My life is very busy as of late, noticeable by the times I don't go to the supermarket. Last Saturday, rather than traipse around town buying from my regular small-scale suppliers, I decided that life felt too short at this moment in time, to actively support the local shopowners, who I adore because they know me and my sharp observation skills, and I know them and their pass-one-over methods, and I get some great conversations out of them. So I headed down to the local supermarket to do the weekly shop and to pick up some meat for Sunday lunch while I was there.
Supermarket meat is often sold more expensively (at least, here in Hania) than small-shop meat, so I was aware that I would be spending more money in this setting. I wanted some mince for my freezer bifteki: Greek beef - €10.98/kg, Belgian beef - €9.59/kg. The Greek beef looked pinky-red, like it usually does, because it rarely allowed to 'sit' for longer than 2-3 days before it's sold, The Belgian meat looked just a little darker, but I preferred the shape of the cut. I chose the Belgian beef over the Greek, mixing in some Cretan pork (€6.78/kg) into the mince mixture - remember that in Crete, it is far more common to buy fresh mince that is prepared before you after you have chosen the pieces of meat that will be minced for you.
While I was at the supermarket yesterday, I also found US Black Angus at the same meat counter, selling at €9.69/kg. Like the Belgian beef, it was cheaper than Greek beef. Black Angus is one of the most highly rated beef products in the world, and we can get it for LESS than Greek beef! I've never tried Black Angus before, so I thought it was time we did. I asked the butcher to cut me three large slices.
I'm not sure what the problem is with Greek beef. Over time, it has developed a better texture. It's not as stringy as the foregin stuff. But you still can't cook it in a pan, like you can do with Black Angus. Although I'm not still convinced that beef should be eaten medium-rare with its pink colour, for the first time in my life, I am cooking beef in Greece in the oven, and I can already feel how tender it is, as the knife slides through so easily.
My first foray into Black Angus will be in a Greek-style recipe. After pan-searing the fillets, I placed them in the oven in a tomato-based sauce with the regular seasoning. It's cooking now. My husband keeps asking me: "Are you sure this will be edible?" Greek beef still has that nasty reputation of being tough. It needs a facelift if it's going to survive in this money-poor world, when cheap foreign imports are invading its domain.
UPDATE:
Black Angus stays tender throughout the cooking period and it is very juicy. But it lacks the aroma of Greek-raised meat. I guess it's true that you are what you eat - if grazing animals eat aromatic plants, their meat smells like it too.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
Supermarket meat is often sold more expensively (at least, here in Hania) than small-shop meat, so I was aware that I would be spending more money in this setting. I wanted some mince for my freezer bifteki: Greek beef - €10.98/kg, Belgian beef - €9.59/kg. The Greek beef looked pinky-red, like it usually does, because it rarely allowed to 'sit' for longer than 2-3 days before it's sold, The Belgian meat looked just a little darker, but I preferred the shape of the cut. I chose the Belgian beef over the Greek, mixing in some Cretan pork (€6.78/kg) into the mince mixture - remember that in Crete, it is far more common to buy fresh mince that is prepared before you after you have chosen the pieces of meat that will be minced for you.
I'm not sure what the problem is with Greek beef. Over time, it has developed a better texture. It's not as stringy as the foregin stuff. But you still can't cook it in a pan, like you can do with Black Angus. Although I'm not still convinced that beef should be eaten medium-rare with its pink colour, for the first time in my life, I am cooking beef in Greece in the oven, and I can already feel how tender it is, as the knife slides through so easily.
UPDATE:
Black Angus stays tender throughout the cooking period and it is very juicy. But it lacks the aroma of Greek-raised meat. I guess it's true that you are what you eat - if grazing animals eat aromatic plants, their meat smells like it too.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
I have been to Crete 12 times since 1983, driven around a lot, and never seen a cow. Does all beef come from the mainland? How about pork? Do you have pigs in Crete? I haven't seen them either but maybe they live in pens near the houses?
ReplyDeleteI love cooking in Crete. The vegetables are superb, we both like lamb, and chicken tastes so good we are almost crying back here in Finland with our tasteless 'broilers' (= very fast grown chickens living their short lives in cages).
very few cows on crete, quite a lot of pigs though, we have pig farms, and it isnt uncommon since the crisis to come across a pig being held in a pen in a private home in a rural area
ReplyDeletemilk sold at the supermarket comes 90% of the time froim the mainland - people used to drink sheep and goat's milk in the days of my husband's youth, but that milk is now sold very expensively on a local basis, or it is used in cheesemaking (we make a lot of cheese)
yes, cooking in crete is magnificent - i was very unhappy with the black angus meat (which we just wate) for similar reasons as you margarita - the meat cooked easily, it was very tender, but it did not taste anything like the greek meat!!!!
Interesting observations, Maria. I don't even know for sure if I have eaten Black Angus beef. Here in the US it seems that the biggest thing is to choose the beef based on what THEY eat, not what breed they are. Little by little SOME people here in the US are becoming aware of how cattle are fed in the last few months of their lives. For years and years people wanted corn fed beef. Now SOME people do not want that type of beef. They want "grass fed" beef instead. We generally DO NOT BUY BEEF AT ALL! We are very suspicious of beef because often it has been treated with growth hormones and antibiotics, which we do not want to eat. We sometimes buy beef that is labeled "organic," or "grassfed" but we cannot be sure that that is the truth. The only solution is to not eat beef very often or try to buy some from a local rancher. Even then, we cannot be sure that the poor animal has not been injected with something. There are cattle drives right by our house several times a year. The cattle and calves are being
ReplyDeletedriven up into the higher pastures on the mountain for the summer. Then the reverse happens in the fall.
The great advantage for us living where we do is that my husband can hunt elk in the fall or winter. THAT is good meat! I could
serve you an elk roast or an elk steak and you would not be able to tell the difference from good beef. The only problem is that sometimes luck is not with him and he ends the hunting season without an animal, as happened last year. Now our freezer has only a few lonely packages of elk. We are sort of rationing it and instead eating fresh trout or Kokanee salmon from the lake up the road from us. We also raise our own pork and chicken, which I have already told you.
We never get seafood like you do in Crete of course. There are many varieties of seafood that I have never tasted.
We know we are very lucky to have ANY meat at all and express our gratitude when we sit down to dinner.
I am grateful that we can raise some of our own food and try not to buy food imported from far, far away. It's a crazy world, isn't it?
i am totally with you - eating beef is like a foray into the unknown, and so, we do the same thing: eat meat, not too much, mainly on sunday
Deletei would cook even less meat if i could, like back in the days when the kids were younger - now that they are slightly older, they want to eat more (they express this outright), so i cook more - but i think its becos they are growing up and they will slowly start eating less meat again in their older years, much like what happened to their parents - we dont prefer meat, but a growing family does!
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