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Showing posts with label Scam. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Standing Rib (Primal Rib Cut) Beef with Yorkshire Pudding


Standing Rib Beef (from the primal rib cut) with Yorkshire pudding; now costly; but traditionally considered an inferior cut, the presentation can non-the –less be very impressive.          
Wipe meat with damp cloth but do not wash. Rub with salt in the proportion of 1 tsp. per pound of meat. Rub with pepper, onion, or garlic if desired. Place the meat, fat side up, on rack in roasting pan; if, meat has little, or no fat, place strips of bacon, salt pork or suet over it. This will baste the meat and no other basting is needed. Do not add water and do not cover the pan. If meat thermometer is to be used, insert into centre of thickest part of cut, being sure bulb of thermometer does not touch bone or fat. Roast at no more than 325F.for required length of time or until the thermometer registers the desired internal temperature. If a cut is not cut immediately upon removal from oven, it will continue to cook and the temperature at the centre will continue to rise. This may continue 30 to 45 minutes, in a large cut. Allow about 1/2 lb. per serving.
Yorkshire pudding
Ingredients:
1 cup flour  
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt           
2 eggs
Drippings from roast beef
Method
Mix flour and salt. Combine milk and eggs, add to flour, and beat well until smooth. Pour hot drippings into a hot shallow pan or muffin tins to a depth of 1 inch. Pour in mixture quickly and bake in hot oven (400 F.) 1/2 hour. The pudding may then be placed under the rack holding the roast beef and left for 15 minutes to catch the juices from the roast, if a rack is not used, cut pudding into squares, or remove from muffin tins and arrange in pan around meat. Serve with the meat.

Sunday, 12 October 2014

What is the Difference Between a Calotte (I assume this should be [French] Coulotte and a "Ribeye Cap Steak?

Although I further elaborate below, this top image-especially the "Choice" side clearly shows rhe reasons why the Multifidus Dorsi,  Spinalis Dorsi and Longissimus dorsi muscles are often trimmed from around the Eye Fillet Entrecote steak. Both of the shown cuts  (prime or choice) also show the fillet CAP- if, one were to claim such actually exists. 
As stated in the title of this post, I believe Mr Lopez meant to write-it's Coulotte in French. There isn't much difference-REALLY, TRULY-except 1. That there can be no such thing as a Rib-eye  Cap"
2. A North American fabricated and named, Rib-eye comes from the front quarter (primal, rib) while a Coulotte comes from the hind quarter (primal, long Sir-Loin)  On the other hand, steak-loving cooks, and United States of the Americas based, aspiring, chefs, have a SECRET that they've only just started to “SHARE” with their customers. It's a so called Rib-eye Cap--calotte de boeuf-Is NOT the French name for this cut fabricated in the United States of the Americas{The calotte (plural calottes, French from Provençal calota or Italian callotta), is a skullcap worn by students at catholic universities in Belgium. It originates from the skullcap worn by the Papal Zouave regiment around 1860.}that highly fated, tallowed, not marbled, relatively tender (when compared with other mainly LOIN cuts), layer of meat wrapped around the Rib-eye(Longissimus Dorsi muscle), that’s starting to show up on the menus of “Innovative” Broiler Cooks around the United States of the Americas and even, to some extent, in Canada. With all the flavour of the Rib-eye(thinned out section of longissimus dorsi muscle that runs for pretty much the entire length of a beef carcass and main muscle of the strip-ped loin) and none of the tenderness- of a lacking in flavour tenderloin fillet, the very incorrectly named "Rib-eye cap"-another contradiction in terminology, indicative of the problems peoples of the United States of the Americas have in using the English language(functional illiteracy), is simply one of the thinned dorsi muscles that are thickest and tenderest in the HIND QUARTER SIR-loin Primal Cut.
Just as the tenderloin has been strip-ped from a strip loin(in that case, strictly for increased retail profit) the Mulfidus Dorsi and the spinalis Dorsi have been stripped- trimmed off- a boneless rib steak[In French, the word entrecôte (French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃.tʁə.kot]) denotes the boneless rib cut of beef used for such steaks]; in this case to rid the entrecote-which is traditionally  considered of lower quality than steaks cut from SIR-LOIN of excessive(waste)tallow type fat and connective tissues.
This trimmed and shaped entrecote then, and only then; becomes the Rib-eye fillet or Premium/Prime(if cut fromprime grade beef)entrecote.
If one so insists, this tallowed, more than marbled, mostly hamburger scrap trimming from around the rib eye; CAN be used for dry-heat cooking methods like grilling, roasting and pan-broiling. The thin (undesirably so, as the thinness serves to toughen the meat if broiled) flat, oblong muscle can also be broiled/roasted in one piece, cut into individual fast fry/grilling strips (a steak is defined, by Oxford or Webster's dictionaries, as "a thick slice of meat"), or rolled, tied and cut into medallions. As it like a true fillet, is somewhat lacking in flavour but is not as tender; it's almost, ideal for a stuffed and rolled presentation-I however, would much prefer a much more flavourful, braised flank steak--or a nicely broiled, very flavourful, Coulotte.© Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.

