BajaNomad - gotta love that fresh meat in San Ignacio

gotta love that fresh meat in San Ignacio

shari - 11-16-2007 at 02:34 PM

I always stop in at the San Ignacio Pemex to fuel up, pee in a nice bathroom and do all my shopping at the great store there..it's one of the best in these parts and has nearly everything at the cheapest prices anywhere, including fresh veggies, fruit, rancho cheese and very fresh meat...I mean still moving fresh...last week a guy was hanging a cow right in the middle of the store and the meat was still moving!!!! I bought some ribs he sawed up for me...my question is...does meat have to mellow for a few days, it weemed real tough when we ate it...it just looked so lovely and fresh. I sure love how picturesque baja is...always something interesting to photograph.

meat.jpg - 48kB

Mango - 11-16-2007 at 02:43 PM

If the cow is stressed or traumatized just before our during when it is killed it can affect the tenderness of the meat greatly.

Mi novia knows someone who's husband works for SuCarne just outside Mexicali and they told her they will give the cattle a sedative just before slaughter to ensure more tender meat.

Natalie Ann - 11-16-2007 at 03:04 PM

shari - Generally meat becomes more flavorful when aged, but I do not believe it becomes more tender during that time. I'm an Illinois girl and was raised with the understanding that tenderness in beef comes from diet and general care while living, and the least amount of stress at time of slaughter (as Mango sez).

And Mango... I also had a friend worked at a cattle slaughterhouse. He became a vegetarian. :yes:

Nena

msteve1014 - 11-16-2007 at 03:08 PM

it used to be common practice to let beef "hang" for up to a week or more before cutting and freezing. it is still common with wild game, but the big cutting houses move them in and out as fast as they can now

bajajudy - 11-16-2007 at 03:14 PM

If it was local meat, it was probably a cow that had wandered the range scrounging for food.
If it was Sonora, it should have been tender.
I remember years ago(about 20 to be exact, sorta)we used to buy steaks, cook them on the grill, chew them and spit them out. The flavor was wonderful but they were tough as shoe leather.

Al G - 11-16-2007 at 04:05 PM

For a few years I raised my own beef...a real pain in the arse. My beef eating day are over except in very good restaurants, but if you want the most tender of beef they must be fed alfalfa and similar high protein like clover. That is not the only thing...just the most important. If you get to that point then aging is also important. I like 21 days, but strong flavor. I don't know if stress is real important...I assume it is, but my butcher dealt with that as he did most all butchering in the Clements and Lockeford area ranches east of Lodi CA.

BajaWarrior - 11-16-2007 at 04:29 PM

Did you boil them first Shari?

Beef ribs are tough. I always boil mine on slow heat until the red is gone, then lather them up with some BBQ sauce, and grill em'.

Tender as ever. MMMMMmmmmMMMMM Good!

vandenberg - 11-16-2007 at 04:31 PM

Range cattle is almost always tough. That's the reason for feedlots. After coming of the range, the animals are fed grains and the like for 4 to 6 weeks I believe, to increase their weight and meat tenderness. Even grade A beef is treated that way. Choice is the next cut followed by prime. Prime beef is hard to find anymore, unless you go to a specialty butchershop. Most of it goes to expensive restaurants. And ,from the horses mouth, when a Supermarket advertises that they carry choice beef, that means that they may have one or two carcasses that are choice ,while the rest is Grade A.

Had a buddy who ran an Albertson's butchershop.

castaway$ - 11-16-2007 at 04:36 PM

I raise my own beef and basically what everyone is saying is correct,
stess during the kill causes an adrenaline rush and contracts the muscle tissue----result, tough meat.
Diet is key also, look for marbeling of fat in the meat, a good, quality steak will be well marbeled, if you don't have the marbeling it's probably best for burger or taco meat.

toneart - 11-16-2007 at 04:38 PM

Don't forget the motto of the Road Kill Restaurant:
"Our meat is so fresh it still has that surprised look on it's face."

