Buying meat from your local butcher seems like a simple proposition. You decide what
you want to eat, stroll into the store, and select the cut you want from the case. But
do you know how your butcher might be scamming you?
How does the meat at butcher shops look so appetizing? You may believe that it's just
the meat itself. You may also consider how long it's been sitting there, its overall
color, or, for the eagle-eyed, the fine print on the labels. The true answer is more complicated.
For some butchers, their secret tool is none other than carbon monoxide .
According to the journal Foods, some plants have pumped a small amount of carbon monoxide
into packaging in an attempt to keep things looking fresh. Without it, the meat may begin
to oxidize and turn brown, making it look downright gross in the grocery store. Keeping
that fresh-looking red color is the goal of modified atmosphere packaging, which can use
carbon monoxide along with carbon dioxide , nitrogen , and oxygen .
According to ABC News, the small amount of carbon monoxide that might be in your package
of steak is itself harmless to the consumer. However, the fact that it can keep meat looking
good for up to 20 days is pretty misleading. In fact, spoilage can still happen even when
things look bright red. Instead of being potentially fooled by the color of your cut, be sure to
take a careful look at the dates printed on the package.
Even the best-by dates should be looked at with a skeptical eye. They can tell you when
something was packaged and how long it should remain fresh and safe to eat. Then again,
you may want to subtract a few days from that best-by date, just to be safe.
That's because, according to the CBC, some grocery stores in Canada in 2014 were found
to be padding those dates by a considerable margin. A butcher speaking anonymously with
the news service said that his grocery store sometimes relabeled meat, complete with a
new date.
"So why do they hide that?"
This is illegal, both in Canada and the United States.
This isn't to say that every grocery store out there is illegally messing with the dates
at the butcher counter. That said, it couldn't hurt to be cautious. Moreover, be sure you're
cooking meat properly. Foodsafety.gov recommends a safe cooking threshold of 160 degrees Fahrenheit
internal temperature for ground beef, 165 degrees Fahrenheit for poultry, and 145 degrees
Fahrenheit for pork. Steaks, roasts, and chops can also get away with 145 degrees Fahrenheit,
with a three-minute rest time. Once you hit these temperatures for enough time without
overcooking the meat, you'll be free from worry about many of the foodborne diseases
that could be carried by your meat.
London broil is not a cut of meat. If you happen across a package that claims to contain
London broil, it's probably a top round roast. That's a pretty tough steak that, because
it's one of those hard-to-chew cuts, is usually offered at a pretty cheap price point. American
chef James Beard maintained that "London broil" could also be many different kinds of meat,
meaning that any cost-effective, potentially tough slab of beef could be labeled as the
near-mythical "London broil."
According to Carnivore Confidential, London broil is actually a cooking method. The chef
takes marinated beef, broils it at high heat, then cuts thin strips across the grain. Ideally,
this turns a cheap, possibly tough steak into something approaching tender. Either way,
any butcher that tries to tell you a certain cut is London broil may not be the best-informed
butcher out there.
Sure, it may sound good, but that label crowing that a particular slab of meat is "certified
Angus beef" means next to nothing. According to a butcher interviewed by Reader's Digest,
it's generally considered to be a marketing ploy amongst those in the know.
You'd be better served by going over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's beef grades. It's
not as difficult as you may think, though there's plenty of room to get all nerdy about
it if that's your thing. Plus, it's an officially federally enforced grading system that doesn't
leave too much wiggle room. Generally speaking, USDA "prime" beef is the nicest, especially
if you like plenty of marbling from fat. The next step down, "choice" beef, is a little
leaner.
"Select" beef is even leaner, though skillful cooking can make it taste plenty good. If
you happen to see ungraded beef, that's probably standard or commercial grade as the USDA sees
it. Finally, "utility," "cutter," and "canner" grades don't typically make it to the butcher
counter, so you're more likely to encounter these grades in processed stuff and ground
beef.
This may seem old hat to the experienced grocery store shopper, but it bears repeating: be
wary of meat on sale. It may seem like a good deal, but you really don't want to play fast
and loose with those best-by dates when it comes to raw meat.
The Street maintains that those alluring sale stickers could just be slapped on top of quickly
aging meat by butchers who are trying to sell the product before it's doomed to the garbage
can. Now, if you are pinching pennies or simply love a good deal, it's not the end of the
world but you'd do well to ask your butcher a couple of questions. Namely, why did this
get marked down, and just how old is it, really? Sometimes, you may get lucky and find a perfectly
good piece of meat that's been marked down for some innocuous reason unrelated to its
age. If it's getting a bit old and you're still set on buying the stuff, be sure to
cook it soon, and cook it well.
It may be convenient for the most harried shopper, but pre-cut steaks and other already
sliced meats are a bit of a scam. Yes, of course, no one wants to try and dig into a
whole side of beef, but the solution is surprisingly simple. Just nicely ask your butcher to cut
it up for you.
