A renewed old topic Pumped meat at the store

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 17:39

I just returned from the market with a couple of fresh pork shoulder picnics. The price is very attractive at 1.04 USD per pound. Right next to the picnics were whole fresh hams for the same price but careful reading showed very fine print that stated that they contained 12% solution which raises the price of the meat to 1.16 USD per pound and makes it unsuitable for the purpose of sausage making or curing and smoking. I also wonder about the sterility of the needles used to inject hundreds of pieces. If the first piece was dirty what of the effect on the next twenty?
Just saying that what may at first glance appear a good deal may not be so good after you get home.

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 18:28

Have to use local butchers that you've found reputable. Sam's has injected stuff in seafood, etc. I also don't buy anything from the Far East, as it's very polluted from the ponds they use to raise them. Buy American and you can trust the quality and purity.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 18:35

We mustn't tar with a broad brush. Some of the supermarkets are very careful to represent their products honestly and plainly.
I once bought a roaster size chicken. I was in a hurry and didn't read the label until I was cutting it up and wondering why it was soaking wet. It had been pumped so instead of roasting into crispy crusted pieces it stewed.

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 18:39

Amen, SS.

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 19:33

Hi,
I agree with nuygai about his Far Eastern words of wishdom.
Here in Australia we had a case of Vietnamese Mekong River Catfish being sold under a variety of names. Some suggesting that it could be sea fish.
One of the TV stations ran a program, showing how polluted the growing ponds were with dead fish, steamers, and other dead animals floating in it as well as dunny outlets running into it.
They were threatened with legal action if the program went to air. It did, luckily!!!!
The same with some frozen fish fillets being imported from certain African countries.
I just can't understand how our Quarantine service actually allows it to be imported!!
We only buy Australian and New Zealand fish, good for your health and the economy.
Regards,
Jan.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 19:40

I have made the mistake of buying Chinese fish and some packages were badly spoiled. that was the end of that.

vagreys · Post by **vagreys** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 19:46

nuynai wrote:Have to use local butchers that you've found reputable. Sam's has injected stuff in seafood, etc. I also don't buy anything from the Far East, as it's very polluted from the ponds they use to raise them. Buy American and you can trust the quality and purity.

There are huge swaths of the country that do not have "local butchers". In many parts of the country, even some shops that advertise as "butcher shops" are buying already-processed and trimmed primal cuts and all the store does is serve a few, popular cuts, cut to order (e.g., strip steak, porterhouse, loin-loin and center-cut chops, loin roasts). Worst case, they are buying pre-cut meat and pre-made sausages by the case and simply repackaging and selling by the piece. Real butcher shops are rare, except in a few parts of the country. Most people have to rely on supermarkets and have no choice but to get meat pumped full of saline, or pay top dollar (even for cheap cuts) to get meat that hasn't been messed with.

Ross' injected pork picnics likely WERE American pork, from one of the major suppliers. Buying American is not a guarantee of quality, anymore than buying imported is a guarantee of poor quality.

The Sams and Costco where I generally get my shoulders are not selling injected shoulder roasts. I've found the meat to make very good sausage, even if it is trimmed of almost all visible fat, now. To be honest, though, even the organic, heritage breed direct-from-the-farm local pork offerings are advertising how lean and trimmed their pork is, as if that is good thing, and they are charging $6-10/lb.! The meat is almost so lean that it has to be pumped so it isn't horribly dry.

We have our low-/no-fat culture to blame for this situation. Now the pork producers have no choice - they've engineered the pork to the point that it has very little fat, and is tough and dry if not injected. As a people, Americans don't cook as much as they used to, and they put up with a pan full of pork chops steaming instead of browning. Even then, the pork is tough and dry if it is even slightly overcooked, so that the added liquid is expressed instead of being retained in the meat.

I'll continue to get shoulders for sausage from Sam's and Costco as long as the quality remains decent and the meat isn't pumped. For roasts and chops, though, I stopped buying pumped meat before my kidneys failed (couldn't have the salt), and I only get high-quality pork that hasn't been pumped full of saline. I pay more for it, and eat less of it, but I refused ever again to pan fry chops and have them end up steaming in standing water.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 19:54

Very well said.

Swallow · Post by **Swallow** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 02:05

Back in 1998 to 2001 when the pork market in Manitoba sorta crashed and the hog farmers couldn't sell a hog I was buying 225 pound market hogs for DOG FOOD as it was cheaper than buying so called real dog food. I was paying $50.00 cnd per head and that was shot gutted and delivered to my house. I ground up the whole hog and froze the hamburger for the hounds. They seemed to enjoy it. For myself I won't eat a battery raised market hog or any part thereof, and if people knew just what goes into raising a hog to market weight in record time perhaps they wouldn't eat it either. There is a very good reason that pork doesn't taste the way pork used to taste.

I'm very fortunate insofar as that I can raise my own Black Iberian hogs, not many but just enough for the table and except for the winter they are mostly free range hogs doing what pigs are supposed to do namely rooting around in the bush eating roots and acorns and on occasion getting into the garden if for no other reason than to piss the little woman off. (it's funny to see her chase them with a broomstick screaming things that are best left outside).

The difference in taste is simply phenomenal.

Swallow

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 03:43

I don't think it fair to say that hogs raised in pens product low quality meat. The farmers that do this are business men who know that a good product requires good quality control in all aspects of the production. He has to raise healthy animals cost effectively. This has to be done with good food and water. Do the animals get enough exercize? probably not. All the same I don't think many people can truly remember to taste of food from thirty or forty years past.
There was a sign in a restrurant that read," pies like your mother used to make 50 cents per slice . Pies like your husband says his mother used to make $1.50.

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 07:48

Swallow,
I fully agree you about how modern pork actually taste. It is crap. I used to make salami in winter in Victoria, Australia for many years wit Italian friends.
All the pigs were reared in the paddock and fed on crap vegetables, acorns, apples, pears and hammermilled grains.
The meat was darker, the pig was leaner and the salami was the best I ever tasted.
What I am trying to say is that the meat actually tasted like pork should and used to taste.
On the other hand, nobody used cure#2 either. Luckily we are all still around and I have changed my mind about using cures.
Where I live, in the sub-tropics, it is a must.
Regards,
Jan.