Wednesday, April 18, 2012

History: Butchering Before Refrigeration

PLEASE HELP

I'm researching how butchers, cowboys and pioneers slaughtered and cooked cattle in the warm months from March through November before there was refrigeration.

In the East, cattle were often slaughtered during the warm summer months to celebrate holidays (July 4) and weddings (in June), to feed armies (especially during the Civil War), etc.

In the West, drovers and pioneers trailed cattle, which were often injured and put down.

My question is: How were cattle butchered and cooked?

BUTCHERED BEFORE OR AFTER RIGOR?

The weather was warm, so butchers, cowboys or pioneers had to act very quickly before the beef began to spoil.

Did they butcher and start cooking the meat before rigor started, which would be within about 6 hours after death?

Or did they wait until rigor resolved (usually after about 24 hours after death, depending on ambient temperature) to begin to butcher and start cooking?

USUALLY BOILED?

How did they cook the beef?  There would not have been enough firewood (or time) to cook entire sides of beef over a pit of coals.  Since the beef could not be aged, it would have been extremely tough.

Did they boil the tenderest cuts and leave the rest of the carcass the to rot?

MODERN TRIAL?

Have you ever cooked and/or tasted beef from cattle that was slaughtered and immediately butchered and cooked without refrigeration?

Or do you know of any blogs or articles by those who have?

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

I'd appreciate your help in these matters.

CONCLUSION

SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.  Clink on the links below for our SteakPerfection sites:
A short link to this blog is http://bit.ly/IyZv5D

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Twitter:  @SteakPerfection Followers

PARTICIPATION IN TWITTER

@SteakPerfection participates actively in Twitter on a daily basis.  @SteakPerfection joins conversations, answers questions and exchanges information to those who follow @SteakPerfection.

THOSE WHO SHOULD FOLLOW US

Those who should follow @SteakPerfection include those interested in learning about steak.  Our tweets focus exclusively on steak-related topics, including the following steak, beef and cattle-related topics:
  • History
  • Breeds
  • Sex (steer, bullock, bull, ox, heifer and cow)
  • Diet
  • Age at harvest
  • Harvesting procedure
  • USDA Inspection
  • USDA Grades
  • Marbling scores
  • Aging methods and time
  • Butchering
  • Cuts
  • Trimming and pre-cooking preparation
  • Cooking methods
  • Serving
  • Online steak sellers
  • Steakhouses and restaurants
  • Science and Technology
  • Palatability (taste, tenderness, texture and juiciness)
@SteakPerfection helps our followers select and cook (or order at a restaurant) the steak that most closely matches their ideal of steak perfection.  Since we limit our tweets solely to steak-related topics, we limit the topics of our tweets as follows:
  • No non-steak tweets
  • No idle chit-chat
  • No jokes
  • No non-steak recipes
  • No politics
  • No flames
In summary, we tweet about steak, and only about steak.  We learn about steak and help others to learn about steak.  We do not tweet about other topics.

@SteakPerfection knows that consumers have the right to know about their food. Steak consumers have the right to know as much about their steak as the ranchers, farmers, producers, processors, butchers and others who raised and sold the cattle, beef and steak. Such information must be available to consumers, so that they can make informed decisions about what steak they want to purchase.  All steak comes from cattle that is raised by hardworking, dedicated farmers and ranchers, and consumers have the right to choose among all types of steak, including conventional, natural, organic, grass-fed, branded, etc.

THOSE WHOM WE FOLLOW

@SteakPerfection limits the number of those whom it is following, so that we can read their tweets and process their information.

We will be pleased to follow you, and we invite you to notify us if you tweet regularly about any steak-related topics, including the following:
  • Serving
  • Online steak sellers
  • Steakhouses and restaurants
  • Science and Technology
  • Palatability (taste, tenderness, texture and juiciness)
  • Agriculture, farming and ranching
  • History of Cattle, Beef and Steak
  • Breeds, numbers and markets for beef cattle
  • Grass- and grain-finished cattle ranchers
  • How age, sex, feed, geography and other variables of beef cattle affect the look, taste and texture of steak
  • Issues relating to the USDA, FDA, EPA and other agencies
  • Marbling scores
  • Butchering techniques and methods, including cuts of steak
  • Aging methods and time
  • Trimming and pre-cooking preparation
  • Cooking methods at home and restaurants
  • Serving steak, including accompanying
  • Online steak sellers
  • Steakhouses and restaurants
  • Science
  • Scientifically valid blind taste tests
Every week, @SteakPerfection uses the Tweepi cleanup tool to review and edit the list of those whom we are following.  We do not strive to inflate the numbers of our followers and therefore limit those whom we are following to those who provide information about steak and steak-related topics.

