Using ground pork in place of ground beef?

[CraigC]

Originally Posted by CharlieD

Pork will only be better and will make the dish taste better, will be more tender and the whole other bumch of benefits so to speak. Enjoy.

But it interesting about beef. Can you tell me a little bit more about it. What's the story with beef?

How are you going to use american food processor in China? i THOUGHT HEY HAD eUROPIAN ELECTRICITY SETTINGS? Oops, sorry about the caps.

I don't know what the power supply is there, but they do have "converters". Just have to get one that can handle the amperage requirements. If it is Euro 50Hz, the standard house hold power is 220v. Converting should not be an issue. The only thing is you will lose 1/6 the umph and rpm's when you run a 60Hz product on 50Hz. As an example a 5hp motor rated for 60Hz will only have the equivilent umph of 3hp when run on 50Hz.

Craig

[pengyou]

Thanks for the advice....beef in China...look at the big picture. About 20% of the land in the U.S. is arable, i.e. suitable for farming. The U.S. has a population of more than 300 milllion people. About 15% of the land in China is arable and China has a population of about 1.4 billion people. Raising cattle is not the most efficient use of land for food production. The Chinese use an a lot of soy in their food - I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than 100 different soy products used. If you want to see some awesome pictures and agriculture google on terrace farming China and look at the results. You may want to choose the picture option on google first. Also, much of the flat land in China is already occupied by people and cities. Because they have lived here for more than 5,000 years they did not have the luxury of huge open flat spaces to raise cattle. Therefore, until recently, if people in villages ate meat other than pork or poultry it was a work animal that had been butchered. Could be a cow, donkey or horse. Pigs also do not get to be very large here. The ones I have seen on trucks being hauled to the butchers were probably only 16" at the shoulder and weighed no more than 80 pounds. The variety of sheep they raise is a little bit smaller than this. This, again, is because of the space restrictions that farmers work with here. A smaller breed of pig like this is more able to live off of roots and other things it can find in the fields or nearby forest and are sometimes raised in a semi-wild environment, as opposed to being enclosed in a pen all the time. Also, until a few years ago, I have never seen truck big enough in a farming village to carry some of the huge (700 lb+) pigs I have seen in western farms. Historically, Chinese farms were family affairs and were not very large....all of this adds up to a situation were small animals are more suitable for raising here than large animals.

[cmarchibald]

Originally Posted by Andy M.

pengyou, we sometimes don't understand the challenges people in other countries face when trying to make a "foreign" recipe. I was not aware of the difficulties of getting quality beef in China.

It's the same issue here in the Philippines. Local beef is very low grade. Australian imported beef is only slightly better....I suspect they send their worst cuts here because few people can afford the domestic meat, let alone the imported. The US beef, I wouldn't know if the quality is comparable to what you can actually buy stateside because it is ridiculously expensive. Since I have a zinc allergy that is severely aggravated by beef, it's easier for me to just not buy beef. Occasionally I buy the ground, but only when I'm going to use it in chili and sauces, so the lower grade flavor doesn't affect the dish.

Pengyou, I switch out ground beef for ground pork all the time since pork is so much easier to get here. I find it has no adverse effect on the taste.

[cmarchibald]

I'm a little surprised that pigs don't get very big in China, Pengyou. The pigs here in the Philippines are E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S....the size of a small horse, it's ridiculous.

Good thing about that is pork chops are super cheap.

[pacanis]

I don't understand the reasoning behind it, but I'll take your word for it.
I don't understand why two smaller animals take up less room to raise than one larger animal. I imagine they reach their slaughter weight more quickly though.

[pengyou]

Yes, it is partly because they get to the slaughter weight quickly but partly because there just is no room for the animals or equipment to handle a 700 pound hog carcass. Many farmers in China do not have a ride-on tractor but instead have something that looks like a 2 wheel rototiller with no tines. This gadget can be hooked up to a plow to pull the plow..then the plow can be disengaged and it can be hooked up to a wagon to pull the wagon..or it can be hooked to a stump to pull a stump.

[pacanis]

Interesting. Thanks pengyou!
You know it's kind of ironic, because a great share of the tractor market over here in the US are Chinese made, lol.

[CharlieD]

Interesting, and there I thought I knew things.
However I want to come back to pork. I grew up in Ukraine, where pork was a meat of choice. There were plenty of beef used, but historically and traditionally Ukrainians eat more pork and so did I. I find pork much and I mean much better meat than beef. I doubt I would have any problem substituting. Of course nowadays I do not eat pork, but that's for religious reasons. Good luck.