How to choose first-class meat. How to choose good meat

Many novice cooks and housewives are thinking about how to choose beef so that the purchased piece of meat is of high quality and is juicy and tasty. And to do this, oddly enough, is not at all difficult, the main thing is to clearly find out why beef is bought. Let's discuss some of the subtleties of choosing this type of meat.

The choice of meat according to its purpose

First of all, before choosing beef, you should decide for yourself why you are buying meat and what you want to do with it. After all, it depends on its purpose which piece of carcass you have to choose, and how it should look. And first of all, for this you need to understand that the softest meat is the muscles that are least involved in the cow during its movement, and the hardest is the muscles that are constantly in motion. Therefore, if you plan to roast meat, for this purpose you should take the upper part of the cow carcass, starting from the back. If you want to taste a boiled dish, then you need to take the lower part of the cow carcass, and the middle part is suitable for stewing.

Well, or you can remember that you can fry a rump or fillet, a fillet or tenderloin with a fatty layer is suitable for baking, and for stewing you need a butt, thigh or brisket. Every housewife knows that a rich broth can be made from a piece of meat with bones, tendons and cartilage.

Market or supermarket

Many confidently believe that it is best to buy beef in the supermarket, where it is already packaged and frozen. However, this is not at all the case, because store-bought meat most often does not breathe, and during the time it is under the plastic wrap, it loses many of its useful properties. Therefore, it is better to go to the market to buy meat. However, despite the fact that the bazaar is the best place to buy this product, when deciding how to choose beef in the market, it is important to be aware of a few nuances. And above all, it is better to go around the counter, where next to the meat you will see puddles of water that are formed due to the fact that the sellers sprinkle it with beef to make it look better. So they mask the loss of quality. But if the meat looks slightly dried, then this is not at all scary and will not affect the quality of the product.

Rules for choosing beef

So, you have already decided on the choice of a cow and the place of its purchase. Now it is very important to remember how to choose the right beef among the many cuts of meat, so that you do not regret your decision later.

1. In no case should you choose meat, focusing on its low cost, because a good quality product cannot be cheap in any way, and you will have to pay a tidy sum for the highest quality marbled beef.
2. You should take a good look at the product, as its appearance can tell a lot about its quality.
3. It is advisable to sniff the piece of beef offered to you by the seller to make sure of its pleasant aroma, otherwise it will indicate that the meat has deteriorated.
4. If possible, you need to touch the beef to determine if the meat is loose, and try to choose the piece that will be the most elastic.

How to choose beef by appearance

The main thing you need to pay close attention to is the appearance of the piece provided to you. First of all, the color of the meat should be even, without all sorts of dark spots and greens, which indicate a deterioration in its quality. The color itself should be bright red, which will confirm the freshness of the beef, while the red-brown color of the meat will signal to the vigilant buyer that the beef is already old and not fresh at all. It is also important to look at the fat layers, which will be white in a fresh piece, the yellowish color of the layers will tell you that the cow has lived to a ripe old age. Plus, you definitely need to make sure that there are no crusts on the meat, which indicate that it has been sold unsuccessfully for a long time, which means that you can’t take such beef.

How to choose meat by smell

When buying meat, it is very important to smell the piece. The beef should smell good and not have any off-flavours. After all, if the smell of onions, vinegar, various spices comes from the meat, then this indicates that its expiration date has expired, and they want to sell it as soon as possible. The absence of at least some smell from meat should also alert, because this suggests that the cow was raised with the help of harmful chemical additives that accelerate its growth, which means that such a product will be very unhealthy. And, finally, in no case should you take beef, from which a rotten smell emanates, because such meat has deteriorated a long time ago, which means that you need to leave the counter as soon as possible.

Selecting meat by touching the piece

If you have not yet been able to make a choice by simply smelling or looking closely at a piece, then the last option on how to choose beef meat on the market can be considered touching it. To do this, you just need to touch the beef with your finger, and immediately walk away if the meat is sticky or wet. In addition, it is important that the finger-mark on the beef immediately smooth out, which will show the high quality of the beef to the vigilant buyer. If the dent does not smooth out, then this meat is already old, and after cooking the beef will be very tough.