 Meet the Rib-eye Cap, the Tastiest Cut on the Cow--NOT.


Friday, 5 February 2010

Cow Beef, Man's Meat, Or Is It?


So are Long Horns
For several years,they were the only beef, other than the Bison. to be found in the United States.

Buffalo, (buffalo are found only in Africa and some parts of Asia) also belong to the bovine family. They are beef cattle, and so; buffalo meat is beef.


 Bison are bovines and the meat is technically beef but often much better.

Would you call them all Prime beef?

Those of you that trust our politicians and government institutions, believe in free trade, love the local Safeway or other supermarket and think all meat comes wrapped in plastic may want to stop reading about here.

The name meat is given generally to all edible flesh of animals used for food. The name beef is used for flesh of adult bovine or cattle, veal for the flesh of calves, unborn to about two months of age, pork for flesh of swine, mutton for the flesh of adult sheep and lamb for the flesh of sheep from six weeks to one year old. The flesh or muscle consists of fibres held together by connective tissue. Muscles that are used most are toughest. Muscles become tougher as an animal matures.
©Al Girvan 1990

Beef Loin Cuts


Porterhouse Many believe these to be the best of all steaks. The FIRST cut from the short loin, this is a much smaller joint 4-5 inches thick. As is true of any meat cut or joint, a porterhouse does NOT have to be cut up into steaks.This cut, joint, or steak contains the largest portion of the flavourful top loin (due to their always contrary nature, known as New York or Kansas City strip, in the United States of the Americas), and the  largest part of the buttery, soft, and rather tasteless, tenderloin; which, alone, has become known as Chateaubriand. Hotels, restaurants usually cut their own.

T-Bone steak Coming after the First or Porterhouse cut; so named for its distinguishing T-shaped bone, this choice cut is almost identical to a Porterhouse steak, only it doesn't have quite as much of the tenderloin or fillet muscle in it.

Club Steak Think of this as a T-bone steak without any of the choice tenderloin muscle in it. True to their usual contrary nature, in the United States this steak is sometimes called a Delmonico, though they more often reserve this name for rib-eye (entrecote) steaks. Substitutes: Strip steak OR rib steak (not nearly as tender, with a lot of connective tissue and excess tallow).

Coulotte Steak= Culotte Steak= Culottes Steak= Top sirloin cap steak This is a small, boneless steak cut from the sirloin. It's got good flavour and nutrition, but of course, it's a bit tougher than other steaks so you might want to marinate before cooking it. Substitutes: sirloin steak.

Chateaubriand While traditionally, the meat used was the first cut from the thickest part (eye of the tenderloin Chateaubriand is really a meat recipe. Because not very many people are aware of this, as part of an on going quest for excessive profits "American" (USA) companies, and with the advent of "free trade" so called Chateaubriand is now often cut from the small end of the top sirloin, or even from the round. This is pure customer deception and fraud but because Chateaubriand is a recipe such designation is also technically legal; at least under the American" concept of fair play.