According to Reader's Digest, if you can swing the larger overall price, you should really
buy a big piece of meat and ask the butcher to cut it up for you. It will take a few extra
minutes of your and the butcher's time, but it can save you a shocking amount of money
in some cases. For steaks, ask for a nice chunk of top sirloin, and ask the butcher
to cut them into steaks right there. You can also ask for cubed meat for stews, individual
roast cuts, and even ground beef. Assuming you've got the initial funds and the refrigerator
and freezer space, your bank account will be happier with you in the long run.
Butchery is, in many ways, a true art. It's not just some simple hack-and-slash job on
various chunks of meat, then thrown carelessly into a case or onto a slab of styrofoam. Butchers
need to really know their stuff.
"25 minutes and a lot of meat to cut! Let's get to it! Watch me boys!"
They also need to understand how to make meat as pretty as it can be, all so the finished
product can grab a shopper's eye before it hits their stomach. It's all part of the grocery
shopping game, which is a significant part of their job, after all.
To that end, butchers frequently resort to a few little tricks, says Reader's Digest.
That means trimming unsightly fat, cleaning up red liquid, and sometimes just flipping
a piece of meat to hide any brown oxidized bits.
"And then as you can see, it looks a lot redder."
"That's what you would do you would take the brown meat and turn it red?"
"yeah."
By the way, according to The Healthy, that red liquid isn't blood at all. Instead, it's
a combination of moisture being lost and a red hue from myoglobin , a type of protein
found in meat.
Don't judge a cut by its size. Sure, a piece of chicken or cut of pork may look nice and
juicy, but that could be more trickery than substance, thanks to saline .
According to NPR, an estimated 30 percent of poultry, 15 percent of beef, and a staggering
90 percent of pork on sale today is pumped up with a saline solution, composed largely
of salt. The idea is that injections of this saline are supposed to increase the overall
volume of the meat and also make up for any flavor and liquid lost to overzealous cooking.
Visually, consumers are thought to be more interested in a visibly large, juicy piece
of meat, even though those looks could be little more than an illusion.
Saline injections can also lead to potentially high sodium levels in your food, Deseret News
reports. If you're someone who needs to watch your sodium intake, like people with high
blood pressure, that can get pretty dicey fast. Be sure to read the fine print on the
meat package label. It's also worth asking your butcher if anything like saline has been
added to your cut of meat.
Generally speaking, if you can spend a little more money upfront to buy large quantities
of something, you can get a better deal.
However, there's one occasion where you may want to think carefully: family packs of meat.
As per Insider, pre-cut offerings may not always come out to as good of a deal as you
may hope. Of course, given the larger quantities and the price set by your particular butcher,
this could work out in your favor. The unglamorous advice? Compare prices, do some math, and
always take a close look at the label. You'll also want to make sure that the best-by date
isn't too close for your comfort.
If you come across a genuinely good deal on a family pack and you're not going to cook
it all right away, you've got some extra work ahead, as you should freeze the leftovers.
According to The Kitchn, you should closely wrap each cut in plastic wrap or freezer paper,
followed by aluminum foil, and then finally closed up in a zip-top bag. Most meats frozen
this way can keep for up to three months before developing the dreaded freezer burn.
Imagine you're the butcher. You've got to sell meat at a pretty decent clip or else
your store and your job could be in jeopardy. If nothing else, poor sales could mean having
a manager breathing down the back of your neck until things start to improve. You've
also got to abide by important food safety rules, since making your customers sick is
a pretty bad look all around.
Ultimately, this means that you've got to move the older meat out of your store as quickly
as you can. Throwing it out is a loss. If you've got to sell it after it's not totally
fresh but not ready to trash, what do you do? Put it in the front of the case.
According to Taste of Home, that's just what many butchers do. If that's the case, simply
reach into the back of the case. Be sure to check the dates on the label, of course, but
chances are you will find the freshest stuff a little bit hidden behind the older cuts.
"Primal" cuts are themselves ever so slightly a bit of a scam. What's a primal cut supposed
to be, anyway? According to The Meat Stick, primal cuts are the ones that are first separated
from the carcass. A "sub-primal" cut would be one that's made from a primal cut. For
example, the eight traditional primal cuts for beef are the chuck, rib, loin, round,
flank, short plate, shank, and brisket.
However, so-called primal cuts can actually vary quite a lot, says National Geographic,
depending on location, culture, and individual butcher. Perhaps your local butcher isn't
trying to scam you so much as they want to try out a new kind of cut of meat instead
of those same old boring primal cuts.
Creative butchery, as this is called, means there are quite a few new cuts of meat you
may have never seen but still want to try out. Taste of Home recommends asking your
butcher if they have any new ideas, which might include interesting new trends like
the bavette , essentially a thicker and more tender version of flank steak.
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