Choice of meat for steak

When choosing meat, the most difficult thing is to find a suitable piece for cooking a steak, even in the oven, even on the grill, even at the stake. Therefore, if you decide to cook this delicious dish, then it is important to remember that it is made from beef so that when it is ready, it will shock everyone with its unique taste, aroma and appearance.

First of all, you should pay attention to the cut of meat, if it is perfectly even, then everything is in order with the beef, but if it resembles a ladder, then most likely the piece of meat was cut frozen, lost its taste, so it will cook unevenly, will lose more moisture than necessary and be completely inedible. You also need to pay attention to the color of the beef for the steak, which should be natural, not have pale or dark spots. The pale color of beef, which is similar to pork, is absolutely not suitable for us, because the steak will be fried too much. You should also pay attention to the thickness of the meat piece, which should vary between 3-5 cm.

Meat storage

Now that you already know how to choose good beef, it is very important to remember how to store this meat. So, after the purchase, it is very important to put the meat in the refrigerator without cutting it, and you can keep it there for three to four days. It is very important to put the beef in the refrigerator, wrapping it in a paper bag or a waffle towel. But meat should not be wrapped in a plastic bag, and it should also not be stored wrapped in a film, because in this way bacteria can start in it. The maximum shelf life in the refrigerator at a temperature of 0-7 ° C is one week, and in the freezer - up to six months. However, storing meat in the freezer for a long time is highly discouraged, because in this way it will lose its taste and all useful properties.

Note to the owner

And finally, since we now know perfectly well how to choose beef and how to store it, finally, we need to remember a few more rules for handling meat, which, if they are strictly followed, will help cooks and meat eaters a lot.

1. The fatter the meat, the faster it will cook through.
2. During the frying of beef, you can’t put many pieces of meat on the pan, because they will all release juice, and then the meat will not be fried, but stewed.
3. In order for the meat to be covered with a beautiful ruddy crust, before baking it on the grill, in the oven or in a pan, you should dry it with a paper towel.
4. During the frying of meat, you can not turn it over too quickly to the other side, let first one side be covered with a golden crust, and then the second.
5. It is best to defrost meat directly in the refrigerator at a temperature of +5 ° C.
6. Due to boiling and frying, it is necessary to clearly calculate the amount of meat purchased, since after cooking its weight from one kilogram will become 600 grams, and after frying - 650 grams.
7. When you fry meat, you can not pierce it with a fork to test, otherwise all the juice will flow out of it, and as a result, the finished dish will be tough, it will be impossible to chew.
8. If you add tomato paste or tomatoes to the kitchen pan, then the beef will be stewed much faster.
9. Stew the meat should be on a slow low heat, avoiding a rapid boil.
10. So that the broth in which the meat is cooked is transparent and can be used for cooking first courses, beef should be poured with cold water.

- and now I gathered my courage and decided to write the same one, but about meat. If you search the Internet, you find an illogical, albeit understandable, pattern: there are so many recipes that you won’t cook in a lifetime, and you won’t find sensible information on how to choose the right products for this recipe in the afternoon with fire. Meat is a special product that requires the right approach, and therefore, by no means considering myself an expert, I will still give a few tips that I myself follow.

Meat is not yogurt or biscuits in standard packaging, which you can pick up from the supermarket shelf without looking. If you want to buy good meat, it is best to go to the market, where it is easier to choose and the quality is often higher. Another reason not to buy meat in stores is the various dishonest tricks that are sometimes used to make the meat look more appetizing and weigh more. It’s not that they don’t do this in the market, but here you can at least look the seller in the eye.

Those of us who have not embarked on the path of vegetarianism eat meat more or less regularly. The best thing you can do in this situation is to get "your" butcher who will know you by sight, offer the best cuts, give valuable advice and order meat for you in case it is not available now. Choose a butcher who is humanly pleasing to you and who sells decent goods - and do not forget to exchange at least a couple of words with him with each purchase. The rest is a matter of patience and personal contact.

