GBAChef: Meat preparation/butchery discussion.

[FAST6191]

A disclaimer just to say I did. This topic features discussion of meat preparation and butchery, if you are the kind of person that does not like to know where their food comes from then yeah...

A discussion on sausages* led to various butchery methods being discussed.



Surprisingly few people know about it but there are quite big differences in the ways people prepare given animals around the world. It is wikipedia we know but for a basic overview it works quite well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_of_beef
Normally I would have done lamb but the US does not seem to be big on lamb and the differences are not quite so visual.

Now most people I meet (and this goes back decades -- today most 40 somethings I meet that have done it are those that grew up on farms or needed Halal meat and there was not the mass of Halal butchers there are today**) usually get it out of a pack or from a butcher and have never really had to do much. However I am sometimes surprised that quite a few people have never gutted, scaled or filleted a fish.

To that end butchery stories, preferred methods (from the beef list above I have never tried more than UK, US and Dutch but I do have to note my general dislike of the US methods as I find they limit my options a bit) and general related discussion.


*after my issues with the GBAChef council following the tunnocks incident I am probably back on their shit list now for saying hot dogs are sausages but hey.

**love you guys, please carry on staying open late on a Sunday.

 

[Black-Ice]

Well done steak or no steak at all.

 

[porkiewpyne]

I've never actually done any butchering. Due to time constraints. Definitely not because I lack the skill. Nope. Not that. Totally. *whistles*

 

[FAST6191]

Well done steak or no steak at all.

I was not going so much for the cooking but OK. Why do you fancy a bit of shoe leather and how open are you to the possibility that you are wrong in this matter? Personally I have seen and converted several people towards the "still has a pulse" side.

 

[Black-Ice]

I was not going so much for the cooking but OK. Why do you fancy a bit of shoe leather and how open are you to the possibility that you are wrong in this matter? Personally I have seen and converted several people towards the "still has a pulse" side.

I just like well done steak.
I'm not into the whole theory and stuff, its not that deep.
But i'm very put off by blood, no blood in my meat

 

[FAST6191]

But i'm very put off by blood, no blood in my meat

For the record it is not actually blood.

We already did the blood foods last topic ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/gbachef-favourite-food-that-weirds-out-visitors-to-your-country.351335/ ) though.

 

[pyromaniac123]

I just like well done steak.
I'm not into the whole theory and stuff, its not that deep.
But i'm very put off by blood, no blood in my meat

That almost sounded like the words of a vegetarian.

 

[Black-Ice]

That almost sounded like the words of a vegetarian.

Loool nope.
I'm a full out meat eater. Love meat
But no blood, I want my meat cooked right

For the record it is not actually blood.

We already did the blood foods last topic ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/gbachef-favourite-food-that-weirds-out-visitors-to-your-country.351335/ ) though.

Lets see...

 

[calmwaters]

While I think it's nasty to butcher an animal, it is known that the meat loses its freshness over time. So if you kill it yourself and serve it up for dinner that night, then it'll taste really good. (Jeez, this sounds really morbid.) Now here in America, we feed our animals tons of corn and then shoot them up with artificial preservatives so they don't; then we kill them. Obviously that meat isn't fresh.

On a lighter note, this reminds me of Sam from the Brady Bunch.

 

[FAST6191]

Freshness sure and I will resist the urge to laugh at organic farming tendencies. However we do hang meat for a reason, granted there is the "from my boltgun and to my plate in as short an amount of time as possible" option which can bypass the need but it is not just a negative gradient quality/time graph.

 

[Flame]

I like my meat to be a little raw..... makes me feel like edward all nice and shiny in the outside and dead alive in the inside

butchery is something which isnt need these, and i hope it stays like that or else I'm FUCKED. because I'm sure I will waste something like 90% of the meat.

 

[Hop2089]

I like my steaks to medium well except Wagdu beef which I like raw. Anything else needs to be well done well except fish which I eat raw except catfish (and most bottom feeding fish) and salmon (due to a very deadly parasite).

 

[retKHAAAN]

Freshness sure and I will resist the urge to laugh at organic farming tendencies. However we do hang meat for a reason, granted there is the "from my boltgun and to my plate in as short an amount of time as possible" option which can bypass the need but it is not just a negative gradient quality/time graph.

