What IS "pink slime"? well it isn't pretty pink that's for sure ... here is the Wikipedia Definition ....
Pink slime is a colloquial term[2] for ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings or similar products, which are considered "unfit for human consumption" until ammonia has been added.[3] The product is sold by a number of beef processing companies, including Cargill Meat Solutions and Beef Products, Inc.[4] The lean beef sold by BPI has become known for increasing the pH of the beef trimmings by adding ammonium hydroxide to remove pathogens such as E. coli andSalmonella, while the Cargill product uses antimicrobial treatments that lower the pH.[4] This beef product is USDA-approved and is a component (typically less than 25 percent) of a majority of ground beef in the United States.[1]Emphasis added ....
Ostensibly it is added so they can include inferior bits of meat unfit for human consumption and make the product safe for human consumption ... I guess ...
Ever since I read that I simply can't buy store bought ground beef anymore and I shudder every time I see someone else buy it ... which is sort of odd because when served ground beef in a restaurant or in someone else home where I don't know the source of the meat I have absolutely no qualms at all ... I guess ignorance is bliss after all.
The caveat here is that not all grocery store ground beef is bad ... some of it is REALLY good in fact .. just not the heavily processed stuff made my mega large corporations and sold in bulk ... for really cheap.
Ground beef is generally made from the beef trimmings ... the stuff that's left over after the butcher gets done making up all the steaks and roasts. That doesn't mean it's inferior meat however. It COULD be filet mignon! It could be sirloin! It probably does include some of their trimmings at least. If such things as pink slime bother you I'd probably recommend getting your ground beef from a real butcher ... they grind their own from scratch ... as do some grocery stores but I confess I'd never buy ground beef in a big plastic tube ... no matter HOW cheap. Know your source.
These days I take it a step further ... I always do ... and grind my own. It's easy, fast, it can be just as cheap as store bought ground beef and I control the quality. When ever I go to the store I always check out the beef section for sales. These days I only buy antibiotic hormone free meats and I like to try and buy local as well but I am also an opportunist ... if it's a good sale I'll compromise. Generally though I go to a store a little ways out of town where I know they only sell local meats from small local farm producers proudly displaying their local farm's sticker on the label ... the pork farmer I buy my meat from likes to claim his pigs really have only ONE bad day in their life ... they are pasture raised and humanely treated. You can tell ... I have never had such mouth watering tender pork in my life. The first time I had locally raised pork it was like I had never actually HAD pork before there is simply no comparison to the hard leathery stuff I used to eat that they CALLED pork. I am considering paying their farm a visit ... apparently you can buy direct from them. Could be interesting. Anyway I digress again ...
To grind my own I usually buy a blade or chuck roast maybe even a cross rib roast. If the price is right and I only want enough beef for a couple hamburgers I'll even by a couple small blade steaks on sale instead of the roast ... whatever, as long as it's cheap. Blade/chuck is particularly nice because it has a nice meat/fat ratio but if I want a more lean grind I'll just throw in equal amounts of blade and sirloin. Once I even splurged for a special occasion and bought a couple (day old) rib eye steaks on sale and ground them up for burgers ... sublime :) When I'm feeling ambitious I buy in bulk and grind up several roasts ... portion the grind into ziplocs and freeze for later ... BUT, to make the most divine hamburgers, I usually make sure I use FRESH ground beef (after freezing/thawing, ground meat no longer holds together as well in burger form but freshly ground meat doesn't seem to have that problem, even if the roast used for the grind, had been previously frozen. There is probably some scientific reason for that but I didn't research it, just going on personal experience)
I cut my meat into 1" cubes and just throw them in my kitchen aid mixer's grinder attachment. It adds about 5 minutes to my cook prep time which really isn't much but it is a little bit of extra effort ... luckily I don't mind and I have the time to invest ... not everyone is that lucky ... that's what butchers are for ;)
All my life I have had trouble making good home made hamburgers ... the flavour was always off ... the burgers were always crumbly and would often disintegrate on the grill no matter HOW careful I was or how much binder I used ... not anymore ... these day I weigh out 600-700 g of fresh ground beef into a large bowl add 1/2 tsp salt/onion powder/garlic powder/pepper and mix ... no bread crumbs and no egg to bind it ... nothing beyond a few bare minimum spices ... you could go with ONLY 1/2 tsp salt if you like and it's still divine (Thanks Alton) If you want to fancy up your burgers ... do it with the toppings ;)
I then portion out 150-175g meat per burger and form into patties .... that's it. The best hamburgers I have ever made and will ever make again and everyone agrees :)
Any remaining grind gets put in the freezer for spaghetti or meatloaf or meatballs etc. Clean up is a snap in the dishwasher but I do take a little extra time to clean the actual inside of the grinder with a bottle brush just to make sure because of all it's odd angles.
Not everyone has the time or inclination to grind their own meat but if you do the results are definitely worth it ... and no "pink slime" .... guaranteed ... sorry about that ... hope I didn't put anyone off ... keep in mind they did say that 75% of the meat out there is slime free but it's hard to tell what is what when at the store ...
Cheers!
NB: 100g of my 50/50 mix of chuck/sirloin has about 165 calories so a 150g burger tops out at about 250 calories per patty with roughly 11 g total fat and 4 g of saturated fat ... for those who are counting ... If you go for the bigger burger 175g is about 290 calories with 13 g total fat and 5 g saturated fat. Bun and toppings are extra. Full details for a 50/50 mix of ground beef using chuck and sirloin can be found here
No comments:
Post a Comment