Fillet Mignon= Tenderloin Steak=Fillet Steak= Fillet de Boeuf= Tender Steak. Originallythe whole tender loin (from the short loin) was known as the fillet mignon. Pronunciation: fee-lay mee-NYOH Plural: Fillets mignons. These are cut from the tenderloin, and they're the tenderest steaks you can buy, though not the most flavourful or nutritious. Again, true to their contrary nature, in the United States butchers usually call all tenderloin steaks (only) fillets mignons, but the French (who invented and first named all the cuts and recipes that go with them) now reserve the name for just the middle portion of the tenderloin. As they move further down and away from the fillet mignon, the French and most other countries call the cuts medallions or bifteck, and tournedos.

Minute Steak In some parts of the world, a minute steak is a small, thinly sliced, boneless sirloin steak, originally used for steak sandwiches. Substitution: Thinly sliced strip loin.

Notes: The long loin (complete sir-loin) is now divided into two main parts: the short loin, which includes the choice tenderloin and top loin, and what is now called the sirloin, which lies closer to the rump. Since the muscles muscles in the short loin don't get much of a workout the meat there is very tender but lacking in flavour and nutrition. What is now called sirloin is near the rump, so the meat's a bit tougher than from the short loin but it is also more flavourful and nutritious. Sirloin is also a better roasting cut; and much more economical, than standing rib.

Sirloin Unless you consider the fillet as a separate roasting cut by far the second best roasting cut. Unfortunately for the average consumer; the only way to obtain a sirloin is to buy the long loin (wholesale cut) and then cut your own; which is exactly what hotels and large restaurants do. You can however buy the cuts listed below.

Top Sirloin Butt - Canadian Trim
Bottom Sirloin Butt
Bottom Sirloin Butt-Ball Tip
Tri Tip=Triangle

Sirloin Steak In the modern market place, there are several different sirloin steak cuts, named for shape of the hip bone that's left in them and to extract a higher price from the unwary consumer. Going from fore to aft, there's the tender but bony Pin bone sirloin, which is right next to the porterhouse and an excellent steak. Then there's the Flat bone sirloin, the round bone sirloin, and finally the wedge bone sirloin, which is closest to the rump and therefore least tender but most nutritious. A boneless sirloin steak is sometimes called a rump steak=butt steak. Sirloin steaks are usually grilled or broiled and are a much better buy than any rib steak. Like any good steak; sirloin should never be cooked well done and you will loose much of the flavour, if you insist on doing so.

Top Sirloin Steak Note: Some top sirloin steak cuts are wonderfully tender and juicy and flavourful but others are mediocre. Don't confuse this with an ordinary sirloin steak which includes a bone. True to the creed, their greedy ways; along with an inborn conviction that all others are completely stupid, "American" butchers and retailers often call a thick top sirloin steak a Chateaubriand. It is not. The cut used for the recipe Chateaubriand is a much tenderer cut that comes from the Tenderloin.

Prime Rib (Steak Cut) This is the only rib cut that rightly comes from the hind quarter.
 The hind quarter has one rib bone (13th); this one rib, if, cut from prime grade, well aged, grain fed, steer beef would constitute a prime rib steak (Prime Entrecote) but usually, because it does come from the hind quarter, this cut is not even considered to be a rib steak and will be sold as club steak if at all.

Standing Rib (Prime Rib)-Roasting Cut:


























THE TRUTH ABOUT "PRIME RIB" 
pictured above is a "Standing Rib"cut--
IT IS NOT  PRIME RIB
A Prime Rib, (which originally consisted of only two ribs-and then only from prime beef-when marketers in the U. S. A. decided that they just "had to" change the name) is also a Standing Rib cut; but Standing Rib is still NOT necessarily Prime Rib. 
True Prime Rib must be cut from prime grade beef.
 AND, even that must be properly "DRY AGED".
Prime grade beef makes up only about 2% of all the beef produced in North America and typically ends up being exported.
What you will normally find on the shelves at the butcher shop or your favourite supermarket is choice select or most often commercial grade. 
In other words you are NOT going to be buying PRIME RIB, even though it is marked as such and you are paying the price.


HOW TO DRY AGE AT HOME

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ribroast3.html
Although because it is much quicker; an experienced cook or meat cutter would unboubtably use a butchers knot, rather than the one demonstrated, the author knows what he is talking about and also provides some excellent information on the handling and cooking of your meat. I highly recommend this site.


