13 Things Your Butcher Won't Tell You

Butchers share their secrets, tips, and what's in your meat.

By Michelle Crouch

From Reader's Digest

Images from this article

© Hemera/Thinkstock

Don’t be fooled by supermarket brand names. The label to look for is USDA Quality Grade.

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© Hemera/Thinkstock

Don’t be fooled by supermarket brand names. The label to look for is USDA Quality Grade.

1. Don’t be fooled by supermarket brand names like Butcher’s Brand, Rancher’s Reserve, and Blue Ribbon. The label to look for is USDA Quality Grade. Prime is the best (and most expensive), followed by choice, select, then standard.
2. A big part of our job is window dressing. We flip brown meat over, cut off fat, and dab away blood that might turn you off.
3. Your beef may get ground in Iowa, stuffed in a long tube of plastic, and trucked to our store, where we regrind and package it.
4. Some companies pump carbon monoxide into packaging to keep the meat from turning brown.
5. Make sure you check the price per pound or per serving. The regular size is often cheaper than the family pack.
6. Why are you so wedded to the cut of beef your recipe calls for? We can suggest cheaper options.
7. My favorite cut? The hanging tender. Also known as a hanger steak or a bistro steak, it’s got great flavor at a good price.
8. Take the meat tray at the bottom of the stack or the farthest in back. Just like milk, it tends to be fresher.
9. Save $1.50 to $2 a pound on boneless pork chops. Buy a whole boneless pork loin roast and slice it into chops an inch thick.
10. Yes, that 92/8 ground beef is lean, but if you make burgers with it, you might be disappointed. Your favorite burger joint probably uses beef that’s much fattier.
11. Even if those chicken breasts say “100 percent natural,” they may still be injected with sodium-laden broth, salt water, or seaweed extract. Always check the label.
12. Some of the best tasting cuts are the ugliest ones, like the flap meat on the belly part of beef.
13. Ask me to help. Even if it’s already on a tray wrapped in cellophane, I can cut the fat off a roast, trim a flank steak into stir-fry strips, or grind up a chuck roast. Then I’ll neatly wrap it back up for you. All for no extra charge.
Sources: Butchers in New York City; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Francisco; Kingston, New York; and Timberville, Virginia; Lee O’Hara, author of Beef Secrets Straight from the Butcher; and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Also, 9 More  Secrets Your  Butcher Won't Tell You

1. If you throw your meat straight into the freezer in the packaging it came in, freezer burn is a virtual certainty. Instead, take the meat off the tray, rewrap it with plastic food wrap or aluminum foil, then put it in a Ziploc freezer bag and squeeze out as much air as possible.

2. Want to save a few bucks per pound at a butcher shop? Try buying a whole top sirloin and asking me to cut it into steaks. Or get a whole chuck and ask me to make you some chuck roasts, beef stew cubes, and ground meat out of it. The bigger the cut, the more money you’ll save.

3. London Broil is a cooking method, not a cut of meat. A package labeled that way is probably a top round roast, a very tough steak that otherwise wouldn’t be worth much. But if we label it as a London Broil – which means you should cook it medium rare with lots of seasonings, then slice it real thin against the grain – it’s at least edible.

© Noel Hendrickson/Digital Vision/Thinkstock

Don't throw your meat straight into the freezer in the packaging it came in or it will get freezer burn. 

 

4. Most people cook their meat too long. Get a cooking thermometer and remember, food keeps cooking even after you remove it from heat. So that filet mignon that’s rare when it comes off the grill will be medium rare after you rest it.

5. Despite all the hype, most of us think “Certified Angus Beef” is a marketing gimmick that doesn’t necessarily indicate the meat is any better than other beef with the same USDA grade. Though I have to admit, it does look spiffy on that black tray.

6. I know grass-fed beef is the hot thing, and it’s supposed to be healthier, but it sure doesn’t taste as good.

7. Like your steak well done? That’s your call, but don’t bother buying an expensive cut. Once you cook it that much, it all tastes pretty much the same… kind of like shoe leather


8. Want fresh meat? Check the pack date. Ideally you want to get packages dated that day or the day before.

9. Your mother had good intentions, but a little pink inside your pork is fine. In fact, it’s preferable. Pork that’s white all the way through is likely to be dry and tasteless. Just make sure its internal temperature is at least 160 degrees.

Sources: Butchers in New York City; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Francisco; Kingston, New York; and Timberville, Virginia; Lee O’Hara, author of Beef Secrets Straight from the Butcher; and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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Don't Be Fooled By Product Labels

 Don't Pay More for Meaningless Words & Phrases

October 12, 2010 @ 2:00 pm - Written by Trent
Categories: Getting Started,Shopping
Bookmarks: del.icio.us, reddit
Every time I go shopping for a food item or a household item, I’m always bombarded with all sorts of nonsensical and largely meaningless terms plastered all over products. The words are often tied to products that, frankly, I view as overpriced for various reasons.

I decided to catalogue a few of these wonderful meaningless words that people pay for.

