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Questions about beef.

L

LazyWP

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
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1,700
This one might ought to be someplace else, if so please move it.
The other day Whitewing made the comment that he had some good steak, purchased from Sams Club, and there was lots of comments about Sams not having the best beef. OK, so where would you tell someone to buy their beef? I'll use my daughter as an example. She lives in Great Bend Kansas. Right in the heart of cattle feeding, between her and her hubby, they make in the neighbor hood of $60,000 annually. With house payments, car, day care, and every other thing that goes with raising a young family, they live pay check to pay check. Where do I tell her to buy beef. There are 2 Dillions stores, Walmart, and maybe one other store. Don't remember for sure.
I know from my experience of town living, the average "town" person has NO clue what good beef is, and in my case, when I was living in town, I couldn't afford any of the better quality cuts. The best meat I could buy at that time, were the darker cuts that were priced for "quick" sale. So where do I tell her to get her beef?
I know where she will end up getting it. She'll say..... Dad, a 1/4 of beef would make an excellent Birthday, Christmas, kids birthday, and any other occasion that she thinks I will get her beef for. I am spoiled living here. There are 2 grocery stores in Valentine that have some of the best beef in the world, plus I fatten out a couple of critters a year, and have some good friends that feed out LOTS of critters, so if I want good beef, its readily available, but I also know the butcher shops, and they will "age" the meat to how I like it.
Sorry for the rambling, but WE as beef producers NEED to promote our product. In my opinion, Sams has as good of beef as any "store" bought beef in the country.
 
Schwaan's has good meat. It's seems higher, but there is no waste.
That's where I advise city people who ask me where to buy good beef.
I know people that are happy with Safeway meat, but I don't know
how far out Safeway goes.

My mother worked in the meat dept. of a grocery store. She says
the dark meat you mentioned is really the best because it has
been aged while in the meat counter. Hard to bring yourself to buy
it the first time, but the flavor/tenderness makes up for it and the second time is easier.

I don't have a Costco card or a Sam's Club card (I refuse to pay someone
for allowing me to shop in their store) but everyone tells me Costco
has really good meat. Who owns Costco? China. :shock:

I have learned from the earlier discussion that Sam's Club beef
differs from Walmart.
 
Whenever I have had company coming but didn't want deplete our freezer of homegrown steaks, I usually call a friend of mine who is a butcher in our little local grocery store to the south of us. Having a friend in the meat dept. is really nice. He knows exactly what I want and will try his best to make sure he tells me of available discounts. This same butcher is also a yearly beef customer of mine. Although he works in the meat dept. he still buys home raised beef for his family. I know this doesn't answer the original question though. This butcher friend and I have discussed this very question a few times. He has told me if people were serious about saving expenses on beef, they would suffer through a few months of burger and cheap cuts while putting money aside to buy a homeraised beef and a freezer to hold it. The amount of money a family spends buying groceries daily or weekly is keeping them in the poorhouse. On top of this, they are buying an inferior product. I understand that this is hard to do but if a family can ever break the cycle, they will eat better and cheaper.
 
BAR BAR 2 said:
Whenever I have had company coming but didn't want deplete our freezer of homegrown steaks, I usually call a friend of mine who is a butcher in our little local grocery store to the south of us. Having a friend in the meat dept. is really nice. He knows exactly what I want and will try his best to make sure he tells me of available discounts. This same butcher is also a yearly beef customer of mine. Although he works in the meat dept. he still buys home raised beef for his family. I know this doesn't answer the original question though. This butcher friend and I have discussed this very question a few times. He has told me if people were serious about saving expenses on beef, they would suffer through a few months of burger and cheap cuts while putting money aside to buy a homeraised beef and a freezer to hold it. The amount of money a family spends buying groceries daily or weekly is keeping them in the poorhouse. On top of this, they are buying an inferior product. I understand that this is hard to do but if a family can ever break the cycle, they will eat better and cheaper.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with what you are saying about saving up the money and buying the homeraised beef. We do the same with pork, but my question still remains. Unless you know someone that raises critters to sell, where do you get GOOD beef? The other part is, say around Pueblo CO, where do you get a beef butchered? Gone are the days when every little town had its own locker plant.
Sorry again for the ramblings, but it frustrates me that North America produces the most, and best beef in the world, but what a person buys in the super market, sure doesn't taste like it.
 