Care to elaborate on what exactly is laughable about organic farming?

 

[FAST6191]

Though I am usually of the "science is great and should be used at all points in time" persuasion it is more of the attitudes that people that do it and use the products of it have.

 

[retKHAAAN]

Though I am usually of the "science is great and should be used at all points in time" persuasion it is more of the attitudes that people that do it and use the products of it have.

So nothing to do with benefits/negatives of organic farming and everything to do with the shitty people who do/eat it? I was hoping for something a little more...legitimate. All of the meats/veggies/dairy in my home come from an organic farm about an hour away from me and I'm pretty sure I'm an asshole...but I don't think the two are mutually exclusive... The farmers seem like nice enough people.

 

[Ace]

Don't have too much experience with meat myself, though I believe it's a little more than most. Most of my meat preparation experience comes from the days I spent at my grandmother's farm, where all cattle minus cows were raised by us.

I've been taught how to butcher a swine in Argentinian cuts about a decade ago, so it's a bit hazy. I could do it with instruction, though.

I have visited butchers here in Sweden, who are surprisingly organic and hygienic. It's generally a pretty positive environment, from the farm to the boltlock.

As with getting my own hands into it, I have beheaded/defeathered chickens for the purpose of cooking them, and totally failed at gutting and filleting a fish.

Following that, I'm a well rounded rare/raw guy for meats. Having spent a big part of my life in South America, I'm not too familiar with European/American cuts, but I'd say my favorite cut is the Picanha. It's quite pricey here, so I definitely view it as a delicacy, and try to use as much of the cut as possible when it's available here.

 

[FAST6191]

Personally I have never had a "organic food is much tastier/better" thing happen to me.
Can chemicals trouble things in the plants, soil, general environment. Absolutely, happens often enough too.
Are the seed companies first rate bastards. Absolutely, they are probably as damaging to the reputation of the US patent system as software patents and the USPTO's tendency to ignore prior art and obviousness combined.
GMO. More please (selective breeding happened for thousands of years, no reason for this to be considered differently), though again some of the seed people could probably do with winding their necks in.
Meat wise I have issues with some of the science driven farming techniques. This carries on into other things where things could do with being relaxed, changed and stopped. We may or may not have to contemplate differences between places and though others are not without issue I do have to say most of my eyebrow raising happens at the US.

However I have never noticed a taste difference and most blind tests seem to agree, the answer to science screwing up is more science, with organic yields being somewhat lower it tends to trouble the "can sustain the population", the price premium does not seem worth it. From there we get the "it is better for you" stuff which I find to largely be bad science on par with that which I see in skin cream and shampoo commercials or perhaps even audiophile circles.

In the end I do not see the need and as they are not producing at the levels they could be then it seems like a waste of potential. If a toy farm can sustain what you need to do then fair enough, however saying it is the way gets my goat. Those playing organic farmer going into Africa and spreading nonsense is straight up deplorable, though I will avoid conflating them with the bulk.

Edit. Nice Post Ace. I am curious to hear about the fish thing though -- prepping a chicken takes some work even when you know what you are doing where sorting a fish out is not so easy. However if this was just a first try sort of thing then yeah they are often the ones that become the next round of bait.

 

[Theconejo]

I was in southern France during Easter a few years back to work on a vineyard. The father of the family had just slaughtered 2 lamb for Easter dinner and found out that I worked in kitchens in the States. Although he didn't speak any English and I barely speak French, we broke down the 2 lamb pretty fast. Now I'm confident in my skills, which helped the speed, but the guy was pointing, basically, to signal where and how I should cut and some of the cuts made no sense from my perspective.

On the same trip I also worked on a farm that primarily raised animals for slaughter. They paid to have the animals taken and butchered(live to packaging) and I felt bad after seeing the way the meat was cut. In the sense that certain muscles should be isolated because they are better suited for a certain method of preparation.

Pretty vague stories but from my time I felt that the French do not pay proper honor to the animals they raise then slaughter by breaking them down in the ways I saw.

 

[ipwndeveloper]

Now, I'm not one for cooking. But GBAtemp having this thread is what makes this fourm awesome.

 

[Squirps]

Hey.

I'm a vegetarian.
Just thought I'd drop in and say hi!

...hai.