Ask a Butcher! For Reals.

[01101010]

I really advise against tartar in this day and age.  There's a lot of risk out there for one food item that can make you very, very sick.  And you'd only have yourself to blame for it. 

This is more on my "bucket list" in terms of foods. So it is not as though I will be eating this frequently, just once is good enough. I can get all the rare steak I need from just about any nice restaurant. Thanks for the advice though.

[cmlancas]

Unless you ate it last night and died this morning.  Then you could blame cmlancas because he just wasn't in time. 

MY GOD PLEASE POST IN THIS THREAD SO I KNOW YOU'RE OKAY. 

I can't have blood on my hands! (Ha.  I see what I did there.)

[cmlancas]

This is more on my "bucket list" in terms of foods. So it is not as though I will be eating this frequently, just once is good enough. I can get all the rare steak I need from just about any nice restaurant. Thanks for the advice though.

I'm not saying not to enjoy it, because it's honestly very good.  But, it's probably one of the more dangerous foods out there compared to the "scare foods" people think of like raw oysters.  If oyster farmers did anything close to what some chub ground beef plants do...yikes.

That's why we're seeing so much more regulation and tracking of ground beef in the industry.

[01101010]

Wait, I love oysters. I used to frequent raw oyster bars in New Orleans at least once a month. 

But yeah, I would only consider tartar in a restaurant with a reputation for it considering I would not want to try preparing it myself even from a reputable butcher because I would inevitably screw something up along the way as my kitchen is more of a chem lab on certain days. 

[Lantyssa]

Chem lab, or Biology?

[01101010]

BioChem? 

It is actually much better than say my kitchen of 10 years ago. Of course, this may be mostly due to the fact I eat out far more often. 

[cmlancas]

Since we're talking about chemistry in the kitchen, baking is the devil.

So, I have to use precision while I measure and improvisation is out of the questions?  Bleh.

Although, make me a delicious pie or cupcakes with cream cheese icing and we're friends for life.

Oh, and oysters are safe to eat year roundl. That whole months with R in it is nonsense nowadays.  When the waters get bad, they come from somewhere else (usually Apalachicola FL, somewhere in LA, or TX).  Those were the common tags I found.  And since I'm on a soapbox about oysters, they are way less expensive than you probably think they are, even at a supermarket.  I used to retail 5 to 6 dozen for 22$.

[MrHat]

Since we're talking about chemistry in the kitchen, baking is the devil.

So, I have to use precision while I measure and improvisation is out of the questions?  Bleh.

Although, make me a delicious pie or cupcakes with cream cheese icing and we're friends for life.

Oh, and oysters are safe to eat year roundl. That whole months with R in it is nonsense nowadays.  When the waters get bad, they come from somewhere else (usually Apalachicola FL, somewhere in LA, or TX).  Those were the common tags I found.  And since I'm on a soapbox about oysters, they are way less expensive than you probably think they are, even at a supermarket.  I used to retail 5 to 6 dozen for 22$.

Loved baking when I was doing it.  My secret? Keep my hands cold with some ice nearby.  Hot hands ruin dough.

[apocrypha]

Prices in general are getting ready to go way up.  Commodity prices are on the rise again (and you'll see significant jumps by next year at this time).

Christ, really? We already spend more on our weekly groceries than on our mortgage ffs.

Just going back a bit to the lamb discussion, back when we could afford it we would roast leg of lamb with a variety of herby crusts. 15 min sizzle at ~240oC, 12 mins/500g at 180oC, 20 mins resting at room temp covered with foil and thick towels. Awesome pink lamb.

Nowadays we have to stick to neck & shoulder so we tend to slow cook and casserole. I've got a large pot of lamb, beer & black bean chilli on the hob right now, made with cubed neck fillet. Really nice, but as with all chillis it's made into a great meal with the sides - home-made flat breads, guacamole, sour cream and grilled spring onions with lime juice. Can't wait :)

[Signe]

Well, at least lamb mince is only about a quid more than steak mince so my shepherd's pies are safe.  For now.  If I remember correctly, lamb neck fillet is about £16.00/kg, which is a lot.  But beef costs a lot now these days, too.  I'm fine not having meat every day but my flatmate likes meat for dinner all the time.  He likes good meat, too, which is fine.  As long as he buys it, I'll cook it, but red meat every day tends to make me feel a bit queasy after a while.  When I was living with my sister (they are vegetarians, almost), we would have a veggie dinner, some kind of pasta or fish - LOTS of fish.  If I wanted meat, I'd have to buy it myself and when I did, I mostly bought chicken.  If my nephew was coming over, I'd pick up steaks or lamb chops along with chicken for the grill.  I loved that, mostly because it was so infrequent.  Meat is no longer much of a treat and I find I don't crave beef very often.  I love lamb, though.

[Khaldun]

Since we're talking about chemistry in the kitchen, baking is the devil.

So, I have to use precision while I measure and improvisation is out of the questions?  Bleh.

Although, make me a delicious pie or cupcakes with cream cheese icing and we're friends for life.

Oh, and oysters are safe to eat year roundl. That whole months with R in it is nonsense nowadays.  When the waters get bad, they come from somewhere else (usually Apalachicola FL, somewhere in LA, or TX).  Those were the common tags I found.  And since I'm on a soapbox about oysters, they are way less expensive than you probably think they are, even at a supermarket.  I used to retail 5 to 6 dozen for 22$.