Paulina - 11-16-2007 at 05:08 PM

I was invited to a bbq at a rancho south of Bahia once. The ribs were so tough you could barely pull the meat off the bone, what little meat there was. The best part of the dinner was the company and using the spike off of a mesquite tree for a toothpick.

P<*)))><

DENNIS - 11-16-2007 at 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by toneart
Don't forget the motto of the Road Kill Restaurant:
"Our meat is so fresh it still has that surprised look on it's face."

Heard a rendition of that when I lived in Wyoming. "You could still see the reflection of the headlights in its eyes."

Minnow - 11-16-2007 at 06:01 PM

I have a whole series of pictures from a Sonora bbq. From the time the cow was pulled out of the field by a cowboy on a horse, to the 22 to the center of the skull, to the skinning, and finally onto the grill that consisted of a six foot pile of mesquite that was made to coals. Then a grate on a stand was put on top. You then just walked up an picked out the piece you wanted and threw it on the grill.

All in my honor I might add.

If it wasn't such a pain to resize pictures here I would post them.

Al G - 11-16-2007 at 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by castaway$
I raise my own beef and basically what everyone is saying is correct,
stess during the kill causes an adrenaline rush and contracts the muscle tissue----result, tough meat.
Diet is key also, look for marbeling of fat in the meat, a good, quality steak will be well marbeled, if you don't have the marbeling it's probably best for burger or taco meat.

Custom beef like I raised had little marbling...this is for a wild range fed steer only...feed lots claim it is to tenderize, but it is to sale fat at the price of beef...steers from well managed range needs no more marble then custom. Custom is still better...because of high protein, but good range fed is way better then feed lot fat.

bajalera - 11-16-2007 at 11:54 PM

I enjoyed some fresh beef at San Ignacio in 1964--a cattle truck had gone off Jaraguay Grade--so all the ranches along the road had strips of meat hung up to dry on wire fences and ocotillos and wherever, and my husband bought some.

There were kitchen facilities at Leree's Inn, but when I went to cut up the meat, it had [gasp!] signs of life. Cute little maggots were squirming around on it. The three grad students in our little expedition were sure to take a dim view of a maggotty meal, and my kids--then 5, 7, and 9 wouldn't be too crazy about that either. But this was the first fresh meat I'd seen in more than a month.

So I picked the jumpy little things out, put them in a paper bag and later squished them. And when none of them floated up in the stew, was glad I'd got them all. Mesa's store, always well equiped to serve travelers, had potatoes and carrots and onions, and the stew was quite delicious.

And besides that, it pleased me to feed the students something I knew would make them barf. (As most Nomads know, dispositions can get cranky on long camping trips when you're stuck with people you don't like.)

Paulina - 11-16-2007 at 11:59 PM

lera,
Great story. Natural meat tenderizers...hmmm. Did the students ever find out?

P<*)))><

fishbuck - 11-17-2007 at 12:35 AM

I always heard that the stressed animals will taste bitter from the adrenilin. If they are tensed up when slaughtered that can't last long. Aging it a little could help plus bacteria will start to break down the meat.
The idea of not stressing the animal is from hunting. Best to drop a deer with a kill shot than wound it and let it run around in a panic until it bleeds to death. That's not going to taste good.
I think that is why most beef in baja is carne asada. It's cut up in small enough pieces to swallow after a few chews. Most of those scrawny looking cattle I see running around out in the desert look pretty chewy.

shari - 11-17-2007 at 09:00 AM

muchas gracias for all your answers...very interesting...didn't have any marbling but was such a lovely color...it was OK in the stew.

Bob H - 11-17-2007 at 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaWarrior
Did you boil them first Shari?

Beef ribs are tough. I always boil mine on slow heat until the red is gone, then lather them up with some BBQ sauce, and grill em'.

Tender as ever. MMMMMmmmmMMMMM Good!

I boil mine in a coca-cola/water mix - then put'm on the grill. Wonderful tenderness!
Bob h

bajalera - 11-17-2007 at 01:49 PM

No, Paulina, and neither did my husband. Confessed to the kids after they got old enough not to take it personally.

