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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
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Mood: Sling time!
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never pierce steak - it will take all the juiciness out of it when you grill.
all you need is fruit acids.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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Best beef in the world..does not exist. It all spends way too much time in your colon. Eat asparagus.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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Cook tough beef in a crock pot.........slooooowly for a long time. I've seen road-kill turned edible in one of those things.
I used to hang out in Loreto in the 60s when there was a meat market across the street from the Plaza. When the butcher got word that a cow had been
hit on the road, he'd close up shop and go get that unfortunate critter.
Crock Pots were new on the market then and my neighbor had one. That's when I learned of the magic they can perform.
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oldlady
Banned
Posts: 1714
Registered: 10-31-2005
Location: BCS
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You can try dry aging at home. Little bit of effort, but Nomads,( who can't afford asparagus) are often up to the challenge. Here's a link:
http://www.askthemeatman.com/is_it_possible_to_dry_age_beef_...
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
Cook tough beef in a crock pot.........slooooowly for a long time. I've seen road-kill turned edible in one of those things.
I used to hang out in Loreto in the 60s when there was a meat market across the street from the Plaza. When the butcher got word that a cow had been
hit on the road, he'd close up shop and go get that unfortunate critter.
Crock Pots were new on the market then and my neighbor had one. That's when I learned of the magic they can perform. |
Dennis, Dennis....you need to spend more time on farms and ranches in the Mid-West. Crockpots were part of every farm & ranch kitchen since
forever...the only new idea was putting an electric cord onto them. My grandmother made the best slow-cooked dishes in this world. 
Also put up beef in jars...mmmmm...so tender.
I recall..and saw..all the jokes about road-kills back in the day. And a lot were NOT jokes...We called them Michelin tacos.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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oldlady
Banned
Posts: 1714
Registered: 10-31-2005
Location: BCS
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Indeed! Pot-au-Feu! Even a steak lover like me acknowledges it Rivals steak for flavor.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by oldlady
Indeed! Pot-au-Feu! Even a steak lover like me acknowledges it Rivals steak for flavor. |
Yep....you do remember. Rival was the crockpot brand name.
Here's a mess of Pot-au-Feu to warm you on a rainy day.
http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/0...
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Pompano
Dennis, Dennis....you need to spend more time on farms and ranches in the Mid-West. Crockpots were part of every farm & ranch kitchen since
forever |
Oh, well...wadooIknow. I was raised at the beach in California. Everything was electric or we didn't know about it.
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oldlady
Banned
Posts: 1714
Registered: 10-31-2005
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I've noticed of late that the inventory of crock pots in the Segundas has increased and most of them look like they have never been used. My widower
neighbor picked one up and is slow cooking everything imaginable. Loves the darn thing.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by oldlady
I've noticed of late that the inventory of crock pots in the Segundas has increased and most of them look like they have never been used. My widower
neighbor picked one up and is slow cooking everything imaginable. Loves the darn thing. |
That's good to know. I'll start hitting the Segundas.
Every household should have a pile of Crockpots. When the freezer burns up, you can put all that thawed meat in your Crockpots and it will last for
at least a week before it's vaporized. By then the new appliance should be in place and you can take everything out of the Pots and freeze it.
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mcfez
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8678
Registered: 12-2-2009
Location: aka BN yankeeirishman
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
| Quote: | Originally posted by oldlady
I've noticed of late that the inventory of crock pots in the Segundas has increased and most of them look like they have never been used. My widower
neighbor picked one up and is slow cooking everything imaginable. Loves the darn thing. |
That's good to know. I'll start hitting the Segundas.
Every household should have a pile of Crockpots. When the freezer burns up, you can put all that thawed meat in your Crockpots and it will last for
at least a week before it's vaporized. By then the new appliance should be in place and you can take everything out of the Pots and freeze it.
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Dennis.....you should had been on stage as a stand up comic. 
Old people are like the old cars, made of some tough stuff. May show a little rust, but good as gold on the inside.
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Marc
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2802
Registered: 5-15-2010
Location: San Francisco & Palm Springs
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Possibly the best steak I ever had was at the Sonora Steak House in Hermosillo. They wheel out a huge chunk and cut it as thick as you want. Very
generous with the tequila also.
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Marc
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2802
Registered: 5-15-2010
Location: San Francisco & Palm Springs
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Don Jorge
I’ve often wondered why Sonoran beef no longer is synonymous with tender, grain fattened animals yielding quality primal cuts. Of course, the answer
is simple enough. Grain fed cattle is fed grain and lots of it.
Pre NAFTA corn was subsidized very, very heavily in Mexico and heavily in America. Today corn is no longer subsidized in Mexico but is still subsided
in America. Subsidies combined with commodity price infaltion due to currency hedging, growing worldwide demand and production variability make corn
very expensive in Mexico. Thus feedlots are very, very expensive to operate in Mexico.
Consumption habits are changing in Mexico and USA exported box beef when allowed to cross the border south bound drives the price of hung beef in
Mexico lower and lower. To cut cattle production costs in Mexico most beef animals are not finished properly.
I’m a fan of any beef that has been finished on the long gain. Animals which have been gaining steadily for several months, be it on grain or
preferably sweet grass, yield tender meat.
Dry aging firther tenderizes the meat. Dry aging is usually done immediately after the carcass is hung and allows naturally occurring carcass enzymes
to act as tenderizers. This dry ageing is done at controlled temperature and humidity. Two weeks is about the time it takes. It can also be done at
home on cuts under refrigeration if you are careful. It works.
Sonoran beef was the best beef I ever tasted back then, but then was 20 years ago. IMO Sonoran beef is just another dear memory of old Mexico.
Oh yeah, back to the question. Use papaya to tenderize meats, but try to use green, unripe papays if you can. Papayas contain the enzyme papain
which is a digestive enzyme and is more abundant in green, unripe fruits. This papain is the tederizer. Now I'm hungry. |
My Grandfather, always dry aged his beef. First in Spain, and then here. I remember my father describing the process, and having to cut/scrape mold
from it.
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
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Hey, Nomads, I got a tip for you meat eaters.
I don't care what quality butchers/stores here or in Baja represent their meat to be (eg, select, choice, prime, or even Sonoran). The way to get
good meat is to squeeze it/depress it with your thumb. If you can press a steak at least 50% of its thickness (more is even better) and to the
extent the meat holds the impression of your thumb (sort of like clay), then that is the degree of its tenderness. This works for rib eye, New York,
chuck, and especially top steak. Also, the meat is usually junk the more 'white' the fat is.
I eat only sonoran rib eye steak purchased from Walmart in La Paz when I am there, every 5 days of my stay. I drop in there every day to buy stuff,
mostly food. Every day I go into Walmart and search for good rib eye. I buy it when I find it passes my thumb test, and freeze it until the fifth
day. I pull it out of the freezer about 5 hours before cooking it. In two hours, after it is thawed, I salt and pepper and garlic it and soy sauce
it and let it set out for the next three hours covered air tight in seran wrap to absorb the seasonings and get to room temperature.
Then I barbecue it over mesquite charcoals. Oh Mama!
By the way, the chicken in Mexico is the absolute best. They are smaller than US chickens, but he meat, especially the white meat, is always very
tender and very, very tasty compared to the stuff in USA, IMO., and the stuff in USA isn't bad. Love the chicken wings, marinate those guys in salt,
pepper, garlic, a little soy sauce, cooking oil, and a little fresh jalapeno and put in a plastic bag air tight and let stand in the refrigerator for
24 hours, lovingly turning it over when ever I think of it. Then, barbecue over mesquite coals. Man, that is good with a very cold Modelo Negro with
a lime. You don't need barbecue sauce, gets in the way of the smokey flavor.
How come some of you use briquettes? The baja is loaded with Mesquite wood, it's everywhere. Or, maybe I am spoiled because I have two giant mesquite
trees in my back yard and two smaller ones in front of the house. But the field next to the house is loaded with them.
[Edited on 2-19-2011 by MitchMan]
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JESSE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3370
Registered: 11-5-2002
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The quality of beef from Sonora ranges from poor to sublime depending on the producer, just like anywhere else in the world. When you go into a
mercado, don't be fooled by the word "Sonora beef", yes it means the beef comes from Sonora, but it doesn't mean its HIGH QUALITY Sonora beef.
Beef quality
First thing you need to inspect, is the marbling. If the beef has plenty of marbling (amounts of intramuscular fat), then chances are the beef will be
tender enough.
The second test is the one you make at your table. Some beef has plenty of marbling yet the quality of the fat (due to poor or low grade feed) is not
very good.
Tenderizing
If you need to use tenderizers for your beef, you probably need a different supplier. There is no way you can succesfully tenderize a piece of beef
without implanting the taste of the tenderizer on the meat, and thus, destroying its natural flavors.
Any tenderizer only works on the surface of a steak (assuming your steak is about 3/4 to 1 inch thick), so it would only work on thin slices of beef
not on thick ones.
A better way
There is one way you can improve both the taste and the tenderness of a steak. Its called Salt curing a steak. Basically you buy at
least two bags of coarse grain sea salt, you place all the contents of one bag in a plate big enough for your steak, and place the steak on top, then
add the second bag of salt and completely cover the steak with the salt (your steak wich should be at least about an inch thick).
Add salt
Cover with salt
Pat dry after an hour or so
Cook
Let the steak sit in the salt for at least 1 hr, no more than 2. Then rinse the steak with cold water, pat dry, add olive oil and grill, preferably
not cooked over medium or medium rare. Almost at the end, ad VERY LITTLE salt, or it will taste salty. And you should have a more juicy and tender
steak that tastes natural.
Why?
Salt initially draws water from the steak. As the water comes in contact with the salt, it disolves, and then its re-absorbed by the steak via
osmosis. Since salt relaxes protein cells, now you have salt INSIDE the steak, not only on the surface for flavor, effectively making your steak more
tender, more juicy, and more flavorful.
Saludos!
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Marc
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2802
Registered: 5-15-2010
Location: San Francisco & Palm Springs
Member Is Offline
Mood: Waiting
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Thanks Jesse!!!
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LaloinBaja
Junior Nomad
Posts: 97
Registered: 10-29-2010
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OK Ya'll...I think I try th Jack on myself and then the papaya recommendations...A little lime or grapefruit seems to help too
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
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Thanks, Jesse, great post.
Where in La Paz can I get such sea salt?
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Cut into small cubes and place in meat grinder.
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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
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Mood: Sling time!
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yeah!! that's how i make
| Quote: | Originally posted by Cypress
Cut into small cubes and place in meat grinder. |
steak tartar, using only prime filet of course. i use a food processor tho not a grinder as i have to add many secret ingredients while the carne is
blending down.
Jesse's method is killer too.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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