New The “cult of the new” is an expensive one that has a lot of adherents. New products are usually priced quite highly – and usually attract buyers who are simply looking for a “new” experience. At the same time, of course, “new” products are ones that have not stood the test of time. They might be good – they might be awful. For my dollar, I think I’ll stick with a Consumer Reports recommendation and pick up a product that I know works that doesn’t have that “new” premium price.

Now 28% better! Whenever you see a comparison like this, ask yourself two things: in what way is it better and how is that “better” actually measured? If you read this type of statement and think for a moment, you realize that it could mean anything at all – better blue color in the liquid laundry detergent and so on. Unless the product is precisely stating what the improvement is, such a statement doesn’t have any meaning – or value – at all.

Hypoallergenic It’s a nice-sounding term that doesn’t mean a thing. Why? There is no official standard for what the word means. There isn’t even a voluntary standard that defines the term. It does not mean that the product won’t cause an allergic reaction. It might, at best, mean that the marketers think that the stuff in the product probably won’t cause an allergic reaction – which really doesn’t mean much at all, does it?

Fragrance-free Wouldn’t it be nice if “fragrance free” actually meant that the product doesn’t contain any fragrance? In truth, the product is usually “smell-free” or some attempt at it. Instead of not including a fragrance, what often happens is that a finished product with a fragrance in it has something added to eliminate or mask the smell. If it’s done well enough, marketers will slap this label on it – but if you’re allergic to fragrances, it really doesn’t mean much at all.

All natural The word “natural” can basically mean anything. There are no standards at all for what this word means. Try this: compare a “natural” product to a similar one that doesn’t have “natural” written on the label and see what exactly is different in the ingredients list. I’ll go ahead and tell you: not much is different.

Never tested on animals This one actually is true on the shallow surface: the product hasn’t been tested on animals. However, that statement is saying nothing at all about the ingredients that make up the product – most of those were likely tested on animals before they were approved for wide use. There are almost no ingredients in cosmetics and medicines for human use that weren’t already tested on animals.

Best-of-breed Such statements usually imply that the product is the best among its competitors. However, when you’re allowing the company to define who the competition is, they usually define that competition as narrowly as possible: “dog foods that use these 25 ingredients and these 6 coloring agents” or something to that effect. It’s easy to be best-of-breed when you’re the only one in the group.

Organic A caveat: when you actually see the USDA Organic label on food products, that label has specific meaning: the item comes from (or the ingredients come from) a farm that lives up to the USDA Organic standards for plant and animal treatment, which encompasses quite a few things – no hormones, no pesticides, and so on. However, the word “organic” is often used in contexts that have nothing to do with farms or the USDA Organic certification – it’s just used as a buzzword for a product that’s trying to sell itself as being “all natural,” as mentioned above.

Superfood This is yet another term without any sort of legal definition. Thus, it’s ofen applied to all kinds of things to encourage sales – particularly high-priced fruits, vegetables, juices, and vitamins. Guess what? A well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables of all kinds will take care of your nutrition needs without spending extra money on the exotic semi-bogus “superfood” of the week.

 Nontoxic Again, this is a term that has no standard definition and no verification process to ensure that the product meets that non-existent definition. If a manufacturer thinks the product probably won’t kill you if you eat it and doesn’t contain anything that’s blatantly known as a toxic chemical, they can put a “nontoxic” label on it. But if it’s not food, why are you eating it anyway?

Johanna @ 2:37 pm October 12th, 2010
Some others that I’m familiar with:

“Farm fresh” (or similar) means nothing. On a carton of eggs, for example, it means nothing about the conditions in which the hens are kept.

“Hormone free” on eggs or poultry meat means nothing, since it’s against the law in the US to give hormones to poultry.

“Cage free” on poultry meat means nothing, since birds raised for their meat are not kept in cages (they’re kept in crowded sheds). On eggs, it does mean something – that the hens are kept in crowded sheds instead of crowded cages.

“Free range” on eggs or poultry meat means that the birds are kept in a crowded shed with a door that gives them access to an enclosed outdoor area. But it could be a tiny door and a tiny outdoor area, so that most of the supposedly “free range” birds never actually go outside.

“Multigrain” does not mean whole grain. Unless it says otherwise, a multigrain product is probably mostly refined white flour. Check the ingredients list if you want to know.

“Wheat” does not mean whole wheat. “Enriched wheat flour” is refined white flour. Unless it says “whole wheat,” it’s not whole wheat.

“18 grams of whole grains per serving” is not very much – it’s about a tablespoon. Don’t confuse “grams of whole grains” with “grams of fiber.” (18 grams of fiber, on the other hand, is a lot – more than half of what you need for the day.)

And finally, a surprising one that does mean something:

“Healthy” in the name of a product means that it must meet certain standards for fat and sodium. At least, that’s the law – there’s no guarantee that the manufacturer isn’t in violation of the law. Always check the “nutrition facts” label if you want to know about that sort of thing.

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