Sourcing good quality meats
Oct 3, 2011 10:33:37 GMT
Post by Charlie Arnold on Oct 3, 2011 10:33:37 GMT
Here in England, especially in our area in the South East, we are very spoilt with good quality butchers and farm shops selling good quality, free range local meats. This makes such a difference when you are cooking for a limited diet as you don't need to worry about adding extra flavour as it is all in there.
I was very shocked several years ago when there was a documentary on television spilling the beans on how they produce all these cheap supermarket meats. So although local sourced stuff costs more you'll actually find at the end of the day you get alot more out of the meat.
Chickens were the biggest shock: with intensive barn rearing from hatching to supermarket shelf takes 6 weeks!!!!! Yes, 6 weeks, how do they do it, false lighting, hormone feeds and jam packed in a massive barn. The meat that is produced obviously has very little fat or meat substance to it so what do they do to produce these nice plump breasts - they inject it with sugar water before packageing it!!!! I tell you what, a good quality free range properly produced roast chicken lasts a lot longer on the table.
Other meats that get injected with sugar water are porks as in the intensive rearing they are not as fatty so they need the water solution to moisten it. Add to it all the preservatives added as well makes not such a healthy meal.
If you can source well reared meats on the bone with some fat on in and slow casserole or roast it in its own juices you will find it produces the most wonderful gravy which then cuts out the need for all these gravy flavourings, most of which seem to have onion in them.
In the recipe section I will post what I do with a roast chicken.
I was very shocked several years ago when there was a documentary on television spilling the beans on how they produce all these cheap supermarket meats. So although local sourced stuff costs more you'll actually find at the end of the day you get alot more out of the meat.
Chickens were the biggest shock: with intensive barn rearing from hatching to supermarket shelf takes 6 weeks!!!!! Yes, 6 weeks, how do they do it, false lighting, hormone feeds and jam packed in a massive barn. The meat that is produced obviously has very little fat or meat substance to it so what do they do to produce these nice plump breasts - they inject it with sugar water before packageing it!!!! I tell you what, a good quality free range properly produced roast chicken lasts a lot longer on the table.
Other meats that get injected with sugar water are porks as in the intensive rearing they are not as fatty so they need the water solution to moisten it. Add to it all the preservatives added as well makes not such a healthy meal.
If you can source well reared meats on the bone with some fat on in and slow casserole or roast it in its own juices you will find it produces the most wonderful gravy which then cuts out the need for all these gravy flavourings, most of which seem to have onion in them.
In the recipe section I will post what I do with a roast chicken.