[Sca-cooks] Beef Bafflement article

[Susan Fox]

> On Apr 15, 2006, at 8:11 AM, marilyn traber 011221 wrote:
> 
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060413/ap_on_bi_ge/baffled_by_beef
>> 
>> Any comments?

Surprisingly sensible.  Sad that it's come to this of course.  The fast-food
ad that states "If it weren't for us, some guys would starve" is all too
true.  I wonder if the rise of Food Network and other foodie TV programming
will affect this in the long run, when today's little kids go out on their
own tomorrow?  Well, I teach the children I can.  I've got a 7-year-old with
a distracted mother that I need to work on next.  <smile>  I bet I could
show him how to bake a chicken successfully in one afternoon.

> I know I've been seeing little stickers on meat packaging [sometimes]
> for years now, advising the buyer to broil, saute, or braise, based
> on the primary cut. It always seemed like a good idea to me as a sort
> of minimalist measure of education for the clueless: you have to
> figure that after seeing enough labels that say something like, "beef
> chuck: pot roast or stew", the buyer will eventually know this stuff
> to some extent. Maybe they won't be able to identify or locate the
> one little muscle in the chuck from which chicken steaks are cut,
> that doesn't need moist heat (random example; whatever), but they
> will have a fair sense that they shouldn't broil a slice from the
> shank or boil a porterhouse steak for three hours.
> 
> Adamantius
> 

Agreed.  They cover this in the article:

    "One strategy is consumer-friendly labeling, said Kent Harrison, group
brand manager for premium beef programs at Cargill Meat Solutions in
Wichita. Packages show if a cut is right for the grill or best as a pot
roast, or if a grade of ground beef is best for hamburger patties or
Hamburger Helper. The labels often have recipes."

This is probably likely to do the most actual good.  It's not like the
educational system is going to take up the challenge.  I think I was of the
last generation of young girls to be required to take Cooking class in
middle school.  [Yes, I was the perfect little Hermione, having been cooking
for more than half my life already...but I'd rather have taken shop where I
could have learned something NEW.]

Selene