Lou, this has been an ongoing discussion here. Those "flavor enhancers" that you find on the labels of chicken and pork are actually just salt and water and you're paying for that. Up to 10% of the weight of that chicken is just salt and water, but you're still paying whatever per pound for it.

I think it's misleading and wrong, but it's very common. One more reason to grow my own.

I find that if I brine commercially produced meats, they are far too salty.

Annie

Annie, I agree with you, they are too salty, since they have been brinded already. And since I do not like the taste of brinded anything, I tend to head for the poultry market for any birds lately. Sort of meet it and eat it shop.

I like my salt, but recently I "pre-salted" a beef roast. Two teaspoons of salt on the roast about 8 hours prior roasting, and the meat tasted, well, like salt and not beef, All the way through. We ended up tossing it out. Brined chickens and turkeys have the same flavor to me, a sweet, salty thing that I don't like. I would like to taste the beef, pork, chicken, etc.

Now go look at the bag of frozen cooked shrimp you may have in the freezer. They add salt to that too.

I agree, in fact the Chicken gives me a queezy feeling.
This was one of the larger Chicken dealers in the US.

Annie how much are your Chickens. You can add on 10 %. lol
Lou

LOL!... some places are gross enough to add water to the hamburger. Want a nasty burger just mush it all out with some added water for a nice boiled tough hockey puck of a burger. Things have gotten so bad I avoid buying meat from a grocery store. First it was lunch meats because of the listeria problems caused by "negligent" production practices and then red meats.

Wish I had time to run the rabbit herd again... they never gave me bad meat.

: )
lyra

It does vary between brands - I can find chicken without the additions if I read the labels closely.

Is Foster Farms only available in California? That brand is additive-free. Thank goodness!

My complaint with tainted, oops I mean "treated", meats is that it's not just salty meat, but there's a certain breakdown of meat fibers that makes it chew differently. How would you describe that mouth-feel?

I would describe that mouth feel as cooked yet uncooked. The first time I remember eating injected pork chops, I couldn't understand what was wrong with them. They'd been broiled, but somehow they still tasted raw. A really disgusting experience, and one I try to be careful not to repeat, at least knowingly.

Foster Farms is what I buy and I live in WA. So nope..but it could be a west coast thing.

Here Tyson has big labels on their chicken that tout "no additives", but I seldom buy chicken, I grow them, LOL.

Next year I might try to grow turkeys, if I buy another freezer.....

Lou, I've never sold poultry, but the local organic farm has ducks for $4 a pound! I have 22 left in the freezer about 6 lbs each, that would be.....let's see....$24 a duck or $528 worth of duck!!! Of course, I don't know how many of those ducks actually get SOLD for $4 a pound.

Annie

Sushi, the mouth feel is "gushy" or "squishy" to me.

Annie, the farmer I buy eggs from sells her "heritage" chickens for $25 each and her "heritage" turkeys are you ready....for $100 each!!!

I just buy her eggs. at $4 a dozen for chicken, $5 for duck

Aren't they already labeled, like "up to 3% water added" or something along those lines? I can see how it would make calculating the best value more difficult, but I actually like it being presalted-- it's better for the salt solution to sink in than for me to just sprinkle it on the skin.

Jessica, I think it's a matter of taste. I'm one of those "weird texture" people which explains my violent dislike of bananas (which are mushy) and jello (which is just....wrong....somehow, LOL). I think the "flavor enhanced" or whatever commercial meats just feel soft and not fresh. I don't like them, plus I like to control the amount of salt I add to my food, since most commercially available things are already seriously over my personal sodium limits!

Terri, $100 for a turkey? Is that alive, as breeding stock, or is that plucked, cleaned and ready to eat? For breeding purposes, if she has "top of the line" stock, maybe. For dinner? Not a smokin' chance!

Annie

I think hydrated meat is a good thing, in terms of texture, but, you know, to each her own.

I'm with you on jello though. Jello is awful.

Does anyone know a Brand of Chicken; available in the Phila.,
Dewlaware County or Pocono area,
that isn't pumped up with Salt Water or Additives.

I contacted Foster Farms, they said it was available frozen
on the East Coast.
Lou

Lou, here we can get Tyson, they say on their label that there is no additives. Maybe you could get that there?

Annie

Annie, that is ready for the dinner table...

What have alot of 'stupid' consumers around here...They don't realize that some of the farmers are taking them for a ride because they have pastured meat.

Wow. I'm way in the wrong business with my grassfed beef for $1.65 a pound. That's hanging weight, of course. Eggs I mostly just give away.

$100 for a turkey for dinner is astounding, though. Heck, I'd be putting a hatchling turkey in the spare bedroom and waiting for Thanksgiving!

Annie

It has just been brought to my attention via email from a friend (thanks!) that Tyson adds salt to their chickens and markets it as "all natural". The company claims that salt is "natural".

I'll have to check the labels, the ones here say "no additives" and I think salt has to be an additive unless those chickens were raised in the Detroit Salt Mine, sheesh.

Maybe that's what makes Campbell's chicken noodle soup so salty? Those "raised in the salt mine" Tyson chickens?

Annie

Tyson chicken at one time claimed to be antibiotic free, however, they were forced to remove that label because it was not true.

I can finally get free-range chicken that IS antibiotic free with no additives. The bakery/deli/meat store also charges $1 less per pound than the local popular grocery store, Publix.

Annie, here they sell the Heritage birds frozen in the store for close to $100 also. I would love to know if the flavor is worth it but I will let someone invite me to dinner.....

Peppi, I know where you can get baby turkeys, you could raise them in the backyard. Start in the spring, they're ready in the fall, you wouldn't even have to have a warm place. You could make a nice little supplemental income, sell them for $75 each and undercut the grocery store, yeah, that's it. And you could keep them next to the fish, right in the back...

I'm still astounded. Maybe I'll raise a turkey or two next year and then I'll invite you to dinner.

Annie

A butcher told me that they brine pork to keep it tender, he said everyone over cooks it... I don't know if that's the case with chicken though... The only way I can tell if the meat I'm buying has added salt is to read the nutritional info...

This is the sodium meat 'should' have.

Chicken breasts, 3 oz. -- 64 mg's...
Bottom round, 3 oz. -- 43 mg's....
Hamburger, 3 oz. -- 65 to 70 mg's...
Leg of lamb, 3 oz. -- 57 mg's....
Pork loin, 3 oz. -- 37 mg's.

Rita