Posted by Sarah Wolf, May 21, 2008 at 1:00 PM
An ICE raid at the AgriProcessors plant in Postville, Iowa last week has raised concerns about a kosher meat shortage, according to the Jewish Daily Forward. The raid seriously affected the plant's workforce—the article reports that the raid detained nearly 400 of the plant's 968 employees and caused others to go into hiding. The detainees are mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, though an ICE spokesperson said they also detained three Israelis and four Ukrainians (perhaps the rabbis responsible for kosher supervision?).
Since the plant apparently produces a significant percentage of the glatt kosher beef sold in the U.S., consumers fear that kosher meat prices will climb even higher. Kosher industry consultant Menachem Lubinsky told the Forward that "There’s been a little bit of hoarding going on."
Meanwhile, some detainees are alleging abuse by the plant, claiming that their employers subjected them to verbal abuse and withheld $50 per paycheck for so-called "immigration fees." Eighteen of the detainees were also minors, including some as young as thirteen—which makes it kind of ironic that, according to the Jewish Daily Forward, "15 or 20 yeshiva students have flown out to Iowa from Brooklyn to help out with the slaughter."
Posted by Emily Koh, May 6, 2008 at 7:45 PM
The U.S. beef ban over mad cow disease concerns may have been lifted in South Korea last month, but how does it look when even officials aren't willing to eat imported beef on TV?
When the free trade agreement (FTA) talks between South Korea and the U.S. were under way in 2006, Trade Minister Kim [Jong-hoon] ― who was the chief negotiator ― said he was willing to eat imported U.S. beef "as a citizen." But he declined to reply whether he would eat the beef on TV. Later, Kim expressed uneasiness about journalists' questions on food safety and test eating.
[Assistant U.S. Trade Representative] Wendy Cutler, who was the chief negotiator for the U.S., was also noncommittal on the eating of beef here.
When Korean netizens' demanded for her to eat the "bone-containing" U.S. beef at a warehouse of Incheon International Airport during her stay in Korea in March 2007, she just said, "I'll consider it."
Presidential spokesman Lee hinted that President Lee is not considering test eating of imported meat "in Seoul."
If it's just beef, and it's supposed to be safe beef, what's the big deal? The Korean government's official line is that the President has eaten U.S. beef when he visited George W. Bush during his visit last month, and this is the same beef that will be exported to Korea. The U.S. Department of Agriculture even held an emergency press conference for Korean correspondents in Washington in an attempt to quell fears over U.S. beef safety. Although most of it seems to be misleading information dispersed by both media and the Internet, we all know how fast panic can spread. Will officials surrender themselves to public demands? [via ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal]
Posted by Ed Levine, June 14, 2007 at 11:00 AM
There are a whole lot of mail-order steaks out there. Even Donald Trump has gotten into the act with his Sharper Image beef. But at their best, like at Peter Luger's or Lobel's, mail-order steaks are really good and really expensive. But a few weeks ago I had a flat-iron steak from Lobel's that was killer and downright reasonable. The flat-iron cut is also known as top blade steak, and it's both very beefy and very tender, an usual combination in a moderately priced piece of beef ($15.98 plus shipping). Lobel's never freezes its meat, they only ship meat that is at least prime-graded, and if you've never had a flat-iron steak before, it will be a revelation.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 23, 2007 at 5:15 PM
With all the talk today in the nation's various food sections about grilling and steak, I thought it would be fitting to feature a steak-related tip from What's a Cook to Do?
, James Patterson's extremely useful book of kitchen tips that explains almost everything. After the jump, Steaks, by Cut.
And, thanks to the good folks at Artisan Books, we're giving away five (5) copies of this enormously helpful book.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 22, 2007 at 2:30 PM
"Everyone's going to assume you know the drill, so just be careful and watch for sides of beef as they roll by on the overhead track."
That was my guide's advice before we stepped into the chilled processing facility at Master Purveyors, a meat distributor at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx.
