The Holy Grail for the Tender Steak

Food/Drink/Culinaria
21

Oh Celeste...they are so cheap compared to European beef....we were in the US a while ago and couldnt believe the good value...huge steaks, cheaper than I can buy in France or the UK....

Did you know that the USA is responsible for most of the global warming and its the cattle to blame? and thats a fact. We ate at lots of restaurants...the type you buy a steak then eat as much as you want of anything else...I had T Bones that I would normally share...and for the price of a single steak at home....where on earth were you buying such expensive steaks in the US?

22

a large number of beef units that rear dairy cross animals either as entire bulls or steers get them in as weaned calves +- 2 months old then have them in barns on silage and grain for 12 months and then they go for slaughter at 450- 500 kg live weight.

23

it depends on the goat that you get, much of it here is slaughtered very young as in veal or milk lamb, we slaughter ours at about 8 months old and always is tender.

24

Wayne...surely the French used minced meat in Parmentier...?

25

Hi Tracy....I know the names of the different cuts and even have a good graphic on my wall....but the meat is not so tender.....unless as you say, you pay a kings ransom.....just seems weird that the French send their best meat to Italy!

26

we only buy onglet or hampe and always tender.Another cut of meat we find quite often in Auchan is "poire" or "merlan" I know its the name of a fish aswell !!!

27

We have great beef from our local butcher but 'steak' in French is not the same word as steak in English. You have to buy 'filet' or 'faux filet' or 'entrecote' etc, steak is like British stewing steak.

We have found all the prepacked meat in the majority of supermarkets to be dreadful so we eat less now and just buy good stuff from the butcher - his filet de boeuf is 40€ a kilo - gulp, it is definitely a treat but worth it as it just slides down.

In Haute Savoie we found the best meat in Shoppi in Les Houches and Intermarche (these are franchises so quality varies greatly) in Le Fayet.

28

If they use pawpaw on buffalo/beef I don't see why you shouldn't try it on goat. Have you had a look at a new book re Gurkah/Nepalese food written by an ex Gurkah chef www.theultimatenepalesecookbook.com . The lamb curry is delicious with or without the addition of pawpaw!!

29

There are many ways to tenderise meat,you have to brake down the conective tissue in the muscle,The ph of meat is alcaline so any edible acid will do this fruit,wine,etc,

you can bash it with a hammer if you like but this is not always very sucssesful or you can mince it as is done a lot in the UK and the US but not that often in France I see mince for sale here but do not know of a traditional French meal that uses it,

Hanging or maturing is the prosses of natural rotting and the enzimes in the meat start to brake down the conective tissue and is used mostly in beef which carries more fat than in the leaner breeds as the longer you hang beef the more waste there is from drip the meat juices that come out and the longer you hang meat it becomes dark and mouldy after 20 ish days the meat becomes very dark and dry and not very assetic and has to be trimmed hard sometimes as much as 2-3 % which can put up the price,these days people buy meat with thier eyes and if the meat is not red and glowing will not buy it but really you should be looking for a nice brown ring around the outside,

These days a lot of Electrical stimulation is used just before or just after dressing the carcase this involves passing an eclectrical currant through the carcase and brings on the prosses of hanging or maturing much quicker and starts the chemical brakedown but if the animal is stressed before slaughter then hanging or maturing or anything except mincing will have a effect on the tenderness of the beef

30

There was a method used in the UK about 30 years ago called` Proten` beef which was later banned in Europe ,

It involved an Injection just before slaughter of a liquid from pawpaws.I saw this done many times and the effect it had on the meat,The cattle would look drunk going to slaughter sometimes falling over or walking into the bars in the race often they had broken legs and ribs and it was seen as cruel,The meat was very tender and I have seen beef livers that could not be handled as they would fall apart so tender,

so I do understand where you are coming from with this,

Due to the Ph of meat which is quiet alcoline anything which is acid will help brake down the conective tissue is a good marinade so all fruit and wine etc will do the job

31

do you know if they use the same thing on goat? I have tried making goat curry ( learned from a Gurkha chef on one of my ships) but find the meat bought in UK often very tough, I have not tried it over here but this sounds a way to add texture and flavour ta.

32

i don't want to make this site a adsite but i do very good steak in my restaurant it's al from the correze smal farmed aubrac veal and beef.

http://www.restaurant-la-source.fr/home/englisch/

this are the tripadvisor reviews

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1048266-d1576450-Reviews-La_Source-Tursac_Dordogne_Aquitaine.html#REVIEWS

when this is not allowed i will take it off again

good luck with finding the good beef

edwin

33

Great Post Carol!

I'm another who really misses a decent steak.

