Meat cure and other stuff

[Camille Eonich]

Well, no instacure or anything of that nature at my primary grocery store.   

[Delmonico]

Well, no instacure or anything of that nature at my primary grocery store.   

What a bunch of heathens, I need to check but I think all my stores carry it with the most likely exception of the "old Burtn Out Hippe" Coop.  (Not their real name but everyone here knows what I'm talking about, I had a couple or rita's friends rolling on the floor last night about it.  See the old hippies that run it are very nice people, but a lot of the yuppie customers are a bit strange, I've caught them peeking around the aisles at me."

[Camille Eonich]

See the old hippies that run it are very nice people, but a lot of the yuppie customers are a bit strange, I've caught them peeking around the aisles at me."

LOL Del!  I'm sure if they read this their reply would be "Pot meet kettle" because I'm sure that you were in full "period" dress.

So funny!

[Advertising]

[Delmonico]

LOL Del!  I'm sure if they read this their reply would be "Pot meet kettle" because I'm sure that you were in full "period" dress.

So funny!

Well I stop on the way to work to save fuel and be green friendly.  Myself I think a lot of them dress funny and I don't stare at them around the end of the aisle.

[Camille Eonich]

Myself I think a lot of them dress funny and I don't stare at them around the end of the aisle.

Of course you don't.  You were taught proper manners growing up.  Manners are in danger of extinction in this day and age.


Edited to add, thanks for the post Del.  I'm still chuckling over the image of strange hippy types peeking around the end of the aisles at you.  You should get together with some of them for a picture.  It would be great!

[Wishbone]

Here in Wichita,Ks there is a store that specializes in Home Butchering. I buy several spices and other things from them. They have an Internet store too. Very Good & Honest People to Deal with. Check them out @  www.midwesternresearch.com.  Hope this will help some of You out. Wishbone-Ks

[Delmonico]

Of course you don't.  You were taught proper manners growing up.  Manners are in danger of extinction in this day and age.


Edited to add, thanks for the post Del.  I'm still chuckling over the image of strange hippy types peeking around the end of the aisles at you.  You should get together with some of them for a picture.  It would be great!

But Cammy it's not the old burnt out hippie's that run the store that do that, they act like everything is normal which it is.  It's the SUV driving yuppies that act weird, the kind that wear $150 jeans with holes from the factory.

[Camille Eonich]

Great site Wishbone.  They have everything!


Del, I'm sorry I misread yuppie and saw hippie instead.  I still think it's funny.

Back when we were shooting all the time we had a large group that would go eat together after matches and we all traveled together to the regionals and EoT and such.  People always stared.  Sometimes some would get up the nerve to ask what was going on and there was never any telling what they would get told to start out with.  We're extras in a Tom Selleck movie or some kind of nonsense.  Great fun!

[Delmonico]

Gopher Grease, Annie Lee, Will and I were out getting in the cars at a Cracker Barrel in Omaha and some folks asked us if we were Amish.   Them cars sure didn't look like a horse and buggy.  I get out west of here in the Sandhills and it's not uncommon to see others dressed like me in bunches.  The real difference is their boots have brighter colors but are still 18" and pants tucked in, plus most of them wear Wrangler Cowboy Cut jeans.  Oh and most of them already know me from the store.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

From the cancer info guide;

"Consuming cancer causing foods, like prepared meats increase the risk of contracting cancer, as of their relatively high amount of mutagenic substances. People who consume vegetarian foods also get cancer, but a little less than those people who consume more meats. Prepared meats contain high mutagenic substances than prepared vegetables."

http://www.cancer-info-guide.com/articles/cancer-foods.html

Del;  How can we prepare meats at home to minimize the danger?

[Camille Eonich]

From what little I have looked into Sir even heating foods causes mutagenic substances.  Those little charred bits when you grill food and the brown bits that you scrape off the bottom of the pan to make gravy with...yep all bad for you.  That's why we have the recent craze for raw foods and the springing up of raw food restaurants every where.


All things in moderation.

In Short ;

By heating whatever food, hundreds of different mutagenic substances originate. The more protein that food contains, the more mutagenics originate due to cooking etc. If we only live long enough, these substances eventually will cause cancer.

The activity of antioxidants is very limited ; not even large amounts of all the (semi-) antioxidants in the world combined can disarm a substantial part of these mutagenics.

