My vent goes like this:
For Father's day, I had done what I always do when selecting steaks. I went to our best meat market and purchased the best steaks I could find over several pay periods. I didn't purchase the steaks until I found those that met my standards.
I prepped them simply with salt and pepper before placing them onto the Webber over a solid bed of charcoal, with the meat about 3 inches from the hot coals. Cover and grill for 3 .5 minutes per side. They were both grilled perfectly to our liking. DW had Porterhouse, while I ate rib-eye. I was disappointed with my steak for two reasons. First, when I took it out of the package, one side looked like a perfect steak. The other side had a fat cap that rolled around it, showing me that it was an end cut. That being the case, it had more connecting tissue in it, and more fat chunks, rather than great marbling. The more important issue was that the meat had very little "beef" flavor. DW's porterhouse was more flavorful by far.
Occasionally, I forget that rib eye and ribs steaks are two different cuts, with the latter having better flavor. I am no going to have to invest in a good, bone-in rib steak (they are much harder to find than are rib eyes in my neck of the woods) and see if the meat flavor is more pronounced. If not, I may switch to T-bone, Porterhouse, or Sirloin for the better flavor. I don't need the most tender meat on the planet. I have good teeth and strong jaw muscles (must be from all that talking.
) I crave strong beef flavor, slightly tangy, slightly salty, with the flavor of iron included in the mix. I'm tired of bland meat. And I hear that it's the way of the future, with producers trying to get more bland meat.
It seems that consumers want mediocre food. We don't want to pay for good food, just good enough so that it isn't disgusting. By producing bland food, product can be sold to more people as fewer people object to bland foods than to strong flavored foods. With stronger flavors, people seem to either love them, or hate them.
I feel like I'm in a heard that I don't want to be in, just following the feed wagon because that's all there is. I want to jump the fence and get to the good stuff.
Eggs have lost the rich yolks, beef, pork, and poultry are poor cousins of what they once were. Fruit is sold unripe, and flavorless, or so tart that you can barely eat it. Virtually every food is sold to maximize volume, and quality suffers greatly. I made the mistake of being born in the mid fifties, and grew up with great tasting food that was much fresher, picked when it was fully ripened, was raised to be better tasting, etc. When you have tasted great, it's harder to accept mediocre.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
