[Luc_H]

Originally Posted by canadiangirl

red & white when they should be looking for purple and yellow.Luc_H

Please show me what that means. I am so sick of buying meat that looks good only to get a grizzly piece of no taste.
canadiangirl

Let me explain that comment at least but you need to read some material. Fresh meat is purple in colour not bright red. Meat that is fresh means freshly cut off the carcass and is purple because it has not been exposed to air for a long time.
see: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/meatscience/column/color.htm

Yellow refers to fat.
cattle is either slaughtered very young to prevent their fat to becoming yellow. Cattle are fed corn also to prevent this from happening. Cows are herbivores not rodents and cannot digest corn. That is why they are fed digestive enzyme to help their stomach, stomach the corn and antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick by lack of eating what they are supposed to eat (i.e. grass). Grass fed cattle have yellow fat because its an indication that they consumed coloured plant (i.e. beta carotene - orange). Meat that has yellow fat means that the animal at least ate some real food!!

An excellent book on this subject is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Here is a link:Beef Marketing Alternatives
excerpt that kinda explains how cattleman interpret what the public thinks and wants:
Young slaughter age. The most important issue related to tenderness of beef is the age of the animal at slaughter. Plan to have pasture-finished cattle ready for slaughter at 16-22 months of age. One "problem" associated with PFB that may be solved by slaughtering before 18 months is yellow fat. This is a problem due to public perception that beef fat should be white; it is not a true quality issue. The yellow color simply indicates a higher level of beta-carotene (precursor to vitamin A) in the fat of animals finished on forage. "Yellow fat on poultry and beef, extremely orange egg yolks and naturally yellow butter reflect high levels of chlorophyll in the diet and low levels of saturated fat." (Salatin, 1995) A direct marketer who educates customers about yellow fat might turn it into an asset indicating a natural, nutritious food. In any case, the consensus among producers seems to be that if animals are slaughtered within the 18-month age range, fat will not appear yellow.


Luc H

[shel]

Originally Posted by Free Rider

Recently, I had a run-in with 365 brand pomegranate juice. It's grape juice, I believe. Certainly not pomegranate

I didn'tention this earlier as I wanted to check and be sure, which I did today. Trader Joe's has two types of 100% Pomegranate juice (made from concentrate), an organic and a non-organic version, and the price seems pretty reasonable as well.

Shel

[shroomgirl]

I just finished "processing" the 195# half a tammworth pig....original live weight 400#.....
made pate for the James Beard picnic tomorrow, have all the muscle meat from the head and stock from said head, shoulder is roasted, ham was ground for later use and the piece d'resistance...the fat back was 4" deep all the way from the spine to the belly. beautiful sheets of lard to line the pate molds. I've never seen such a beauty. The farmer said noone ever requested the pure tammworth, they all wanted less fat more flesh.

pickled some haricot verte for garnish, made pear chutney and rehydrated sour cherries for fruit garnish.
barely awake....but the pig is REAL food, and the process was a blast!

[greyeaglem]

I'm really enjoying this thread-Thanks Shel. It reflects what I said on an earlier thread about frou-frou food. Yes, there are complicated dishes that are great, but sometimes I feel like I'm on another planet compared to what other people in the business are doing. I have long felt that ingredients are not as good as they were when I was a kid. I'm lucky. I live in an area where we have a lot of Amish farmers who raise chickens that sell at a reasonable price. We also have a lot of Hmong and other local small farmers who sell their produce at the local farmer's market. When I was a kid we had a 1 acre garden that produced an incredible amount of food that we canned and froze. The neighboring farmer raised hogs and beef on a small scale and we bought a cow and hog every year from him for the freezer. Because of this, I have always been a basic no-frills cook. Now I feel like I don't have to apologize for it.

[shel]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

I just finished "processing" the 195# half a tammworth pig....original live weight 400#.........but the pig is REAL food, and the process was a blast!

That sounds great! That you're able to get an entire carcass and butcher it yourself is super. I can't easily do that here, but I can get very close to the source, which means that there's little or no concern for the problems associated with pre-packaged meat, like the most recent e-coli problem. I can easily get cuts from the rancher, although it's easier for me to get the same cuts from one or two local butchers as I don't have to drive out to the ranch or into San Francisco to Ferry Plaza.

Buying meat that hasn't been cut up into little pieces or ground and put into packages for the consumer generally means fresher and better tasting meat.

Shel

[shel]

Tonight I saw a segment of one of those Unwrapped or How It's Made type shows which featured a product called a "Grāpple," which is a Fuji apple infused with grape flavor. The comentator mentioned that it was "all natural" although subsequently I discovered that the product contains artificial flavors.

Grāpple® Brand Apples
A Grapple a Day...Won't do Much for You

I can't take it any more. I'm gonna shoot my TV set ....

Shel

[shel]

Originally Posted by greyeaglem

I'm really enjoying this thread-Thanks Shel. It reflects what I said on an earlier thread about frou-frou food. Yes, there are complicated dishes that are great, but sometimes I feel like I'm on another planet compared to what other people in the business are doing. I have long felt that ingredients are not as good as they were when I was a kid. I'm lucky. I live in an area where we have a lot of Amish farmers who raise chickens that sell at a reasonable price. We also have a lot of Hmong and other local small farmers who sell their produce at the local farmer's market. When I was a kid we had a 1 acre garden that produced an incredible amount of food that we canned and froze. The neighboring farmer raised hogs and beef on a small scale and we bought a cow and hog every year from him for the freezer. Because of this, I have always been a basic no-frills cook. Now I feel like I don't have to apologize for it.

A few days ago I was introduced to a wonderful cookbook - The New Spanish Table. Many, if not most, of the recipes were quite simple, relying on just a few fresh, natural ingredients to make them work. A friend and I made some of the recipes yesterday having sought out the highest quality and freshest ingredients we could find. The results were nothing short of wonderful.

Shel