Basically I would say don't eat raw oysters from warm waters. Stick to year-round cold water oysters. And check to make sure they haven't had any oyster epidemics in the last 2-4 years. (Seriously, there are some fisheries where most of the oysters are now sick or have serious parasitic/bacteriological problems, but are allowed nevertheless to continue to produce oysters for markets.)

[Lantyssa]

Christ, really? We already spend more on our weekly groceries than on our mortgage ffs.

Yeah.  The drought this year is killing grain.  A lot of what good corn that survived is spoken for ethanol production.  Ranchers are selling all their livestock.  By winter things are going to be ugly.

If the drought continues... ugh.

[Hammond]

Interesting thread this gives me some ideas on what to do with the 1/3rd of a cow sitting in my freezer. 

So a bit of a tangent.  Corn, Wheat, Soybeans etc are way up year over year.    In the short term meat prices may go down because the ranchers and cattle yards are selling off stock because of the potential higher input prices of commodities.  How far it will go up will depend on what happens with the rest of the global crops.  Most numbers I have heard thrown around is anywhere from 15 to 30%. 

The thing that you got to know is that even though commodities are going up they are not as big of a part of the total cost as you would think.  Keep in mind when you are talking about Wheat or Corn they use a bushel in pricing it.  A bushel is  a measure of mass or volume but for simplicity they convert it to weight. A bushel of wheat for example is almost 60 pounds.  A bushel of corn is ~ 56 pounds.   Right now several varieties of wheat is around ~8 dollars a bushel.  You can make anywhere from 70 - 100 loaves of bread from a bushel of wheat.  So you got about 11 cents of wheat in a loaf of bread.  Also when you look back wheat used to cost quite a bit more than it does now if you include inflation.  In the 70's wheat got over 26 dollars of current dollars if you adjust it with inflation.

Take this link with a grain of salt.  http://www.zealllc.com/c2007/Zeal101207B.gif

Corn is rather more complicated and while I am getting more exposure to it with my current job (I work for a agricultural irrigation manufacturer) you can assume on the high level stuff they follow each other.

So will things get more expensive in the west? Yep but its going to hurt the 3rd world FAR FAR more.

[penfold]

I really advise against tartar in this day and age.  There's a lot of risk out there for one food item that can make you very, very sick.  And you'd only have yourself to blame for it. 

Parisian brasseries have been all the rage in London in recent years, Steak Tartare is a standard dish and I've had it numerous times to no ill effect. All the places I've eaten source their meat from particular farms though, usually organic grass fed rare breeds and the like, this is high end stuff.  The 45 day rib from Jack O'Shea's is another favourite of mine too. 

I've also recently had some very rare grouse, quail and even a pork chop served just slightly pink, although "pork chop" doesn't really sum up an exquisite marbled hunk of meat from an acorn fed Iberican black foot pig served at Heston Blumenthal's place, which was well worth the risk of brain worms. Even then I left the least cooked bit by the bone.



(rest of the meal here: http://edesiaishungry.blogspot.co.uk/ )

[cmlancas]

So I was in the corporate Meat buyers' area today and saw one of the chaining devices used for forced immobilization of veal...

...with a giant-ass plaque under it saying, "Hi, we don't do this and won't buy from anyone who does."

I didn't even know this was legal anymore.

[Miguel]

So I was watching Good Eats, and he was talking about buying and butchering your own tenderloins.

So Costco sells this large tenderloin cut, which Alton called a "PSMO" (or Peeled, Side Muscle On).  The butchering of it was pretty simple, and you end up with three different cuts out of it.  One of these he called the "chain", which ran alongside the center portion and seemed to be a good blend of fat and meat.  He suggested pounding it flat and making a Philly Cheesesteak, which I did, and it kicked ass!  Nevermind getting 8 filet mignon steaks and a nice roasting steak in the bargain.

So my question:  I've never heard of this cut, and it was outstanding.  Are there any other little butcher's secret cuts that stand out amongst the rest of the offerings in the butchers shop that I should be asking about?

[Lantyssa]

Tenderloins and backstrap are the best cuts of meat in my opinion.  We'd usually be down one or two after any hunting trip as we used these for camp meat.  There's a smokehouse between Houston and San Antonio which does smoked pork backstrap.  I can live on that alone for a few days.  (Even for breakfast.)

[cmlancas]

So Costco sells this large tenderloin cut, which Alton called a "PSMO" (or Peeled, Side Muscle On).  The butchering of it was pretty simple, and you end up with three different cuts out of it.  One of these he called the "chain", which ran alongside the center portion and seemed to be a good blend of fat and meat.  He suggested pounding it flat and making a Philly Cheesesteak, which I did, and it kicked ass!  Nevermind getting 8 filet mignon steaks and a nice roasting steak in the bargain.

So my question:  I've never heard of this cut, and it was outstanding.  Are there any other little butcher's secret cuts that stand out amongst the rest of the offerings in the butchers shop that I should be asking about?

I've seen this exact show and had differing opinions than Alton.  Chain is pretty spot on, but I didn't like how he butchered the tenderloin.  PSMO isn't really anything special, per se, just the way it comes from the major beef producers.  Tenderloin is tenderloin is tenderloin.

The problem with "secret cuts" is they don't really exist anymore.  Your mom and dad's (or even grandafther and grandmother's) skirt, flank, and oxtail recipes have been popularized by many restaurants and media outlets.  Nowadays a skirt and a flank might cost you as much as a NY strip.

What I look for now is value.  Breaking down a chicken, finding a nice first-cut bone-in chuck roast to process, or finding a couple nice chuck eyes is about the best you can do now that the secrets are out.  Either that or keep your ear to the ground for recipes.