This is for your information and is from the old Prodigy BB.
MM: CHOOSING BEEF
---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
Title: CHOOSING BEEF
Categories: Beef, Info
Yield: 1 Text file
First, look at the cut of the beef. Meat from the
part of the animal that works the least, i.e. the
tenderloin, short loin, top portions of the rump, is
gonna be more tender than meat from the parts of the
animal that work a lot, such as the chuck (front
shoulder), brisket, bottom rump, etc. If you're
planning on cooking the meat using a dry heat method
(broiling or roasting), go for cuts from the tender
section of the cow. For moist heat methods (braising
and stewing), meat from the less tender sections is
fine, and may be preferable because of the additional
flavor found in these cuts.
Next look at color. The nice, red meat you associate
with a good piece of cow is NOT gonna be particularly
good eating. Ideally, the meat should be a darker,
less appetizing color, which means that the enzymes in
the meat have been working a bit, and some aging has
taken place.
Now, look at the cut of meat itself. If it looks nice
and lean, with no fat marbling in the meat itself,
forget it. If you broil meat like that, it's gonna be
tough as the proverbial boot. Instead, choose the
piece that everyone else is rejecting 'cause it has
some streaks of fat in the middle of the meat, maybe a
little more outside fat coating than is politically
correct.
Also look at the texture of the meat. All muscle
contains two kinds of connective fibers, called
collagen and elastin. These fibers bundle the
individual strands of muscle together, and allow the
muscle bundles to function. When exposed to heat,
they contract, toughen, and make the end product
tough. In dry heat cooking, look for a piece of meat
with a velvety surface, indicating that these bundles
are not overly developed.
In moist heat cooking, collagen softens and dissolves,
and becomes gelatin. Elastin, unfortunately, doesn't
do much of anything except transform itself into
gristle.
Finally, if in any doubt whatsoever as to the overall
tenderness of the meat, you can resort to treating
meat to be broiled with a commercial meat tenderizer
containing papin. If you follow the directions exactly
(more/longer exposure to this enzyme is NOT better,
and will result in a flabby, disgusting mouthfeel),
you can get a pretty decent steak out of some fairly
unpromising hunks of meat.
Another hint, which your nephew Wes learned the hard
way the other night, is to avoid steaks with strange,
butcher-generated names like the plague. He dragged
home a couple of little beauties with the colorful
name of "Ranch Steaks" the other night. (I tried to
tell him not to buy 'em cause they were gonna be
tough, but he didn't seem to hear me :-) He tossed
his on the grill, chewed, cussed and chewed his way
through as much of it as he could manage before
consigning the remainder to the cat. I treated mine
with papin, cooked it very rare, and got something
that was marginally edible.
Moral to the story: If the butcher doesn't think it
will sell under its REAL name (in this case Sirloin
Tip, which is a polite way of saying Heel of Round),
he's gonna give it a fancy handle and mark the price
up 50 cents a pound, just to see who's gullible enough
to buy it.
Have to agree with Jeff, though. The quality of beef
has gone WAY down recently. Guess its the move toward
leaner, lighter beef that's the culprit. I've said it
before, and I'll say it again -- there's NO WAY lean,
unmarbled beef is going to even begin to approach the
succulence and tenderness of the old-fashioned,
un-heart healthy stuff we grew up on. Personally, I'd
rather feast on the real thing a couple of times a
year than gnaw my way through my regular portion of
the tasteless, tough junk we're being subjected to
these days.
I realize that in a changing world, the production of
old-fashioned, grain fed beef is ecologically unsound.
In a world with limited resources, we just can't
devote that much time/grain to feeding a cow for my
pleasure. But there must be some sort of compromise.
Personally, I'd rather have a little bit of something
REALLY good occasionally, than a lot of something
mediocre on a regular basis.
Kathy in Bryan, TX
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