Prime Loin "Short Loin" (Roasting Cut)

Steaks YOU Are Unlikely to Find in YOUR Favourite Supermarket


Chateaubriand-which is really a recipe and not a cut of meat or a steak. Traditionally, the meat used was the first cut from the thickest part of the tenderloin. Because not very many people are aware of this, as part of an on going quest for excessive profits by American companies, and with the advent of free trade, so called Chateaubriand is now often cut from the small end of the top sirloin, or the round. This is pure customer deception and fraud.

Fillet mignon-which too is really a recipe and does not have to be a steak , is the next cut down from the chateaubriand.

Tournedos-are the next cut and not quite as fine grained, often used in stroganoff, along with the tail trimmings.

The fillet, from which these more modern steaks are cut, is the underside of the short loin of beef, the tenderloin.

Beef fillet is found in the supermarket, but it is vacuum sealed and, as can be seen in the yellow fat, is often cut from old, heavy, or cow beef.

Porterhouse-when broiled as steak should still be two inches thick. Because not many consumers know the difference between a T bone steak and a porterhouse, you are not going to find the latter the regular counter in the supermarket

Grading Doneness of Steak English vs. French

Rare= bleu (140F)

Medium-rare= saignant (!50 F)

Medium=à point or rose (160 F)

Medium-well=cuit(165 F)

Well- done=bien cuit (170 F)

Note: In European countries but especially in France a well-done steak will still be slightly pink on the inside (Europeans who seem to have much more discerning pallets take more pride in their cuisine and do not over cook as many North Americans tend to do.
©Al Girvan 1990

A Good Steak or Chop



Eating a good steak or chop can actually help you loose weight because the total portion will usually be smaller (one chop instead of two or one steak that serves two people).

Be it for speed of preparation, convenience, portion control, false economy, or whatever reason, many Canadians will buy a thinly cut steak or chop and then after preparation, complain that it was tough. Of course it was; because with so short a cooking time, the natural juices present in the meat didn't have enough time to break down the connective tissue.

All the tender steaks should be cut a minimum of two inches thick and serve two or more people, all chops should be a minimum of one inch thick. Of course, as we all know they seldom are- thin steaks and chops--those less than an inch thick-- are an American invention, brought about by inferior beef, meat products, and the fast food craze.

The tender cuts of any type of meat tend to be lacking in flavour and for this reason, they are generally well larded prior to cooking. Sometimes, as in the case of Chateaubriand and Fillet Mignon, they may be cooked between two thin sacrificial layers of a less tender but more flavourful cut. They may also be stuffed, wrapped with bacon, coated with a flavourful crust, batter or other coating, or served with a flavourful sauce.

Traditionally all steaks and chops were "finished" with butter. This was done for two reasons; it made them more eye appealing, and it added flavour.

Some Modern Retail Beef Terms AND The Common (Usually More Expensive) Alias.


In other words—How You are Being Fleeced.

Arm Bone Pot Roast: Chuck- Contains cross section of round arm bone surrounded by forearm, brisket, and shoulder muscle sometimes boned rolled and tied. Alias, Arm Bone, Round Bone, O- Bone Shoulder.

BBQ Ribs: Indicates a cooking method only and is not a special cut. Generally long meaty rib bones with one irregular, knobby end. Cut only when rib section is used for boneless entrecote. Alias, Back Ribs, Beef Spareribs, Beef Ribs, now popularized by some restaurant chains.

Barbecue Roast: Retail name for solid side of Sirloin Tip., usually cut, rolled and tied to make small diameter cut for spit broiling but again the name is a cooking suggestion and not the cut.

Barbecue Steak: Any bone-in or boneless steak, usually of a less tender cut, suitable for grilling or broiling.

Breakfast Beef: Plate. Cured, thinly sliced, with streaks of lean and fat, fried and used as bacon.

Blade-cut “Pot Roast”: Chuck- Generally suitable only for braising.

