Why does meat, ie steak, pork, chicken, not taste half as good as it did years ago?

Answer 1

You are absolutely correct, meat doesn't taste as good as it did years ago, anybody who says anything else, especially in the UK is talking utter rubbish!!!

Supermarket meat especially beef tastes less because of the speed in which it is taken from the farm to the counter.

Beef should be hung for at least 20 days after slaughter before being sold as this intensifies the flavour of the meat, normal supermarket cuts of beef are hung for much less time if at all !!!

We're told that the freshest meat is the best meat but in the case of beef this is just not the case, don't be drawn into the myth that the reddest meat on display will be the best because it won't, it'll simply mean that it's come straight from the farm and it hasn't been hung at all.

I think this is virtually the same for most red meats !?!?

As for Chicken well there are so many variations to choose from these days - Corn fed, Organic, Free Range etc etc. Basically I find the cheaper the chicken the cheaper the taste.

Supermarkets (give or take a couple) generally do not care one bit about how there food tastes, it's all about profit.

The best advice you can give to anybody about buying any kind of meat is to look for a local butcher who stocks locally bred produce and who can tell you exactly how each animal was bred, where they were bred and what they were fed on etc etc etc.

Years ago all food was sold this way, there was no mass production plants churning out tonnes upon tonnes of bland tasting meat and vacuum packing it straight away for our conveinience. Meat was meat and good meat at that, no added preservatives to make it last longer on the shelf and no added colourings to make it look more attractive to the eye.

Here in the UK there a couple of things that you can give a go to sample the difference between good honest meat and basic supermarket fodder.

Firstly go to www.uktvfood.co.uk and browse the "Local Food Heroes" section to find somebody near you who is producing and selling great local produce.

Secondly Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" range of meats, particullally the Steaks (hung for a minimum of 21 days) simply taste head and shoulders about anything you'll find packed on the shelves.

Give it a go, support you local producers.

As for cooking meat we're far too sceptical about it these days,, people seem to think that if you eat a rare steak your going to get some disease and die which is also absolute rubbish !!! Sterility of meat and farming methods have never been better than they are today.

All meats deteriorate in flavour during prolonged cooking, the proteins containing the flavour keep breaking down all good food science books will tell you this as well as anybody who has any idea of how to cook.

If you can get hold of one check out this book "Mcgee on food" it'll tell you everything and more.

Answer 2

Depends on where I buy the meat Thomas. I stopped buying fresh meat (except for poultry) at Walmart over 10 years ago because of the flavor. They have no in-house butcher and all the meat is prepacked, dipped in some type of preservative and a former employee told me that they add dye to it as well. The last petite steaks I bought tasted really funky like the animals had not eaten a good diet. So-long chain-store meat. I buy only meat where there is a butcher in the store now If I had some land I would by a calf and raise it every time I needed to fill the freezer, I know people who do that. Free-range meat is much heathier especially to heal our own muscles, it contains much higher levels of CLA.

Answer 3

Are you as old as I am? How you find that out?
At one time those animals were not pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones, and artificial additives put into their feed. They were most often corn fed. Most chickens were not frozen but delivered daily, freshly killed. Before frozen processing this was the only way.

As far as beef, it too was corn fed. Cattle from Texas was never butchered in Texas. All were shipped to Kansas City where they were penned in stock yards, with corn and wheat bins on all four sides of the pens, along with plenty of water. The cattle could not walk far, and certainly no where to run.

This is where the name Kansas City Steak originated. The meat was marbled, not tough, since they did not range and run.

I worked in a meat market in the 40s. We handled only full carcass. We hung the full sides in our coolers at 34-38 degrees for about 2-3 weeks. When the carcass hangs for that time, the fibers began to pull apart, not much, but the meat becomes very tender. One can push a finger into it. At that stage, the meat turns a dark, almost black, on the surface. It is not spoiled, but merely darkens from oxidation. This is trimmed off and used in hamburger, When ground, the color lightens, mixed with "fresher" meat.
The trimmed meat is then a dark pink color, not bright red. Bright red is not aged.
These are the steaks of which you speak.

Beef used to be graded by the FDA as, AAA, AA, and A. AAA was the meat described. At some point in the late 40s, the FDA decided that AAA, as it WAS known, was not necessary. So, they dispensed with AAA as it WAS known, and graded AA meat as AAA, and so on down the line. From that time on, cattle were not fed as they used to be, and the top grade, AAA is the best we have, but it is not AAA as we used to have.

Further, up to now, chemicals and all the other mentioned has increased in usage.

A long answer to your question. Sorry.

Answer 4

One of the main reasons is the meat packers are injecting the meats with a solution. READ THE LABEL !!! Read the fine print. it may say enhanced with broth or solution but it is all saline (salt)
up to 19% and it is just added weight (water and salt). They do this for profit, shelf life and sometimes using cheaper cuts of meat.
My point is it is unhealthy and more gouging of the consumer.

What can you do? By meat from a butcher shop or the meat cutter in a grocery store. Do not keep meat in the retail package.

Answer 5

Meats such as steak and beef etc, are not hung in supermarkets, this is important. A slab of meat shouldn't look bright blood red when you buy it, but more of a deep burgundy red after being hung for days. Use the butchers, avoid supermarkets whenever you can.

for chicken try organic.

Answer 6

...because everything now are homone enhanced. All the Farmed animals lock in factory like cage and constant feed with new improve enhanced feeds. In many case, blend in chemical, homone, just to make it growth faster & bigger while the animals don't have too much exercise. Haha,

Even Human is affected by it. As you could see, All the industrial mordern nations, people is much bigger and fatter than few decades ago. Many don't realize and thought it's an diet issues. Instead, they fail to look at what they eat and where those things from.

Answer 7

Some of it is due to additives and preservatives, then you have coloring, as well as much of the fat (which gives flavoring) trimmed off to make it "healthier". In the end, meats can tastes sort of plastic and bland. It's the same with many fruits and vegetables! They often taste so plastic.

Answer 8

Make sure you get fresh meat from a good butcher, not this supermarket rubbish.

It' also down to the way you cook the meat. If you enjoy cooking your food will always taste good.

Answer 9

I'm not an expert, but I think there are a couple of reasons. One is that fat carries flavor, and cattle and pigs have been bred to be leaner, meaning less fat. I also think that the methods used to quickly bring the animals to slaughter weight in a shorter time than would happen naturally dilutes the flavor of the meat somehow.

Answer 10

Because the animals are kept in barns and stuffed with hormones and fattening feed. In the old days all animals lived out in the open. Eat grass that gave flavour. Ran around to help them have a happy life.