The only way to effectively prevent cancer, is to prevent absorption of mutagenic substances from prepared food. Consume as little prepared food (proteinous prepared food in particular) and as much fruits and some fresh raw animal food regularly (like sashimi or fresh raw egg yolk, requiring an hour rest to digest by the way). See diet suggestions

http://www.13.waisays.com/cancer.htm



And

Cancer Foods

Cancer foods are foods that can cause cancer. Mutagenics are substances which can eventually cause cancer if it’s absorption from prepared food is not prevented. By heating whatever food, hundreds of different mutagenic substances begin. The more protein the food contains, the more mutagenics start off due to cooking. The activity of antioxidants is very limited and not even large amounts of all the antioxidants combined can neutralize a substantial part of these mutagenics.

The only way to effectively prevent cancer is to prevent the absorption of mutagenic substances from prepared food. Consume as little prepared food, especially proteinous prepared food, and consume as much fruits and some fresh raw animal food regularly, like sashimi or fresh raw egg yolk.

Consuming cancer foods, like prepared meats increases the risk of contracting cancer, because of their relatively high amount of mutagenic substances. Vegetarians get cancer too, but a little less than those people who eat more of meats. Prepared vegetables contain less mutagenic substances than prepared meat. Two out of three scientific investigations show that consuming prepared Soya beans instead of prepared meat causes less cancer. Generally, eating vegetables is less cancerous than consuming other prepared foods. However, all prepared food including vegetables, contain mutagenic substances.

http://www.commondiseases.org/cancer/cancer-foods/

[Delmonico]

The other thing is go to different studies and find one that gives results you like better.   

[joec]

Or simply eat in moderation. If one does that, bad foods will have little effect on ones health. The problem with healthy people is the live to long becoming a drag when they don't die quickly.

[Camille Eonich]

The other thing is go to different studies and find one that gives results you like better.   

 

[Delmonico]

 

Those studies have went back and forth on that for about 35 years, at this point which would you really believe, kind of like the ones as to if coffee is good for you or bad for you. 

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Besides the pleasure of preparing your own food, I was hoping that by doing so there would be a way to create a healthier product.

You mean there is no free lunch

[Camille Eonich]

Besides the pleasure of preparing your own food, I was hoping that by doing so there would be a way to create a healthier product.

Well if you do your own you choose to use meat that hasn't been exposed to all of the antibiotics, hormones and other stuff that they feed animals these days.  You can adjust the fat content of the food based upon your likes and dislikes.  You certainly know more about how it has been handled and the cleanliness of the prep area.  The food is going to be more fresh and have less preservatives than what you would buy from the store.

I'm in the process of looking for meat that is grown locally and that I can get straight from the farm rather than buying from the grocery store.  I have just recently realized that most of the "fresh meat" that is sold in the grocery stores have been "enhanced" for flavor.  Meaning it's injected with some type of brine that has who knows what in it.  This is why the ribs that I have cooked lately have ended up more ham like, I believe the sodium nitrate causes that, than just smoked pork like.

For a while there every chicken breast that I cooked had some kind of funky salt flavor to it.  You guess it, enhanced.  If I want me meat brined I want to do it myself so I know what's in there and what I can add as sauce.  Heck half of our food is processed before we ever even get our hands on it and that goes for "fresh" foods too.   

My closest butcher store is an hour and a half away.  If I'm going to go to all the trouble of smoking meat, grilling, cooking whatever I want the food to at least taste like I put all that effort into it.

[Delmonico]

Ok all kidding aside, with the "cured" pork you can use just salt and or sugar to do your cure .  Use canning?picking salt which is pure salt with no additives.  Any you are going to keep for long I bet you toss in the freezer.  The nitrates are needed with beef or it will end up the color of pork (aka corned beef or pastrami.)

Other than keeping the beef from looking like "the other white meat" the nitrates are in there to prevent spoilage in long term un-refrigerated  storage.  The amount of salt used in those older products was also much greater,plus they were dried more.   They often were soaked over night in water to remove some of the salt and re-hydrate before cooking.  Shelf life of those was considered about two years as long as you kept it in a cool dry place. 

Our bacons and hams and even our corned beef is not quite the same as the old products. 

As a note I read one time that if the nitrates were left out of hot dogs, lunch meats and such, the un-refigerated samwhiches in lunch pails and on picnics would kill far more folks than the worst of the cancer studies say they will.  Food for thought, laced with ptomaine of course.

[joec]

Those studies have went back and forth on that for about 35 years, at this point which would you really believe, kind of like the ones as to if coffee is good for you or bad for you. 

Or eggs and there are still people that think eating only the whites will lower your cholesterol. Most of these food studies are pretty much nonsense to me. I had a great grandmother that would eat the fat off of the edge of a pork chop, was an insulin shooting diabetic most of her life and lived to 105 years old.

[Camille Eonich]

Or eggs and there are still people that think eating only the whites will lower your cholesterol.

Butter too is on that list.  I can't believe that all that stuff, whatever it is they throw together to attempt to replicate butter, can be better for you than butter.


And butter is good.