Common Cents

[mixfinder]

We have a market that caters to more of the ethnic members of the community. Most items are sold in bulk at good prices. They have a coffin case where the marginal products go. Today I got whipping cream for 50 cents a box. If you are farm raised you know cream whips betters as it ages. If you're a city slicker you know fine steak houses tout 27 day ages beef steaks. I look for meat in the past pull because I know as it ages it gets more flavor and becomes more tender. Labeling for "sell by" and "use by" are based on the lowest common denominator of common sense. It also helps the manufacturer force more product through the pipeline. I get amused at shopper who tear apart a display of products trying to get to the back or furtherest believing it's newer than the front. The oldest trick in the book in grocery is to put the older product behind or under and sure enough the diligent shopper walks off smiling broadly with the older merchandise.

 

[sudsmaster]

Beef is aged as sides, not as cuts...

Um, you can have the bacteria laden, browned, oozing, foul smelling old beef no matter where it lands in the display case.

I'll stick with the freshest I can find.

The job of the butcher is to cut off the exposed portions of the side and sell the choice, un-decayed interior cuts to the discerning consumer.

Of course this is all my opinion, but I simply don't like spoiled food.

 

[mixfinder]

Sharing

I'll know that I won't have to chase you to the bargains at the meat counter. If I buy a roast on Tuesday instead of Monday, trust me the same bacteria inhabit both. Whole muscle cuts of beef have never been on the list of worrysome foods in a grocery store.

 

[jeffg]

Rich, my father owned a steakhouse for 30+ years, and Kelly is right. Precut steaks you buy at the market have been aged for up to a week (if you cook and eat freshly slaughtered meat, it has a nasty metallic taste). It's the aging process that gives beef most of its beef flavor.

My dad had a specific cooler he used for this purpose. It was just above freezing (35F) with high (85%) relative humidity. Sides that were covered with a thin layer of fat were aged for a week, and sides with thicker fat were aged for two weeks. Sometimes mold will grow on the fat, just cut it off if that happens.

This can be pretty unsettling for someone who's only bought precut steaks before, but trust me it's just the way things are done inside butcher shops and restaurants.

 

[gansky1]

What are you going to do with the whipping cream, Kelly?

 

[toggleswitch2]

Yes do tell before we brand you a cruel chef, beating the eggs and whipping the cream and all.

In the old day feces on meat in the slaughterhouse or later meant it was rejected and discarded. Now it gets rinsed off, and may the buyer beware!

 

[danemodsandy]

Rich:

Jeff's right. Fine butchers hang and age beef so that enzymatic action and drying mellow and intensify flavour.

Since you're fortunate enough to live in the Bay Area, you have access to fine butchers like Drewes. Try a visit to one sometime and ask to see a cut you're familiar with; what they'll be showing you is Prime grade beef, not the Choice you're familiar with. Trust me, it will not be Barbie pink, and it will not be sitting in a plastic tray with a miniature Depends under it.

If you've ever been to Morton's the Steakhouse over on Post, you know that the steak tastes like nothing you've ever had at home - or in most restaurants, for that matter. That's because Morton's uses Prime from a very limited selection of suppliers who hang and handle beef to their specifications.

 

[bugsyjones]

Hmmm....

I've read that most perishables can be used past the expiration. I don't feel comfortable with that.

I usually don't use food past it's dates. Especially things like eggs or luncheon meat. I can let SOME canned goods slide, but I hurry up and eat them before opening newer cans.

I do take in a few manager's specials on dry goods like cake mixes, crackers, or canned goods. Sometimes, if I'm going to use it right away, I'll buy ground beef on manager's special.

I'll admit I'm one of the people who grab the meat from the back of the stack. Not really because I think it's fresher, but the package out in front has been exposed to the warmer air and light for longer. That may not mean anything, but I'd rather not take a chance and get the one that got a little too warm.

Both myself and my parents buy groceries. I ususally just get a few things and they get the rest. My parents buy food in bulk, no matter what it is. Because it was 'on sale.' Today for example, they bought food and came home with FOUR dozen eggs! I was like 'why so much?' And mom said 'Because I'm going to bake tomorrow.' Chances are she will either 'not get around to it' or will definitely not use that many eggs. They don't realize that we can't eat all of the food they buy before it goes bad. They say 'That's ok, we'll freeze it!' They freeze everything. Several weeks ago, they were ecstatic over an advert for peanut butter at $1 a jar. I interjected inmmediately and told them that they would NOT be coming into this house with TEN JARS OF PEANUT BUTTER!

