Water injected beef

I'm all about supporting the good suppliers, but depending on where you live it can be a lot of hard work to find one. That might be a far more complicated option for OP than one might think. That said, I think OP's problem was simply buying cheap ground meat like I described in .

It's also possible that the meat was fine but the "water" came from OP using too low of a heat when he was cooking, and/or overcrowding the pan.

Buy from a store that cuts their beef pork and the rest from sides or whole. Don't buy pre packed steaks. Again, buy things cut from sides which would be impossible to put filler into. Also; dont buy prepacked ground beef as it's chemically treated and dyed.
Ask at the counter quick if they grind any of their own beef in store(usually from bench trim) and ask if their steaks come pre-packaged or if they cut them themselves.
Stop shopping at walmart.

yeah that's true, a couple times i bought cheap ground meat and all water was lost, the heat was high but they just became dry af
i guess in some cunts grinding yourself might be the easiest option
i already do all those, not american tho so wallmart was never an option to begin with
some prepacked ones are very good here tho (italy) but the price is basically the same of a detail store, so it's expected that the quality is good

I'm in the US. I've noticed that the quality of the ground beef varies a lot, even at the high-end supermarkets and with "premium" products. The supermarket I normally shop at carries two brands of pre-packed "grass fed" ground beef. They both cost close to $10/lb, which is very expensive compared to generic ground beef. One of them is mushy garbage and the other is very good, but you wouldn't know that from the price. The only way I learned was trial-and-error.

I greatly prefer to either grind it myself, or to buy it from a butcher counter where it's out on open display and you can get a good look at it before you buy.

yeah same here, also at market even premium brand might be good a time and below average the next time, while butcher is usually more consistent with his quality
im not a big eater so i usually go for the quality shit whenever i get meat
can get close to 10e/kg, guess about 25$/lb, for local breed no gmo bio bla bla ground meat
honestly i would be too lazy to grind it myself

Thanks Kroger PR I feel better now. Yeah it was their front page AD. I think I'm just going to return what's left of it to punish them for selling shitting meat.

At my work we have grassfed which yes is 8.99 for a pound, but we also have benchgrinds which are made up from left overs and scraps from our cutting tables; usually 78/22 to 85/15%. Not bad but the stuff is still usually around 4.49.
Now on the other hand, the chemically treated an dyed stuff comes in 1lbs packs for 4.99 or 3lbs 'savings packs' for 3.49 a pound.

The easiest way to check is to see if its hand wrapped or hermetically sealed(hermetically being the gas injected) and freezing a small amount, letting it thaw and seeing if it instantly loses all coloring. You can see the dye trickle out of it and frankly it's disgusting.

Friendly reminder that no matter the quality, pre packaged ground beef is 99.9999% garunteed to have traces of feces in it.

Can I get a quick source on this?>
>It turns out that a lot of our meat is enhanced. About 30 percent of poultry, 15 percent of beef, and 90 percent of pork are injected with some kind of liquid solution before sale, USDA says, and it's usually something high in sodium.

The only thing i've ever seen is 'hormone free!' on poultry which has been illegal since the 70s and 'reduced salt and water content!' which isn't the best of indicators, keyword being 'reduced'.

that's good, builds up your immunity

I'm not the person you're replying to, but this stuff isn't hard to find out about. Google "meat plumping" or "saline injected meat" and you'll find lots of info.

It's pretty easy to find poultry that's been injected. Just look at the packaging and you'll often see something like pic related.

>all natural*

What's your point? What exactly about that statement is triggering your sperghead?

im just mocking the label, nothing you wrote is wrong
no need to be so aggressive

Uhh I think the idea that 'all natural' implies it has nothing added to it. It even says 'contains up to 15% natural* chicken broth
and then the * says 'no artifical ingredients' aka no saline or plumping.

Sorry if I came across as aggressive, I was simply curious. I didn't know what your point was and was trying to find out.

You want your poultry and pork to be pre brined. It makes it tender and juicy while cooking and salt water brine is a microbial growth inhibitor. There is a reason people would brine their own meat before the factories did it for us. Now brining at home is largely redundant and I'm happy I don't have to go through that mess in my kitchen.

Yes. Same with any vegetables grown in dirt. Poop is life.

>You want your poultry and pork to be pre brined.
t. Industry shill

No AI don't, it fucking ruins them.

How?

The chicken at Kroger says it's "enhanced with up to 15% chicken broth" and the shit is still $3 a pound when not on sale.
Sprouts is a relatively new grocery chain where I live and they are selling non-injected "organic" chicken breast for $1.69 a pound. Does anyone know what the catch is here, if there is one?

The trick is to ignore "implications" and focus on what the terms legally mean. Legally, "no artificial ingredients" means they can add whatever they like as long as those ingredients aren't considered "artificial". Salt water or poultry broth both qualify. Instead what you want to see is "no ADDED ingredients". That means they can't add anything period.

