need your help guys.
I got some big questions.
My fear is it will become increasingly difficult to pursue a natural flavorful diet as the availability of truly natural foods decreases at the present rate, especially in certain regions of the country (in my region they are almost entirely unavailable now).
My overall question is what the hell is going on with our meats lately and WHY?
Poultry, red meats, even seafood (inland supermarket seafood, not coastal/fresh off the docks)
When talking about meats (commercial especially) and their recent "changes", I'm looking at; texture, appearance, smell while raw, behavior while cooking, and ultimately flavor, finished texture, and how it feels during digestion.
Starting early/mid 2011 more and more meats at my common grocery stores/super markets (South East region US) began to change dramatically. So I sought natural/non commercial meats at the farmers markets and had access for a few months to pristine, natural, non chemically treated meats. but they changed for the worse as well. While they were good though it resulted inthe best tasting food I'd ever had. Best I ever felt from diet too, so there is no going back to the commercial SHIT after that. The commercial meat is to a point its truly depressing trying to chew the stuff much less look at it.
Unfortunately by the beginning of this year all the farmers markets poultry and meat turned to shit.
The trend I noticed with the change in farmers market chicken is the farmers got large contracts and began outsourcing (some having always outsourced) their processing to a facility instead of processing day before market on their family farm. Outsourced processing equaled Hello USDA inspected label, hello shitty chicken. (I've noticed the same trend with beef, will broach the details separately.)
POULTRY, the changes:
Starting with the big supermarkets, the changes were evident just by examination through the packaging in store. All chicken began to appear "pumped", bloated grossly beyond a natural weight and size, the muscle striations dramatically enlarged (naturally they're almost invisible to naked eye vs now they're lines the size a sharpie makes). The meat became comparatively translucent vs opaque, squiggles of fatty looking substance resembling stretch marks on a humans except all over this chicken breast meat.
Unpackaged there is a prominent "off" odor, unnatural, unlike natural fresh poultry which is basically odorless (about as much smell as a fresh unbroken egg shell).
As for cooking, the chicken no longer tastes or smells like chicken. Almost flavorless. I cannot make a flavorful broth.
The breasts cooked any other way (grilled, baked, fried etc) behave one of two ways:
Type #1:
no matter how overcooked, even exxxxtra well, it continues to ooz "juice", enlarged stringy & slimy striations. (naturally it shouldve dried out and toughened up like sinew)
Type #2:
No matter how undercooked the striations still separate and your left with "stringy" chicken as it becomes tough before properly done. (You must overcook natural chicken to achieve this, though even then the "strings" or striations are exponentially smaller.
Any knowledge as to who is responsible for this trend in processing the poultry beyond what is truly necessary?
My questions to you guys in ALL other US regions (West,SW, Midwest, NW, N, NE) are:
1) are you able to find normal, natural chicken at the super market or local farmers market)?
2)For those of you who can tell, have you seen the "shit" chicken I'm talking about?
If so where are you finding good?
3) are you seeing the above trend spread in/to your region?
4) Think fed regulation driving this trend in treatment?
My guess is it traces back to recent and upcoming USDA regulations that reach even the smallest farmer.
SO I'm wondering if your a small time farmer bringing a hundred or so chickens to farmers market that you processed yourself on farm, if you are now required to be USDA inspected. Further more if USDA/FDA has regulation even for those little guys that says "you must fuck up your meat by rinsing it with x chem, bathing it in x chemical bath, and packing it in x manner with x chem/preservative" in order to "pass" inspection... That has me deeply concerned.
I'm hoping it hasnt come to having to raise live birds in your own back yard just to get natural chicken. I don't mind so I WILL once I have the acreage. Hopefully I can get away with it even on a rental, allowing it sooner. got to buy in the meantime though.
However my fear is by the time I can raise/process my own, USDA and its umbrella regulators will have 20 different regulations making it illegal for me to do so as a small time farmer.
Given that, everyone who gives a shit about the future of farmers and ultimately your food, please check up on current and upcoming usda/fda/ (even d. h. s.) regulations, and figure out what we can do to keep healthy flavorful meat on our dinner tables
I would be much more at peace and actually sleep at night if I at least found out there's still unadulterated, chemical/preservative free, freshly slaughtered meats available in other regions of this country for people like me who actually taste and feel the difference. Plus I'm moving very soon and regional food situation is a primary factor in deciding location.