This is an interesting link to check out www.grasspunk.com (he's really passionate about his cows!) he breeds "Salers cows"

He's about 7 hours from me so not going to satisfy my steak urge, If anyone knows of a good supplier nearer to the Haute Savoie, I'd love to hear from you.

34

You are all going to think I have "gone off my trolley" but the best way to marinade steak or in fact any other meat is to wrap it in the skins (flesh side towards the steak) of under ripe pawpaws/papayas. They have an enzyme which breaks down the fibre of the meat and tenderizes it. A great tip from Sri Lanka where they can even make an ex paddy field working buffalo taste and feel like the best steak ever. Now we need to find someone to source under ripe pawpaws/papayas in rural France!!!

35

Thanks for an interesting Article, I didn't eat red meat for about 20yrs until I went back to sea and had no choice, however, there is always an "however" I was lucky enough to sample steak in three places where it was superb namely the Officers mess in Mayport Naval Base Florida, A steak restaurant in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and strangely The Brasilia Restaurant in Bahrein, I now understand why there is a difference in the taste and quality. I still avoid steak at home in France and in UK but would relish a return to any of the places mentioned.

36

During the BSE crisis in the UK, Beef for Human consumption had to be under 18 months of age, and it was always sent for slaughter maybe 1 or 2 days before the 18 months was up and sometimes passed the 18 months in these cases the whole carcase was dispossed of in the bin and stained to my knowlage beef is rearly eaten near to 1 year old as it will not have developed,Bone is always the first to develope then muscle and lastly fat which is put on the animal once the muscle is fully formed,There are lots of northern breeds which do not fully develope muscle until after 36 months eg.Aberdeen Angus,Welsh Black,Hereford ,etc

37

It's good to have confirmation of what I have always thought. We have a "bio" producer near us in the Gers and asked to try a bit of their "beef" before deciding whether to buy. It was as tough as old boots - yes, they confirmed that the piece they had given us was from an 8-yr-old milking cow. However we recently had a delicious 9€ 4-course meal in a local training restaurant, and had a fabulous Argetinian steak. So now we've ordered a couple of frozen joints from the restaurant to keep in our freezer. Fortunately we have an electric carving knife with freezer blades. Otherwise, when we drive back to the UK we take some cold boxes and stock up in Tesco.

38

if, on the otherhand, you're looking for good veal, try veau d'aveyron, my brother-in-law is president and a breeder/producer so we get to eat it quite a lot and it's the best, but perhaps I'm a little biaised... ;-)

39

Hi Carol and all,

I saw your post and I thought I had to add a little,I started working in a Butchers shop cleaning at the age of 12 years of age and have worked in the meat industry most of my life I am now 51 years younge,I am graduate member to the Institute of meat,and I have the royal sociaty of health certificates for red meat poultry and game,my job in the uk was a meat inspector for over 12 years in the uk I have also worked in a slaughterhouse in France killing beef and I have worked in a poulrty plant in France,

The first thing is that the scottish breed Aberdeen Angus is the very best for marbling and fat retention in the muscle of the animal,France as most of europe cross breed with the Angus or the Hereford which is also a good beef breed,not to mention the Parthenay a good French deul perpouse breed,

Secondly there are a lot of growth promoters used in the US that are not allowed in Europe so I am not suprised that the supply of US beef was limited,I am not up to date on US farming praticise but I am aware that South America has some of the best breeding hurds of Hereford Bovine as it was used for its Fry Bentos pies which after 10 years have started to be made again at the original factory slaughterhouse

Thirdly yes the French do eat thier animals older but then that adds to the taiste,quality and texture,I have only seen Younge Bulls which for eating are very tough even hard for the butchers to cut going to Turkey and Greece but I am sure they go to the rest of Europe including the UK,

A lot of animals are killed as Halal and Kosha in France this might effect the eating qualities of beef as with Kosha the Hind quarters are not eaten by the Jews so they go into the open market, The animal is often stressed before and during slaughter and this will make the meat tough,

As Gandi saied ` You can tell the greatness of a nation by the way that the animals are treated`

other than these points the effect of cooking has a big effect to make tender meat I have never had tough beef cooked by a French person,

please excuse my spelling I was never very good at spelling but it didn`t effect my life in the meat industry I think most Butchers have a problem with spelling ,

40

I just joined this group. HI!

Great timing about the beef - yesterday a friend and I went for lunch at La Cote de Boeuf in Melle. Thinking that surely I would be served a tender piece of meat there - but it was not to be. 40 + years of N. American beef has spoiled us.

The only descent steak we found, just as you did, was the "Made in USA" ones from Lidl last June but they haven't had any since.

Love all the information about the differences in the beef and I have also read that at a butcher's shop the should be a placard stating the life history of the beef he is selling.

Thanks!