Where's the Beef?

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Has the quality of beef deteriorated over the years or is it my taste buds?
 
As someone who grew up on farms/ranches in Nebraska I can tell you that, from a high-level perspective, there's more mouths to feed. That means more food production is required to meet demand. The steps taken to (over)feed this many people will surely have an impact on the quality and consistency of the resulting product. We'd have to be pretty naive to think that we wouldn't be able to notice this, especially over time.
 
As someone who grew up on farms/ranches in Nebraska I can tell you that, from a high-level perspective, there's more mouths to feed. That means more food production is required to meet demand. The steps taken to (over)feed this many people will surely have an impact on the quality and consistency of the resulting product. We'd have to be pretty naive to think that we wouldn't be able to notice this, especially over time.
Fair enough. So, what have they done to the animals? Have the genes been altered or something.

I have lived in the city all of my life and that's all I know. Our one and only butcher has the same cryovac meats I get at every other store so no difference.

Thanks for chiming in, I was really thinking that my taste buds died.
 
The Covid thing has led to a lot of "messing with our lives" outcomes. Some excuses are real in their impact on the production and distribution chains, some are lame to cover up for general incompetence, and some needlessly fabricated for advantage gain (political or not). The shut down of the restaurant trade (for the most part), the disruptions in slaughterhouse manpower, and the kinks in transportation and warehousing, all were real no matter the trigger. If you recall last year the stories about farmers/ranchers having to cope with drastic changes in their customer orders, that has consequences. We're hearing about projected pork and beef shortages later this year, and what we may be experiencing now are beef cattle that were rushed through the feedlot process to minimize costs in an uncertain market. Perhaps the quality of feed was compromised as well for the same reasons. So it's not unrealistic that overall quality in the commodity meat segment (as opposed to the boutique, higher profit segment) could be down. Probably still within grade, but trending toward the lower end of the spectrum.
 
I’m just glad that in my part of Kentucky, most of what once was tobacco farms is now providing hay and angus beef. I have multiple local grass fed beef options available to me, although I confess that for now nearly all the beef I buy is from a supermarket.
You're lucky. I have had fresh ground sausage that coworkers have brought in to work, it was awesome! Never fresh beef.
 
Has the quality of beef deteriorated over the years or is it my taste buds?
I'm leaning towards "yes". Both of the last two times I bought steaks at Costco, where I've had great luck, the results were tough steaks. And I'm buying very nice NY Strips with good marbling. I didn't get prime this last time. But it's either the meat or I'm screwing up good money.

I smoke my steaks at 250/275 until it gets to 115 - 120 and then grill them to 145. I think folks are referring to that as reverse sear. It hasn't worked well for me the last two times. I'm debating about just going back to grilling them on my gas grill (with...grill grates).

I welcome any thoughts on what you might think the problem(s) is/are. I've been doing this a long time and the light isn't going off as to what I might be doing wrong.
 
I'm leaning towards "yes". Both of the last two times I bought steaks at Costco, where I've had great luck, the results were tough steaks. And I'm buying very nice NY Strips with good marbling. I didn't get prime this last time. But it's either the meat or I'm screwing up good money.

I smoke my steaks at 250/275 until it gets to 115 - 120 and then grill them to 145. I think folks are referring to that as reverse sear. It hasn't worked well for me the last two times. I'm debating about just going back to grilling them on my gas grill (with...grill grates).

I welcome any thoughts on what you might think the problem(s) is/are. I've been doing this a long time and the light isn't going off as to what I might be doing wrong.
First, I'm getting older and will acknowledge that, it beats the alternative.

I haven't been impressed with any of the large store meats. My last steak purchase was rib eyes from Wegmans and it was fatty, tough, not good.
RD has been as good as anything else.

I had a conversation with the butcher in a large food store and he agreed the meat isn't the same. He suggested a Crockpot if I wanted that old time meat flavor. Not the answer I was looking for.
 
First, I'm getting older and will acknowledge that, it beat the alternative.

I haven't been impressed with any of the large store meats. My last steak purchase was rib eyes from Wegmans and it was fatty, tough, not good.
RD has been as good as anything else.

I had a conversation with the butcher in a large food store and he agreed the meat isn't the same. He suggested a Crockpot if I wanted that old time meat flavor. Not the answer I was looking for.
Yikes! A crockpot? I haven't used ours in years. I like smoking and wrapping on the pellet grill...as I'm sure you do too. Much better flavor than crock pot. And I still will put par-boiled or roasted potatoes and carrots in the wrap or wrap an aluminum pan with it in there to give that good old pot roast effect.
 
Yikes! A crockpot? I haven't used ours in years. I like smoking and wrapping on the pellet grill...as I'm sure you do too. Much better flavor than crock pot. And I still will put par-boiled or roasted potatoes and carrots in the wrap or wrap an aluminum pan with it in there to give that good old pot roast effect.
I'm with you. I think I'm going to try to perfect the chuck roast on the smoker and leave the briskets for the pros.
 
