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> but I think too often give a universal mushiness to many cuts Lots of people like that, especially with sub-par cuts (blade roast anyone?).
by Mikeb85 5y ago
> but I think too often give a universal mushiness to many cuts
Lots of people like that, especially with sub-par cuts (blade roast anyone?).
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoI sometimes wonder how many cooking techniques exist specifically to "upgrade" lower quality ingredients. Slow cooking, spices ... it's likely not a huge list, but I suspect it forms a notable part of the world's cooking cultures.
- Mikeb85 5y agoAbsolutely. I grew up spending lots of time on a farm, I've lived in a 3rd world country, plus have cooked for a living. The fact is, the majority of an animal is shitty cuts of meat. Even something like short rib is 'premium' compared to much of the carcass. So slow-cooking is great to turn a blade or round roast into something that doesn't suck. And definitely, a huge part of every food culture is cooking these subpar cuts.
- bserge 5y agoI'm just here trying to understand what a "shitty cut" even means. For me, it's all meat. Some tastes better than other. But the baseline is "good". The old animal meat (from milk cows and goats, and egg hens) that I ate as a kid would probably horrify someone like you lol
- graycat 5y ago> old animal meat? In one of his books, Escoffier explained that in making beef stock get better flavor starting with the meat of old animals. Soooo, I considered that, and in NY thought of retired dairy cows so called around. I got to a packing house in PA where I got an explanation "think fast food". So, maybe McDonald's, Burger King, etc. are serving the beef the Escoffier liked for making beef stock!
- PeterWhittaker 5y agoWell, think of it this way: all cuts of meat have varying degrees of meat, fat, and gristle. The meat, properly cooked, adds texture and some flavour; the fat carries immense flavour but can overwhelm with grease; the gristle is mostly crap: no flavour, gets in your teeth, chewy, unpleasant, best discarded or ground into sausage. Broadly speaking. Some meat is so lean (bison, e.g.) that is must be cooked rare lest it become as dusty as the rest of Utah (the best bison I ever had was this fantastic place in southern Utah, hence the reference) and some meat is so fatty or gristly it must be slow cooked or braised or otherwise managed. And consider that how tough is a cut depends on its use: various fowl favour standing on one leg so the other is ceteris paribus more tender; cf also the reference above to the front legs of red deer. So “shitty meat” basically says “this animal did not lay about on fluffy cushions but scrambled for a living, except for this little bit here”. Some people rave over tenderloin aka filet mignon. I love it, if properly larded and cooked. Otherwise, I much prefer rib eye: juicier, more flavourful, even if a little gristlier. When I’m hungry, I don’t much care. When I have time and/or spare cash, a good starting piece well prepared is a joy.
- EdwardDiego 5y agoIndeed - I hunt red deer, and the most useful meat is the back legs and back straps (muscles running along the spine) - the front legs and neck etc. are typically only used for mincing. Even then the cuts in the back legs vary in usefulness. And venison is notoriously lean, hence a lot of methods of cooking it involve larding to prevent it ending up a dry lump of chewiness.
- emmelaich 5y agoSlow cooked 'shitty' meat like chuck is tastier than the best cuts. Or so I've found. But you do have to cook it for a long time - or pressure cook.
- have_faith 5y ago> it's likely not a huge list It's definitely a large list! every culture imaginable has a whole range of dishes specifically for elevating "basic" and "cheap" cuts of meat.
- mmcdermott 5y agoIt isn't limited to meat, either. Work has to go into making rhubarb something vaguely edible. Artichokes aren't all that appealing prior to good preparation. Calories used to be a lot more scarce than they are now.
- nemetroid 5y agoRhubarb is delicious raw.
- phonypc 5y agoI'm curious what you're thinking of regarding rhubarb. As another reply pointed out, it's fine raw. Otherwise it's usually just cooked gently with some sugar.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago"good preparation" for artichokes in my life has always just meant "a good and thorough steaming". Nothing more. Helps to eat with a good garlic mayonnaise, but not critical.
- TimedToasts 5y agoI will not stand for this rhubarb heresy!
- gambiting 5y ago>Work has to go into making rhubarb something vaguely edible. Eh? You cut it into pieces, throw on some really basic sponge cake, bake for 30 minutes = delicious rhubarb cake. Or put it in a pan with some water and like a glass of sugar, boil for 10 minutes = rhubarb compote. Am I missing something?
- 5y ago
- boringg 5y agoI mean thats the majority of smoking meats (and providing longevity).
- d4mi3n 5y agoWhat you describe is the primary motivation to the genesis of French cuisine: how do we take this crappy cut of meat or unpalatable vegetable we can get on the cheap and make it edible?
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoI suspect a lot of Indian cuisine also. No point debating which of the two has the best outcomes, is there? :)
- d4mi3n 5y agoAgreed, I enjoy the results regardless of the origin!
- wsc981 5y agoI live in Thailand now, but lived most of my life in The Netherlands. I live on the Thai countryside. Most of the pork and beef/buffalo meat my girlfriend buys in the village market, I don’t really enjoy. It’s often “chewy”. Apparently Thai people do like these kinds of meat, but I think The Netherlands would export most of this meat the 2nd or 3rd world countries. Those “chewy” kinds of meat would be ok when slow cooked I’d wager, perhaps in a Hungarian goulash [0]. I suspect the local pig farmers send the best cuts of meat to the big city, to sell for higher prices. At least the chicken meat is good. —- [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulash https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulash
- dylan604 5y agoThat's exactly where brisket comes from*. It was not considered a good cut of meat, so it was provided to the ranch hands. They figured it out. *at least to the bbq legends/mythos of bbq in texas
- NortySpock 5y agoKansas City also considers brisket a local specialty. (KC used to be a major stockyard and slaughterhouse as it sits both on the Missouri river and on a rail line.)
- dylan604 5y agoI'll take a Texas tall tale against your KC doused in sauce version any day of the week, and twice on sunday. ;-)
- bostik 5y agoMy favourite is ox tail. Takes hours to cook through, but once you can grab a piece with tongs and get all the meat fall off with a slight shake, gives an absolutely gorgeous flavour to a slow simmer meat dish. Bonus: you can drain the liquid and put in in the freezer. Keeps good for a week or so. Wonderful gelatine and works with almost anything else as a base.
- helloworld11 5y agoIt lasts only a week even after being frozen? Seems odd.
- bostik 5y agoWhoops, not freezer. Fridge. Thanks for spotting it.
- phonypc 5y agoI don't think "sub-par cuts" makes sense as a category. Different cuts are just suited to different kinds of cooking. Calling a blade roast sub-par because it doesn't make good steaks makes about as much sense as calling tenderloin sub-par because it doesn't make a good braise.
- Mikeb85 5y agoBlade isn't the best braising cut either. For braises short rib, chuck, oxtail, etc... are better. That's why I called it sub-par.
- yissp 5y agoI think it's just that the cuts suited to slow-cooking techniques tend to also be the cheaper cuts. Maybe that's because they are generally from larger muscles and therefore in comparatively greater supply.
- ofrzeta 5y agoIt makes a bit of sense because a tenderloin is much less meat than say a brisket. It's also much more tender when cooked a short time. So traditionally it's meat for a more affluent audience while a brisket is sold to the poor. Or so the story goes.