A butcher is a butcher, but it doesn’t hurt to understand meat on your own either. The color of meat is one of the main signs of its freshness: good beef should be confidently red, pork should be pinkish, veal is similar to pork, but more pink, lamb is similar to beef, but darker and more saturated.

A thin pale pink or pale red crust from the drying of meat is a completely normal phenomenon, but there should not be any extraneous shades or spots on the meat. There should be no mucus either: if you put your hand on fresh meat, it will remain almost dry.

As with fish, smell is another sure-fire guide to determining the quality of a product. We are predators, and the barely perceptible fresh smell of good meat is pleasant for us. For example, beef should smell so that you want to immediately make a tatar steak out of it or. A distinct unpleasant smell suggests that this meat is no longer the first or even the second freshness, and you should not buy it in any case. The old, proven way to sniff a piece of meat "from the inside" is to pierce it with a heated knife.

Fat, even if you intend to cut it off and throw it away, can tell a lot by its appearance. Firstly, it must be white (or creamy in the case of lamb), secondly, it must have the right consistency (beef must crumble, lamb, on the contrary, be quite dense), and thirdly, it must not have an unpleasant or rancid smell. Well, if you want to buy not only fresh, but also high-quality meat, pay attention to its “marbling”: on a cut of really good meat, you can see that fat is dispersed over its entire surface.

The same as with fish: fresh meat springs when pressed and the hole that you left with your finger is immediately smoothed out.

When buying frozen meat, pay attention to the sound it makes when tapped, the smooth cut, the bright color that appears when you put your finger on it. Defrost the meat carefully, the longer the better (eg in the refrigerator), and if it has been frozen properly, then cooked will be almost indistinguishable from chilled.

When buying this or that cut, it is good to know in what place of the carcass of the animal it is located and how many bones are in it. With this knowledge, you will not overpay for bones and will be able to correctly calculate the number of servings.

Well, we traditionally share our secrets about how you personally choose meat, where you try to buy it, what you love the most and everything else in the comments.

If you live in a village and keep your livestock and poultry yard under the supervision of a veterinarian of the state veterinary service, then the question of where to buy and how to choose good rabbit or pork meat disappears by itself.

But the residents of the metropolis are faced with the choice of buying meat in a supermarket or in the market. It would seem that there is nothing to guess, go to any store and choose what your heart desires, but it wasn’t there. Often in large shopping centers, goods lie longer than expected. It is often reanimated and passed off as fresh. How is the market doing? There, too, of course, everything happens.

But the meat lying openly on the counter can be carefully examined, smelled and felt. After all, the bazaars sell mostly chilled, not frozen products. And not to miss the purchase will help you elementary knowledge of the rules of how to choose meat in the market, and simple attentiveness.

But even in the market, not every seller will allow you to touch the meat with your hands. The main thing is that there you can carefully look at it and determine some indicators by sight. There are several main indicators by which you can determine and choose the highest quality meat:

1. The meat to be chosen must be relatively dry, without oozing liquid. And when applying a napkin to the surface of the meat, it should remain dry. There should be no slippery stickiness. In terms of elasticity, it should be a little like marmalade.

2. There should be no blood or bruising on the surface of the meat.

3. The meat should be light. The dark shade of the carcass is the result of improper slaughter, or the animal suffered for a long time during slaughter. Such meat is always rejected. But some sellers still sell it, while violating the rules of the meat trade. In this case, you must contact the veterinary laboratory in the market.

4. Fresh meat should not have any smell, except for a specific one. At a temperature of 18-22 degrees Celsius, the meat should have a specific smell of meat. There are people who test the taste by cutting off a small piece of meat and chewing it. There is nothing to worry about here if you know for sure that there are no pathogenic microbes on the surface of the product. Still, it's not worth the risk by using this method.

5. Fat and fat should be white, in extreme cases, light, but no matter how yellow. True, it should be borne in mind that some animals fattened for slaughter are fed corn. In such animals, after slaughter, the fat will be yellow. The smell of fat should not be at all.