Blade Roast: Chuck- now cut anywhere from 1/2 to about 3 inches thick from rib end of chuck section. Usually 3 cuts per section with varying amount of shoulder blade and sometimes a good part of backbone and rib bone. Portions called Flat Iron, Chuck Tender, and Inside Chuck surround backbone. Other alias includes 7- Bone, Center Cut Blade, and Blade Cut.

Blade -steak: Chuck- Same as blade roast only thinner yet.

Boiling Beef: Plate, Shank, and Neck.

Bone-in Chuck: Usually from top part of chuck next to rib section. Alias, 7 Bone Steak, Blade Steak, Texas Broil, and Chuck Wagon.

Boneless Chuck Steak: usually cut from next to rib section or from outside shoulder clod muscle. Alias, Cross Rib Steak, Clod steak, Fluff Steak, Patio Steak, Family Steak, and BBQ Steak.

Boneless Rolled Chuck: Rolled and tied, cut from large meaty outside shoulder clod muscle, weighing 12-16 pounds. This primal cut usually re-cut into smaller portions of 3 pounds and up. The more expensive alias includes- Cross Rib, Shoulder Clod, and Diamond Jim.

Bottom Round: Less tender than Top Round. Alias, Silverside, Swiss Steak, Minute Steak, Cube Steak, Breakfast Steak, Sandwich Steak, Eye of Round, and North American style Baron of Beef.

Butter Ball Steak: First cut of Top Round ¼ to 1 inch thick.

Center Cut Blade: Chuck-should be the middle cut when 3 portions are cut from a chuck section.


Chuck: The basic fore quarter cut, containing ribs 1 to 5, without neck, brisket, and fore shank, amounts to about ¼ of entire carcass. Muscles run in different directions and vary greatly in degree of tenderness, now cut into many deceptively named retail cuts.

Diamond Cut Roast: The common alias is the less expensive part of the Rump.

Fore Quarter; Front half of beef side; it is separated between 12th and 13th ribs from hind quarter. Contains Chuck, Brisket, Shank, Rib and Plate basic cuts and is traditionally considered to be inferior to the hind quarter.

Tender Steak: is a narrow thick, 1½ pound hind quarter muscle, attached in part to the diaphragm. There is only one per carcass. Alias-Butcher Steak.

Manhattan: - Originating in the United States and now a common retail alias for a boneless rump cut.

Medallion: Another retail name for Chuck Tender.

Sirloin
The Sirloin includes long and short loin plus the tenderloin which extends through both short and the rear section.

Today, usually only the rear section is (possibly to avoid some minor confusion), called the sirloin.

In truth, all loin steaks are sirloin steaks Sirloin is the only cut of meat in the world that has been officially knighted: I believe that says it all.
©Al Girvan 1990

Other Traditional Cuts Renamed in North America



Cross Rib-Chuck: True cross rib chuck (rib chuck) comes from section 11 of the beef chart shown toward the beginning of this chapter. The United States has chosen to drop the word chuck with the result that some consumers have become confused and now believe a cross-rib is a better quality rib cut. We also now have what is called “boneless cross rib’, which is, of course, simply a chuck, but sold at a higher price

The New York Steak, which the supermarkets now often promote, and which is popular in American based restaurants, is nothing more than our old friend, the sirloin steak. New York Steaks are cut from the short sirloin, after, the traditionally popular, tender, and especially, profitable, fillet has been stripped off; hence the original names; strip loin or top loin steak. To many people, the name, strip loin lacks the exotic flavour of New York steak. Would you buy a stripped loin steak?

Think.

As a consumer, you are much better off to order, or buy, in the super-market, a Club, or even a boneless rib steak.

Rib steak- With the bone, is often sold or served as the tenderer, with less fat, Club Steak.

Rib Eye- Is, really, the traditional, French entrecote, but, when called by this name it is usually from heavy beef and a thinner cut.

Barron of Beef- Because of the new regulations requiring the removal of the backbone, true Baron of Beef is no longer available on the market.  The name Barron of Beef comes from the fact that the sirloin is the only meat, or food item, ever to be knighted.

