"tanks for starting da day off wet"
Posted on 05/10/2010 4:32:30 AM PDT by Palter
Mass output and U.S. rules have diminished flavor; what aficionados should demand
Let's talk about steak for a moment. Was the last one you ate good? How about the one before that? Be honest.
The first bite, in all probability, was juicy and tender. Not bad. A brief hit of beefiness, enough to spur you on to bite No. 2. But by bite No. 4, there was a problem: grease. The tongue gets entirely coated in it. It is at this point that many hands reach for that terrible abomination called steak sauce. It's acidic and zingy and cuts through grease, but it blots out the weak flavor of the steak.
At steak houses all over the country, wine drinkers know the variety of grapes used to make the wine, the patch of earth where they were grown, and the year they were picked. They might even know whether the wine was aged in a barrel made from oak grown in France or America.
They don't know nearly as much about their steak.
Not the breed, not what the cow ate, or where it was raised. All anyone seems to know about steak today is this: It doesn't have much flavor. The great American steak is great in name only. It has become like its hated nemesis, boneless chicken breast: bland.
The decline started back in 1926 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture began grading beef. Like the rest of the country, steak had undergone a big change in the preceding decades. It was being churned out of factories like the famous Chicago and Kansas City stockyards and being distributed throughout the country. Hotels, restaurants and butcher shops were buying beef sight unseen. Some was good, and some wasn't. So the government stepped in to make things right.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I presume this was posted to show how the govt. ruined beef?
Yet, the whole article after that little quote shows that the cattle ranchers were the ones that did everything to change the way beef is mass produced.
I wonder how long the author has been waiting to publish this rant on beef?
"tanks for starting da day off wet"
Those cows that produce milk in Wisconsin for ten years or so before they stop using them as milk producers?/
They dont bury them.
many don’t make it to age 6 nowadays due to the rigors of the newer parlor systems and freestall barns.
I’ll have my soilent green medium rare please
in a way, it was. The government set the standard and all the producers have been striving since that time to meet the standard in the most efficient way possible. Unfortunately, the gov’t standard does not promote taste - it promotes fat. Try some of my dad’s home-raised beef once. It would never make the prime designation, but you will never taste a steak like it anywhere else...
Good article about beef grading:
http://www.steakperfection.com/grade/
~snip~
Prior to 1987, the top three grades of beef in the U.S. were Prime, Choice and Good. The major difference was the degree of marbling: Prime is 15% more marbled than Choice, which is 15% more marbled than Good. About three-fourths of grain-fed beef was graded Prime or Choice.
The National Cattlemen’s Association (NCA) started a nationwide consumer movement for lean beef. At the request of the NCA, Texas A&M University produced the “National Consumer Retail Beef Study”, which began the “War on Fat”. The study recommended that consumers be educated to purchase lean beef.
*************************
Consumers have been educated to eat crappy beef.
There are a few places I'm still trying to get to, but for now I've found the best.
I disagree. It stated how the government perverted the market, and how the market responded.
And we’re also getting bombarded with “Angus Beef” BS.
I have seen so many meat ads with Certified Angus Beef in PLACE of the USDA grade that I make it a point to call the meat store and ask them what grade their so-called Angus beef is.
It’s usually (I’m told) “choice” but I have never seen a USDA stamp on any portion for sale.
bookmarked
Screw the gov’t.
I’ve been eating more venison lately. It’s free, low in fat, the mignons are excellent smoked, marinated, grilled, in stews etc. Any way you can cook beef you can do the same with venison.
Besides, there are way too many of the critters, and they eat everything I plant. They’ve even eaten my holly!
This year I’m getting a solar electric fence. Hope that works.
CAB uses the top third of the Choice Grade, which is called the Moderately Marbled level of Choice. With the consumer confusion caused by the USDA's changes, CAB allows consumers an alternative to the confusing (for them) government grading. According to a report, "After the USDA issues a grade, an Angus grader comes through and stamps the meat that fits their program. What they are taking is, by and large, the top level of USDA Choice." CAB and other programs market their beef without the USDA labels and pass off as the highest quality those cuts which are not quite Prime Grade but are nevertheless affordable.
I've consumed a lot of CAB that I wouldn't consider high Choice. I think 'they' change the marbling % ratings since that article, just like a normal human cholesterol or blood pressure number of the past is now bad and needs medication.
What I didn’t see mentioned in the article was that 2005 was a “historic” year in the beef industry, the first year ever that more than 50% of our beef comes from Mexico. So who regulates the majority of beef?
Fat indicated that the beef would be more tender. Aging added to the equation.
Old style aging of beef might cause modern beef eaters to think the meat was a bit spoiled.
Hereford House in KC used to have great beef now its avg to poor quality like the writer wrote.
The steak on Mother’s day tasted like leather.
For $25 to $45 you should be able to get a good steak but not the case anymore.
.
I grilled ribeyes I got from Costco for Mother’s Day yesterday and they were fantastic. Tender, jucy, nice marbling. Of course it could all be due to the cook, too.
Did it state anywhere in there ('cause I didn't see it) where the beef industry fought the classifications? In fact, I would bet that they welcomed the classifications as a way to charge higher prices for cows raised in the same herd on the same fields simply based on the FDA classifications.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.