Fair enough. So, what have they done to the animals? Have the genes been altered or something.

I have lived in the city all of my life and that's all I know. Our one and only butcher has the same cryovac meats I get at every other store so no difference.

Thanks for chiming in, I was really thinking that my taste buds died.
Lower quality feed aimed at bulking animals up faster to get them to market weight vs at least partially pasture raised is part of it.
 
Lower quality feed aimed at bulking animals up faster to get them to market weight vs at least partially pasture raised is part of it.
Thanks for the response.
 
Fair enough. So, what have they done to the animals? Have the genes been altered or something.

I have lived in the city all of my life and that's all I know. Our one and only butcher has the same cryovac meats I get at every other store so no difference.

Thanks for chiming in, I was really thinking that my taste buds died.
I can't speak to if they've altered genes or not since I never saw it first hand but I HIGHLY doubt it. I can't imagine that would be feasible or a good ROI. I also don't tend to get too worked up over trigger words like "GMO" and how they're ruining humanity so take what I say with a grain of salt... or corn to stay on-topic.

The example I would give is that I really like to eat broccoli and other veggies. Used to be, you got all of the minerals you needed from the soil in the veggie that grew in said soil. Boron is an example a mineral that most people are deficient in, even if they eat veggies. This is largely because the soil that our plants are grown in are depleted of the minerals they would normally have in a "typical" growth cycle and would replenish.

That's but one example I can think of where the plants no longer have the same nutrition to supply to us by confusing them. Cattle eat plants. I would imagine this same thing is just as prevalent (or more so) in the item they consume. I don't know about historical data comparison but that's just a theory based on some related thoughts and experiences.
 
I know for sure my old taste buds are far from as good at detecting flavors as they once were. I just received my "Club Med" card yesterday. I guess I'm officially a geriatric.

I buy most of my beef from Costco, but splurge on the occasional "boutique" butcher cut. Just not since the pandemic began.

That being said, my Costco meat quality seems back up to where it was prior to the pandemic. I buy both prime and Choice. But, over the years, I have taken to buying based on assessing each piece, from my experience with the amount of interstitual fat. I have bought enough tri-tip, NY strip, and ribeye, to be able to pick pieces that will have great tenderness and flavor, regardless of what grade is printed on the label. I've bought Choice tri-tip that was better than some Prime.

What has been mentioned above about rushing to market, might be what has driven the popularity of "grass fed" beef and other unusually prepped super premium beef. I have a suspicion that another factor is the feedlot corn is affecting meat flavor, since feed corn that is being grown today is quite different than 20-30 years ago, based on my conversations with a farmer friend in SD. As most of you know, corn is the primary feed used to fatten and rid the beef of "gamey" flavor from range feeding. Corn is constantly being genetically modified to yield more and have other beneficial characteristics. But corn grown today has very little flavor compared to corn from years ago, IMO. What an animal eats directly affects how the meat tastes, as any hunter will tell you. Just a theory.
 
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What has been mentioned above about rushing to market, might be what has driven the popularity of "grass fed" beef and other unusually prepped super premium beef. I have a suspicion that another factor is the feedlot corn is affecting meat flavor, since feed corn that is being grown today is quite different than 20-30 years ago, based on my conversations with a farmer friend in SD. As most of you know, corn is the primary feed used to fatten and rid the beef of "gamey" flavor from range feeding. Corn is constantly being genetically modified to yield more and have other beneficial characteristics. But corn grown today has very little flavor compared to corn from years ago, IMO. What an animal eats directly affects how the meat tastes, as any hunter will tell you. Just a theory.
As a bit of background, I was raised on a farm, farmed myself growing corn, soybeans, and wheat, then left farming to spend most of my career as a certified crop advisor in the fertilizer/pesticide industry. My credentials were essentially equal to being an agronomist, but my undergraduate degree was not in agronomy.

Having said that, I would disagree with your farmer friend that GMO corn yields more or tastes different than non-GMO corn. The process of genetically modifying corn, and other field crops, is to provide tolerance to non-selective herbicides such as Roundup and to provide resistance to certain insects and fungi that otherwise attack the corn, such as cutworms. GMO crops and how they function, and not function, has to be the most misunderstood aspect of modern farming today. In particular with corn, the use of GMO seeds has been a blessing to the environment and to farm workers as it has made obsolete the use of herbicides such as the triazine family where runoff pollutes drinking water sources and insecticides that literally contain a poison hazard warning to the person using them.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough about this in a forum about recteqs, but here is an Article and Another that provides brief explanation in layman’s language of how GMOs function.
 
Has the quality of beef deteriorated over the years or is it my taste buds?
I grew up in Nebraska and my father always had freezer beef for us. He would get a side, order it dry aged for about four weeks. I don't know what the grocery stores sold back then, but I'm pretty sure it was better than the wet aged crappola that passes for meat these days.
 

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