CONCLUSION

SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.  Clink on the links below for our SteakPerfection sites:
A short link to this blog is http://bit.ly/wY3CCv

Friday, February 24, 2012

Grading: Percent of Each Grade

GRADES

The USDA grades beef with one of eight possible grades:
      • Prime
      • Choice
      • Select
      • Standard
      • Commercial
      • Utility
      • Cutter
      • Canner
Of these, steak and beef consumers should be concerned only with the top three grades:  USDA Prime Grade, USDA Choice Grade and USDA Select Grade.  These are the grades that most steakhouses, butchers and markets sell to their consumers.

SUB-GRADES

Each of the top grades have sub-grades.  For example, the USDA divides the USDA Prime Grade into:
      • Prime+  (called "Prime plus")
      • Primeo  (called "Prime zero")
      • Prime-  (called "Prime minus")
UNGRADED BEEF

USDA grading is not mandatory.  Beef processors must pay the USDA for the grading service.  As a result, processors do not ordinarily pay for the USDA to grade any beef  which is unlikely to achieve one of the top three grades.

Ungraded beef is sometimes called "No Roll", since the USDA inspector did not roll a grade stamp onto the beef carcass.

PERCENT OF EACH GRADE

The percent of each grade and ungraded beef is as follows:



Grades
Percent
USDA Prime+
0.1%
USDA Primeo
0.4%
USDA Prime-
1.3%
USDA Choice+
1.9%
USDA Choiceo
7.6%
USDA Choice-
28.5%
USDA Select
15.5%
Other USDA Grades
3.2%
Ungraded (No Roll)
41.5%
          Total
100.0%



PRIME+

USDA Prime+ Grade is the highest official USDA sub-grade. In 2011, the United States processed 34.4 million cattle, an average of 662,000 per week.  Since only 0.1% of all cattle achieve the highest sub-grade of USDA Prime+, only an average of 661 cattle per week receive the highest grade.

Because USDA Prime+ Grade beef is so very rare, processors set this aside for only their very best customers (the "best of the best" steakhouses and butchers).  As a result, the vast majority of steakhouses, butches and markets do not have any USDA Prime+ Grade beef.

OTHER USDA GRADES

As the Table shows, the item labelled as "Other USDA Grades" equal 3.2% of all beef.  This item includes beef that is graded USDA Standard Grade or lower.  Processors who paid the USDA to grade this beef made a mistake.  They thought that the beef would grade higher, since otherwise they would not have paid the USDA for the grading service.

CONCLUSION

SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.  Clink on the links below for our SteakPerfection sites:
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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Pre-Cooking: Salt and Freeze First?

WHEN SHOULD SALT BE ADDED TO A GREAT STEAK?

When should a cook add salt to a steak?

This debate has raged for years and years, with 'experts' on all sides claiming to know the answer.

WHAT ARE THE CLAIMS ABOUT SALTING?

There are four basic "sides" of the debate about salting a great steak:
  • Salt the steak long before cooking
  • Salt the steak just before cooking
  • Salt the steak just after cooking
  • Never salt the steak before serving

Let's look at each of these four alternatives.

(a) SALT LONG BEFORE COOKING

Food & Wine reports that David Tanis, of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and San Francisco’s Judy Rodgers, of The Zuni Café, claim that a great steak should be salted long before cooking.

Cooks Country recommends that a great steak be seasoned with both salt and cornstarch 30 minutes before cooking, and then putting the steak, uncovered, into the freezer. The theory is that the dry humidity in the freezer will help the salt draw off the surface moisture, which will make the exterior 'crustier'.

(B) SALT JUST BEFORE COOKING

Food & Wine reports that New York City chef Tom Colicchio, of Craft and Top Chef fame, claims that a great steak should be salted and seasoned just before cooking.