In Britain, Europe, and most of the world, a baron is a very large,(100pound plus) very important section of beef containing both long loins (or to make it simpler to understand-the carcass is halved rather than quartered -- the Barron of Beef amounts to practically the entire hind portion). It is used for large banquets, usually broiled over an open pit or as in "olden-days or in front of a very large fireplace.

In the United States and now Canada, a baron of beef is an imprecise term-mainly a marketing or merchandising ploy-used to describe less important cuts that are best suited to braising or stewing. While the exact definition of this cut varies somewhat, it is often cut from the "eye of " round or sirloin tip--also American inventions- renamed and sold for higher profit. Baron of beef is usually served thinly cut, in sandwiches, au juice, or with some kind of beef flavoured dip. Next to the advertising of Prime Rib, This is probably the most blatant example of customer fraud in meat marketing.

Soup Bones: Once, were given away for free and often contained a considerable amount of meat. Now these bones are ground into feeds, and fed right back to the cattle. What may be left have become known as “beef” or “marrow” bones, are scrapped clean of all traces of meat, and are sold at a high price.

Hamburger-Many a child has asked: Why is a hamburger called a hamburger, when there is no ham in it? The answer of course, obvious to the adult, is because both this process of tenderizing meat through chopping and the trait of sandwiching cooked meats or sausage between slices of bread come from Hamburg Germany. On the other hand, many adults are unaware that hamburger is not a cut, grade, or recipe for beef. Nor is it the sandwich we are all now so familiar with. Hamburger does not even have to be beef.

Cutlets or Schnitzels- are the only true original style hamburger to be found on the market today. The word Hamburger means only this ancient process of tenderizing meat.

In any form hamburger is no more American than is the "Frankfurter ("wiener-hot dog") apple pie, or the automobile.

In the past as in the present the U.S.A. has never been much concerned with the credibility, nor the truth of any of their claims. Apple cultivation originated in Central Asia, along the Tien Shan River, and in Kazakhstan, about 8000 B.C. It is possible, although highly unlikely, that an apple pie was baked(from dried apples) some where in the United States of America, say two hundred years ago. The people of China and Central Asia were baking apple and other pies, two thousand years before tha that.

Even their name is bogus for while the country was named, and is known as the United States of America there is no such place as America, on this planet or, (because place names are a human invention), in this solar system or entire universe. They could legitimately call them selves the United States of North America but area wise, by population numbers, or any other legitimate measurement; there is absolutely no justification for that country to claim that they constitute the entire Americas or for the citizens to refer to their nationality as American.

The citizens of the United States of North America do not have a true nationality The peoples of Mexico (Mexico city has the largest population of any city in the world), or on an entirely different continent, the peoples of South American countries, especially the people of Canada—area wise Canada is a larger country than the U.S.A. which comprises of less than thirty percent of the Americas—are all Americans. The ridiculous insistence by the U.S. A. in calling themselves Americans, at exclusion of all other peoples living in the Americas, has caused much dissention in the world (especially South America).

If any one country can legitimately be called America; then that country is Canada, not the United States (See the article L'Anse aux Meadows, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia—inserted between pages 495 and 496Section 7, Chapter 2).

But then if we did not call them Americans, what would we call them. As stated above, they are a people without a true race or nationality. When the country was first named, many of the founders actually believed they controlled or soon would, all parts of the Americas worth consideration. Many citizens of the United States of North America, especially those from Texas and some of the other more southern states, still do.

Time has proven this idea to be, the pipe-dream of misguided individuals, all with very large egos but who were, and are, more than just a little, naïve.

Until such time as their boarders extend over all of the Americas; they will continue to be a country without a nationality.

I suppose we could call them Yanks, but the peoples of the southern states would surly object and in this world, a world in which nationality or race is determined by ones country or continent of origin that just does not fit.

The United States now becomes, simply, a large group of capitalist; would be world dictators, with very imperialistic motives.

At best, the people become citizens of the United States of North America, but in practicality, that is far too complicated a term to use every time we refer to these people. Which I suppose is the reason they always display their flag so prominently and are so intent on destroying the life style and national identity of so many other countries.

The greatest, most promoted, (by the U.S.A.), most bogus, legend in automobile development is the common belief that the car is an American invention and institution.

