Good, safe beef. No shit.
This simple, folks. e.coli 0157, the deadly pathogen recently discovered in ground beef processed in Nebraska, comes from feces. Yup, feces. Eric Schlosser wrote about this in his seminal work: Fast Food Nation, only he didn’t use the word feces. So, how does meat get contaminated, and how do we know our meat is clean?
First, two ways meat gets infecrted: from feces in entrails which get cut by knives during high-speed processing, or second, from crap attached to the hide not fully cleaned before the animal is killed. Pretty disgusting stuff, especially in light of what we are led to believe when we see mass-produced-factory meat in nice-looking packaging with bucolic farm scenes in the pictures. Why is ground beef usually the suspect? And why aren’t people getting sick from fresh-ground beef? When beef is ground at the slaughterhouse, it can contain contributions from a large number of animals. Much of slaughterhouse grind comes from mechanically separated (i.e. muscle torn from bone by powerful hydraulic machines) meat and inevitably some undesirable bits can get into what we eat. (ever really wonder why factory ground beef is recommended to be cooked to 165 F?) FYI, Paul and I feed rare beef from Marczyk’s to our sons; beef ground from whole muscle in small shops have a much less likely chance of containing contaminants for obvious reasons…we can see it, and we can smell it. plus, it’s not mechanically separated in the first place. no bits and chunks thrown into a grinder. remember “ground chuck?” that’s what we do here. we grind chuck. if you want, we’ll show them to you.
Here’s the deal: you have a choice. Why wouldn’t you buy hand-ground beef made from whole muscle right in front of you just like your parents and their parents did for years and years? remember when a hamburger tasted good? You can have that now. Our Butcher’s Choice® ground beef is made at least twice a day; it sells for $3.79 a pound, and we’ll wrap it any way you like–including for freezing. No attitude, no b.s. (literally) and all from sources who NEVER use antibiotics or hormones in the production of their meat. You deserve it. Your kids deserve it. The animals deserve it.
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