6. When you press your finger on the surface of the meat, a dimple should appear, which quickly straightens out. There should be no moisture on the dimple, otherwise the meat was re-frozen, which is unacceptable for this type of product.

7. Meat fibers should not break apart. To check, you can even slightly pull the piece you like in different directions. If it stratifies, then the meat was soaked in something and it is no longer fresh.

8. Ask to cut the meat: its color on the cut should be the same as on the surface. Spoiled meat shimmers in different colors.

9. It is better to go shopping in the morning - by the evening the meat will be slightly stale.

Traders in the markets will definitely have documents in their hands - expert findings that indicate that their goods have been tested by the market laboratory and found fit for use. If the laboratory finds any infection in the meat, this product is confiscated from the seller and destroyed.

If the seller brought several types of meat at once, then a separate document will be issued for each of them (an exception is lard, it will be recorded in the expert opinion on pork). Each document must indicate: the name of the owner, where the meat was brought from, what kind and what was tested in the laboratory. The expert conclusion must have two seals: the market laboratory itself and the radiological control. A receipt for payment for laboratory tests is also pinned to it, the date on which must match the date on the expert conclusion.

You should not buy meat from your hands on the street, where no one will give you a guarantee that the animal did not get sick. In addition, meat in the open air very quickly, within two hours, is saturated with harmful substances, especially when the roadway is close.

Learn to make the right choice of meat and if you have the slightest doubt about the quality of the product, do not buy it, since food prepared from stale and low-quality meat is not only harmful, but also dangerous to health. Meat is a rather expensive product, buy it only fresh and of high quality. And let the most appetizing and tempting smells come from your kitchen.

Deputy Elena Prokopova, Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Risk Analysis of Food Production, Rostov Reference Center of Rosselkhoznadzor

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Beef is a source of protein and iron, it contains vitamins A, PP, C, B and minerals: calcium, selenium, magnesium, potassium. Beef is the basis for many culinary dishes, from simple soups to gourmet filet mignons. Beef dishes are tasty and tender not only thanks to unique recipes, the taste of the dish also depends on how fresh and juicy the meat was chosen.

So, let's go choose beef!

Fresh meat is valued more than frozen. There are several reasons: firstly, it is completely ready for cooking, and secondly, it is easier to choose and consider such meat when buying.

• Color. Fresh beef has a rich red color, without inclusions of greenish or dark color. The brownish tint has the meat of an old animal (from such meat - do not expect a juicy and soft dish). Conclusion: meat - only red.
• Fat. Fat should be pale white and dense - in this case, the meat is considered to be of high quality. In young beef, the fat even crumbles a little. Yellow fat indicates the toughness of the meat. Marbled meat is considered to be the best type of beef - such meat is riddled with small fatty layers. This meat is difficult to spoil during the cooking process - dishes from it will definitely turn out juicy. Conclusion: the fat is white and crumbles.
• Surface. A slight airing of the surface of the beef is allowed if it was butchered a few hours ago. The main thing is that there are no spots or crusts on a piece of meat. Fresh beef is firm and dry to the touch. The cut edges may be slightly damp. To check this quality of beef, you need to put your hand to the piece - the palm should remain dry. You should not buy meat that lies in pools of blood, it is better to buy weathered meat than wet. Conclusion: fresh beef must be dry.
• Smell. It is far from always possible to sniff the meat, but if the seller allows you to do this, by all means take advantage of this offer. Fresh meat smells pleasant, without additional odors. If in doubt, it is better to refuse to buy such beef. Conclusion: there should be no unpleasant odor.
• Elasticity. If possible, it is worth conducting a test for sagging meat. If, when pressed with a finger, the formed hole in the meat immediately smoothed out: you have fresh meat in front of you. Conclusion: fresh meat is elastic.
• Price. The question of price is quite complicated, because all the meat is in about the same price category. But it is worth remembering that the meat of village cows fed on grass with hay will be of better quality and more expensive than the meat of cows from an ordinary farm. Conclusion: quality beef cannot be cheap.

