Steak well past its prime?

[buckytom]

oh, i see.

then for me it's the fresher the better. i'd rather manually tenderize a steak that was just cut from a cow than let age do it's thing and lose the fresh meat flavour that i prefer.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Well Bt that's exactly what the topic is about (at least as I intended the OP). Is it better when it's fresher? I'm proposing that maybe it's not.

I think we all accept that a fresh killed cow cut into steaks is not as good as one that's been hung for weeks (or months). The question is whether that aging still has importance once in the plastic supermarket package.

 

[buckytom]

ok, you're wrong.

lol, just kidding.


but you are...

i like freshly killed and butchered meat.

 

[visionviper]

Well Bt that's exactly what the topic is about (at least as I intended the OP). Is it better when it's fresher? I'm proposing that maybe it's not.

I think we all accept that a fresh killed cow cut into steaks is not as good as one that's been hung for weeks (or months). The question is whether that aging still has importance once in the plastic supermarket package.

It makes complete sense to me that it could, as long as you made sure to cook before spoilage started taking hold.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Just to propose a number, I'm pretty sure you would be making a mistake to go beyond a week afer "use by" date"...

 

[Addie]

Son #1's godfather was a meat cutter for one of our largest supermarkets. He told me once that when a piece of meat goes past the sell by date, they will often bring it back inside, turn the piece of meat over and rewrap it with a new sell by date. As the piece of meat sits in the styrofoam tray, the blood seeps to the bottom and the piece of meat turns grey looking on top. Because the blood has gone to the other side, it looks freshly cut. But the second sell by date is much shorter than the first one was. Often only for a day. Then it gets that reduced sticker on it. Since meats I buy go into the freezer when they arrive home, I have no problem buying reduced meats. I take them out of their packaging and rewrap them for the freezer.

BTW, don't ever buy cut up stew meat in the styrofoam packing. The inflated price is labor cost. All it is, is the trimmings from all sorts of cuts. Buy a good chuck meat and cut it into cubes yourself. That way you know what you are getting and at a cheaper price.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I never buy stew meat. I do what you suggested.

 

[Rocklobster]

It's ironic that they wrap it for safety reasons, when the wrapping promotes bacteria growth due to moisture within the package, while it would last longer and have less danger of harmful bacteria growth if it was held unwrapped.

I realize it is a handling issue., but a contradiction none the less...

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've assumed that blotter underneath has some sort of antibiotic treatment. For that reason I always rewrap steaks before freezing.

I think increased packaging is likely in the future. For example the new to US chain Fresh & Easy packages not only all their meats but even all their produce that isn't sold as single units (like avocados). Weighing items at the cash register is a thing of the past.

 

[Rocklobster]

. Weighing items at the cash register is a thing of the past.

So is common sense, so it seems.

 

[Bigjim68]

I never buy stew meat. I do what you suggested.

I don't buy ground or chopped meats for the same reasons

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Yeah. To make ground meat they take all the bits and pieces that may have bacteria or other contaminants on the surface and grind it up thus mixing all the bacteria and contaminants throughout the inside of the ground meat. You could perhaps wash off or wipe off a steak but there's no way to get any contaminants out of ground meat, and IMO ground meat is much more likely to go bad more quickly.

 

[Rocklobster]

Yeah. To make ground meat they take all the bits and pieces that may have bacteria or other contaminants on the surface and grind it up thus mixing all the bacteria and contaminants throughout the inside of the ground meat. You could perhaps wash off or wipe off a steak but there's no way to get any contaminants out of ground meat, and IMO ground meat is much more likely to go bad more quickly.

And, also, thanks to commercial, large scale production, your 1 lb of ground meat could have flesh from up to 100 cows in it.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Not my 1 lb. of ground meat! Last few years I usually buy steaks and run them through my food processor when I want ground beef. At least that steak is guaranteed to have come from a single cow. And whatever on the outside that gets spread through the inside is there for only a couple hours, not days and days like market ground meat.

 

[buckytom]

in the spirit of this thread, i'd think it would be better if you aged the ground meat.