Maryanne,
I've had the Australian type a couple of times and I think it tastes a little gamey. Not real fond of it, but it could be a matter of taste. I won't buy it again but if it was put in front of me, probably would eat it.
Kim

thanks kim, someone in the store yesterday said she wasn't a fan, but with no explanation. so since that's two negatives, i'll stick with what i know.

maryanne

I'd sure buy it! Any meats from Australia i have eaten were wonderful! I expect it's not corn fed as you are used to....and likely much healthier!
Linda C

I was wondering the same thing. Shop Rite by me had the Australian on sale for 3.99 a lb and the American on sale for 5.99 a lb. I bought one of each, it seemed that the Australian was cut differently and was thinner than the American cut, both were cryovaced (sp?).

i went back and purchased another USA one. i wasn't sure, so i stayed with what i know. the price is just a little too excellent to pass up (shop rite).

maryanne

Maryanne: I'm with LindaC. I used Australian tenderloins in my Pizzeria for Steak Sandwiches.
Everyone loved it.
A lot of beef comes from there. Maybe Kim should try again.?
Just like anything ,sometimes the taste is off.
The next time it might taste better than Filet.
But again, I don't know what a " Gamey Taste " is like and I'm a hunter???

Lisacdm: I don't know what " cryovaced " means, so I won't comment.

LOU

PS : Maryanne : I have an Apple Upside Down Cake; I baked, in the freezer.
I'm going to start on a Cheesecake now.
I have Spaghetti Sauce Made too.

lou, cryocaved is when it's shrinked wrapped in the plastic.

sauce????????????? i want gravy LOL
i was just looking at the apple upside down cake that ann posted for someone. it looks scrumptious and i love your cheesecake recipe.

maryanne

Maryanne, at one time Australian Beef was a little gamey but not any more. Australian beef is now grain fed like our beef. Give it a try I don't think that you will be disappointed. It is excellent beef at an excellent price. I bougth a whole strip loin a month or so ago and cut it into 2 inch thick steaks and one two pound roast.

Ann

Other than the obvious differences of the U.S. product most likely being fresher and slaughtered/processed under the watchful eyes of USDA inspectors....

When you buy the U.S. product, you are supporting U.S. cattlemen and US cattle feeders. And that is pretty darn important.

mrsi: Right !!!!! Just like supporting the Auto Industry.
And all the other things. Does anyone really care anymore.
I think it is too late to start worrying about that.
Should have done something right after WW2.

LOU

mrsj, while I commend your exhortation to support US local growers and producers, as an Australian I can't help but be somewhat offended by your implication that Australian beef is slaughtered and processed under less sanitary conditions than in the US:
" the obvious differences of the U.S. product most likely being fresher and slaughtered/processed under the watchful eyes of USDA inspectors...."
This is no doubt why there have been several major recalls of ground beef "processed under the watchful eyes of USDA inspectors" due to e Coli contamination, but none in Australia.

mrsj: I am offended by the comment also.
hawk307: Even though this is off-topic I feel I must comment - if the auto industry based in the US gave the consumers what they wanted they would not have a problem.
Buy American really can be quite complicated now: Most of the cars sold in the US are built with parts manufactured from all over the world (yes even US vehicles). Some foreign auto companies have assembly plants in the US.

Colleen: you forgot about our Mad Cow issues too. (this is not sarcasm!)

Move to the Hot Topic forum?

I did not mean to offend you or imply anything other than what I clearly stated in my post.

I stand behind what I said. U.S. beef should be much fresher than beef that has been shipped across an ocean.

As for the subject of the recall, our system obviously works - or else we wouldn't have recalls. Would we prefer a perfect system? Of course. Will we ever have it? No.
Since e coli is naturally occurring, it is something that we always have to be on the lookout for whether we are eating ground beef or fresh vegetables.

By the way, e coli is not something we have to worry about with the whole muscle cuts such as the tenderloin.

