Hamburgers

[Fat Guy]

"Punctured porterhouse." I love it. Well there's your brand name. Hmm. Find another word with a P, like maybe somebody's name, and you could have something. Somebody get to work on marketing this.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Fat Guy - Well having grown up in the kosher food industry I know how corrupt it can be. Go try and manufacture something for the kosher market and see how much it costs you to put a rabbinical supervision label on your item. The nonsensical rules and regulations that they have installed in this country to get things ceritified kosher are akin to having to pay off the mafia. And it makes items expensive, and the additional expense lowers quality significantly. Back in the good old days when people ate things like stuffed derma, my father had a friend who was an expert stuffed derma maker. So good that they decided they wanted to sell it commercially. So my father and he explored with the Long Island Council of Rabbis what it would entail to get a certification for the derma. When they added up all the costs, the cost of derma per pound was more than beef! And derma is really nothing more than ground vegetables.

So you don't have to build any bridges for me. I was a yeshiva boy until the 6th grade and I attended an orthodox temple when I grew up. I have spent all of my teenage and adult life making sure I leave that isolated, prejudiced against all others who are not Jews, treat women as inferior way of life behind me. Do me a favor and build a bridge for someone else. I'm going to have a ham sandwich for lunch.

[Fat Guy]

Okay, but I still plan to torture you with the bridge metaphor for at least a few days and maybe longer.

[LaNiña]

It's a demand issue. Most truly kosher observing Jews just don't care so much about getting *those* cuts, so it's not being done. There's no market for it. It's that simple.

[Steve Plotnicki]

The metaphor is fine. It's just that bridges need to take you somewhere other than your past.

[LaNiña]

The metaphor is fine. It's just that bridges need to take you somewhere other than your past.

That's the most telling thing about yourself you've ever said.

[steverino]

The intellectual and philosophical sparring on this website continues to blow my mind . . .

[cakewalk]

The metaphor is fine. It's just that bridges need to take you somewhere other than your past.

That's the most telling thing about yourself you've ever said.

Actually bridges don't "take" you anywhere. What they do is link together things that would otherwise be disconnected one from the other.

Discuss.

[Steve Plotnicki]

What do you mean bridges don't take you anywhere? They don't do anything else but go from one place to another. The only people who they don't take somewhere are people who aren't going anywhere.

[Fat Guy]

The people I'm in touch with on the PM say that statement just reflects your political viewpoint.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Hey I just said that in my last post. Stop stealing my shtick.

[SobaAddict70]

They always taste kosher.

Erm, I've had halal meat. And I've had regular meat. But I've never had kosher meat. To me, meat is meat. What does it mean, that meat tastes "kosher"? Is there some identifiable flavor characteristic that makes something like meat (or cheese, or celery) "kosher" -- AND -- identifiable by taste NOT just to someone like Steve who has past experience consuming kosher/kashrut food, but also to someone like moi who has none? (Ok, matzah brei -- but those tasted like cardboard to me.)

Probably a separate thread, but I just wanted to comment on that.

SA

[Steve Plotnicki]

Yes. Kosher meat is soaked in salt water so as to remove the blood from the meat. It makes the meat taste, well, kosher. It is more noticeable in thick cuts of steaks like prime rib or things like lamb chops. But somewhat less noticeable in things like hamburger. And when it comes to meats that are stewed or braised like brisket, not noticeable at all in my experience.

[cakewalk]

What do you mean bridges don't take you anywhere? They don't do anything else but go from one place to another. The only people who they don't take somewhere are people who aren't going anywhere.

You have an amazing talent for overlooking the obvious.

Bridges, both literal and figurative, take you nowhere. What they offer are opportunities to "go from one place to another." Whether or not you take advantage of those opportunities is another story altogether. But it's not up to the bridges.

Soba Addict: mazel tov, you have crossed the bridge! If something is cooked well, it will taste good. If it is not cooked well, it won't taste good. Kosher, halal, etc. is not the relevant factor.

[bushey]

I feel like I've entered a Firesign Theater skit: "haven't you finshed building that bridge yet?"

