Author Topic: Hello from Berkeley, California  (Read 6357 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline naomi

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Hello from Berkeley, California
« on: November 24, 2014, 04:40:56 am »
Hello everyone.

I'm 19 years old and I live in Berkeley, Ca (near SF). I first accidentally stumbled upon rawpaleodiet.com and read Lex Rooker's testimony and instantly became interested. I've been lurking for a while here and finally decided to make an account.

I've been trying to eat raw beef (there is a great local butcher shop nearby) but I still haven't found the perfect cut and preparation style for it. I eat a lot of sashimi and am comfortable with it since I grew up often eating it.

Hopefully, I can slowly transition my diet and eat more and more raw meat.

Offline Iguana

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,049
  • Gender: Male
  • Eating tuna fish
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2014, 05:40:08 am »
Welcome ! Don't hesitate to contribute and/or ask anything !
Cause and effect are distant in time and space in complex systems, while at the same time there’s a tendency to look for causes near the events sought to be explained. Time delays in feedback in systems result in the condition where the long-run response of a system to an action is often different from its short-run response. — Ronald J. Ziegler

Offline eveheart

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,315
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2014, 08:50:16 am »
Hi from San Jose, neighbor!

I buy grassfed beef at smaller supermarkets with good butcher departments. I prefer beef that has been raised by the Humboldt Grassfed Beef cooperative over all others that I have tried. I buy the cheapest cuts, such as rump or round roasts for about $8/pound and marrow bones for $3/pound. I ask for all cuts untrimmed, and I hang the meat in a cold refrigerator, never covered or frozen.

I buy whole lamb from Nature's Bounty in Vacaville and store it hanging, too. It comes out to about $7 or $8/pound.

I am not opposed to buying meat at Whole Foods when the price is right, but I don't think it's as good.

I don't "do" anything to the meat - no recipes or seasoning. Once your taste buds get the idea, food tastes delicious plain.
"I intend to live forever; so far, so good." -Steven Wright, comedian

Offline naomi

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2014, 01:26:22 pm »
Thanks for the warm welcome :)

So it doesn't matter that it's a nice cut (like ribeye or filet) and they will taste decent with an acquired palate? So is it ever worth it to get something nice like a marbled tenderloin filet or is it just  a waste of money?

Also, I have always been taught that leaving uncovered food in the fridge is bad for it (and hence we have vacuum bags to preserve the food). How many days can the meat last like this and still be good to eat?

Thanks for the info. :)

Offline van

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 1,769
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2014, 02:01:08 pm »
tenderloin is rarely marbleized when grass fed, and extremely high priced, and to many actually pale in taste compared to other cuts.  But don't be afraid to experiment.   I like new york, rib eyes, and often top sirloin at about half the cost has a great flavor,,, which is what I mainly buy in 4-5 lb. roasts. 
   Regarding covering your meat,,  the ideal way to preserve in the fridge (assuming you don't live with parents or room mates who might be 'offended' is to hang it in your fridge.  It can last over a month that way, and also you don't risk anaerobic bacteria growth.   I recently hooked up a computer fan in my fridge to keep the air circulating around the hanging pieces.  Works wonderfully.       You might want to clean your fridge, once you no longer put cans and bottles from the grocery store in there.  They have been handled, have collected dust and dirt that I don't want contaminating my meat and veggies.   But then maybe I'm a little anal about that sort of thing.    But definitely get rid of the vacuum plastic.  Another way is to use something like the inside of a lettuce spinner,, being a highly perforated container.  Hang the meat over the sides of it.  A colander works well too.  The point being is to maximize the amount of air being able to flow to as much as the meat as possible ( hence the hanging method, it's what butchers have been doing for centuries).   

