Why doesn't meat taste like it used to?

jamjar,

Until a couple of years ago I regularly used to buy cheap meat and 'value' type chicken, pleased with myself that I was getting a bargain. I have now come to realise that I don't like the way the chickens and livestock are kept, fed antibiotics and growth hormones and never see a blade of grass, and are transported miles (more for chickens and pigs, sheep and cattle seem to mostly live outside). I love a bargain and hate to spend a lot on food, but I came to the conclusion that I would rather have one good quality free range organic chicken or a couple of pork chops every couple of weeks and really enjoy the taste, than to have the cheap stuff a couple of times a week. I usually buy from the butcher, asking him where the meat was from before I buy.

thriftlady_2

I agree with jamjar 100%.

I'd rather buy 'proper' meat less frequently than rubbish meat every week.My butcher is excellent and does very good value freezer deals if you buy in bulk.

bonnie_2

agree with jamjar. i wont compromise on food, i only buy organic.
value food was actually making me ill, since going organic i feel so much healthier and more energetic and alert.
i just put food first and go without other things.
its worth it believe me.

Icemaiden

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

I rather suspect it was cheap intensively reared pork - was it a pale colour or pink?


Avoid supermarket pork ... really

Avoid Supermarket meat full stop...

beer2006

Yep agree with the avoid supermarket meat, trouble is not everyone can afford to buy good quality meat, although there is an argument to eat less meat and have better quality stuff when you do have it.

I buy, not organic, but it is old breed pork from a couple who rear there own pigs, all outdoor reared and matured slowly. The cost isn't much more than supermarkets. I think not many people buy off them though, its a shame. people are too far removed from the actual place the meat comes from now. Their sausages and burgers are out of this world. And its all butchered a short distance away.
If anyone does want the details of where to buy the pork, its in East Northamptonshire, please pm me. I have nothing to do with the business at all.

I don't agree with chicken from supermarkets, though I have bought some free range ones from there before, I still wonder what sort of a life they have had. Call me cynical.........

Dora_the_Explorer_5

When we eat meat we eat what the animal ate and what the animal was dosed with. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's cooked chicken only to find it tasted vaguely of fish, and fish isn't a chook's natural food.

beer2006

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

When we eat meat we eat what the animal ate and what the animal was dosed with. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's cooked chicken only to find it tasted vaguely of fish, and fish isn't a chook's natural food.

Depends where they live

I remember bacon used to taste of fish, anyone else remember that?

susank

I think you need to get a really good butcher locally - you can tell from the newspapers what animals he bought at the sales and they usually have rosettes on display as they may have bought a prize animal. This way you know he won't give you rubbish - I think the supermarkets do not let their beef hang long enough and its prepacked in plastic bag stuff and polystyrene which is not nice.

calleyw

jamjar, wrote:

chickens and livestock are kept, fed antibiotics and growth hormones and never see a blade of grass, and are transported miles (more for chickens and pigs, sheep and cattle seem to mostly live outside). I love a bargain and hate to spend a lot on food, but I came to the conclusion that I would rather have one good quality free range organic chicken or a couple of pork chops every couple of weeks and really enjoy the taste, than to have the cheap stuff a couple of times a week. I usually buy from the butcher, asking him where the meat was from before I buy.

Animals are not allow to be feed growth hormones in the UK, so buy UK meat. If you look on the packages of meat you can see where it was killed, cut and lived. So choose one that says UK or Irish.

Also most of the farmers I know only give antiboitics when animals are ill. I suppose it is better to let an animal suffer then. A complete record of everything that is given to the animals must be kept. Also animals given any treatment are not allow to go in to the food chain for at least a month or so.

And prehaps you need to ask the government why animals must be transported miles. Oh yes that is right because they shut down most of the little abbatoirs.

Even my dad say there is to much blood in meat nowadays. And I agree. Everytime I seem to buy meat from the supermarket it has blood in it. Meat is better if it is been hung. Beef should not be bright red. It should be a deeper darker red colour. Just look at the sainsburys beef that has been hung for 21 days.

I agree that meat is best bought from the butchers if you can afford it. But as has been said not all of use can afford it or have a local butchers. Even if I only had a chicken once every fornight I still could not afford to buy organic at £6 or £7 each.

I will be glad when all farmers go organic then the prices will drop so we can all afford to buy it.

But then I suppose if you trust your local butcher all the better. I don't trust mine as most of the items in the window are in the process of defrosting. When I look in there. Which means I can't re-freeze it. So a bit of a waste of time for me. Unless I go there every couple of days.

Yours

Calley

susank

I personally dont believe that most people cannot afford to use the local butchers. In the small villages that is all they have anyway and you can just buy what you need i.e. 3 oz mince rather than 1 lb from supermarket and I personally would rather have a bulked out meal with good tasting meat than one with no taste. As for your butcher - if he is using defrosted meat in his window - ask him why and ask for fresh instead make him prove it especially when shop is full!!! - after all we are the customer and we should get just what we want or try some other butchers with recommendation from others. I travel 6 miles to a good butcher and back and I buy 20 - 30 pounds money of meat products at a time and freeze them or bulk cook and freeze so it lasts me ages and ages.