The journey actually started a few weeks ago, when my guide on this recent early morning adventure, Adam Perry Lang (Daisy May's BBQ and Robert's Steakhouse), floated the idea of dragging me out to Hunts Point at 1:30 a.m. as part of a multipart series of burger posts—"burgers, from butcher to table," as I came to think of it.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 16, 2007 at 5:50 PM
If you want to talk about the importance of knowing where the ingredients you cook with come from, it turns out that at the restaurants owned by David Burke, all the steaks are from cows sired by a bull named Prime that he bought in 2005: "The purchase made perfect business sense, he said, because by breeding the same bull, the restaurant guarantees its steaks are of the highest quality. 'We bought his genes, basically,' said Burke, whose customers tell him his steaks are the best they've ever eaten."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 4, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Donald Trump, billionaire, owner* of the world's most famous combover, and now purveyor of over-priced meats? He recently launched his latest venture, Trump Steaks, selling USDA Prime Certified Angus Beef filet mignon, New York strip, rib eye, porterhouse, and steak burgers, to be distributed exclusively through his website and, as Grub Street said, the "appropriately eighties" Sharper Image. The meats are packaged in four collections: Classic, the cheapest, includes four steaks and twelve burgers, and costs $199; the priciest is Connoisseur, which has sixteen steaks, twenty-four burgers and will set you back a whopping $999—and that's before shipping, which is presumably not free.
Trump touts the fact that his steaks are "selected so that their beef meets nine additional quality standards not even required of USDA Prime" (which, by the way, is not that great) but doesn't say what these nine standards actually are, and says they're "aged to perfection" without saying how long they're aged for and by what method, wet or dry—you know, the little details that people who are serious about their meat would care about. I enjoy your hair, Mr Trump, but I'm staying away from your steaks.
* Or should that be "perpetrator"?
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 25, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Good Kobe beef is surprisingly difficult to find in its namesake city, at least according to Japan-based food blogger Rameniac. But here's his tip:
Look for the old, graying guy in the business suit, the one that’s perfectly at ease and carries himself like he owns the town. He’s smoking a cigarette, waiting for a cab perhaps, but definitely not behaving like a drunken ass or brown-nosing superiors. You don’t want middle management and you don’t want the underlings after all. If you’re lucky, you will have chanced upon a vice president or even a shachyo, the big boss, a higher up for a major electric power or heavy industries conglomerate. He might then give you his card and point you towards a referral-only steakhouse somewhere in the vicinity. “Show it to them if you have any problems,” he might say.
Itadakimasu!
Photograph from Rameniac
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 5, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Value Pack is an alphabet made of raw hamburger. Each letter character is hand-shaped, packaged, and photographed by Robert Bolesta. [via swissmiss]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 8, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Julia Olmsted asked her butcher if he had any grass-fed beef, and he said, "I don't think you can feed grass to cows." Sad, really sad.
[via kottke.org]
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 13, 2006 at 5:40 PM
Personal-finance blog Get Rich Slowly outlines the pros and cons of buying a side of beef straight from a local cattle rancher:
"... We try to grow as much of our own food as possible. But one thing we cannot grow is our own meat. We’ve discovered the next best thing, though: we buy beef in bulk from a local rancher. Every year, we pool our money with three other couples to purchase an animal when it’s ready to be slaughtered. In early December, we bring home about one hundred pounds of meat."
Complete with cost breakdowns on bulk beef vs. store-bought beef, the cuts typically available, and links to further resources.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 21, 2006 at 1:09 PM
Marian Burro had a terrific piece today in the "A" section of the NY Times about yet another food process that's bound to confuse consumers. Apparently some packaged beef in supermarkets is being sold in "airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks." The picture accompanying the piece is truly strange, two steaks bought on the same day, February 3rd, and photographed on February 16th. The treated steak is bright red, and the untreated steak is a mottled combination of brown and red. This is not my idea of dry-aging.
