Every Veran helps! (2)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

18 March

No one passing by - even if they didn't eat meat - could have failed to notice the huge pieces of sirloin* that my nearest Veran had on offer - I didn't notice what they weighed, but these were shrink wrapped and sizeable, and were individually priced at at least £30.

Now I may have seen a piece of such a size in the window of that rare thing, a butcher's shop, but never in a supermarket (or whatever we are encouraged to call them). And, now that I think of it, they all bore (as did some other items in a display close by) red labels with the words 'From the Butcher' on them in white lettering. Which is making what distinction?

What am I supposed to believe to be the origin of the rest of the meat (and poultry)? Yes, I know that it has been hygienically sealed into its packaging, with the unavoidable admixture of sulphites, and I even know where much of that is done in this region (as I have visited the premises), but can I take it that this large lump of steak has been treated any differently?

Or is it telling me that it has not had a prior life in a freezer, but has made its way just from field to abattoir to butcher to shelf? In effect, boasting of freshness when, one might infer, other products have been stored in the meantime?

OK, I'm not going to dwell on the comparison, but, when a cattery offered for a pet's living area (i.e. not its run) to be heated for an extra, say, £1.20, it was wisely - and, it must be said, repeatedly - asked as an effectively rhetorical question how one would know whether she (for she was a she) had received the benefit for which one had paid extra. Another supermarket answers the question, as applying to the taste and qualify of food, with the slogan Taste the difference...

With freezing, I hazard that it has an effect on the fibres in meat (and poultry or fish, for that matter), which could have a bearing on how chewy it is. I suppose so, because I know that it is said that (even with blanching) some fruit or vegetables do not freeze well, which I take to mean that one would be less keen or less able (e.g. disintegration) to eat them than before the freezing.

In itself, that might argue for the meat to be tenderized by being frozen, but I do not think that it is so simple or that the thawed product would respond to being cooked in the same way as before - and ideal cooking temepratures and durations are a whole other kettle of fish!


End-notes

* By the way, who does believe that story of a joint of beef being knighted?


If you want to Tweet, Tweet away here