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Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

steamykitchen.com

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Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#31

Post by ecuzzillo »

wooster wrote: post #29
ecuzzillo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empirically, Giant Eagle (the crap chain supermarket in PA) beef tastes like crap, and local butcher beef tastes really good. Locality is a good proxy for people caring about food tasting good, and for not going through enormous horrible disease-ridden meat-packing plants. The latter tends to produce meat that tastes bad and periodically makes you sick.

AFAIK, there are only 4 cattle slaughterhouses in PA: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_... Only one of the 4 is not owned by Cargill or JBS. Unless your beef vendor is taking delivery on whole carcasses and then packing it themselves, the beef is probably packed at the slaughterhouse, as well.

Heh. The local butcher whose very happy meat I ate actually was in the Ferry Plaza in SF.

But really, I don't know if the goodness in non-Giant-Eagle meat has anything to do with the meat packing industry. I just was trying to convince ars that food people aren't being totally dumb when they say that local is often better than GEagle equivalents.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#32

Post by euccastro »

dzlobin wrote: post #14

protip: salt all meat 10-60 minutes before cooking, depending on size. Don't do this with fish. alternative: brine all your meat.

Why not on fish? Around here (SW of Europe) it's customary to salt mackerel and sardines the morning before cooking. Even the whole day before, if they're going to be boiled.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#33

Post by pmjordan »

garply wrote: post #30
ErrantX wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure but it's a fair whack. She makes a little more on direct & local sales but mostly that is because she also gets some of the retail markup too (which the supermarkets soak up). EDIT: here is some info on plumping. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/food-politic... My Aunt's produce isn't modified all that much (because it is marketed as premium and local produce by the supermarket - they buy from…

The bakeries here usually blend their cheesecakes (which are sold by weight) with flour to boost their margins. This sounds like exactly the same sort of process. I wonder how frequent this is in the food industry.

It's done with bacon, too. This is why you'll find that cheap bacon, when fried, will expel a lot of water, whereas the more expensive stuff won't. This is probably more noticeable on back bacon ("Canadian" bacon) - I can't imagine the fatty parts hold the water for long enough.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#34

Post by blasdel »

ars wrote: post #22
dzlobin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Locally sourced meat tends to be grass-fed or at least grass finished. It also tends to have WAY better living conditions than any commercial plant. A happy animal is a tasty animal. I highly suggest you watch Food inc. :-)

What if I live near a "commercial" plant, so it's local to me? Local is nonsense. If you want grass finished say so. Don't say local. And calling it commercial is misleading too, since grass finished is also commercial.

Until the whole "USDA Organic" program came along, 'organic' was a reasonable (if inane) proxy for decent-tasting produce. The lack of pesticides never had much to do with the quality, except that it attracted people with graduate degrees to farmwork.

The 'local' thing has been a reasonably successful attempt at taking the place of 'organic' as a proxy marker for non-crap. It has the nice property of still mostly working after being coopted by the big supermarket chains.

It's just as bullshit, if not moreso, but it's useful bullshit.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#36

Post by jsolson »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #27
ars wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I live near a "commercial" plant, so it's local to me? Local is nonsense. If you want grass finished say so. Don't say local. And calling it commercial is misleading too, since grass finished is also commercial.

Empirically, Giant Eagle (the crap chain supermarket in PA) beef tastes like crap, and local butcher beef tastes really good. Locality is a good proxy for people caring about food tasting good, and for not going through enormous horrible disease-ridden meat-packing plants. The latter tends to produce meat that tastes bad and periodically makes you sick.

Hah. If you think Giant Eagle is crap, you should step into a Kroger sometime.

I grew up around Pittsburgh, then moved to Atlanta for school ~9 years ago. Talk about a substantial drop in supermarket quality...

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#37

Post by bmj »

wooster wrote: post #29
ecuzzillo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empirically, Giant Eagle (the crap chain supermarket in PA) beef tastes like crap, and local butcher beef tastes really good. Locality is a good proxy for people caring about food tasting good, and for not going through enormous horrible disease-ridden meat-packing plants. The latter tends to produce meat that tastes bad and periodically makes you sick.

AFAIK, there are only 4 cattle slaughterhouses in PA: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_... Only one of the 4 is not owned by Cargill or JBS. Unless your beef vendor is taking delivery on whole carcasses and then packing it themselves, the beef is probably packed at the slaughterhouse, as well.

The beef we purchased directly from a farmer (all cows are 100% pastured and grass-fed) are processed and packed by Cheplic in Finleyville, PA.

Of course, the farmer isn't processing an obscene amount of cattle each year, either, and he only sells directly to consumers, face-to-face, so a small butcher can actually handle that sort of volume.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#38

Post by bmj »

ars wrote: post #22
dzlobin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Locally sourced meat tends to be grass-fed or at least grass finished. It also tends to have WAY better living conditions than any commercial plant. A happy animal is a tasty animal. I highly suggest you watch Food inc. :-)

What if I live near a "commercial" plant, so it's local to me? Local is nonsense. If you want grass finished say so. Don't say local. And calling it commercial is misleading too, since grass finished is also commercial.

But what if I am buying locally raised and processed grass-fed beef? Local is hardly nonsense. Every two weeks I meet the guy actually raising the animals to buy our food (beef, chicken, milk, cheese, eggs). I can't think of a more appropriate way to do business with something as important as what I put in my body.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#39

Post by Silhouette »

ErrantX wrote: post #24
garply wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea about plumping. Do you know what percent of the revenue her supermarkets take?

Not sure but it's a fair whack. She makes a little more on direct & local sales but mostly that is because she also gets some of the retail markup too (which the supermarkets soak up). EDIT: here is some info on plumping. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/food-politic... My Aunt's produce isn't modified all that much (because it is marketed as premium and local produce by the supermarket - they buy from…

I don't know the situation elsewhere, but something that surprised me here in the UK is the disclosure requirements. We have a lot of rules on describing ingredients and nutrition in food, some statutory, others widely accepted industrial practices. However, even the statutory rules let food suppliers "forget" certain things, like IIRC up to 10% of added water in meat products. In other words, they can legally say "no added water" with anything up to 10% added, or reduce greater actual amounts accordingly. I'm not sure I see any public interest in that kind of rule, unless it really is an essential part of the production process that literally everyone (including the local butcher with a local supplier competing with the supermarkets) is going to have to do.

Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt

#40

Post by taitems »

wooster wrote: post #21

This is basically the method I use when cooking steaks. Also see this post which discusses the effects of flip intervals on cooking time and evenness of steaks: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1117296 Also, some other simple tips: 1) In general, the more marbling the better. You want lots of veins of fat in the muscle of the cut. Big chunks of fat don't count, and leaner meat won't have as much flavor. 2) Hard wh…

My mum came along for a trip to the market a few weekends ago and had me looking for well aged porterhouse. She told me to look specifically for the yellowing fat as its a sign of age. She grabbed one that looked sickeningly yellow but I can confirm that this was one of the most tender porterhouses I've had.
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