Offline eveheart

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,315
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2014, 02:10:31 pm »
Grassfed beef isn't marbled. There is fat in various places throughout the animal, but fat should not be in the muscle of these animals unless the animal was fattened with grains like corn. The cow's stomachs are not designed for digesting corn, and fat in the muscles is just one sign that they have not been fed a species-appropriate diet. A steak like the tenderloin (psoas muscle) is worth the money only if you need a meat that will stay tender during hot cooking. So, I think it is a waste of money to buy expensive cuts and eat them raw. YMMV

One thing I notice is what areas of an animal are sinewy, because those can be strange to chew. Not bad, just strange if you are used to fall-apart meat. I used butcher charts that show the various anatomy, prime cuts, and retail cuts of beef and lamb. Then I considered whether I liked each part... or not. For example, I don't like sinewy raw lamb shanks, but they are great cooked, so I give my daughter the lamb shanks from each lamb I buy.

Cooked meat dries and toughens as a result of cooking, so if a person plans to cook meat, they would probably minimize the overall toughness of the cut if the cut starts out with fat marbles through it. Before mankind decided to grain-feed cattle, cooks used to insert lardoons (fatty strips, such as bacon) into a meat before roasting so that the fat would help the roast end up a little more succulent.

Meat processors do keep the carcasses hanging in refrigerators for anywhere from days to weeks before you ever see the meat for sale. It's called dry aging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef#Aging_and_tenderization. If meat is kept wrapped in the refrigerator without air circulation, the meat can get slimy and rank. Properly aired meat stays nice, even as it dries slightly like an unsalted cold cut.
"I intend to live forever; so far, so good." -Steven Wright, comedian

Offline naomi

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2014, 03:01:52 pm »
Wow, thank you both of you for the great information! I've been searching around the forums and haven't have had much luck learning about what you two just taught me :). It's great to be able to directly ask questions!

I didn't realize that grass fed beef is less marbled. Thats interesting to finally understand why marbled steak is so sought after in cooked steak. So does this mean that highly marbled beef like usda prime and wagyu beef is often fed grain diets?

Would it be a good idea to buy a large 4-5 lb. roast to leave in the fridge to dry age (only a few days for the purposes of storage) and then take a steak slice every time I want to eat from it?

I read/learned more about dry aging beef and found out that the meat exposed to the air turns dark and needs to be trimmed. What do I do with these parts and what do I do with the fat cap? How should I cut/eat from a large roast of beef that was sitting in the fridge for a few days?

Are there cuts of steak that are less sinewy? The first time I bought sirloin steak, it was hard to chew (I also didn't know at the time how to properly cut it). For trying out lamb, what is a good cut for a beginner like me to get?

Again, thank you both for taking the time to answer my questions and help me out. I really appreciate it!

Offline eveheart

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,315
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2014, 11:00:41 pm »
Would it be a good idea to buy a large 4-5 lb. roast to leave in the fridge to dry age (only a few days for the purposes of storage) and then take a steak slice every time I want to eat from it?

Some suggestions: rump roast, London broil, or round roast. I can get these for under $10/pound, as a guideline. Try a smaller roast (1.5 - 2 pounds) from that region (rear part) of the beef. There, you will find large-ish expanses of lean meat, the best for chewing without running into sinew. Don't worry about aging your meat so much as finding out if you like a cut in terms of chew-ability. Remember, the mechanics of taste and chewing are very good because they signal the digestive tract to start digesting what's coming along.

If you decide to age some beef, you can do it on a plate, just turn the meat over so that it doesn't slime up. You can learn more about hanging and aging meat on this forum if you search hanging. I learned about it mostly from van, iguana, and sabertooth. I eat the dry outer part of the meat and every bit of fat.

I usually age a ~5 pound whole eye of round, untrimmed, from a stainless steel S-hook on the bottom of my fridge, probably not a tactic you can do if you share a fridge with your family.

The better-prices on pastured lamb will be in the cheaper shoulder chops. I get a whole lamb, and I gnaw most of it off the bones - I know, quite cavewoman-ish.

It's also good to eat marrow out of the long bones, such as femur (thigh) and humerus (arm).

"I intend to live forever; so far, so good." -Steven Wright, comedian

Offline eveheart

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,315
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
Re: Hello from Berkeley, California
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2014, 11:04:14 pm »
"I intend to live forever; so far, so good." -Steven Wright, comedian

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk