Deals.Woot

@lavikinga: Yeah, I knew about this. I'm very careful about what I buy (always have been), and almost never buy beef in any case. I buy parts that I can recognize as parts. Lamb racks and shanks, and shoulder stead; chicken thighs (and whole chickens). I don't ever buy ground meat of any kind that isn't visible, and I don't buy store branded ground meat in opaque packages EVER.

I'm a country girl at heart, and I know too much. I'd go into detail about why I insist on New Zealand lamb, and won't buy American (unless I know the person that raised it, thanks). I almost didn't respond to this, but I have to go off and surrender my $$$ to the IRS tomorrow (I never give up money before the very last second), so I'm extra crabby. Might as well spoil everyone's dinner, right? Oh, too late for dinner, I see. Oh, well, maybe I'll get some folks for breakfast tomorrow morning.

@shrdlu: Okay, that definitely earns a gold star for weird information that turns out to be surprisingly useful. Who knew?

@magic cave: Who knew? Me. I knew. You'd be amazed (and potentially a PETA member) to see some of the things that go on. I won't go into detail; I don't feel like climbing up on a soapbox anyway. I often wonder how many city people would go into full on panic if they actually had a clue as to how most food is made? Not even speaking of just fauna, but flora as well.

Ah, well. Most people hanging out here on the Fresh tab are a bit more aware, or so I like to pretend.

@diehardferret: You've made me so very happy. Nice to know I managed to gross someone out. :-D

Boy, wait till that crazy Viking chick wakes up tomorrow. She'll be flat AMAZED. Maybe.

I saw that on wimp.com too. Doesn't really surprise me, I've heard some places also repackage older meat with a new expiration date to sell it.

Some of the stuff places do... o.O

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. http://www.amazon.com/Ajinomoto-Activa-Transglutaminase-Meat-2-2-Pound/dp/B003EX2ECM Amazon sells just about everything. I'll bet even caskets.

edit: yup. Caskets too.

@editorkid: if you say so. it just seems so very Dr. Frankenstein AND underhanded. I don't ask how hotdogs or sausage is made. I expect them to be cobbled together from all the leftover bits, but when I order a filet mignon, I expect just that. Not a quilted mignon. Let me know what you're serving ahead of time & I might have a go at it. Don't pass off glued meat bits as some other cut. That's just not honest.

As far as those funny shaped chicken nuggets are concerned, I always thought they looked like they were cut from kitchen sponges with added chicken flavoring.

You know, I once saw the tube of "hard boiled egg." When it was sliced, it looked like perfect egg slices. NOW I think I know how it was made :)

@nrwyldheaven: Good points, and I hope that folks would take this to heart.

However...I've said this privately, to others, but want to be very specific on this. While editorkid's butcher may have the time to do this, for the most part, gluing bits and pieces of meat together is labor intensive, and unlikely to occur in items you are purchasing from the grocery store. The number one cost (for those stores that still do any of this on site, and it's MUCH less than you'd think) is labor. There are plenty of packaged somewhere else products in the meat section that are butchered in one place, and cut into various portions in another, then packaged and shipped off to Safeway's/Albertson's/Kroger's/Piggly Wiggly (are those still around?) and so on.

Steakenstein is more likely at your local buffet (and is probably the least of your concerns; I've SEEN those places). I don't eat at those places, so I don't care.

@lavikinga: Fiddle-dee-dee, girl. I answered you elsewhere, and at great length. I get tired of making the multi-comment comments, sometimes.

@shrdlu: I'll check both places often. It's kinda like talking to a person who is slightly deaf, isn't it?

(Danged tiring having to repeat yourself. My M-in-L says' "what?" when I talk to her. FINALLY someone pointed out that she had excellent hearing, but it was her way of controlling a conversation and if I would reply "oh, never mind. It wasn't important," I'd be surprised to find she heard every word she said. They were on the nose with that advice.)

@everyone 18 or older, and @lavikinga: "Has anyone been to a local jr. high or high school and noticed the size of the girls breasts?"

^^^^ DON'T ANSWER THIS! ITS A TRAP!! lol.

re: meat glue - I prefer meat on the bone, and buy what i can see - but for summer barbecues, its so much more convenient to get pre-made patties. Regardless of whether i'm going with costco, bubba burgers, or whatever... I'm fairly certain i've eaten meat glue at some point.

I DO plan on getting a burger press and grinder at some point, since I'm convinced i could make much better large burgers (1/3 and 1/2 pounders) than what i've been buying.

I'm not so alarmed at the meat industry however.. i mean yes its gross, and probably not so good... but accounts for the base of only 3-4 meals per week (thinking the full breakfast/lunch/dinner combo)

I'm personally more concerned (and finding it harder to avoid) with the proliferation of high fructose corn syrup in pretty much anything (packaged) we eat.

