US beef is back in

[wowpow]

"US beef is back in Central's freezers

Central Food Retail Co Ltd, operator of Central Food Hall and Marketplace by Tops, is importing US beef for sale in its five branches following the lifting of the ban on imports. The Thai government banned the import of US beef since the mad-cow scare in mid 2004 and lifted the ban only on February 15 this year. Central Food Retail's vice president for international food and wine, Nick Reitmeier, said that US beef would be available at Central Food Hall-Chidlom and Marketplace by Tops at Thong Lor, Bang Na, Sukhumvit 19 and Phuket Festival branches. "Most of our customers have been waiting to buy US beef since the government ban," he said.

The company believes that its US beef sales this year will be more than two tons, worth up to Bt6 million - nearly the sales in 2003 before the ban. Reitmeier said that most customers would switch from buying Australian beef to US beef. Since the ban, sales of Australian beef rose from one ton a year to three tons last year, worth Bt5 million.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation

Ok in my opinion registered Scottish Angus from Scotland and Argentinean beef is the worlds best on all levels, sadly in the later they are eating up valuable natural ecosystems to make pasture. Why is American beef so popular ? It has the least flavour of any,it simply shrinks in the cooking as the retained moisture from hormones leaks out and you are left with a little bit of flaccid watery flavoured muscle?

It also carries the extra risks that it has been tampered with by freedom fighters. Anthrax any-one?

Have to agree with Cedric. I went to a US steak house in Washington about 18 months ago with about 10 UK based folk of various nationalities, Greek, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese who ordered a variety of steaks. General concensus was that there was not one steak amongst them with much taste.

I note they advertise the stuff as "corn" fed. 555

[wowpow]

I was in ther supermarket in Siam Paragon when a young hi-so Thai woman, that I did not know, said to me " I just buy beef at 1150 baht for 100 gm". She wanted to tell the world about her extravagance. It was Ozzie Kobe Beef and looked fabulous. The Ozzie meat counter has some great stuff but at huge prices due to import taxes. The owner is sad, he told me "They even tax lamb at 60% and they don't grow any". Lovely sausages but they are 70 baht each!

I have enjoyed terrific US beef. Most places including the UK beef is not what it was. There is no Aberdeen Angus left on general sale it's all half cast. The best beef I get in Thailand is from Yorkie's on Jomtien Beach Road. They have Charolais beef (grown in Thailand?) The Brit. producers poo-poo Charolais but the French adore it and so do I. Great flavour, juicy and tender and only Bt750 a kilo. Oz beef is great also but many restaurants (including Sizzler) serve it too fresh. It needs to be well hung.

Now will the Double enterdre'ists notice that?

[Mi Cow Chai-old]

Us Iowa corn fed beef is the best in the world. I will be happy to eat it again in Pattaya.

will be importing himself to Thailand in August.


I think that US beef is generally fine - although I agree that Argentinian beef is excellent. Japanese Kobe is to die for - but considering you spend your month's food allowance on it, dying of starvation is definitely a possibility.

I think the problem with US beef is that, like any mass-produced product, there are differecnes in quality. A cheap steak is a cheap steak
the other problem is on the consumption end. Whether it be mad-cow scare (which is actually a moot concern with anything but ground beef) or an aversion to blood, I think most wrong-thinking people eat their steaks *way* over-cooked.

Perhaps my "light a match, slap it on the ass and send it out" approach may be a bit on the primitive side - but I think the only way to tell if a steak is any damn good is to eat it ultra-rare. The problem with medium to well-done is that it cooks the meat too quickly, making it tough and/or dry - this is why roasting was invented - cooking a piece of meat completely at a low temperature over a long period of time.

If you want the flavor of a steak then you want the outside seared, to seal in juices, and only cooked long enough to melt the marbling.
You plate should look like a crime scene.


edited to add:

I really have to restrain myself to keep from slapping people who dose their steaks with A-1 or some other crap-in-a-bottle. The best way to eat a steak is with salt & pepper & maybe some herbed-butter - or for a really high-class occasion, perhaps an exquisite bearnaise on the side.. If you so hate the flavor of steak that you have to slather on glorified ketchup, then order a pork chop!

