My grandparents lived in suburbia, but due to:
and
…they had a couple of big freezers and went to the grocery store maybe three times a year.
For fresh veggies and eggs, they had a big garden and chickens. Everything else came out of tins or the freezer.
Shame video? Where have you been? Management would immediately fire him/her before the shame video hit the internet.
“Yes, we shot that kid in the face, but we didn’t push people or laugh at anyone.”
PENITENT, adj. Undergoing or awaiting punishment.
“Hey fella, drop your stick and gloves, and I’ll help you off with your hockey sweater.”
And Roger!
My guess is it’s for the street market.
Recent interview on Costco’s customer base:
… You know that the prepping community, for instance, loves Costco. Costco once at one time sold a six thousand dollar doomsday kit that gave you rations that would last you like four years …
… And the the service that a bunch of those old village stores were doing was we will stock all of these things in stock for you.
And then when you need them, you can come and buy them. And then with the rise of the supermarket, that balance changed. And it’s like, well, we will just sell you a bunch of stuff once a week and then you will stock it in your own home. And then when you need it, you will go and find it on the third shelf in the in the garage. Yeah. And then that just got turbo charged by Costco. But the amount of just sheer square footage and freezer space that you need in order to be a Costco member seems to be a deeply American thing.
one of the powers of good cinema is that is let’s us project our thoughts into completely fictional scenarios and characters.
or alien races.
That leads to a LOT of blood feuds which is why North America and the antipodes are full of European descended folks… Mars is the next place fued avoidant peeps have got to go to. A bit more than a state line I would hazard? Leg pulling aside, all you folks keep yourselves and your kith and kin safe. We’ll have a big barbie when it all blows over, OK!
Which ever one it is, I hope he gets Gout.
But… when does it get aged?
After slaughter, before butchering. Good farm will usually hang the carcass for the appropriate amount of time before cutting and delivery, some just have the slaughter facility do so for the minimum. All before it gets to you. It doesn’t take much aging honestly, only long enough for rigor mortis to pass. Meat packer’s talk about the importance of “wet aging” is really an attempt to make waiting for rigor to go away and the shrink wrapped primal distribution format sound like super awesome dry aging.
That’s not the French(?) (classical) way.
I always buy the most exposure darkened beef
in the chest and then I bring it home and expose it some more.
It makes It both more flavorful and more tender.
Ask about any butcher.
It’s not for burger though, unless I’m mistaken.
The french are internationally known for having poor quality beef. But that’s sort a non-sequitor.
“Exposure darkened” isn’t what you should be looking for, and exposure won’t darken meat. You leave an individual cut out the oxygen will lighten it up turning it pink. If it’s out too long it’ll oxidize and turn grey then poopy brown, and develop some nasty off flavors. The darker cuts you see in the case are usually just things that were cut more recently, a good butcher will cut to order though. Meat sitting out cut in a case is getting worse not better.
When we talk about aging we’re talking about what happens before it hits the case or shrink wrapped foam tray. And there’s kinda 2 things to look at. Fresh meat for eating now. And dry aged beef.
So for fresh meat two strategies. The traditional way, and modern wet aging.
In either case a dead animal goes into rigor. It will be more difficult to break up during that time. And it will be tough as hell and taste like licking a battery. So the meat has to be stored, preferably as a whole carcass, until that goes away. Then you can eat it.
Traditionally you do this by hanging in open air. By doing so you lose a lot of moisture, concentrate the flavors. You really only need to do this till rigor subsides, but there are benefits from doing it longer. Thing is you are fighting spoilage the whole time, and the longer you push it the more chance you’ll lose the meat. 1-2 weeks is the usual amount of time. You hear a lot about enzymes and flavor changes. But most of what happens here is moisture loss, and rigor going away. And honestly really fresh meat, right past rigor is really nice. Even if I’d say properly hung meat is better.
Modern meat packers want to do this faster. So they break down animals immediately, before or during rigor. Shrink wrap the primals so that the “aging” (ie rigor giving it up) can happen during shipping. There’s no moisture loss. It’s not bad per se, it just doesn’t bring anything additional to the party. Except shelf life. The vast majority of meat you run into is aged this way, even at high end butchers. And it is the only thing you will find at super markets. As it is pretty much the only way meat is processed for normal retail sale in most developed countries.
You can’t really do the long hanging thing with individual cuts. Though you can do it with primals. People who don’t have access to a walk in fridge often butcher deer rapidly and park the cuts in the fridge till rigor goes away. Though it’s always preferable to hang it, often in a shed or a garage if it’s cold enough out. My uncle used to hang his ducks in his mud room (2 weeks!).
Dry aging of beef is a different thing entirely, it’s a step that takes place after one of the other two. It’s basically mild fermentation, the outside of the meat is allowed to desiccate. Sealing off the interior, then mold and bacteria begin to break down the meat. Creating all sorts of fun weirdness. This does tend to be darker than other meat, mostly do to heavy moisture loss. But you can not do it to individual cuts, all cuts, or a whole carcass. It’s a treatment for specific primals (usually steak cuts).
Traditional butchers dealing with whole carcasses will hang the carcasses for a week or two. But those are few and far between these days. Even in Europe. Kind of why going direct to a farm is fun. Even if they don’t do it as a matter of course, they’ll often do it by request. Or send you to a butcher who can (and sportsman’s butchers tend to be game for it too). My pig guy likes to hang them 2 weeks, but if you’re in a rush it only takes 4 days for rigor to go away. Apparently you can pay him to hang and butcher a deer for you.
Burger’s got a lot of surface area. It’ll oxidize badly, fast. So it’s always best fresh ground.
We bought a small freezer to do this with a half pig. The lesser cuts that we never got around to eating is partly what’s allowing us to stay self-quarantined.
I expected to get a text wall, am not disappointed.
Oh, and disagree.
It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last.
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