Diver - 11-17-2007 at 01:57 PM

Mmm good !!!

maggots-on-raw-red-meat.jpg - 29kB

Freddie the Freeloader

Skipjack Joe - 11-17-2007 at 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajajudy
I remember years ago(about 20 to be exact, sorta)we used to buy steaks, cook them on the grill, chew them and spit them out. The flavor was wonderful but they were tough as shoe leather.

I remember this character doing the same thing. He would carefully prepare a meal of shoe leather. We used to enjoy that show so much.

freedie_the_freeloader.jpg - 20kB

vandenberg - 11-17-2007 at 04:40 PM

Joe,
You're showing your age. Skelton was one of my all time favorites. Saw him in his 80th year birthday show in Ascuagas in Sparks. Even at that age he was hillarious.
Other great ones attached. :biggrin:

[Edited on 11-17-2007 by vandenberg]

Laurel&Hardy3224.gif - 34kB

Iflyfish - 11-17-2007 at 04:46 PM

Diver,

Looks like they missed the Tequilla and hit the Tenderloin!

Bob H, I am going to try the Coca Cola/Water boil, sounds great. Saw a teacher one time scare the bejesus out of her students by having them put a tooth in a glass of coke and watch it disintegrate!

Iflyfish

Barry A. - 11-17-2007 at 04:49 PM

Ifly------

-----as a holder of "Coke" stock, I resent that myth being perpepuated-----------teeth disintegrating, indeed?????

Skipjack Joe - 11-17-2007 at 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vandenberg
Joe,
You're showing your age.

What's wrong with my age .... except the obvious.

[Edited on 11-18-2007 by Skipjack Joe]

bald.jpg - 23kB

Natalie Ann - 11-17-2007 at 06:19 PM

Listen Diver.... Lera's story left little to the imagination, and I've gotta tell you I didn't need the visual to go with it. :no:

Tonight is my night to cook, and you've done my dinner guests no favors. That nice roast on the menu was just changed to dry cheerios with raisins and nuts. Not gonna be considering meat for some good time after seein' that picture.

Nena

TMW - 11-18-2007 at 09:49 AM

Those critters have served a useful purpose. They have been used to eat away the dead tissue from a cancer patient.

bajalera - 11-18-2007 at 12:13 PM

Diver, I gotta add my complaint to Natalie Ann's. That living-color photo made ME want to barf. Time had sorta dimmed the realities I guess.

toneart - 11-18-2007 at 12:17 PM

It is all good protein. :light:

Diver - 11-18-2007 at 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajalera
Diver, I gotta add my complaint to Natalie Ann's. That living-color photo made ME want to barf. Time had sorta dimmed the realities I guess.

HEY, it was your story !! :lol:

Did you see the photo of the man that ignored a sore on his head for too long......?
Now THAT photo was gross !!!! :barf:

Natalie Ann - 11-18-2007 at 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by toneart
It is all good protein. :light:

Well Art, you gotta be real easy to cook for. :lol:

Nena

Diver - 11-18-2007 at 12:51 PM

Like Lera would say "What he doesn't know, probably won't kill him" :lol:

vandenberg - 11-18-2007 at 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Diver
Like Lera would say "What he doesn't know, probably won't kill him" :lol:

At least you threw in the probable.

I remember my grandpa, putting some meat in an old snuffbox, setting it out in the yard overnight, and going fishing next day with a little box full of his homemade "live" bait. :biggrin:

toneart - 11-18-2007 at 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Natalie Ann

Quote:

Originally posted by toneart
It is all good protein. :light:

Well Art, you gotta be real easy to cook for. :lol:

Nena

Nena,
Better not line up with the willing. The line is long.

Diver's photo is what I call slow/fast food; it crawls in and rushes out.

Paulina - 11-18-2007 at 07:52 PM

Lera,

Please check your u2u.

Thank you,
P.<*)))><

Bruce R Leech - 11-18-2007 at 08:52 PM

it was road Kill :lol:

docsmom - 11-18-2007 at 08:58 PM

Yuck.