Posts by: dsi
The premiere was a downright failure. I have never had bad luck with tenderloin from South America, but this one was something else. After 4 hours in 54,5 degrees C it was spongy. Spongy as in rubbery. That’s just wrong.
- Spongy tenderloin
It was presented with a cheddarbaked potatoe and homemade sauce bearnaise. I should have added a stronger cheese, finely chopped chili or crushed garlic to the potatoes.
The only thing that came out as it should be was the sauce.
Recipes will follow, I’m still a bit said about this lousy premiere.
But only temporarily! I’m still gonna eat a cow over this summer with friends and family. But some personal issues has pushed my plans forward a bit. I was recently diagnosed with some bad health issues. The kind that made the health workers involved in my case go pale and all stressed out. Except my new doctor. He was cool as a cucumber and prescribed funky pills to put me back to safety.
I normally don’t like medications. I prefer the body to take care of its own issues. It’s remarkably good at that. On the other hand, considering how I’ve violated my body over the last decade being overweight and in general being in bad physical health – when health workers get stressed out over my test results, I’ll nod and agree with whatever doctor prescribing just about any kind of medication.
It’s not cancer or anything bad like that, just a ticking bomb in the form of metabolic syndrome. Hypertension, morbid obesity, strong indication of diabetes and so on. I’ll keep trying to lose weight (15 lbs so far, many more to go) and take my meds and in time, I should be able to show test results more within normal range.
Eating a cow shouldn’t affect this as long as I reduce the carbs and avoid eating a whole cow in one single sitting.
It annoys me to no end when companies, not rarely in the craftsmanship type of business have a webpage from the mid 90s, sport an email address and never check it.
You would think a business would be interested in talking to customers. It seems like I, as a customer, drew the short straw here. I got no reply from either of the butcheries I contacted over the by now infamous butcher’s steak. It ticks me off. Big time. On the upside, there are other edible parts of a cow. It seems like I have to be happy with those.
So I have just mailed a semi-local butcher shop asking them kindly to save the butcher’s steak for me. I am doubtful they will be able to do this. There are probably laws and policies prohibiting a butcher selling the meat to a random Joe in this way. Now, my backup plan is to let them give me the name/address/phonenumber to a farmer raising cattle and let that farmer make a special order for this cut. That way the farmer may get a few more pennies for their cattle. The butcher will make a few more pennies for saving viable meat and I will be able to get the butcher’s steak.
That’s what I am hoping for. I have a feeling, if I get an offer somehow, the meat will be severely overpriced, since it’s something out of the ordinary. And obviously, because a random Joe is jumping through hoops to get this cut of meat, that will sure encourage the whole delivery chain to monetize a bit over my obsession.
On the other hand, I’ve decided to try this cut of meat. I have great plans for it and it IS quite rare in Sweden. Serving this meat, cooked to perfection (no pressure) will be worth quite a bit of money I think.
But, I am obviously not holding my breath here.
One thing I haven’t considered so far is hanging time. I have a feeling that when the cattle is being killed, the entrails will be removed as soon as possible. After that, the halves or quarters of the body will hang for a certain time before it’s cut into its respective pieces. The butcher’s steak, in this instance, will not normally get any hanging time. Now IF I manage to get hold of these pieces, will I need to hang them myself? I don’t know if I have the environment to do so. Perhaps, I should read up on this – like straight away. Food safety is quite important after all…
Update: 2012-03-14 14:33
I also sent an email later that afternoon to one of the bigger local meat distributors in my region. They handle a big amount of cattle each day and are naturally in contact with their own butchers. On their homepage they said they care about every customer. We’ll see to what degree they care.
My first review will obviously be of my knife of choice. The Global G2. I can’t say I am a knife expert or that I have wielded hundreds of knives in the kitchen. But I have wielded enough and I don’t feel I have to look further.
My current Global G2 has served me for about 15 years by now and I have still to damage the blade. It has gone dull a few times, but with the proper sharpening tools, it can still be restored to just about its original glory.
A common critisism to the Global knives is the fragility of them. I can’t say I have noticed such fragility myself. I lost count on how many times it has fallen off the counter.
It is a wonderful knife. It’s sharp, it’s light and it’s very well balanced. I have abused the blade many times over the years, but still haven’t managed to destroy it. This is a very high quality knife, no doubt about it. There are scratches on the blade, I admit that. Those come from my lack of skill using the sharpening tools properly. But then again, as long as the cutting edge is as sharp as a knife can be, I don’t mind the blade’s sides looking a bit scruffy.
There’s one slight drawback to the knife. The handle can be uncomfortable after a few hours continous slicing and dicing. But that’s half the knife’s fault for being unforgiving in its design. The other half is me, holding the knife in a sloppy way. I’ve gotten a few blisters now and again, but if I stick with holding the knife in stupid ways I kinda have to blame myself.
Now, if you were to buy this knife, you really should buy proper sharpening tools to keep the edge in good shape. When it dulls, it is as bad as any other dull knife. A few minutes later, it can be in good shape. If you spend a little more time – I usually do once every 3-4 months, it will be in great, if not pristine, condition again.
Due to the prices of the other knives in the Global G-range, I haven’t bought any of the others. I do have knives for other tasks in the kitchen, so I don’t really have a pressing need to collect more. Basically, this knife takes care of most of my needs anyway.
So if you want a really solid, all-around useful knife. I would dearly recommend the Global G2. Properly taken care of, it will last you a lifetime, like just about any other high quality knife.
