A key ingredient for the quintessential Minnesota hot dish recipe keeps going higher and higher in price, giving people sticker shock at butcher shops and grocery stores.

Quality cuts at competitive prices have kept customers coming back to Ready Meats in Minneapolis for nearly 80 years. But it's a business model that's getting tougher to navigate.

"It's kind of crazy to think of when I started 20 years ago that prices seemed so low and so manageable," said owner Ryan Nalezny. "Now it's kind of a scary time where prices are so high that we have to keep a closer eye on it."

He's talking specifically about ground beef prices. His shop is selling it at $7.09 per pound.

"I think we tried to keep it under $6 per pound about a year ago," he said.

In August 2024, Americans were paying about

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