Saturday, 17th January 2026 - what's for dinner?

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Leftover Huli Huli chicken & steak, Hawaiian macaroni salad, rice and a Portuguese sweet roll.

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pictonguy said:
Interesting. We have very strict rules in Ontario and most lamb is 3 to 4 months old weighing around 80 to 95 and goes to 6 months and the youngest is milk fed and ages out at 8 weeks for that category. The oldest ones at 6 months normally weight 110 lbs and maybe a little more. For the restaurant we order the 3-4 month ones and get them in whole and I butcher them.
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I find the way places slaughter at different times interesting.

For example in the UK beef cattle will be slaughtered by 18 months because we value tenderness.
Where as in Spain they go for 2 years. Have I ever found a normal cut of steak there I can say I’ve enjoyed? Nope, not really to me it’s tough and I won’t pay premium prices for a tough steak. I even bought various meat tenderisers (needle blocks, hammers etc) but they bring no joy.

The Wagyu is good though but Wagu’s another story.
 
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In A Pickle said:
I find the way different places at slaughter times interesting.

For example in the UK beef cattle will be slaughtered by 18 months because we value tenderness.
Where as in Spain they go for 2 years. Have I ever found a normal cut of steak there I can say I’ve enjoyed? Nope, not really To me it’s tough and I won’t pay premium prices for a tough steak. I even bought various meat tenderisers (needle blocks, hammers etc) but they bring no joy.

The Wagyu is good though but Wagu’s another story.
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It's a pretty confusing and complicated issue to navigate I will say that Spain has a famous breed that is 12 years and older that's deeply marbled, and well known by chefs around the world for it's tenderness and taste and then there's young cattle that is as tough as shoe leather and I believe Britain does slaughter up to the 30 month mark, or at least I'm pretty sure. Both Britain and Spain praise carcass yield and not marbling or tenderness. I guess what I'm saying is there so much involved to determine the tenderness and marbling which has to do with the breed and where both countries value carcass size and leanness basically and not marbling, basically no eating quality grading where both Canada and the US do, personally even though I live in Canada and the beef is pretty good and pretty bad, US prime is basically hard to beat. Also Japanese wagyu is slaughtered around the 28 to 32 month mark and wagu doesn't exist, that's just a spelling error. imo.
 
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pictonguy said:
It's a pretty confusing and complicated issue to navigate I will say that Spain has a famous breed that is 12 years and older that's deeply marbled, and well known by chefs around the world for it's tenderness and taste and then there's young cattle that is as tough as shoe leather and I believe Britain does slaughter up to the 30 month mark, or at least I'm pretty sure. Both Britain and Spain praise carcass yield and not marbling or tenderness. I guess what I'm saying is there so much involved to determine the tenderness and marbling which has to do with the breed and where both countries value carcass size and leanness basically and not marbling, basically no eating quality grading where both Canada and the US do, personally even though I live in Canada and the beef is pretty good, US prime is basically hard to beat, imo.
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Sorry but I’m afraid you are labouring under some misapprehensions.
We may consider up to 30 months viable but that’s not what happens in reality.

I live on a farm and so of course am part of the farming community, dairy and beef farming to be precise.
I can tell you first hand if you get a rep for producing low quality tough meat you will not be able to command a good price and can be left out of pocket.
Of course it’s an involved topic with more vagaries than age of slaughter but it is certainly an important factor.

Intensive farming for maximum profit favours the 15ish month mark for slaughter so if you’re in it for the money thats the faster turnover.
A good butcher aims for 16-20 months. This is far wide of your suggested 30 months.

Carcass yield is obviously a factor but the fact is the consumer in the UK absolutely does value tenderness and they vote with their feet.
You churn out produce that’s not tender and people will buy something else and shop elsewhere, supermarkets are hyper vigilant about this.
This is a lesson learnt by producers the hard way.

Marbling may not have been valued in the past due to the low fat madness caught from another country’s crazy dodgy scientific ideas (no names mentioned 😉 ) but that is no longer the case. However yes you will still see very plain meat on the shelves, all of which is likely to be tender.

I can also tell you as I have a home in the UK and Spain so am acclimatised to the way they do things that there is a marked difference in the tenderness of the steak they sell. On conversation with Spanish natives it seems they prefer their meat to have some ‘bite’ and ‘more flavour’ so do slaughter around the 2-3 year mark. In fact their beef is often marked with the age of slaughter on the outside of the packaging.