Jaybee, kudos for being so considerate of your guests' needs. Did you use a new grill for the burgers or somehow cover your own grill? That's something I used to struggle with when my in-laws used to come for dinner. That, and substituting Mother's or Mazola pareve margarine in my cooking.

[LaNiña]

What do you mean bridges don't take you anywhere? They don't do anything else but go from one place to another. The only people who they don't take somewhere are people who aren't going anywhere.

You have an amazing talent for overlooking the obvious.

Bridges, both literal and figurative, take you nowhere. What they offer are opportunities to "go from one place to another." Whether or not you take advantage of those opportunities is another story altogether. But it's not up to the bridges.

Soba Addict: mazel tov, you have crossed the bridge! If something is cooked well, it will taste good. If it is not cooked well, it won't taste good. Kosher, halal, etc. is not the relevant factor.

Cake dear, that's not always true. In this case, Plots is right about some kosher meat. It's salty as hell. And it's frequently hard to get the salty taste out of the meat, no matter how you might rinse it or cook it. So it does have an effect on the flavor. That's a fairly well accepted fact.

[Fat Guy]

The steaks and chops do seem to suffer most from blood extraction (loss of flavor) and saltiness.

Bushey, I see people buying these "Clean Grill" things -- basically a second grill surface you lay over your old one -- all the time up at the place I shop in Yonkers. I know some do it for reasons of kosher entertaining. Then again anybody who claims to keep kosher but will eat in a non-kosher home under any circumstance isn't likely to be in the strict category, and is probably practicing some sort of modified, personalized kashruth regimen that is going to vary from individual to individual. So who knows?

[tommy]

has anyone seen the bridge?

[Priscilla]

Where's that confounded...

[Steve Plotnicki]

Cakewalk - Well we can have it both ways. My bridge goes somewhere, yours goes nowhere. It's a metaphor for how we look at life.

As for kosher meat and anyone who can't taste the difference, well then they can't taste anything. Sort of the same as above.

Fat Guy - Veal seems to be the biggest loser in the koshering process. Not much tam to begin with and then they overprocess it. Rib steaks (or mush steak) aren't bad, they just get this funny taste from the salting process. Occassionaly you get a kosher butcher or a place that sells better tasting kosher rib steaks, with the best I've had being from Park East kosher butchers. But Mabat in Bkln makes a good kosher mush steak.

[Blue Heron]

Rib steaks (or mush steak) aren't bad, they just get this funny taste from the salting process. Occassionaly you get a kosher butcher or a place that sells better tasting kosher rib steaks, with the best I've had being from Park East kosher butchers. But Mabat in Bkln makes a good kosher mush steak.

What do you mean by mush steak?

[LaNiña]

Occassionaly you get a kosher butcher or a place that sells better tasting kosher rib steaks, with the best I've had being from Park East kosher butchers. But Mabat in Bkln makes a good kosher mush steak.

Mabat has a way with meats, that's for sure.

[jaybee]

Jaybee, kudos for being so considerate of your guests' needs. Did you use a new grill for the burgers or somehow cover your own grill? That's something I used to struggle with when my in-laws used to come for dinner. That, and substituting Mother's or Mazola pareve margarine in my cooking.

I figured that a 600 degree fire would purify all the pork fat I've cooked on the grill. And I didn't mention the grill's traif history to anyone.

[bushey]

Jaybee -- You're my man. Don't ask, don't tell .

[DaveFaris]

I must say, this is the last discussion board I would have expected to find socio-political discussions. Don't know why it surprises me, since food is intertwined with every other aspect of life. Still...

I once was invited to spend the weekend with a bunch of friends at their summer beach home. Being the good guest that I am, and the rest had gone off somewhere, I decided to be a good guest and clean up the kitchen. I not only did not know it was a kosher kitchen, but as a suburban boy from Connecticut, I had no idea there was even such a thing.

When the girl whose parents owned the beach house came back, she hit the roof and completely freaked on me. I think the problem was that I cleaned some things right along side other things, or something.

In the end, it was decided that what the girl's parents didn't know wouldn't hurt them. But I was never invited back again.