Steak in America
I felt the post I wrote about how amazing steak is in America in the replies to my post (here: b3ta.com/questions/foodporn/post2005999) was so profound it needed to be posted on the main QOTW replies and not the replies for my own post:

[...]The Americans know how to cook a fucking steak. None of this 6oz grey bit of gristle on your plate ("if you go large it's a whole 8oz!" That's a cowgirl cut where I live now). I'm talking 16-32 oz of hardcore, perfectly cooked dead cow that this country has perfected the cooking of.

Anyone who ever visits Orlando, take a 45 minute drive south on the I4 to Texas Cattle Co. in Lakeland. Ask for Colin to serve you (not that that effects the steak but he's sound as a pound) and you will not be disappointed.

I cannot stress that last paragraph enough. Best steaks I've ever eaten.
(Mr_Lew, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 4:20, 22 replies)

Merkin steak is OK if you're the sort of plastic-toothed, vegan-lite Nancy who likes flaccid tasteless factory gaybeef.
I'm old-fashioned. I like meat to taste of actual meat.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 7:48, closed)

I've gotta politely dispute this one.
American steaks are definitely better on average than the ones you get in the UK, but you can do much better.

South America, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay are in a different league. Their cows are bred on pampas, the steaks are ridiculously good.
(username failed moderation, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 8:29, closed)

"but they're big and cheap"
should be the U.S's sub-headline, maybe in latin
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:27, closed)

Bigger is better.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:29, closed)

Have you sampled the delights of their brown icing sugar, humourously referred to as 'chocolate'?
You need to eat loads just to taste anything
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:32, closed)

See now ... south Americans grow cows that taste of cow.
I've a Brazilian mate who gets so incensed about US tofubeef that his voice goes up two octaves and he loses the ability to speak English. It's worth raising the subject just to hear him squeak.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:28, closed)

Small trick (a pearoast of sorts) that works if you live in London.
Go to either of these places (there are more dotted about London, Google for them).

www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1160/37118.php

www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1160/37073.php

Talk to the butcher, Ask for 'picanha'. Go for either Argentinian or Uruguayan if they have it. You will be presented with about 1.5kg of TOP fillet, in a vacuum sealed pack and it will cost you about £20.

Can be sliced into steaks. I guess you'll get 10 good steaks from each one. The butcher guys have machines that will cut them for you if you want.

Works out far cheaper than buying it in Sainsburys, and it's much better stuff.

Leave the fat on when cooking, just a pinch of rock salt is enough for flavouring.

Can also be barbecued - cut into three pieces, sprinkle rock salt on, cook for a couple of minutes, bang the salt off, cut off a couple of slices, then resalt, put back on barbie, repeat.
(username failed moderation, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:45, closed)

What are the animal welfare standards like
in South America? Serious question - I imagine North American cattle to all be intensively reared (based on reading Fast Food Nation, many years ago), but no idea about Argentina et al.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:58, closed)

Far as I know,
it's OK. Brazil and Argentina have pretty comprehensive Min of Ag. procedures. don't know about the others.

I've been eating the stuff for decades, and I haven't died yet.
(username failed moderation, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 10:03, closed)

Didn't think the beef would be harmful,
just wondered if it was cheap for the same reason that battery eggs are cheap. Sounds like it's all good, though.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 12:43, closed)

Fuck welfare as long add the beef tastes beefy.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 10:28, closed)

The US normal is feedlots (concentration camps for cows) or grass fed.
The South Americans do the same, they tend to have more grass available though. That said, much grassland is temporary grazing on the poor soils you get when you slash and burn the rainforest and is pretty much useless for anything after that. Now they are ploghing up good grassland this will get worse.

And of course every animal will be given growth promoters, beta agonists, steroids..depending on which country they are produced in.

www.argentinaindependent.com/socialissues/environment/the-hidden-costs-of-feedlots/

It's the beginning of the end. If we want high quality meat we have to be prepared to pay for it and few are. I can buy really tasty steak here in Western Canada very cheaply. We can also get really good grass fed beef but it is expensive. I tend to have a bit of both. This steak is better and way cheaper than pretty much anything you can get in Yurp, with the possible exception of Irish well aged stuff and the odd organic knit-your-own farm shoppe type who care enough to do it proper like.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 13:27, closed)

I have an Argentinian place near me
where they parade the (uncooked) steaks at the table for you to choose from.

It's like a bell to Pavlov's dogs...
( chthonic, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 10:12, closed)

Ye gods...

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 11:16, closed)

Might be the same place, but
Gaucho does that.

Good food, but FARKING expensive.
(username failed moderation, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 11:47, closed)

Will Colin cut it into cubes, and stew it up with kidneys and onions, in a suet pudding?
No? He can take the proverbial long walk, then.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 9:31, closed)

They don't eat the tasty bits.
They give it to dogs or ship it to the Caribbean. They are genuinely terrified of food that tastes of something.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 10:29, closed)

I heard that haggis is illegal out there.
Might not be true, but madness if it is.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 12:45, closed)

Yep - due to the offal.

( Pig Bodine., Thu 4 Jul 2013, 12:50, closed)

What do they put in their beefburgers, then?
Beef? Bloody weirdos.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 13:06, closed)

They actually sell pretend haggis.
[sadface]
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 12:54, closed)

True, but for biosecurity reasons.
The importing of meat products is restricted to try and keep new animal diseases out of the continent. It's perfectly ok to make haggis in the US, just not to import.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 13:49, closed)