"As for the subject of the recall, our system obviously works - or else we wouldn't have recalls."
Huh? If the system truly worked, the watchful USDA inspectors would witness practices likely to contaminate the beef and it would never get out to be recalled.
As for freshness, unless you know how long the beef is held at the slaughterhouse before being shipped out to consumers, you can't categorically state it is fresher than beef which can be flown into the US less than 12 hours after it is slaughtered in Australia.
Go ahead and exhort consumers to buy local, but don't malign the products of other countries in the process. There is a vast difference between cheering for your team, and slagging off the opposition.

colleen: "As for freshness, unless you know how long the beef is held at the slaughterhouse before being shipped out to consumers, you can't categorically state it is fresher than beef which can be flown into the US less than 12 hours after it is slaughtered in Australia."

You've got a lot to learn about the cattle and beef business, colleen. You're fortunate that I have the time right now to try to help you. Here's some info for you about Australian beef exports to the U.S. - straight from the horse's mouth - so to speak. The "Australian Beef Product Guide":

"The average shipment and discharge time by sea is 20 days to the West Coast
and 30 days to the East Coast. The days at sea
are perhaps the most important to the quality of
Australian chilled beef primal cuts. During this
time, chilled, vacuum packaged cuts are allowed
to agea process that improves and enhances meat
quality and tenderness. Sea freight is the most
popular form of transport for Australian beef
to North America; however, air shipment is also
available, with discharge times of 18 hours to the
West Coast and 21 hours to the East Coast."

Now, pay close attention, colleen. It says that air freight is "also available." But that 20-30 days at sea is average. But that's important - that aging makes it better. You ought to try to eat some of it that HASN'T been aged. LOL

And why worry about that much time, anyway. The same source also states that, "Strict temperature control is maintained
throughout the delivery process, inhibiting
bacterial growth and giving Australian beef a shelf
life of up to 120 days." What?!?!? Yep, 120 days.

colleen: "Go ahead and exhort consumers to buy local, but don't malign the products of other countries in the process. There is a vast difference between cheering for your team, and slagging off the opposition."

I haven't maligned anyone's products, colleen. Simply stating facts. Facts about logistics that you can't refute. I'm sure the Australian product is great - I never said that it wasn't. If I REALLY wanted to malign their product, there are many more opportunities - I can assure you.

Twenty to 30 days at sea, colleen. One hundred twenty day shelf life, colleen. Yum-yum. You can have all you want. I'll stick to the U.S. product...AND support the U.S. producer at the same time!

MrsJ, I don't see a need to be condescending while being informative. Nope, no need at all.

And....do you have any idea of the time frame between slaughter and table of US beef....in the "supermarket" pipeline?
I believe you might be surprised.
We like to think that our food in just a few days from farm to table....but I am afraid that's not so.
When I see a cryovac packaged piece of meat in the supermarket with a date of "sell by...3 weeks from now" I do freak! and then I wonder how long from that cryovac package on the shelf from the feed lot?
I don't think I want to know!

I have myself cryovaced each and every night to ensure I smell fresh and don't become spoiled the next day.

Works too....doesn't it!!

That was my point, Linda- I sincerely doubt the beef suppliers sit around waiting for orders, then go buy the cattle, slughter and process them and ship them out. Customers want their product NOW. And given that it's expensive to stop and start production lines, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a continuous process with orders being supplied from beef that was processed the longest time previously to rotate the product. Then the supermarket orders their beef in ahead of time so thy don't run out- and uses the oldest first. So I'd be interested to hear just how long that gap from hoof to table is- and not surprised if it was similar to the Australian product.

hmmm, it's time for the USDA - whatever australia's is called - cattle farmers and the like to enter this ring.

in support of mrsj's first statement, i took it to mean that an american's we are not certain how other countries regulate. case in point - look at all the stuff being recalled from china at this time that don't meet our measures. however, your following response, i must agree, was totally condesending. almost made me wish i had never asked the question. granted we've had plenty of instances of recalled beef. it's still happening with some kind of pre-formed burgers.

i was just curious if the taste was different - i didn't want to buy an 8 pound piece of meat and run the possiblity of having to make dog food out of it. (and i mean NO offense to anyone - i just wouldn't waste it).