I agree with almost all of the above ideas about beef. Including the big hoary chestnut they call "corn fed" this is the worst kind of beef. This includes Kobe beef from Japan and its imitations. For beef to be its absolutely best it must of course be well hung but also it must eat grass and it must eat as many different grasses and herbs as possible to be any good.
In my opinion sunshine is also important for flavour. Argentinean beef and if you are lucky to find it South African beef is this kind of beef. All the other is intensively fattened beef, held in crush pens and dosed with hormone. In the USA if you are lucky you will find meat that has gone straight from "ranch" to market and this is good stuff, but it is not generally available.

Kobe beef is is unnaturally high in fat, the animals dont walk much and are over fed and housed indoors for most of their lives. The resulting meat is a horrible spongy fatty mess. In my opinion the fat has a nasty sweetness that is also ultra rich and the meat has no texture.
Good beef with its fat on, is juicy but firm, naturally slightly salty (high natural mineral content) and the fat is creamy yellow and crisp on the cooking, not melty and gooey. I would say most "good" European beef is a bit tasteless because they eat a mono diet of dairy pasture and grains amongst other things Dutch veal is the worst. Pedigree Scottish highland raised Angus is one of the the exceptions. Australian beef is quite good but very hit and miss flavour wise,not sure whats up with that, but the more expensive it gets the less tasty it gets, more consistant is New-zealand beef.

Kobe beef is is unnaturally high in fat, the animals dont walk much and are over fed and housed indoors for most of their lives.

I'm told that it's much worse than that. Some would say that the animals are anaethetised with beer and "tenderised" i.e. beaten with sticks whilst still alive whilst others spin it that they are given a diet of beer and "massaged".

It is simply not true that there is no such thing as pure-bred Aberdeen Angus beef anymore and a research team at Edinburgh University has devised a DNA based test to verify whether meat on sale is purebred or hybrid.

BTW Cedric is the so-called "Dutch" butcher (actually South African) still running his shop in Sai Kung. He used to deliver to my maid. Maybe he'll clamber round your rock.

Yes, Clawdaddy, roasting is the best way to cook beef and my partner does it frequently and expertly but I seldom see an oven in the kitchens of the condos in Thailand I browse looking for my ideal retirement place. Horesraddish or mustard are the condiments of choice in the UK.

How exactly do you roast beef? I am new to the art of cooking slabs of flesh. Do you mean take a beef cut that you would normally grill and "roast" it in the oven instead?

I didn't even care for steaks until I visited Argentina. (If you haven't been, go!) What incredibly tasty bloody red steaks they have there. I do enjoy their traditional condiments, chimichurri sauce, garlic oil, and salsa criolla (which is kind of a Mexican salsa without any spices because the Argy Pargies are rather pepper phobic).

Buy a joint. The bigger the joint the more likely success.
Basically you need a lump of about 3lbs minimum and some of the lumps are the same cuts as you will see a butcher slice steaks off. Look for some marbling for internal basting and remember, the best flavouring does actually come from the fat.

The more tender your cut the faster and hotter you can do it.
We would do sirloin at 25 minutes per lb at 180c plus 25 minutes and then MOST important 15 to 20 minutes rest (make the gravy from the pan juices having cradled the joint on onion wedges).

We get something they call tenderloin here which I believe is known as cube steak in the states. We've done that in smaller joints for just two which seems work out perhaps because it has a lot more fat.

We've roasted in the tropics and the UK. I think you should turn up the aircon if you are serving this in the tropics, but keep the wine warm.

Northstar is correct - good fat makes a great roast - that is interior and exterior

the interior fat (marbling) melts into the muscle, adding flavour and moisture, the exterior fat should *not* be cut away prior to roasting it won't disappear during cooking - but you don't have to eat it!.

If you are dealing with a very cheap cut, I would recommend braising (IE: roasting in liquid) and (if you have the requisite tools) injecting.

Injecting is essentially internal marination with a large syringe. I love to use roasted garlic juice on beef - although this isn't that easy to find. You can also used melted butter mixed with favorite herbs. Another neat trick with cheaper cuts is to simulate marbling by making small slits in the roast and inserting bits of fat.

