Where's The Beef

There have been several times when I have wondered why suddenly everybody and their brother is advertising angus beef. Every fast food restaurant suddenly has an angus except maybe Dairy Queen. Walmart sells angus burger patties and ground beef. Why? I grew up in a rural area and to the best of my knowledge Angus is a breed of cattle. Is the meat of one breed of cow better than all others. It seems to be more expensive. I finally though about this while in front of the computer rather than driving somewhere in my car and I looked it up.

Angus is a breed of cattle, actual two breeds, Black Angus and Red Angus. I believe there may even be subsets in the breeds. They are the most Popular breed in the US. They were brought to the US in the 1800's. For a long time most of the beef in the US came from Angus and Hereford cattle. So why did that change and why suddenly is Angus become such a marketing buzz word?

Well there are two things that make Angus beef different. First both Angus and Hereford have more of a protein called myostatin. Myostatin inhibits the growth of muscle. In other words, Angus and Hereford have more fat in their meat than other breeds of cattle. Second, Angus beef has very fine marbling (the fat is mixed into the lean meat very well).

If you are above a certain age then you may remember how it was decided that eating fat made you fat, so all kinds of stuff became low-fat or fat-free. Well angus beef went out-of-style. It now seems to be back in fashion as a premium food. Part of this might be due to the fact that most women work outside the home now, so slower cooking methods that tenderize the leaner, tougher beef that became standard are no longer practical. Part of it is due to the work of the American Angus Association. They created CAB (Certified Angus Beef), Certified Angus Beef requires that the beef produced if from either a certified Angus or from an animal that had a certified Angus for one parent. It also has to meet standard for marbling and 9 other strict standards. Less than 10% of beef produced meet this standard. So buying Angus beef means you get better meat right? Wrong. Buying CAB marked meat means you are getting a premium cut of meat. But the majority of Angus beef being sold isn't CAB, but we've now bought into Angus being better, so most people assume it is all the same. CAB meet sells for considerably more than other types of beef. You can rest assured that the Angus burger McDonalds sells isn't made from CAB beef. Another thing to consider is that the fast food chains have a major impact on the beef market. They now know people will pay more for a "premium" burger. So if the demand expands, unless the government gets involved and sets standards, suppliers may stretch their definition of what Angus beef is.

Now is Angus beef any better? Some people think it tastes better and is more tender. Well taste is determined by preparation method and fat. Since angus beef has a higher fat content, it may taste better than a leaner cut prepared the same way. Fat can also have a lot to do with tenderness. On the other hand, another cut of the same grade meat would probably taste the same to most people.

Incidentally, the Wagyu cattle breed has similar marbling and possibly even more fat than the Angus. One variety of the Wagyu is where "Kobe beef" comes from.

Recent Events

Things seem to have snowballed for me recently. It's hard to describe but it seems like I need more hours in the day just to cope with the minimum things I need to do, much less things I want to do. I realize that some of it is inefficient time management on my part, but I also seem to lack motivation and energy. I finally worked around to making a doctor's appointment for myself a week before my blood pressure medicine ran out. I hadn't been taking it like I am supposed to, for instance sometimes forgetting either 1 or 2 days on the weekends or skipping the pee pill part of it on days I have court of morning training at work. That pill runs me pretty regular to the restroom from 8 to 11 or so, and all the people from the outlying offices come in for the training as it is mandatory, so there is only 1 bathroom for all the men and only 2 for the women. Even if I can hold it until the breaks, I may end up driving to the nearest gas station for relief. I was prepared for bad news only to find that my blood pressure is down a bunch. After discussion with the doc, she confirms my opinion that I am suffering from depression. She put me on an antidepressant that is also supposed to provide some energy and motivation. She warned me about possible side effects including suicidal thoughts, insomnia, paranoia, ect. I am paranoid most days anyway so probably won't notice that and as I told the doctor, I am more worried about homicidal thoughts than suicidal ones. I have only been on it for 2 days but so far I am sleeping like a baby.

In more interesting news, we had an election. On the local front of said election, there were 2 interesting referendums, neither of which I could vote on. I live very close to the line between the county I live in and the county I work in. I actually spend more of my waking time in the work county as it is where I do most of my shopping, movie viewing, eating out, ect. The county I live in is the economic equivalent of a tumbleweed that hasn't blown away yet, and has little to offer. In the county I live in, the county seat (where I don't live) had a referendum on liquor by the drink. In simple terms, the county has been dry for my entire life, stores with the proper licensing can sell beer and malt liquor drinks and a few restaurants can sell beer with a meal. The liquor by the drink would allow establishments to serve stronger alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption. It would still require licensing by both state and city governments and would obviously be regulated. The proponents of the referendum argue it would bring in additional sales tax, possibly some new restaurants and employment. The people against the
referendum proclaimed higher crime rates, particularly dui, hell fire, damnation, prostitution and violence in the streets, Mel Gibson visiting town in full apocalyptic glory. Now for some prospective on this. This is a small town growing visibly smaller by the year. The largest town to the north is a thriving small city which has liquor by the drink, to the northeast is a county with a county seat so small, it doesn't even have a chain fast food restaurant, but it allows the sell of liquor. The largest store sits right over the county line from my home county. The largest city in this area is the one I work in. It allows liquor by the drink and just voted in a referendum for liquor stores. This is to the south. They are going to allow 4 and expect them to possibly be open by the end of the year. The largest city to the east offers both liquor by the drink and by the bottle. So only to the west does it require more than a 20 minute drive to by either a single drink or bottle of the demon rum. The county I live in and the one I work in are both dry, but both county seats now sell liquor by the drink, and the work county will soon have liquor by the bottle. This makes sense because a smaller city in the same county voted it in last year and made over a half million in new taxes alone. Now as far as the city in my home county, I don't suspect liquor by the drink will make a huge difference. It's a small place, it isn't going to attract a major chain restaurant, I don't think the demographics are there. There are two existing ethnic restaurants that might benefit a bit, so maybe a little more tax. The dui rate is already high, so I doubt this will contribute, most of those guys prefer Coors or Bud to The Captain or Jack. There aren't any bars or clubs inside the city limits, so unless the zoning commission allows one in, I don't see any issues there unless it gets passed as a county referendum.

Other news, Jack in the Box closed the local branch. This sucks for me. I have 2 places where I like to eat breakfast, both are close to work. One is the Dairy Queen, where they have great breakfast burritos (excellent salsa) and the biscuits and gravy is good too. The other was the Jack in the Box. I loved their breakfast bowls. They also had a grilled breakfast sandwich that was good. Now I am down to one. I tried the new Burger King, but none of there additions seem that good. As far as they go, I still think the old croissanwiches are their best offering. Their breakfast bowls are about half the size of JINB and the only meat is sausage, of which BK's isn't that great. The also dropped the chicken biscuit which was my other item when I had to eat breakfast there. But on the positive side, we are getting a Blue Coast Burrito, which is apparently what happens with people from California try to cook Tex-Mex or Ari-Mex. That being said, maybe I can finally try a Baja Fish Taco. The building is done and they are hiring.