Maryanne: I second that motion. I think you had your answer in the first few threads.
Personally I would buy anything cheaper, if it is the same Quality.
Just like the rest of the people in this country are doing.
I won't stay in the arguement about these things, because
all the facts are not known.
And I won't discuss them here.
LOU

PS : I still don't know what a Gamy Taste is. ???

I lied . I saw this article and thought someone might be interested. I'm out of here.

Brutal Flexibilization of Labor - See Pearl Harbor Attack on Workers below ....
Honda, Toyota etc all coming to America - Made in the USA is passe


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Honda, Toyota etc all coming to America - Made in the USA is passe
Illegal Immigration - People of Good Will, fermenting race to the bottom
CAFTA - Pearl Habor attack on Workers and the American Dream
Go to Main Pages of Tapart News and Art that Talks and select topic in left hand column
Arkline Free Online offering many total Free Services and much more
Collect rare topical and sports art by Ray Tapajna
How to chop up an economy and end up with 2 Americas - the "haves" and the "have nots"--------
Local value added economies that once energized a vast middle class and restored the local economies in Asia and Europe are being destroyed.
A small upper middle class that says - "I got mine - why don't you have yours", will find it impossible to support societies and communities - 20% of a upper class can not support the needs of the other 80% living off the working poor.
How can any employer make profits with impoverished destitute workers and call them selves Christian or people of good will?
The States of Ohio and Indiana competed for the new Honda auto assembly plant. The phrase made in the USA has changed to built or assembled in the USA since the component parts come from many other places including most likely some sub contractor in Central America who pay only about 50 cents an hour to workers. Ohio had offered Honda $78 million dollars in incentives. Indiana offered about $56 million dollars to get Honda to come ot Indiana plus they will spend another $100 million or so to build roads etc to support the Honda facility. Depending on the way you look at it, this means, Indiana is spending over $100,000 for each job. Indiana won the deal. This is much less than the State of Georgia paid KIA to come to their state. Georgia paid $400 million to get KIA . That adds up to about $200,000 for each job.
Indiana has recently lost about 20,000 jobs in the auto parts industry. Honda is hiring only 2,000 and so the numbers do not make any sense. On top of this one city in Indiana paid out $10 million dollars to entice Honda to come. This money comes from their share in gambling casinos.
Only about 50% of Honda, Toyota and Nissan auto parts are made in the USA and it is most likely much less since all major automobile assemblers have farmed out the auto parts industry to contractors who in turn use sub-contractors from abroad. Most of the pieces that are assembled like pistons and valves are made or machined abroad. 25% of transmissions are imported too. In India, Honda workers are protesting for the right to organize or just to protest for social justice in the workday.
In the USA, the minimum wage stays in place and the main question to ask is how can any employer live off the working poor in this country and the impoverished destitute workers outside the USA.
Once upon a time in places like Cleveland, Ohio there were major international corporations having their world wide corporate offices. Companies employing 5000 workers were considered small to medium size companies. The stock market rewarded companies that tried to increase their work force with added valuation for their stocks. More workers once meant more growth etc.
The first assault on American auto companies took out more than 400,000 auto workers. More than 700,000 workers lost their jobs related to the steel industry. Now American auto makers are taking the final hit and the best thing they could do now is just turn their companie over to the Asian companies since the supply of wage slave labor can not be exhausted. The Chinese reportedly are comming with their wage slave car. According to the Indianpolis Star Research Center for Automotive Research. Alabama paid Mercedes $250 million in incentives to locate there or about $168,000 for each job. They paid Honda $158 million to locate their plant there too or about $105,000 per job. South Carolina paid BMW $200 million for their facility or about $100,000 per job. Of course this is tax payers money and so workers overall are paying out to have someone else take their jobs.
An untold story behind all this surrounds World War 1 and World War 2. Japan went to war because they in a sense were blockaded from economic survival. The U.S. in about 1898 gave Japan the right to seek economic survival by moving to the main land. However, they recinded this agreement in the 1930s and told Japan they could not move from their island nation. During this time, the U.S. sold their scrap metals to Japan and Japan used the scrap to make weapons. It seems the USA could have let the Japanese move their factories to the USA decades earlier than they did and avoid World War 2. Perhaps no one would have had to drop an atomic bomb. A study of Germany after World War 1 tells a similar story where war could have been averted there if we let Germany moved their production around the world too. However this so called Free Trade is not working either. This is a sad commentary behind the mess today where politics, nations, big business, power and money are all tangled together in a new kind of colonialism where economies are chopped up into pieces and moved from one place to another based on the lowest wages possible. Wars and terrorism are following the money. They ignore what Henry Ford said about workers needing to afford to buy the things they make. Today we have a race to the bottom where workers can not afford to buy the things they make and they certainly have no money left over to buy anything the USA has left to sell. In the end, globalization will find out that you can not do business with people who have no money. All you can do is make profits on a short term basis before time runs out. As water seeks its lowest level, globalization is doing the same. A new kind of imperialism under elite groupings instead of nations is the end result