@lavikinga: They still are not: http://www.amazon.com/Nearly-Me-ae-Conforming-Lace-Ivory/dp/B000PROIZQ

http://www.dump.com/2011/04/14/meat-glue-secret-video/

@caffeine_dude: Hon, in the South it is still mighty darn hot during football season and the girls wear next to nothing. Nothing jiggles quite as much as a giggling overstacked teenaged girl. It looks like two puppies fighting under a blanket when they walk up and down the stands. Besides, in my area, a $40 bra is out of reach for a lot of folks.

@nrwyldheaven: That's true if bacteria are present or have an opportunity to be present. The odds go up in factory-farmed meats — although they still aren't very high — and they go down in family-farmed meats. Also, there's no mystery where they're using it; it isn't in steaks and such, it's things like mini smoked hams and other convenience products.

Scientific American recently published an article detailing the flaws in our country's food safety philosophy. It's worth reading:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=complex-origins-food-safety-rules

Useful observation from it: “Most food pathogens can be killed at temperatures above 50 degrees C / 120 degrees F , yet food safety rules tend to require temperatures much higher than that.”

But if you don't introduce pathogens into the supply, you don't need to overcook it at all. There's absolutely no need to cook my butcher's ground chuck to anything higher than a delightful, juicy 127°F.

@wickedd365: Make it and post it. I think we'd all be interested in your Frankenfood creation. Go forth with your wicked, wicked ideas!

@editorkid: Thanks for the article, it was an interesting read. And I agree, as a culinary professional, that most of the temperature requirements are somewhat excessive. However, most home cooks buy their meat from the local grocery store who get it for the lowest cost they can. I have also noticed a lot of prepackaged meat finding its way into the local supermarkets, so there is no telling where it came from or what processes it has gone through.

As your article states, cross-contamination is the biggest concern in food safety. As with the peanut butter-salmonella and spinach-e. coli scares, meat produced by large factory farms are more susceptible to cross-contamination. For more on this, I urge you to add the excellent documentary 'Food Inc.' to your Netflix queue.

I, too, enjoy a medium rare burger at home, but I recommend this if, and ONLY IF, you know and trust the source of your meat.

It doesn't surprise me. If you've noticed in the past few years, restaurants have stopped cooking meats Medium Rare or Raw. I wonder if this has something to do with it.

My wife and I have been, for the past 2 years, purchasing all of our beef from a local farm. It's a bit more expensive, but there is actual flavor in the meat. Very little seasoning, if any, is necessary. And, we're supporting a local business which makes any additional cost completely worth it.

@wickedd365: I've seen this. Some where on the site is the recipe for this meat roll that includes bacon, sausage, ground beef, barbeque sauce and goodness knows what else. My son begged for weeks to have it for dinner. It kind of reminds me of http://thisiswhyyourefat.tumblr.com/

"meat glue"

Sounds like the title of a really, REALLY cheap porn movie from the 70's.

Sheesh! It ain't brain scientist stuff!
Yes, if it ain't one of the four chicken parts everything- bones too- gets turned into them nuggets.
During the Bad8 years the guy who ran Supreme Beef- a Shrub buddy- decided to go Jalisco- and was supposedly responsible for most of the "flu" and food poisoning incidents in eleven states.
"Plumps when you cook it" is just corn starch.
The "Jack-in-the-Box"incident occurred because most beef slabs shipped from South of the border in rail cars also contained people from there. For days; a little e.coli goes a long way. And that's why your food joint serves up precooked frozen portions from a bag- well done and heat cleaned.
Shrub added a major subsidy to corn products- something like 45 cents per gallon of gas goes there. And so, being a diabetic grandpa I'm really tired about being lied to about "healthy" food products- especially from my "health care provider"- all containing large amounts of HFCS. Why did they screw up yogurt?

@gidgaf: Jeesh. Reading this makes me want to turn into a crunchy hippie and grow my own everything. Understandable about the body fat percentage and the onset of puberty. It used to be in some parts of the world and YEARS ago, girls did not begin to menstruate until they were 17 or 18. Now, we have 11 years olds PREGNANT. That just boggles my little pea brain.
I've always associated e. coli with feces and couldn't understand how tomatoes could be infected with it. Good ol' casual farmer Dad explained that one. I grow my own tomatoes now (mainly because it is fun & easy). And don't poop in my garden.

@beezlebubba: You aren't building a robot friend in your basement, are you?

Elmers is made from rendered animals, Meat glue? I think so.

@lavikinga: the younger age of puberty for girls is more likely due to the higher content of meat in the American diet than what was common in years past. Protein & fat at a young age do amazing things, including increasing the average height of an adult, which is why Asians are getting taller as their region assumes a more western diet.

Run a search on mechanically separated meat. Then run a search on why some hot dogs are high in calcium. You will never eat processed meat again!