Purchasing meat...

[capt dan]

Last I knew, sam's and wallmart are the same company, they get stuff from the same suppliers. Different managers run stores differently though. The "super wallmarts" around here have all types of groceries, I buy very little from either wally's or sam's, for my own reasons, but our local hardings store has an excellent butcher staff, and are friendly, and accomidating. I have become friends with the lead butchers(fed them alot of BBQ) and they will let me know what is gonna be on sale in the comming weeks. They also let me sort through cases of butts and ribs to get what I want.I am very lucky to have a small town crocery near me with freindly folks working there. They even carry out the bags for you there.!

 

[bbq enthusiast]

I get all our meat at the local meat market for two reasons.#1 I want to help the "little guy". #2 cant find the quality or selection at the big supermarkets. Heck its hard to find a good butcher these days. kids are in to computers not meat cutting in high school.

 

[squeezy]

I hear ya brother! ... I buy as much from my local butcher as my budget will allow ... this place does not compromise on quality!
In fact, their sausage is so good, I can find any reason to take the time to do my own...

The rest of the time I shop sales at the supermarkets ...

 

[psychobrew]

At least around here (PA and MD), meat from Walmart is terrible. It's tough and rubbery (slow cooking doesn't help) and has a funky taste to it. WalMarts here used to carry some decent briskets, but I wouldn't touch anything meat related from them anymore (not even sandwich meat). Everything they cary is injected with a solution now, and you want to stay as far away from injected beef as possible. If you try it, don't buy alot.

Sams Club is much better, and if you have a Giant or Martins, they cary meat that's as good as what you get from a meat market (much better than Food Lion and other stores around here). I'm starting to stock up at Martins when they have sales (I use a vacum sealer to keep things fresh and freeze it) or buy from local butchers or meat markets when they don't.

 

[packplantpath]

I just picked up 2 butts at a local place here. Nahunta pork center. Live hogs run across the street, and they do it all in house, including making country cured ham. The cost is excellent. Never 99c/lb like the supermarket, but the butts were 2.20/lb for the first then get the second for only $2.00. Also bought a pack of in house ground sausage (mild) and going to make my first fattie tomorrow. I'll be posting q-views soon and probably asking questions about the fatties tomorrow.

Anyway, for pork, nahunta is the best. I even bought my dog one of the .5lb smoked pork bones for her to chew on while I cook tomorrow. Only problem is it's a bit big for her. I checked it out, smells good, I almost tasted it, but the wife would kill me.

 

[gramason]

I usually try to wait for a sale, and stock up. I have cooked meat from Walmart,and it turned out fine, I think they are over priced. BJ's is the cheapest place around here that I know of to get ribs, 3 in a pack for around $20. Also have a local butcher thats pretty reasonable.

 

[pgeobc]

Just a few years back, we got a new Wally World with a supermarket included. I went and examined their meats. Most of the meats were injected, or otherwise pumped up, with up to 10% of water. Sometimes this is labeled as "a special solution," and sometimes it is simply labeled as water. I don't buy watered-down meat, period.

A few years back, during the Clinton administration, the big meat packers got together and hornswoggled the USDA into allowing pumped up meat under the guise of simply replacing lost water. What they didn't say was that they were already charging the the lost water weight, so that got a profit bonanza when the USDA caved in.

Look at the label and learn to read the lingo. Hams are another bad area: there are several levels of included water that are allowed, depdending on how it is labeled. One of the categories allows more water than ham.

Excess water screws up normal cooking time and meats so treated are generally unfit for smoking or making into sausage. They do, however, take smoke-cooking, if you don't mind paying for water.

 

[zapper]

Well, it figures, I metioned that the Sams nearest me is always picked over, so today I stopped by to see if it was still so. The place was packed and the coolers were stuffed full of all sorts of things. Large volumes and pretty good prices from what I could see, I mean they weren't giving the stuff away but still it looked like some fair prices. I try not to go there too much because I have seen that Masterbuilt smoker on a couple of trips and I am afraid that I might end up with one on my back porch

 

[walking dude]

did you happen to check out prices on packers and butts?

 

[zapper]

I actually didn't see any full brisket packers, I looked at a few flats (pastrami on my mind) as well as a few premade corned beefs

I saw the butts (they looked kind of on the fat side) but some nice sized ones too.

Ribs were everywhere! Spare, baby backs, beef, one packs, two packs, three on some of the baby backs!

Didn't see anything special in the line of chicken wings (kind of what I had my heart set on at the time)


We didn't buy anything, we were kind of enroute to someplace else and didn't want to worry about having to take all of the food home first.

We also have a BJs kind of near by. The ole lady's card ran out and we just opened a mail that would have given us a free period or something, but it was too late. There is also a Costco further on down the highway, I have a buddy that swears that Costco beats them all, but I think that it is getting too far to drive and it is in a bad traffic and a less desirable area.


