. . .how Safeway’s crappy meats ruined my plans for meatloaf for dinner. I thought I’d make Alton Brown’s meatloaf for dinner. Went out the other day and bought all the ingredients, but instead of going out to the local butcher to buy the ground, I thought “I’ll just grind my own”. In other words, I was feeling lazy.
So I bought some chuck steak and some sirloin steak, both of which looked to be decent enough cuts without too much fat, and while they didn’t have any lamb to grind up, I figured the mix would be tasty enough.
Set up my grinder with the large diameter plate, cut up the meat, trimmed off the excess fat and gristle, and began feeding it into the machine. Red, watery juice immediately began squirting out of the plate. A little meat began coming out, but it was mush. The holes quickly clogged (which has never happened before) and I had to shut down the grinder and disassemble it to clear things out. The goddamned thing was completed jammed with fat and gristle.
I tried a couple more times with the same result and ended up throwing away about $15 worth of “beef”.
Fuck you, Safeway, and your “Select” meats injected with water and food coloring. Fuck your high prices and your lousy products. And fuck my laziness, for good measure.
Goddamn it, I really wanted me some meatloaf sammiches this week. :mad: :mad:
I was watching Alton Brown last Friday and he talked about how to dissect a whole beef tenderloin, and added that since you are doing all the work (slicing, trimming, removing the silverskin), you can get a lot of meat a lot cheaper.
So, I go to my local Giant on sunday, and spy one of those giant tenderloins in the case. I ask the butcher how much. . .
“$16.99 per pound” – the exact same price for the Filet Mignons from the same cut.
Funny thing is, the tenderloin tips in the case were only 14.50 per pound. So, I would have been paying MORE than the average price of the tenderloin, for slicing it all up and freezing it myself.
What you describe is exactly what happens when I put together my meat grinder improperly. Dunno what kind of grinder you have, but I use the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. If I forget to put the little 4-armed sharp thingy on in front of the plate, I get watery juice, mush, and lots of clogs.
If it makes you feel any better, I did this about 4 times and was about to go buy a new grinder attachment before I found that lil’ blade doohicky in the drawer and went :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: myself.
I’ll still continue the pit of Safeway’s meats, regardless of your technical snafu, Chefguy. They charge a good bit for what I feel is tasteless, gristly meat. I feel guilty for paying more at Whole Foods and other places, but every time I try to economize a little by buying Safeway’s (and I do mean a little - Safeway’s not that much cheaper), I feel like I was rooked. My solution is to eat less beef but to go ahead and not feel guilty about buying better quality.
Oh, and I don’t like it when a supermarket’s selection of beef or pork consists mostly of pre-sauced factory-packaged bags of meat of questionable freshness. I think I read somewhere that when meat gets too old to sell, the market’s solution is to douse it with some kind of strongly flavored sauce/marinade and to bag it up and sell it as a convenience item. Safeway sells a lot of this packaged stuff.
Welcome to the club teela brown - Here in the UK the situation is that loose fruit has no sell-by date, but the bagged fruit does. A buddy of mine at university worked at a supermarket and one of his chores was to cut open bags of oranges 1 day before expiration and tip them into the loose oranges. Niiice. :mad:
If I ever get off my lazy bum, living in the middle of cattle country definitely has it’s benefits (ie the local farmer’s market). I can buy any kind of fresh meat I want from the actual rancher. Why don’t I do this more often? :smack: indeed!
One of the earlier posters buys his meat at a better market, and just doesn’t eat beef as often–that’s a good compromise. What I do is I’ve started to patronize a supermarket near where I live that caters to asians and hispanics. I’ve noticed that there’s a larger selection of fruits and vegetables that are fresher and cheaper than those of more mainstream supermarkets. I have started buying meats there because the selections just look fresher and more appealing. I guess if people just don’t accept substandard foods and start patronizing newer suppliers that a message will be sent to Safeway, Giant, etc?
My ex used to be a butcher. Apparently they spray on stuff which gives the meat more shelf life and makes it that reddy colour we all associate with meat. Real fresh meat is a more dull colour that people unfortunately associate with lack of freshness. Also, water is commonly added to mince and sausages to make it weigh more. Dirty tricks of the trade.
I hate Safeway. I won’t shop there. Their produce looks like they hire people just to hit it with sticks. I swear they pick it out of the dumpsters behind other grocery stores.
My only defense is that I haven’t used this attachment in a very long time, and a memory that becomes more faulty as the years go by.
Still, Safeway products have major suckage, even without my being a moron. I almost never buy meat products there, and none of that “Safeway Select” crap. The produce we get isn’t all that bad, though.
MelCthefirst: I’ve made sausage that calls for ice water as a binder, but not in large quantities.
Indeed I do shop at Asian and hispanic markets, medstar. Asian markets kick ass for fresh, whole-body fish and inexpensive, high quality pork. Vietnamese markets near me sell tropical fruits which taste as good as those I bought in Hawaii, and that’s saying a lot. And a local hispanic market chain (“Mi Pueblo”) sells limes, lemons, chiles, pork, and a lot more at high quality and lower prices.
When it comes to beef, though, Whole Foods gets my business. It’s hard to find a better steak than those they sell.
You know, Chefguy, I was having similar problems with a meat grinder/sausage stuffer I had a few years ago, but I was sure I was using it correctly. I just assumed it was getting too long in the tooth to grind properly anymore and I threw it out. Maybe it was just operator error and I wasted a perfectly good appliance. I’ll never know!