I got some big questions.
My fear is it will become increasingly difficult to pursue a natural flavorful diet as the availability of truly natural foods decreases at the present rate, especially in certain regions of the country (in my region they are almost entirely unavailable now).
My overall question is what the hell is going on with our meats lately and WHY?
Poultry, red meats, even seafood (inland supermarket seafood, not coastal/fresh off the docks)
When talking about meats (commercial especially) and their recent "changes", I'm looking at; texture, appearance, smell while raw, behavior while cooking, and ultimately flavor, finished texture, and how it feels during digestion.
Starting early/mid 2011 more and more meats at my common grocery stores/super markets (South East region US) began to change dramatically. So I sought natural/non commercial meats at the farmers markets and had access for a few months to pristine, natural, non chemically treated meats. but they changed for the worse as well. While they were good though it resulted inthe best tasting food I'd ever had. Best I ever felt from diet too, so there is no going back to the commercial SHIT after that. The commercial meat is to a point its truly depressing trying to chew the stuff much less look at it.
Unfortunately by the beginning of this year all the farmers markets poultry and meat turned to shit.
The trend I noticed with the change in farmers market chicken is the farmers got large contracts and began outsourcing (some having always outsourced) their processing to a facility instead of processing day before market on their family farm. Outsourced processing equaled Hello USDA inspected label, hello shitty chicken. (I've noticed the same trend with beef, will broach the details separately.)
POULTRY, the changes:
Starting with the big supermarkets, the changes were evident just by examination through the packaging in store. All chicken began to appear "pumped", bloated grossly beyond a natural weight and size, the muscle striations dramatically enlarged (naturally they're almost invisible to naked eye vs now they're lines the size a sharpie makes). The meat became comparatively translucent vs opaque, squiggles of fatty looking substance resembling stretch marks on a humans except all over this chicken breast meat.
Unpackaged there is a prominent "off" odor, unnatural, unlike natural fresh poultry which is basically odorless (about as much smell as a fresh unbroken egg shell).
As for cooking, the chicken no longer tastes or smells like chicken. Almost flavorless. I cannot make a flavorful broth.
The breasts cooked any other way (grilled, baked, fried etc) behave one of two ways:
Type #1:
no matter how overcooked, even exxxxtra well, it continues to ooz "juice", enlarged stringy & slimy striations. (naturally it shouldve dried out and toughened up like sinew)
Type #2:
No matter how undercooked the striations still separate and your left with "stringy" chicken as it becomes tough before properly done. (You must overcook natural chicken to achieve this, though even then the "strings" or striations are exponentially smaller.
Any knowledge as to who is responsible for this trend in processing the poultry beyond what is truly necessary?
My questions to you guys in ALL other US regions (West,SW, Midwest, NW, N, NE) are:
1) are you able to find normal, natural chicken at the super market or local farmers market)?
2)For those of you who can tell, have you seen the "shit" chicken I'm talking about?
If so where are you finding good?
3) are you seeing the above trend spread in/to your region?
4) Think fed regulation driving this trend in treatment?
My guess is it traces back to recent and upcoming USDA regulations that reach even the smallest farmer.
SO I'm wondering if your a small time farmer bringing a hundred or so chickens to farmers market that you processed yourself on farm, if you are now required to be USDA inspected. Further more if USDA/FDA has regulation even for those little guys that says "you must fuck up your meat by rinsing it with x chem, bathing it in x chemical bath, and packing it in x manner with x chem/preservative" in order to "pass" inspection... That has me deeply concerned.
I'm hoping it hasnt come to having to raise live birds in your own back yard just to get natural chicken. I don't mind so I WILL once I have the acreage. Hopefully I can get away with it even on a rental, allowing it sooner. got to buy in the meantime though.
However my fear is by the time I can raise/process my own, USDA and its umbrella regulators will have 20 different regulations making it illegal for me to do so as a small time farmer.
Given that, everyone who gives a shit about the future of farmers and ultimately your food, please check up on current and upcoming usda/fda/ (even d. h. s.) regulations, and figure out what we can do to keep healthy flavorful meat on our dinner tables
I would be much more at peace and actually sleep at night if I at least found out there's still unadulterated, chemical/preservative free, freshly slaughtered meats available in other regions of this country for people like me who actually taste and feel the difference. Plus I'm moving very soon and regional food situation is a primary factor in deciding location.