I wish I had a definite answer for you, but I don't. This is one of those deals, it's not what you know, but who you know. Just like my buddy who is a butcher, he knows what I raise, so therefore, goes the extra mile to help when I do buy something. And trust me, that aint often. I think in five years there has been two times.

Urban folks don't have the same options that we do in rural areas and towns. I would bet that most uban and city dwellers would be hard pressed to even name the person who cuts their meat. I may have my numbers wrong here so bear with me. I believe at the turn of the last century that this country's rural population was somewhere around the 75% mark. If I'm not mistaken, at the turn of this century, farm and ranch families mad up only 3% of the population. Most people now are something like two to three generations removed from the farm. Due to this, most urban dwellers don't even know what good quality meat should taste like. They just know that the advertisements tell them that most farm animals are born into a life of pain and suffering. For instance - Free range chickens are the way to go according to some people. Have you ever watched what a bunch of loose chickens eat? It's disgusting.

Chicken is the only meat that we buy with any regularity. And that's still not very often. Just this morning I cooked elk gravy with our breakfast. I'm guessing that close to 98% of the meat we eat, we either raised or harvested by hunting. We will also trade beef to our friends who are into hunting.

When I lived down south, I used to really enjoy going to Sonic for a chili dog or a burger. Last year, after living on home raised stuff for several years and not being within 200 miles of a Sonic, I was looking forward to getting to eat a Sonic burger when I went home to see my mother and family. It was absolutely putrid. After a few days, I decided to go back for a chili dog and onions rings. Same results. I ended up throwing both meals out and refuse to go back. There was nothing wrong with the meal. It was me. After years of eating quality meat, I just couldn't stomach the crap that they sell. Sonic isn't the only place like that and it's also not confined to just fast food. About the only restaraunts I can enjoy a good meal in are higher end steakhouses. That's because they demand a better quality of beef and other meats than the average run of the mill diner.

We have tried to figure out how to get a ranch to freezer custom beef business going, but each state has different rules and laws which make it pretty intimidating. Also, the cost of feed nowadays is pretty prohibitive. The people that would have liked to buy a beef before, but could afford that much at one whack, sure as hell can't do it now. Until something happens with feed prices, we aren't feeding anymore out for sale. We are going to feed enough for us and our families, but that's it. Selling to the public is often very aggravating, as most people don't realize what it actually costs. Because there is no feed grown in our area, it all has to be shipped in. Last year before feed and fuel prices went through the roof, it cost me $627 to feed an animal out for 90 days. I know some may get by cheaper, but that's a pretty good idea of what goes into an animal. This was before we had $7 corn. I'm scared to even do the figures this year for beef. Another thing, a person in the know would be surprised how many people out there don't realize that you can't cut the whole cow up into steaks. I've had the locker plant call me more than once asking me to please explain to a customer that they will have to have some of everything. That is the sad truth.

If people don't know that the cow isn't made up entirely of T-Bones, they probably don't know that they are eating junk. As for your original question, I don't know. I think that we should just try to do the best we can for our own families and do our best to educate others.
 
After my first trip to Texas and homegrown beef I found a processing place and bought meat there. Till they closed due to LOL animal rights saying the school children across the street could hear the cows cry while being killed............. :roll: :roll: So they closed. It took a bit of looking and found another a bit outside of town.
I only get my meat from Texline Processing plant now. Even shoer says they have dammmmmm good meat.

I know most cities have processing plants at most half a day drive. Well worth stocking up.

I did a real quick search for meat processing and found this.
Ellinwood Packing Plant Inc
989 E Hwy 56, Ellinwood, KS 67526

(620) 564-3156 ‎
 
The thing I find about walmart meat is they slice it so thin that without vigilance cooking it turns into leather in the blink of an eye.
MsSage did you ever go up to the college at Goodwell and get meats from their processing, it used to be real good meats.
 