I really have to take stock of my supplies (Spices and such) get my act together, and smoke something!

 

[coldjava]

Being from Texas, it's taken some time (years) to adjust from grain fed meat to corn fed meat. I really miss grain fed meat. The local food stores are terrible, I'm guessing from the quality and taste it's what they don't sell from last year. We buy half a cow from a local business client twice a year. I buy my spare and back ribs from Sam's. They have the best price and the quality is almost as good as what I get from my client. Living up north is nothing like living in Texas, meat wise.

 

[packplantpath]

I'm assuming you mean grass fed? Grain fed and corn fed beef as far as I've ever seen are used interchangeably. Almost all beef sold in the U.S. is fed out on corn, it's difficult to get high USDA ratings on grass alone, and takes forever. I'd estimate greater than 75% is corn-fed. Everybody I know except me prefers the corn-fed beef. It has more fat and marbleing. I grew up on grass fed from my family, and it has a distinct difference.

 

[coldjava]

I take it you've never been to or ever eaten grain and/or grass fed beef from Texas. Doesn't matter what the rest of the country does, Texas beef is different. Not sure why but, it does have a taste all it's own. I've had beef from many places. There is a difference.

 

[zapper]

Yes, breed and feed makes a difference. There is a wind of change a blowing about the benifits of grass fed beef (and other meats). All you have to do is search "Grass Fed Beef" and you can read about it until you go blind. The jist is that if you take the right breed and feed it the right types and amounts of grasses for the right amount of time in the right areas of the country, you can end up with some pretty good tasting and good for you beef. This is really nothing new, but it has come to the attention of some of the yuppies that have a little bit a money and are willing to pay more for it, so it is getting a little more attention lately.


I have eaten both straight grass fed and the typical grain finished beef and had good and bad of both. Good is good, bad is bad and different is different. Most folks that I know that raise beef don't eat their own beef, they sell it off as a business venture. I do know a couple that still raise their own and don't grain finish them. They can not afford to raise the grain that it would take to finish a couple of head, so they pick or cull a couple out of the herd for home use and sell the rest.

Traditionally grass fed will have a more yellow fat and supossedly less of it. Corn or grain finished is usually whiter fat. It takes almost twice as long to grass raise as the typical grain finished (just something that I have always been told) I have also been told that grass fed will age better but takes longer? Modern beef is usually not aged at all, 17 minutes from slaughter to packaging in the big packing houses? (I know a couple of cattlemen, I like talking with them, but I admit that they could be feeding me Bull... well err ... at any rate, I still like most beef.

 

[flash]

For those that think Wal-Mart and Sams are supplied by the same place....NO, they are not. SAMS has their own butchers within the store. Wal-Mart has NONE. Is it possible SAMS may send stuff to Wal-mart?? I am not sure. But there is no way it will be as fresh as SAMS is.

 

[coldjava]

Grain fed and corn fed is not the same. Grain fed is wheat, oats and winter wheat plus range grass. Take a trip to Texas and try some home grown beef....you will be surprised.

 

[walking dude]

i grew up around corn...........it has been a grain to me any way......all my life

and if you are talking cereal grains, how bout

corn chex........corn meal.....corn taco shells......corn flakes

couple links

http://www.umext.maine.edu/maineequi...ent/sld016.htm

http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/grains.html

 

[buzzard]

stupid thing to bring up here but i just got back from Kroger and they had picniks on sale for .59cent per lb. i dont normaly like picknicks but hell with that price who cares/

 

[packplantpath]

This could be an interesting discussion itself. Hopefully a few cattlemen will come by and enlighten us.

The reason I say corn fed and grain fed are used interchangeably is because the so called corn fed beef is not fed only corn, it's a mixture of grains and hay as well. Cows do not do well on grain alone, they are ruminants after all. I've never had texas beef, so I can't say what kind of flavor it has. I do know it is largely feedlot beef as well. I wonder if it is mainly a breed thing?

The trends lately towards very lean meats. Pork and beef. It's ruined many a pig-pickin if you ask me. That's why angus has gotten so popular. Regardless of diet, it tends to have decent marbling and good taste. Of course, like most fads, I suspect it will die down too especially if the free range trend really kicks up.

I grew up raising a ~100 beef cattle from breeding to market. Pasture raised then a feeder was put in for the last 6 months or so to speed the growth. Good beef, but frankly the best part was we had a butcher that properly dry aged parts of it. 21 days in the locker and we got the steaks right after trimming. The rest went into the freezer. You just can't buy dry aged beef anymore and it can't be beat for flavor and tenderness. All beef now is wet aged. That's what they call the process where they put it in vacuum packs and let it get soggy and waterlogged. Sure it's tender, but it's also mushy.

 

[squeezy]

Unfortunately it is not just water ... it is a salt based preservative mixed with the water, not only to increase weight but to give the meat a longer shelf life before reducing price for quick sale.
That mentality has increased dramatically here in Canada too!