Choosing Beef

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

1995    
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 thing 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.  I yield the soapbox to the Gentleman from Maryland
(or whoever else  wants to climb on).  Kathy in Bryan, TX  Posted to
FIDO Cooking echo by Kathy Pitts from Dec 1, 1994 - Jul 31,  File
ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/kpitts.zip

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