~Tim

 

[sudsmaster]

Pay closer attention...

I didn't say that beef isn't aged.

But that aging is done with whole sides of beef.

It's just not appropriate to age it after it's been sliced up into steaks.

The meat inside a healthy cow's side is sterile. It is sterile inside a side of beef. Once it's cut into steaks, however, bacteria is introduced into all the cut surfaces. It will grow, even in a refrigerated display bin, and in a number of days will spoil the meat.

Again, I know that sides of beef are aged.

But it is not right to think that you can age steaks in plastic wrap and not get away without greatly increased bacterial contamination.

 

[ronhic]

Many....

...best before dates are normally 'short' to help ensure that food is literally 'at its best by' a given date.

This doesn't mean that the bag of potato chips, flour, cake mixes, sugar (has anyone ever seen 'off' sugar?), cornflakes etc are not good to eat beyond that date, but that the manufacturer does not generally guarantee the that the quality will be as good.

'Use by' dates are a different kettle of fish and are generally applied to goods that may/will spoil rapidly once opened or are fresh when sold such as milk and other dairy and meat.

Again, this does not mean that if the goods have been handled and/or stored correctly that they cannot be eaten beyond this date. A good example is yoghurt. It carries a Use By date, but it is made from a culture and is effectively 'off' anyway. It and cheese are a couple of Use By products that can often be used beyond the recommended date..... Soft cheese in particular, such as Brie, is only just ripe on its Use By date.....before that date it really hasn't ripened sufficiently to develop its flavour.

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/..._and_best_before_dates_explained?OpenDocument

 

[sudsmaster]

Common sense...

"Aged beef should not be confused with old beef, which refers to beef that has come to the end of its shelf life in the supermarket meat case. A green or brown steak is NOT aged...it is OLD! Proper aging is done with whole primal cuts, not individual steaks."

Also, while it may be possible to dry age an uncovered slice of beef in the home fridge, at the end you wind up having cut away about 50% of the meat from the exterior, and toss it. Where's the savings there?

http://ask-a-butcher.newsvine.com/_news/2008/11/14/2111399-aging-beef-at-home

 

[sudsmaster]

Also... yogurt isn't immune to spoilage. It can and will grow mold when past its use-by date. And that mold may not be so good for you.

Would you eat day old sashimi?

 

[ronhic]

'yoghurt..cheese are a couple of Use By products that ca

I said...

'...can OFTEN...'

NOT...

'...can ALL...'

...and further more, I refer to 'correct handling and storage'...

...and unless you've seen it made, YOU can't guarantee that YOU don't eat day old sashimi...

 

[alr2903]

dev wears Prada

What was the name of that steak house in the "The Devil wears Prada". Everytime i watch that movie i want the steak, "Emily picks up for "Miranda". alr2903

 

[toggleswitch2]

All things in MODERATION.

My parents buy food in bulk, no matter what it is. Because it was 'on sale.' It is the IDEA that they are saving money. If you are nto going touse it, it's not saving money.

Hoarding is a very base-line human instint like overeating, oversleeping, alcohol, whoring-around, drugs, jealousy, gossip, violence, territorialism, etc.

Like everything else, to have a civilzed life and resaonably good life, one has to control their base instincts. What ever happened to discipline and self-control being fashionable?

 

[panthera]

I am so glad I don't eat meat

I do find it interesting, however, how different countries view the matter.

The preservatives we put into cold cuts and sausages in Germany are often not only forbidden in the US but have been for a very long time. For good reason.

And, yet, ground meat must be sold on the day it is ground or destroyed. No exceptions (biggest scandal every year in the health department tests, most supermarkets just remix and rewrap it at the end of the day, meaning there is no way to know how old the ground beef you buy really is).

American beef is forbidden to be sold because of the hormones and antibiotics while the Americans forbid the sale of our beef because of the Mad Cow risk...even tho' each single cow is tested before turned into steak in the EC whereas we all know how that debate ended in the US....