(a) SALT JUST AFTER COOKING

Food & Wine reports that Daniel's Jean François Bruel claims that a great steak should be salted and seasoned only just after it has been seared or grilled.

(a) NEVER SALT BEFORE SERVING

A Chowhound blogger conducted a test that showed that a great steak should be salted only by the diner, because it made the steak "[w]onderfully tender, and for my taste buds, it had a much beefier flavor and the salt was more pleasing" than on pre-salted steaks.

ALL CLAIMS AND TESTS ARE INCONCLUSIVE

All these claims and tests are inconclusive.

These claims and tests cannot be validated unless they start with identical steaks. However, steaks from a butcher or supermarket (as well as steaks served in the vest best steakhouses) are _not_ identical, even if they have exactly the same USDA Prime Grade. Virtually all beef today, including steaks, are distributed in boxes of beef. Boxes of USDA Prime Grade beef are not from the same animal, or the same farm, or even the same breed of cattle.

When the major packing houses process cattle, the beef is graded and then sorted by grade, not by the cattle breed, age, sex, farm, diet, etc. For example, a single shipment of boxed beef may contain some steak from an 18-month old, Hereford steer (male), raised in Nebraska and fed a special diet, and other steak from a 21-month old, Holstein heifer (female), raised in California and fed a different diet. Even if the steaks have the same USDA grade, they will not taste the same, because different breeds taste different, and even the same breed tastes different if raised on a different diet.

It would be possible to conduct a series of valid blind taste tests to resolve the question, assuming that it can be resolved conclusively. Such tests would be very expensive and time-consuming, since valid tests would have to control for the cattle's age, breed, sex, terrain, diet, etc. A series of tests would be necessary to compare results of cattle with each of these different attributes (age, breed, etc.)

Until then, all claims and tests must be labelled as inconclusive.

RECOMMENDATION

How do I use salt? It depends.

If I am grilling a Santa Maria tri-tip over red oak lump charcoal, at a grill-level temperature of 750°F, I season it an hour before grilling with a very, very thick layer of coarse salt, coarse pepper and garlic powder.

On the other hand, if I am grilling a great steak (e.g. a 56-day dry-aged, fully trimmed, USDA Prime Grade, abundantly marbled, New York cut, from a 19-month old, Holstein steer, raised by rancher I know personally, on a ranch I visit regularly) over mesquite lump charcoal, at a grill-level temperature of 750°F, I do not add any salt, before or after grilling. Instead, I serve the steak with a side of high-quality, coarse sea salt (e.g. Sel de Guerande), which add a third layer of taste - to complement the beefy interior first layer and the crusty exterior second layer.

A FINAL WORD ON FREEZING BEFORE COOKING

Some authorities, such as Cooks Country, recommend that a great steak be salted and put into the freezer 30 minutes before cooking. The theory is that the dry humidity in the freezer will help the salt (and cornstarch) draw moisture from the outside layer of the steak, so the the drier exterior will produce a tastier crust.

As noted above, there have been no valid tests to prove or disprove this claim. However, there is an issue about temperature that should be considered.

If a steak is to be grilled at a high temperature (e.g. 750°F at grill level), then the cook must be very concerned about the steak's thickness, its internal temperature before cooking, and its desired doneness. These four variables, and time, are inter-related. For example, if a 1" thick steak has an internal temperature of 40°F, it is impossible to have both a rare interior and a crusty exterior.

The careful cook will take these variables into consideration and will order the steak thickness in proportion to the desired internal and external doneness. Thus, a 2" thick steak, chilled to an internal temperature of 40°F, will cook very rare on the inside and with a dark, crusty exterior (which is often called "black and blue"); that same steak, 2" thick and with an internal temperature of 70°F ("room temperature) will cook to very rare on the inside and with a deep-brown crust.

CONCLUSION

SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.  Clink on the links below for our SteakPerfection sites:
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Briquet Charcoal

BRIQUET CHARCOAL


This is an update of an article that I published years ago.
Note that briquet and briquette are correct alternate spellings.
This blog uses the former, since that is Kingsford's choice.