Buying frozen beef

When properly frozen and thawed, frozen meat is almost indistinguishable from fresh meat. Thawing beef should only take place in the refrigerator and the longer the better.

• Production time. First of all, you need to look at the expiration dates for meat, they should be indicated on the label. Shelf life of frozen beef is 10 months, veal is 8 months.
• Manufacturer country. Consider carefully who is the beef producer. It is better to take domestically produced meat - it is likely to be fresher than imported.
• Package. Be sure to pay attention to the integrity of the packaging. There should be no breaks on the substrate, and the film should be intact.
• Color. During the freezing process, beef does not change its color dramatically, so you should choose pieces with a lighter color. If the meat was stored without access to oxygen (it was in polyethylene or packed in a vacuum), then it may be dark red in color, but when defrosted, it will regain its correct color.
• Ice. The presence of a large amount of ice and snow on the packaging indicates that the product has either been stored incorrectly or has already been defrosted. It is better to refuse such a purchase. The presence of ice is allowed only on the outside of the package.

Choosing beef for a specific dish

Some people can spoil a good piece of meat due to improper preparation. When going to the store for beef, you need to have a clear idea for what you need it.

• For frying. Lean and soft meat is perfect for this. This is the loin, thick edge, thin edge or rump.
• For baking. For baking, it is better to choose pieces of meat with fatty layers, in which case the meat will be moderately juicy and soft. Suitable loin, tenderloin.
• For extinguishing. Less lean beef is suitable for this cooking method. The thick edge, thighs, brisket, buttocks are well stewed.
• For soup. Beef broth should be light, moderately fatty and saturated. For rich broths, beef with cartilage, tendons, and large bones is suitable.
• For jelly. Shank, knuckle and tail are indispensable for jelly. The ratio of bones and meat should be the same. It is in the lower leg that contains substances that give jelly to jelly, so no gelatin is needed here.

The ability to choose meat comes with experience, which in turn is gained over the years. And yet, the advice that is in front of you will be useful when buying a good piece of beef!

A user of the Peekaboo site under the nickname ArsenZa posted a story on how to choose the right meat: “When I wrote a post about the tricks of sellers in stores, a lot of negative reviews appeared in the comments about the fact that I insult honest counter workers and in general butchers don’t better, and doctors are ignorant, it's generally a nightmare.

I would like to note that these posts do not aim to educate vegans, which I feel rather badly about, or insult anyone, but are created in order to focus the reader's attention on important little things that allow you to save money and health.

So, today's post is about how to choose meat in the market and in the store. And about some tricks of butchers.

I will make a reservation right away - there is no consensus on where it is better to take meat. From the hands or on the market, meat is often natural and the quality is higher, but, on the other hand, the risk of dangerous infectious diseases is higher. In the store - the larger the store, the safer, but at the same time, the quality of meat and its taste often leave much to be desired, and asshole cutting of meat is also common.

In any case, you should always be careful about the choice, even if the place is “tested” and everything was fine. Here are some evaluation criteria:

The presence of fascia (films, tendons, chaff)

Every muscle in the body is covered with a thin connective tissue sheath. These films are quite difficult to remove, buyers do not like them, but meanwhile this casing is a natural sign of quality. In stores and markets, when a piece of meat lingers or begins to deteriorate, the top layer of 1-2 centimeters is cut off from it and continues to be sold (by the way, cut pieces are often sent to minced meat, this should also be remembered). And so on until they sell or until there is nothing to cut. Of course, employees of any hypermarket will say that this never happens, all unsold meat is written off and disposed of on time. Whom to believe, decide for yourself.