When I buy for my parents, who do eat meat, I pay attention to the dates and buy from an organic butcher whenever I can.

Most important of all, tho', I cook meat with a thermometer.

 

[mixfinder]

Whip it Good

Toggles, you have witnessed two containers of the cream on the choclate pie. I have friends coming for dinner today and I'll use some of the cream in Chicken Curry. I am teaching a cooking class tomorrow for a group of friends and some will go there. Cream, once pastuerized will last a couple months in the fridge before souring. After it sours it can be used in Sour Cream Raisin pie, Sour Cream Frosting, making butter and myriad other uses.
I do buy stressed protien when its too good a value to pass up. If it is preserved like ham or sausage, beef and some pork. I shy away from chicken and pork. The food born pathogens are less volitile in beef. Once getting the meat home if I don't intend to cook it right away, I rinse and dry it and then store it chilled, but uncovered or wrap it and freeze it. The key thing to note with frozen food if it thaws in what ever condition it was frozen in. If it was two gasp from spoiling before it is just the same after its thawed. Having worked in food production for manufacuturing the dates printed on manufactured foods served almost no useful function other than defining the date they were sealed.

 

[sudsmaster]

A recent National Geographic had a very interesting article on the decline of the traditional German butcher. Apparently they are being replaced by anonymous meat sections of supermarkets, as in the USA. A lot of butchers in Germany have gone out of business; there is a lack of interest on the part of young people to join what they view as a dying profession, as well. One butcher profiled is staying in business by offering vegetarian meat substitutes.

 

[panthera]

Rich,

Sad but true. Part of the problem is, ironically enough, the rise of the "Ökometzgerei" - the organic, natural, bio-,etc. butchers.
Between the Mad-Cow disease, the contaminated meat horror stories in the press and the general rise in skepticism about the food industry, a great many people who used to shop at the neighborhood butcher's now go to a store which provides written documentation from birth to slaughter, organizes tours of the farmers' farms (and I mean farmer not rancher) and is legally bound to maintain standards with strict, regular inspection.

Another part of the problem is customer service or, better, lack of it. When I first came to Germany, there was really no such thing as self-service meat counters or fruit/vegetable counters. You asked for something and were at the mercy of the person 'waiting' on you. As a man and a foreigner, I often had to fight to get the quality produce and (still ate meat then) cuts of meat I wanted.

Now, two generations have grown up with self-service while the traditional butchers pretty much still have the attitude "be thankful we deign to serve you".

The exact same thing has happened to the greengrocers' - they're either gone or turned Öko.

 

[bajaespuma]

Miranda Priestly's Rib Eye

You mean Smith & Wollensky? It's on 3rd Avenue in the high forties. Told it isn't what it was.

Loved that movie but if it had been me, that rib eye would've ended up so far up Ms. Priestly's butt, well, that's all...

 

[sudsmaster]

Make mine medium rare

First, sear the steak on both sides at high heat. This serves three purposes: it locks in the juices, kills bacteria present on the exterior of the cut (where virtually all of it will be on a good piece of beef, anyway), and it gives a pleasing color/taste/grill pattern.

Then lower the heat way down and let the meat finish cooking as slowly as possible. This avoids toughening the protein fibers and allows for a more even result.

I do this on my gas grill all the time, with great results. I cut with the grain of the meat to determine if the level of doneness (dark pink) is what I'm looking for. Thermometer not needed for that.

If the meat is spoiled, etc, then ... into the compost pile it goes.

This works for any meat, although pork needs to be cooked to 165F and chicken to 175F.

Also, if one eats chicken... take a look at Consumer Reports article on bacterial contamination of whole chicken. Foster Farms, which is pretty much all one sees in markets around here any more, is one of the most badly contaminated brands. Organic whole chicken from various brands rate much higher on the food safety tests.

Used to be I would see it recommended that the safest way to purchase chicken, at least here in California, is to buy frozen chicken from outfits back in Arkansas etc. These may not be raised much cleaner but they benefit from being flash frozen on the spot, without the week or two of refrigeration that will allow the inevitable bacteria present on the carcass to grow, albeit slowly.

But I haven't seen such frozen chicken in the markets for a long time.