I’m aware a lot of people have some experience of other countries from visits or holidays but I don’t believe anyone is qualified to comment unless they are living in that country at the time.
“At the time” is pertinent because food trends change, attitudes change and produce changes.
It would be foolish of me to tell a Canadian about what Canadian steak is like based on my visits don’t you think?

My information is first hand lived experience and on the ground research not the results of a google read.

It is always good to try to ascertain the knowledge and experience of the person you are conversing with before making statements about another country, even if those comments come from a good place and are essentially well meaning.
 
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In A Pickle said:
Sorry but I’m afraid you are labouring under some misapprehensions.
We may consider up to 30 months viable but that’s not what happens in reality.

I live on a farm and so of course am part of the farming community, dairy and beef farming to be precise.
I can tell you first hand if you get a rep for producing low quality tough meat you will not be able to command a good price and can be left out of pocket.
Of course it’s an involved topic with more vagaries than age of slaughter but it is certainly an important factor.

Intensive farming for maximum profit favours the 15ish month mark for slaughter so if you’re in it for the money thats the faster turnover.
A good butcher aims for 16-20 months. This is far wide of your suggested 30 months.

Carcass yield is obviously a factor but the fact is the consumer in the UK absolutely does value tenderness and they vote with their feet.
You churn out produce that’s not tender and people will buy something else and shop elsewhere, supermarkets are hyper vigilant about this.
This is a lesson learnt by producers the hard way.

Marbling may not have been valued in the past due to the low fat madness caught from another countries crazy dodgy scientific ideas (no names mentioned 😉 ) but that is no longer the case. However yes you will still see very plain meat on the shelves, all of which is likely to be tender.

I can also tell you as I have a home in the UK and Spain so am acclimatised to the way they do things that there is a marked difference in the tenderness of the steak they sell. On conversation with Spanish natives it seems they prefer their meat to have some ‘bite’ and ‘more flavour’ so do slaughter around the 2-3 year mark. In fact their beef is often marked with the age of slaughter on the outside of the packaging.

I’m aware a lot of people have some experience of other countries from visits or holidays but I don’t believe anyone is qualified to comment unless they are living in that country at the time.
“At the time” is pertinent because food trends change, attitudes change and produce changes.
It would be foolish of me to tell a Canadian about what Canadian steak is like based on my visits don’t you think?

My information is first hand lived experience and on the ground research not the results of a google read.

It is always good to try to ascertain the knowledge and experience of the person you are conversing with before making statements about another country, even if those comments come from a good place and are essentially well meaning.
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All good, I was only referring to the UK and Spanish gov't guidelines for beef slaughter. Maybe the information that says they don't regulate for marbling or tenderness but for yield was incorrect. Reality is of course a different thing. I get my beef from a local rancher and how they raise and slaughter is different as well. Anyway thanks for your opinion, I do value it. Also I edited my post which seems you missed. Cheers :)
 
The funny thing is even though Canada does grade for marbling and tenderness the average supermarket meat is not very good, even some AAA which dictates the best available other than prime the top quality which only 2% is available in supermarkets. Anyway even AAA is inconsistent and not an indicator that we'll actually get a tender cut of beef, and I'm talking the primal cuts. We really have to be aware of which suppliers deliver on their promises, because most don't. The only supermarket where I've seen prime on a consistent basis is "the Independent" and that other 98% go to mostly hotels and steakhouses and very high end restaurants. Basically I've given up on supermarket primal cuts, it's basically a lottery. I suspect this has to do with Canadians where cost is a priority, beef is very expensive here where we'll see AAA go around 35-45.00 a lb depending on which primal cut it is and Canadians in general are a cheap bunch and have that reputation. :)
 
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medtran49 said:
Coleman's is what is used in the mustard sauce for stone crabs at the iconic Joe's Stone Crabs in Coral Gables, FL.
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Mustard sauce... on crabs?
I won't knock it til I've tried it.

It might be a good way to use some up if I google a recipe in the future.
 
mustard sauce is not uncommon - perhaps more on 'crab dishes' than crack&eat-at-the-table-crabs....
cab cakes, anything resembling a 'casserole' with crab . . . crab toppings on 'other dishes ala fish' . . .
 
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