There are four main influences on beef flavour, texture and tenderness,
breed, age, feed and maturing.
Most beef in the big stores is commodity beef, fed on a mundane commercial ration, slaughtered and processed without any maturing of the meat, the only difference in quality is in the breed.
Cattle fed on quality feed high in roughage, or good grazing, aquire a better flavour, and hanging the carcase for 10-20 days to allow the lactic acid to break down the muscle fibre and improved flavour. Cattle fed a ration based on whole corn/cob/sheith with a protien suppliment gives a far superior flavour to the commercial "cornflake" processed feed.
 
andybob said:
There are four main influences on beef flavour, texture and tenderness,
breed, age, feed and maturing.
Most beef in the big stores is commodity beef, fed on a mundane commercial ration, slaughtered and processed without any maturing of the meat, the only difference in quality is in the breed.
Cattle fed on quality feed high in roughage, or good grazing, aquire a better flavour, and hanging the carcase for 10-20 days to allow the lactic acid to break down the muscle fibre and improved flavour. Cattle fed a ration based on whole corn/cob/sheith with a protien suppliment gives a far superior flavour to the commercial "cornflake" processed feed.
Click to expand...

i'd add hanging the beef and letting it age to that list---and think it's criminal that packers don't---esp after all the whining that them and others do about what we should to improve our product---
 
Larrry said:
The thing I find about walmart meat is they slice it so thin that without vigilance cooking it turns into leather in the blink of an eye.
MsSage did you ever go up to the college at Goodwell and get meats from their processing, it used to be real good meats.
Click to expand...
NO I didnt know they had some. hmmm might email a girl who goes there and have her bring some back when she comes home.
 
What I bought the other day at Sam's Club were ribeyes, cut 1 1/2" thick, well marbled and labeled as "Angus Beef". I wish I'd saved the label or looked at it more closely, but like I said in the other thread, eating is one of my buddy's passions and when he said their steaks were excellent, I didn't think twice about buying them.

Now, anyone can ruin the best steak in the world by overcooking it, doing a lousy job with seasoning, etc. But he cooked mine medium rare, seasoned it to perfection, and it was as good as any steak I've ever had in any steak-specialty restaurant and I've eaten in some of the best steak houses around the country.
 
Faster horses said:
Sounds darn yummy. :nod:
And I did learn something from this thread,
so thanks for starting it WW. :D
Click to expand...

I'm guilty of eating the Sam's Club ribeye as big as my behind, but I'm innocent for having started this thread. :D
 
The first time I went to Las Vegas a few years ago my Uncle took me and my wife out for supper. He took us to a buffet style place where there was about 10 styles of food each in their own area. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, a few more that I can't remember and then there was a steak place that I assume was the American style cuisine. The steak place is the only area of the huge buffet that had a line of people to get their steak. The steak was not very good, you could tell it was just cow meat, but the folks couldn't get enough of it. I visited with several people in line doing a little promotional work while I had some time to kill, and each and every one of them thought it was a great piece of meat. Little did they know how good beef can actually be.

It was really neat to see the demand for out product though.
 
Venezuelans eat a lot of beef....and most of it is lousy beef. Having said that, I can see shortages ahead. Heck, in the cities, there are already times when NO BEEF can be found for purchase.
 
LazyWP said:
I totally agree with what you are saying about saving up the money and buying the homeraised beef. We do the same with pork, but my question still remains. Unless you know someone that raises critters to sell, where do you get GOOD beef? The other part is, say around Pueblo CO, where do you get a beef butchered? Gone are the days when every little town had its own locker plant.
Sorry again for the ramblings, but it frustrates me that North America produces the most, and best beef in the world, but what a person buys in the super market, sure doesn't taste like it.
Click to expand...

Fowler, Co east of Pueblo does a good job.
 
Shortgrass said:
LazyWP said:
I totally agree with what you are saying about saving up the money and buying the homeraised beef. We do the same with pork, but my question still remains. Unless you know someone that raises critters to sell, where do you get GOOD beef? The other part is, say around Pueblo CO, where do you get a beef butchered? Gone are the days when every little town had its own locker plant.
Sorry again for the ramblings, but it frustrates me that North America produces the most, and best beef in the world, but what a person buys in the super market, sure doesn't taste like it.
Click to expand...

Fowler, Co east of Pueblo does a good job.
Click to expand...

Thanks Shortgrass. My father in law lives west of Pueblo, and is having a tough time finding anywhere to get his critters processed.
 

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