In reality the Americans are Johnny-come lately and because they are proving to be incapable of making up for all the centuries of lost time, and after exploiting, raping and pillaging their own country to the point that there is very little left (in a dream of an unsustainable economy and way of life), they have become the worlds most dangerous and paranoid country; determined, through world domination and dictatorship to do the same in the rest of the world

Next to stories of "The old West" the legend of "The American Automobile" is perhaps the most bogus of all
©Al Girvan1990-2011

The "American" Beef



In the early days the principal source of "American" beef was not cattle raised to be eaten, but rather oxen--cattle used as beasts of burden. They uprooted trees, drew ploughs through stony fields and dragged loaded wagons behind them. When they were too old or too weak to pull their weight, they got the reward of being slaughtered and the flesh was eaten. Just how tough and stringy it must have been is suggested by several old recipes. One urges the housewife to make holes with an awl or screwdriver in a chunk of beef four to five inches thick, fill them with strips of pork, and steam the meat for three hours. A second- to obviate the necessity of aging the beef to tenderize it, an impossibility certainly in hot weather--recommends that a steak be soaked first in a half pint of red wine, then boiled and finally simmered until it can easily be cut with a blunt knife (Yankee Pot-Roasts)..

In those days’ even "American" beef cattle--those raised specifically for meat—could not have been much tenderer than oxen. Before there was a Wild West, America's most important source of beef was the South-- the Carolinas and Georgia. But in the absence of railroads and refrigerator cars, the only way to get Southern beef to the market was on the hoof-live. Thus cattle were walked from their grazing grass lands to Charleston, Norfolk and Baltimore, and even as far north as Philadelphia-- and the exertion could have done the animals little good as far as tenderness was concerned. After Ohio and Illinois became beef centres  cattle were driven from the Midwest to New York; making seven miles a day, the lowing beasts required 40 to 50 days to complete the journey, and lost as much as 150 lbs on route.

The most famous of cattle from the U.S.A., the, so called, "Texas longhorns” (Cattle from Mexico; and of Spanish origin), could hardly have been very tender either. Yet for their times they were nearly perfect beef animals, second only at that time, to the native bison-then later to the mostly English "Shorthorns"  .

Actually, these animals were of Spanish stock bred to withstand the heat and drought of Andalusia. The lean but sturdy longhorns thrived under the similar conditions they found in Texas and proved their adaptability many times over on the range. They were resistant to diseases that killed cattle (other than the bison); they could get along on little water and most important of all, they were capable of being driven, (bison were not) and making the long trek to the rail centres.

At the peak of the great drives, as many as 2,000 at a time might be pointed northward and herded 1,000 or more miles-- a three month journey over a trail that wandered from the Mexican border through Texas and the Indian territory to Kansas. Some even went as far as Illinois and were wintered there, before being driven the rest of the way to New York City. In the 30 years after the Civil War, an estimated 10 million head of cattle walked from Texas to Kansas for shipment, or to more northerly locations for final fattening.

In Canada, being a British colony we had the meatier breeds imported from Scotland and England- the Black Angus(still considered to be the best beef animal ) but because it is smaller, not as popular with the producer); the Short horn or Durham; and the Hereford, today America's most common beef animal.

Yet during their reign, the Longhorns did feed the American states and they helped give them one of their most colourful periods and because of them the American cowboy mentality has ever since associated them with the mostly fictional romance of the Wild West. Had there been no cattle to round up and drive north, there would have been no cowboys, and "American" folklore would have been a poor thing

But historians, in taking a closer look at the two crucial decades 1866 to 1887, when cattle country was not yet fenced in and "American" lawlessness was getting its birth, have pared away some of the "wildness".

Fire-arm experts know, the cowboy's trusted "Colt Peace Maker" revolver, until redesigned in 1871, had an effective range of no more than 25 to 30 yards, his "saddle" rifle about 100 yards and were not much more efficient than the native bows and arrows.

Those scalp-peeling Indians actually were more interested in rustling cattle--which was a lot easier than hunting bison-- or even killing a cowboy.
©Al (Alex Alexander) D.Girvan,1990. All rights reserved