Go to Asia and eat some chicken dishes, it's a world of difference. The pumping ruins the texture and taste.

The catch is that the organic isn't sold at a whole foods and therefore is properly priced. The more expensive chicken is more expensive because of the labor machinery and added chemicals.

It's cheaper to kill and butcher a chicken than it is to kill and butcher and process and section and inject.

It's probably imported from China?

Economies of scale. Organic isn't as rare as it used to be. It's actually pretty abundant. Is the organic version on sale? It could be priced to move faster because without the brine it will spoil quicker.

Artificial in this case means foreign to the natural body of the chicken. Is english your first language?

putting an all natural laber that needs a * seemed pretty ridiculous to me, that's all

While I agree it can have some benefits, the problems I have with it are:
1) It's a sign that the product itself is of industrial mass-produced (read: shit) quality. This kind of thing only happens to the cheapest factory farmed meat. Nobody is taking heritage, truly free-ranged, meat and plumping it up.
2) For some applications the additional saline is counterproductive. Sure, if I am roasting a whole turkey I'd like it brined. But if I am buying wings for making stock, or if I'm sauteing a chicken breast I sure as fuck don't want it injected with water.
3) When I do want to brine meat I want to do it myself. That way I have full control over the concentration of salt and sugar I want to use, plus I can add other seasonings to the brine/marinade if I want to. I'd rather have that option than being stuck with the default saltwater brine that industrial producers use. Brining is fast, easy, and has minimal mess/cleanup. I'm not sure why anyone would want to avoid it.

>Go to Asia
>Eat chicken
Lol how about, no. I prefer my poultry tender and juicy. And I've had home processed stuff right here in America and I wished the cook would've brined the bird first.

>Artificial in this case means foreign to the natural body of the chicken
In normal speech, sure. But not in packaging. "All Natural" is a legally defined term that has a very specific legal meaning that doesn't match common usage of the term.

>> Is english your first language?
Yes. I'm telling you that the commonly accepted definition that you and I think of when we hear the words "all natural" is completely different from the legal definition of the term in the context of a food package.

I think you're confusing mass produced industrial grade exported goods with local and natural poultry... Even here in america you can go to a normal farm and buy a chicken. A natural and essentially 'wild/normal' chicken costs something like 30 bucks to farm for a year. I suggest you try it or find something similar instead of 'lolno'ing without any idea of what you're talking about.

The * literally goes a definition that says 'no artificial ingredients'. Source please? I'm not arguing just looking for a source.

The naivety is shocking.

Anyway, sure, this is all a matter of public record. The FDA publishes rules and definitions regarding exactly what different terms mean on food packages. That way there is no subjectivity between different people reading different things into the labels.

fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/default.htm

Thailand actually I think. I saw a report about how we ship off the parts of the chicken we don't like to them and we import chicken breasts from there. It's pretty funny desu. Not as bad as you'd think by the way, the factories in Thailand still seemed to follow the same food safety norms etc.

Calm down Bourdain. I'm just not taking a $5k round trip to Asia for the fucking chicken.

I bet it tastes better than the chicken in the US too. I was shocked how terrible chicken in the US tastes like (nothing) when I first came here.

Yeah but you can wash and scrub veggies. How do you clean ground beef?

>Go to Asia and eat some chicken dishes, it's a world of difference.
Agreed. Though it's not the plumping (or lack thereof) responsible. It's the breed of chicken.

Factory-Farmed chicken in the west usually uses a breed called the Jersey Giant. They are bred for very large breasts (since "white meat" is the best seller by far) and fast growth. Flavor, unfortunately, got the short end of the stick. Asia raises different breeds. They don't have as large of breast meat and the flavor is much better. You can get those in the US too, just visit an Asian market and look for "Buddhist Chicken" or "Vikon". Expect them to be sold head-and-feet attached, less breast meat than a supermarket bird, but a massive improvement in flavor.

Homie literally go to a local farm and get a fresh chicken. Pay attention.
>The naivety is shocking.
I was asking for a source, not arguing. You posted an FDA general article that mentions nothing that we're discussing or anything remotely about artificial anything. I asked for a source not blind posturing.

>Yeah but you can wash and scrub veggies
You think that removes 100.0% of the contaminants?

>How do you clean ground beef?
You don't. Instead you stop worrying about it. Fecal bacteria is pretty much everywhere in the life of a human being, including your toothbrush. Stating that "X has fecal bacteria on it" is about the same as stating that "X has air on it". Of fucking course it does. Everything does. The question which matters is how MUCH is present, because simply being present is assumed.

