they don’t dry out.

Turkey Pepperoni Sticks

I don’t usually like turkey stunt doubles for meat products. Turkey bacon….pffffft. But these turkey pepperoni sticks are great. My son Will doesn’t think they are dry enough but they are half the calories of the beef equivalent. 50 vs 100. Only 50 means guilt free hunger smack down. They come in 2 joined packages of I don’t know…never counted them. I cut the two packages apart and throw one in the freezer until the first one is annihilated. They really are good and a great grab and go for car drives or other food on the go needs. Don’t get fooled into the single package turkey bites….they are gross. You find these generally near the bacon.

Kirkland Bacon:

Have covered it elsewhere….best bacon anywhere in our opinion. The red, not the blue low sodium.

Italian sausage:

These plain rock. They are the best Italian sausage for any use. Just fantastic flavour. We sometimes even open them and use the filling where sausage is called for. Need I say, in the smoker or over charcoal….the best. Mild are the ones to get. Divide and freeze.

Hummus

I eat this stuff by the gallon. I’ve made my own, tried other brands. Not worth making it yourself, this stuff is really good and perfectly packaged for freshness and volume. Watch out because it seems like its healthy but has a lot of calories!

Bean Coffee

I like to grind my own coffee every morning. I also like Starbucks taste. I do not like grocery store Costco bean prices. Read the fine print on Kirkland branded coffee at Costo….Roasted by Starbucks. I buy two bags at a time and its one of the things I will go specifically to Costco to get if I am out.

Popcorn

They don’t always have this, and we generally pop our own but this stuff is really really good replacement for home popped. Not overly buttery but quite like movie theater and the bag is huge. Not sure how they do it but its also not too high in calories

That’s it for part 1!