Thus, if in front of you is a piece of meat covered on three sides with fascia, and a piece from the films is carefully cleaned, it is better to take it with films. And yes, it is on these films that a veterinary stamp is placed: a piece with an uncut stamp is especially good. And yes, I am aware that fresh meat is bad, it must ripen and rest, but nevertheless I think that it is better to buy meat fresh, at an early stage of ripening, it is safer.

veterinary stamp

It is also mistakenly called a seal. Four hallmarks are put on the carcass. One per shoulder blade and thigh on each side of the carcass. The stamp must be oval in shape with clearly distinguishable six digits. The first pair is the number of the region (they do not correspond to the car numbers of the regions), the second is the number of the region / city in the region, the third is the number of the laboratory / slaughterhouse / meat processing plant. If at least one of the pairs is poorly distinguishable or indistinguishable, the meat is “left”. Unscrupulous merchants use stigmas with cut numbers or those that deliberately leave a slightly blurry mark.

Some have left stamps with all the numbers, as expected, but the punishment for such a trick is much more severe, so this is rare. The stamp number must correspond to the veterinary certificate in form No. 2 (blue paper of A5 format). It is clear that everything can be faked, but the nervous behavior of the seller (if you ask for a veterinary certificate and carefully examine the stigma) suggests that something is unclean here, and simply do not buy from this seller.

Bone size and amount of fat

An important point for pork, lamb and veal. It should be remembered that too small bones are suspicious. No sane farmer would slaughter young animals - this is not economically profitable. They slaughter "culling", that is, sick, weak, injured animals. The chances of meeting some kind of muck increase significantly. Too large bones are also bad: the animal is old, perhaps a sow or a cow culled from the herd “by age”. Such animals also give out an excess amount of fat (some cunning beef sellers pass this off as "marbling").

Separately, I would like to say about the veal. It is often distinguished by the color of the meat, but this is not too correct. In veal, a characteristic feature, in addition to color, will be the absence of fat (it simply does not have time to be deposited), fairly large bones (in a normally developing healthy calf, the skeleton greatly overtakes muscles in growth) with a noticeably smaller amount of meat on them. I’ll add on my own - good veal is a rarity, most often under the guise of it they sell all sorts of crap, as well as under the guise of “milk pigs”.

How to recognize a good butcher

A good butcher can be seen from the deck. It is even (if you chop carelessly, on the side where you chop, a cavity quickly forms), white - rubbed with beef fat. This is an important criterion: on a well grated deck, the meat does not come into contact with the tree at all, you will not come across chips. And yes, if the butcher rubbed the deck with fat in the morning, in the evening he will have to thoroughly clean it and cover it with salt, otherwise it will stink tightly. Therefore, a smooth, greasy deck is a sure sign of a responsible person who has an idea of ​​​​sanitary standards. You can buy pork ribs from such a person and ask them to chop them into a bandolier - most likely, the result will not disappoint you.

Buying packaged meat

Provided undamaged packaging and correct markings / labels, the safety of such meat is higher (but not absolute, there is no guarantee against the negligence of the packer or temperature violations during storage / transportation). However, there is a higher chance of buying a lot more bone/fat/tendon than meets the eye. Frauds with varietal cuts are not uncommon - not every person can distinguish a piece of ham from a piece of shoulder blade by eye, etc. Therefore, in large stores it is better to buy meat "from the window" and ask the seller to show the meat from all sides.

Poor cutting of meat

Very common in large stores. This is when there are more bones in the semi-finished product than it should be (the body of the vertebra is not cut out in the entrecote, the body of the vertebra and a long rib are left in the loin), or when a large and seemingly beautiful piece actually has several tendons inside and, when cooked, will fall apart into several pieces . In the first case, you buy a bone at the price of meat, in the second case, the culinary value of meat is greatly reduced and you cannot cook many dishes from it.

I would also include here the disgusting industrial cut of pork ribs, when only the intercostal muscles are left, and the layer of meat above the ribs is cut to zero. Formally, these actions do not violate any norms and rules, in fact they are deceiving you, selling at the price of meat what should go into minced meat and soup sets.

Buying minced meat

In minced meat, in any case, meat of the third grade is sent. In absolutely any place, no one in their right mind allows good meat to be minced. Minced meat may be fresh and safe - but it is always third class. If you want good minced meat - buy meat and make it yourself - this is the golden rule. If you bought meat and ask to grind it for you in a store, ask that the meat grinder be washed and collected in front of you, otherwise it may end badly.