>Fecal bacteria is pretty much everywhere in the life of a human being, including your toothbrush.
India, pls go

Eh I've seen organic, free range stuff with brine in it. Like I said the main purpose is extending shelf life so it really depends on how local the producer is and how fast they move products without too much product shrink in their margin. I get what you're saying about controlling your brine that's why high end chefs use different suppliers for their restaurants but it's also a situation where they know they'll be using product within the week so shelf life isn't as much of a concern.

he is right desu

I already said I'd had homegrown and processed stuff. Maybe everyone doesn't get life changing epiphanies from chicken.

What do you mean wash and scrub? With plain cold water? This does nothing at a microbial level. You cook your meat that's what you do. Heat kills bacteria not water and elbow grease. More people are made ill by raw fruits and vegetables every year than by cooked hamburger.

> life changing epiphanie
.... We're talking about simply a flavor and texture difference user. Please don't start going full retard.

>I was asking for a source,
And I gave you one. I also stated my shock that an adult in this day and age somehow isn't aware that terms on food have specific legal meanings. I mean no offense to you, but I am stating that I find this shocking.

Anyway, what exact source do you want? Information about what the term "all natural" legally means in the context of food packaging? It's right there on the site I linked you. Just click the link for Labeling and follow along.

Here's one in case you need to be spoonfed:
fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm456090.htm

There's also a lot of good info here:
gcbl.org/live/food/healthy-diet/what-do-food-labels-really-mean

Or just google "what does X mean on a food label". Read packages like a lawyer would, not like you would in general conversation. What you think the words mean is irrelevant. What matters is how the terms are legally defined.

>elbow grease
isnt it elbow oil? not an english speaker, but grease sounds worse

Did you even read your own source?..
>Although the FDA has not engaged in rulemaking to establish a formal definition for the term “natural,” we do have a longstanding policy concerning the use of “natural” in human food labeling. The FDA has considered the term “natural” to mean that nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food. However, this policy was not intended to address food production methods, such as the use of pesticides, nor did it explicitly address food processing or manufacturing methods, such as thermal technologies, pasteurization, or irradiation

>isnt it elbow oil?
Nope. In English "elbow grease" means "a lot of hard manual labor".

yeah we have a similar phrase, but translates to elbow oil, gross, thanks for info

Another words, all natural means nothing. Read it to the end user

If you're the user who told me to travel to Asia for chicken how am I the one going full retard?

>Food labeled "natural," according to the USDA definition, does not contain artificial ingredients or preservatives and the ingredients are only minimally processed. However, they may contain antibiotics, growth hormones, and other similar chemicals.
>do not contain artificial ingredients or preservatives
Plumping with salt/water would be considered an artificial ingredient. Brining would be considered a preservative.

No I told you to buy a natural chicken locally. You don't have to go to asia to have natural chicken. But if you tell me a mcchicken and grassfed chicken are the same you might be mentally disabled.

Yes all natural is essentially an unregulated catch phrase. Next cherry to pop is to look up all the ingredients allowed in "organic" labeled food. That one's actually regulated lol. Other unregulated catch phrases are grass-fed and the specific definition of free-range (hint it doesn't mean they are allowed to roam anywhere at will)

You're being hyperbolic now. I've told you I've already had em I used to raise them and I've eaten wild fowl as well. Don't get this upset because we have a difference in opinion about how much better one version of chicken is over another.

>Did you even read your own source?..
Of course. Here's the key statement right here:
>a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food

Those things called out on the * in the label fall into that category. So in other words, it doesn't mean "nothing is added" like it might imply in normal conversation. Instead, it means nothing UNEXPECTED is added. Which is a totally different thing.

See also:

>Not normally be expected
Is a very elastic clause legally speaking. Idk which side you're on just pointing that out for all parties involved in the argument.

How viable is it to read the nutritional values to get an idea of how inflated the meat is? I mean, a chicken breast with 120 kcal and 20 gram proteons per 100 gram would be much less injected than one with 90 kcal and 15 grams, right?

you autists still going on? find a hobby

It says right on the package what percent of weight is brine. Salt and water add zero kcal.

1. Don't buy the cheap shit
2. Read the label

Goddamit, mother, I have told you this a hundred times

What if they add poop? that contain calories

I've never seen that, maybe it's not necessary in my country.

the label didn't list water user

Marketing... they count on the lazy shopper that reads the catch phrase and flops it in their cart.

GENUINE imitation CRAB MEAT*

I grew up in the 1980s. It was the last decade you could get good ice cream that you didn't need to make yourself. It was also the last decade where ice cream needed to be scooped or sliced using a wet-hot ice cream scoop or knife. Why? Because it was real ice cream. It didn't have all the "overrun" that ice cream has now. Overrun is air that's injected into the ice cream to make it softer. Back in the day, you could bite into a scoop of ice cream and it would be hard and creamy. Now it is as soft as soft serve was back then and soft serve today is like whipped cream. Just don't get me started on whipped cream or fucking Ben & Jerry's.