Back to braising - Take for example your standard "Italian" beef: In addition to the veggies of your choice (although preferably those that are dense or fibrous - celery, anise, carrots, onions - as they won't dissolve into nothingness after a long, wet cook) you can add a can or two of whole tomatoes in juice and add some red wine. You do want to brown the roast on all sides first - this is exactly what it sounds like - just hat some oil and put the roast in, changing sides as soon as one gets brown - you aren't trying to cook it through - just give it the start.

When you cook in liquid you can leave it longer at a low temperature and it only gets better. I start the oven high - like 350 - 375 F to get the ingredients heated well, then cut the heat back to 250F and let it sit for hours and hours (3 hours minimum)

The flavors deepen and the meat gets more tender - after you have removed the roast allow it to "rest" for at least 15 minutes before carving - this helps keep the moisture in the roast instead of all over the platter/board. In the meantime you can take the roasted vegs/tomatoes and run them through a food mill (for a thinner sauce) or a blender/food processor for a chunky sauce on the side. As with any tomato dish - this sauce will be even better the next day.

And, yes, Northstar, I forgot horseradish

When the snow is tits-deep here and I refuse to chip the ice off the Weber grill I will sometimes (Gasp!) pan-fry a steak. This is generally ok for me, since I like mine so rare. When I do this, I start with a blend of olive oil and butter (the olive oil raises the smoking point of the butter so it can go to a higher temp before burning) and saute some chopped shallots and fresh tarragon -and unless I am in the mood for charred remnants of shallots, I remove them from the pan and then sear the steaks Til they are done to my liking. Then I remove the steaks, add the shallots back to the pans and then deglaze the pans with beef broth or wine or whatever is handy, reducing it to a rich glaze - then I add a huge dollop of horseradish and serve it on the side. If I have some duck rendering in the fridge, then I use that instead of the olive oil/butter combo.

After writing all of this - I apologize for there being no reference to Thailand in this thread anymore!

When the snow is tits-deep here and I refuse to chip the ice off the Weber grill I will sometimes (Gasp!) pan-fry a steak.

I think, I mentioned at the time that we had barbequed steak on the patio on Christmas Eve in 2005 here in Central London. I'll try to post the mpeg when I have a moment. A barbie wok is great for "chinese cut" (1" cubes) stir fried mixed vegetable and whole garlic cloves liberally soused in garlic olive oil. We do occassionaly attempt a smoke roast in the weber with the lid on, but with no great success to report so far. Our smaller barbie is a round lump of aluminium with slots to various depths. Quite sculptural when pristine.

Clawdaddy can I come to dinner? Your roast is gorgeous. It sounds like the way I cook ox tail before I bundle the lot into the marmite with some stock.

For something different and not many people do this (and you need your summer house in Spain, your uncles will do) but get yourself some large branches of wild rosemary the woodier the better and use this as a platform to sit your roast for cooking, basting and injecting etc is very worthy but if the fat is good it will make life easier.

North Star yes I am sure if the SA butcher still exists he will drive down our new road in his little van, admiring the "menhir" as he passes. But I think any-way he moved to Discovery bay. We get Mongolian beef here now, which I use to feed the dogs. It smells delicious, and is cheap.

[Monty-old]

If you want a realy good steak the way you like it cooked, Do what L.M. T.U. does.
orderd a Sirloin steak or a Pork filet steak , to die for, his words, the the only time John is quite,
is when he has a mouth full of steak From Monty's, It Is L.M.T.U. best kept secret.
Or go to Frienship or else where, and buy your own piece of meet, bring it to me and I will cook it the way you tell me.
Grilled, Pan fried in garlic butter, Pepperd, Oven baked, or B.B.Q.
At my last birthday bash, 15 kilo's of sirloin was eaten Bar.B.Qed, I cut it 2 inches thick then maranated it for 2 hours in light
soy sauce, Oyster sauce , a little crushed garlic and fresh ground pepper. on to the hot barbie 2 min each side.
They kept coming back for more. if you do not have a barbie, you can cook your steak in a hot dry frying pan. or oven bake
for 3 min each side. grilling tends to lose to much of the juices. And never micro way steak, unless you want to spoil it.

Who called the Cook a Bastard, Who called the Bastard a COOK.

www.beauzo.com (http://www.beauzo.com) or www.sunee-plaza.com (http://www.sunee-plaza.com)

Bring your own steaks, I like that. Not that I would but it sounds nice and informal. I suppose you aren't in Bangkok?