#757 It’s What’s For Dinner

Suddenly everywhere I look it’s “Angus” beef. I’m not sure I get it.
When you have good lamb, it’s rare that they bother to identify the breed. Chicken is usually divided into either how it’s raised or how it’s cooked, free range or factory, broilers or fryers. Isn’t it fun when they name an animal by its ultimate cooking method?
I wonder if the topic of conversation among chickens in the chicken factories turns to their expected end. I mean, I suppose even their little chicken brains have a clue that they’re going to be killed sometime. So maybe their ultimate cooking method is kind of like our discussions of burial or cremation.
How did Pecky end up? They fried him.
How about Foghorn Leghorn? Oh, he was broiled—but they did bury his bones afterward¾in the landfill.
So anyhow, I’m not sure whether to be impressed or not with this Angus beef thing. What ever happened to choice and prime? I remember there was some controversy a few years back when the feds devalued the standards.
Prime grade cows were getting more rare. Meat didn’t have enough flavor from marbling or something. It is an odd function of our perception of good flavor that the more fat that’s mixed in the protein, the better it tastes.
The government was in the unenviable position of awarding meat its best designation that was actually the most plaque-inducing cholesterol-laden grade. So there was a push to make beef less fatty overall for, you know, health and stuff. And they upgraded “select” to “choice” and “choice” to “prime.”
“Select,” there’s a slippery word for you. This is “select” beef. Doesn’t sound like third place.
There are actually two lesser known and lesser quality beef grades as well, “cutter” and “canner.” They are what you usually find in burritos, frozen potpies, and other highly processed beef products. “Cutter” and “canner” is what most people refer to as “chewy” and “tasteless.”
Select is already the bottom of the edible barrel. Cutter and canner is the scum growing in the cracks.
Kind of like Angus beef—without the “g”...
America, ya gotta love it.