In the U.S., briquet charcoal is more commonly used than lump charcoal for grilling steak and other food.  Lump charcoal is 100% wood and is almost always hardwood, like hickory, mesquite and oak.  On the other hand, briquet charcoal is not 100% wood and is made usually with soft wood, so myths and confusion has arisen about the uses and ingredients of briquet charcoal.  This blog explains the basics of briquet charcoal.

Kingsford Brand Charcoal Briquets are the best selling briquets in the US, so Kingsford briquet charcoal will be explained.

KINGSFORD INGREDIENTS

According to a Kingsford form letter sent in August, 2000, Kingsford contains the following ingredients:
      • wood char
      • mineral char
      • mineral carbon
      • limestone
      • starch
      • sodium borate
      • sodium nitrate
      • sawdust
PURPOSE OF INGREDIENTS

There so many ingredients because the addition of each requires another to offset its negative affect.  For example, in order to make the briquets easier to light, sodium nitrate is added.  Then limestone is added so that, when the briquettes burn, they have the typical light-ash color.

The purpose of each ingredient is as follows:
      • wood char:  for heat
      • mineral char: for heat
      • mineral carbon:  for heat
      • limestone:   for the light-ash color
      • starch:   for binding the ingredients
      • sodium borate (borax):  for separating from briquet mold 
      • sodium nitrate:  for speeding ignition 
      • sawdust:  for speeding ignition 
NO HARDWOOD

Most briquets are made of scraps of soft wood that are byproducts from wood and paper processing.  They include scraps such as tree branches, tree bark, and sawdust.  The most commonly used woods are fir, cedar, alder and other soft woods that are plentiful in the regions where the briquets are manufactured.

Some newer briquet charcoal contains hardwood specks, such as hickory and mesquite.  However, these hardwood ingredients are in addition to the basic ingredients, including the soft woods, and are used to provide a hardwood aroma.

NO PETROLEUM PRODUCTS

Some claim that Kingsford briquets have an unpleasant odor, especially when they are first lit.  This has led many to conclude that the briquets may contain petroleum products.

However, an investigation has been determined that neither Kingsford nor any other known commercial brand contains any petroleum products.

USE OF BRIQUET AND LUMP CHARCOAL


Briquet and lump charcoal have different ingredients and different uses.

Briquet charcoal burns at a lower temperature than lump charcoal, and, if properly lit, it imparts no additional layer of flavor to grilled steak or other food.  Therefore, briquets should be used when no distinct smoky flavor is desired, so it is ideal for grilling hamburgers, hot dogs and similar food.

Lump charcoal burns at a higher temperature than briquet charcoal, and, if properly lit, it imparts a distinct smoky layer of flavor to grilled stead and other food.  Therefore, lump charcoal should be used when a distinct smoky flavor is desired, so it is ideal for grilling high-quality steak and other meats.    

No charcoal should be lit with liquid lighter fluid, since it may impart a strong petroleum smell which will ruin the taste of any grilled steak or other food.  Instead, charcoal should be lit with a chimney.

HISTORY OF BRIQUET CHARCOAL

Around 1915, Henry Ford was using large amounts of wood to manufacture automobiles.  Ford operated a sawmill in the forests around Iron Mountain, Michigan to make the wooden parts, so there were piles of wood scraps.

Ford learned of a process, which had been developed and patented by Orin F. Stafford, which involved chipping wood into small pieces, converting them into charcoal, grinding the charcoal into powder, adding a binder and compressing the mix into the now-familiar, pillow-shaped briquets.

By 1921, a charcoal-making plant was in full operation.

According to the Kingsford website in 2000:
E. G. Kingsford, a lumberman who owned one of Ford's earliest automobile sales agencies and was distantly related, briefly served as manager of the briquette operation.  A company town was built nearby and named Kingsford.  In 1951, an investment group bought the plant, renamed the business the Kingsford Chemical Company, and took over operations.  Its successor, The Kingsford Products Company, was acquired by The Clorox Company of Oakland, California, in 1973.
Today, KINGSFORD charcoal is manufactured from wood charcoal, anthracite coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, sawdust, and borax. The wood and other high-carbon materials are heated in special ovens with little or no air.  This process removes water, nitrogen and other elements, leaving almost pure carbon.
The briquettes do not contain petroleum or any petroleum by-products.  KINGSFORD charcoal briquettes with mesquite contain the same high-quality ingredients as KINGSFORD, but with the addition of real mesquite wood throughout.
Manufacturing briquettes begins with preparing the wood charcoal using one of the following methods:

