Certified Angus Beef

[hannnah]

Not enough production to support widespread marketing, and too expensive - there's a thread on a restaurant in New York that has a Kobe burger for $41.

[TrishCT]

I remember in the 1970's (heck I guess I must be old...) when chicken was not nationally advertised. You went to the supermarket for chicken...and you bought...chicken....

Then the divine Mr. Frank Perdue came along and all of a sudden America was told it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken... and voila a star was born... Marketing genius!

Now that everybody is carrying CAB... What is happening to the other red meat purveyors out there? Have they all lost their jobs? As Clara Peller would say, "Where's the beef?"

Also, I don't want to start a chicken calling thread, but a lot of folks, myself included, do not think Perdue is the best quality chicken in the marketplace, although it certainly is the most prolific. Time will tell with CAB.

[Juanito]

I was interested in flapjack willie's post, because I have been selling AGAINST Certified Angus Beef at the wholesale level for twenty years!

CAB is good, even very good. Consistent, too. But I will take Prime graded beef over it every time. The "Certified" part of the name fools a lot of people - even professionals really believe that it means some sort of official certification; they don't understand that in this case, "Certified" is to beef, as "Heinz" is to ketchup.

One more thing. In a recent "blind" cutting and tasting of five purveyor's beef lines, that I participated in, including CAB, the winner (as determined by a panel of a large buyer's chef and F & B manager, among others), was not CAB, but Kansas Black Angus. The cuts considered were strip loins, PSMO's and ribeyes.

On a another day, the result probably would be different. That's the way it seems to go in the meat biz.

If I had a restaurant, I would spec PRIME for my middle cuts, and wouldn't worry too much about if it were Angus or not.

[Randi]

The certification's also kind of useless for ground beef - you're not going to benefit from the marbling, just from whatever fat has been intermixed to bring it up to the percentage at which it's being sold. 

Hmmm...this was an eye-opener. I have been buying only ground angus beef for the past year when making burgers and I *thought* I noticed a distinct improvement in the flavor compared to the beef I used to buy.

Could it be the power of suggestion??

[beans]

I was interested in flapjack willie's post, because I have been selling AGAINST Certified Angus Beef at the wholesale level for twenty years!

CAB is good, even very good. Consistent, too. But I will take Prime graded beef over it every time. The "Certified" part of the name fools a lot of people - even professionals really believe that it means some sort of official certification; they don't understand that in this case, "Certified" is to beef, as "Heinz" is to ketchup.

One more thing. In a recent "blind" cutting and tasting of five purveyor's beef lines, that I participated in, including CAB, the winner (as determined by a panel of a large buyer's chef and F & B manager, among others), was not CAB, but Kansas Black Angus. The cuts considered were strip loins, PSMO's and ribeyes.

On a another day, the result probably would be different. That's the way it seems to go in the meat biz.

If I had a restaurant, I would spec PRIME for my middle cuts, and wouldn't worry too much about if it were Angus or not.

Sure, who wouldn't always want to order or purchase prime??

At the very least, that CAB sticker or representation on a menu gives me assurance that my ordered NY Strip isn't diary cow.

[HKDave]

i have been selling CAB beef for sixteen years at the wholesale level.  I have a lot to say, but not enough time right now.  I will hold forth when I have a moment, but I do want to weigh in and dispell some of the above info.  CAB is a very good product.  It is the only premium beef product that is graded by federal graders, this is important because the other premium programs can produce all the "angus" cattle they want or need to market.

CAB is definitely not the only premium program graded by the Feds. The USDA grades almost 30 premium beef programs in addition to CAB. Here's a list with links to the specs for each: http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/certprog/certbeef.htm

And the poster with 20 years in the biz who said above that CAB isn't an official certification - well, it actually is. USDA spec for CAB here: http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/certprog/beef/cab.htm

But this is all just noise. Listen to your boy from Hong Kong here. You want good beef? I'll talk in US grades so you know what I'm saying. When you're buying cut beef, you can usually see what you're getting. Slow down, trust your eyes. People spend more time selecting tomatoes than selecting steaks that cost 10x as much.

- Don't pay attention to all this premium branding unless you just want to spend more for the same thing. Most premium grades are selected from somewhere in Choice and better. Just buy plain USDA Choice (or Prime if you can afford it) for anything being served rare to medium, and forchissakes cook it properly. For well done, it doesn't matter - those folks like eating rubber. Serve them the cheapest crap. For braising or ground (other than tartare or rare burgers, if you still serve them) or tenderised meat, it doesn't matter. Save your money and buy supermarket generic.

- Learn to recognize good fat marbling when you see it! This is the key. Marbling is what it's all about for tenderness, now that almost nobody dry ages beef. Within Choice there's a lot of variety in marbling. You can get Choice meat that's far better marbled than the 'premium' brands if you know what to look for.

- Find and regularly patronize a good butcher (or supplier, if you're in the biz). There are still a few out there. And if he still does dry aging, marry him (or her).

Yeah, there's more to it than this. But you can't go wrong by selecting well-marbled cuts from USDA Choice or better, and it'll cost you less than the premium brands. It's worth noting that the very best steakhouses (Peter Luger comes to mind) send their own buyers to the wholesalers and select meat by eye rather than by grade - although I think Luger are selecting from Prime sides.

Edit: Luger, not Lugar.... link here: http://www.peterluger.com/ourstory.html

Edited April 19, 2004 by HKDave (log)