Retort processing -- Waste wood is processed through a large furnace with multiple hearths (called a retort) in a controlled-oxygen atmosphere.  The wood is progressively charred as it drops from one hearth to the next.
Kiln processing -- The waste wood is cut into slabs and stacked in batches in a kiln that chars the wood in a controlled-oxygen atmosphere.
Once the wood charcoal is prepared, it is crushed and combined with the other ingredients, formed into pillow-shaped briquettes and dried. The advantage of using charcoal over wood is that charcoal burns hotter with less smoke. [Editor's note:  This last sentence is true only when briquets are compared with softwood, but briquets do not burn nearly as hot as lump charcoal.]
RELATED INFORMATION 

For related information, see:
CONCLUSION

SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.  Clink on the links below for our SteakPerfection sites:
A short link to this blog is http://bit.ly/t1DRzx




Friday, December 23, 2011

Terminology:  "Never Ever 3"

SUMMARY OF "NEVER EVER 3" STEAK?

In summary, "Never Ever 3" steak means a steak from cattle which:
  • Have never received any antibiotics;
  • Have never received any growth promotants; and
  • Have never received any animal by-products.

DETAILS OF "NEVER EVER 3" STEAK

The details of the "Never Ever 3" program are regulated by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, Audit Review and Compliance Branch, which are summarized here.

These requirements are much stricter than the USDA's "natural" definition. For example, a steak would qualify as natural if the cattle that produced it had been administered antibiotics for medical reasons, but that steak would not qualify for the NE3 program. A second example is that a steak would qualify as natural if the cattle that produced it had been administered non-hormone growth promotants, but that steak would not qualify for the NE3 program.

The USDA's website contains more information here. FSIS provides the following definition of the word "natural""

NATURAL vs. ORGANIC vs. NEVER EVER 3

Natural, Organic and Never Ever 3 have very different meanings. Click here for our blog on "Organic Steak". In addition, the Food and Marketing Institute has an excellent summary of the differences between the terms.

In summary, the three terms have very different meanings, with some steak qualifying for one or two but not all three, while some qualify for two but others qualify for none.

CONCLUSION
SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.

A short link to this blog is http://bit.ly/rCPrJO

 

Terminology:  "Age-Verified"

This is an update of a blog first posted on January 22, 2011,
which is online at http://bit.ly/iiVPKD

AGE VERIFIED

The term "age verified" has a precise and important meaning in the beef cattle industry.  The term means that the age of the cattle has been tracked and verified.

This permits cattle purchasers to know the exact age of the cattle and beef purchasers to know the exact age when the cattle was processed.

IMPORTANCE OF AGE VERIFICATION

The term "age verified" became important in recent years, primarily because of the 1990's outbreak of "mad cow disease" (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE).  BSE is a cattle disease that affects only older cattle and is a major health risk for humans who eat infected meat.

To eliminate the human risk of BSE, several countries adopted regulations to prohibit trade in cattle older than 20 months and to require that all cattle be age verified.

SIMILAR TERMS

There are several similar terms that are used in the industry that have similar but very different meanings. These include the following:
  • Source Verified
  • Traceable
  • Trackback
  • Brand
  • Vintage
  • Provenance Verified or Proven

Some of these terms, like Source Verified, Traceable and Trackback, mean only that the beef can be traced back to each farm and processor where the cattle was raised and the beef processed.

Other terms, like Vintance and Provenance Verified, mean that the beef is sold with information about the ranch/farm(s) where the cattle was born and raised (including the ranch's terrain and weather), the cattle breed, sex (e.g. steer or heifer), diet, health and care (including medications, vaccines and antibiotics), the processing plant, the beef's USDA Grade, its marbling score, etc.

It is important to remember that age verification concerns only one factor:  the age of the animal.  Similarly, source verification concerns only one factor:  where the animal and meat were raised and processed.

CONCLUSION
SteakPerfection welcomes your comments.  Please share them below.  SteakPerfection is a complex process that involves every detail, from pasture to plate.

A short link to this blog is http://bit.ly/uGj7Rv