Thought I was on hot topics, oops. I'm on hot cooking topics.lol

How to describe gamey tasting is a little difficult. I suppose I would describe it as meat that has a bit of a grassy or dried straw flavour to it, not a smell, but when you taste it it does conjure up that wild field sort of smell in your mind. Doesn't make sense I know LOL

pkguy and Lou, My mother and I were just talking about this, this morning..(after my oldest son turned his nose up at Tailgate party shown on College Football that was grilling Gator.)~My response was if you were raised on it, it doesn't taste funny.~That said, I don't like anything that is "wild" caught. Be it venison, birds or even lake fish..They all taste like the place they come from..or what my mind thinks upon tasting them.. LOL (I do love fresh caught salmon though.)
I grew up with a brother who hunted and fished.(still does) but I wouldn't eat anything he brought home after the initial taste..BLECH...

But I can taste a difference between organic grass feed free range beef and "regular" store beef...The organic grass feed free range has a sweeter taste, and maybe even "more" flavor..(I'm guessing all the sweet grass they eat versus corn and whatever else the others are stuffed with.)

Maryanne, I regret the direction this thread turned, as well as the condescending tone of my previous post. I won't say it was misinterpreted, because it was certainly intentional - a response to people picking my original post apart and alleging that I said something that I never said.

Does anyone even remember my original post on this thread? Some posters here took a very simple comment of mine:

"Other than the obvious differences of the U.S. product most likely being fresher and slaughtered/processed under the watchful eyes of USDA inspectors...."

And from that, alleged that I was insinuating that Australian beef was "slaughtered and processed under less sanitary conditions than in the US."

I NEVER said that or even implied it. NEVER! My comment regarding the USDA inspection simply referred to the fact that we don't know anything about the inspection in foreign countries. Granted, ours could be improved upon, but at least we know something about it. It's certainly possible that Australia's is as good or even better than ours, but we just don't KNOW that.

And the comment I made about freshness was ONLY pertaining to the logistics of shipping. It's actually a pretty simple concept...

The less distance there is between the point of a commodity's production and the point of that commodity's consumption, the fresher that product is likely to be. Not just beef, but ANY product.

But, the shipping time is not even an issue for me, because I wouldn't buy the imported product under ANY conditions. I have a strong desire to support local farmers and ranchers - and not just because I'm a cattle producer. I feel STRONGLY that we should support our domestic food producers...even at the higher price. I put my money where my mouth is and do the same thing with products other than beef.

We've already given much of this country's manufacturing capability to China. We're becoming more and more dependent on them all the time for fish and seafood. We depend on the Middle East for way too much of our energy needs. If we ever become too dependent on foreign countries for our food....well, I'm going to do my part to be sure that doesn't happen. Even if it costs more.

Again, I regret hijacking your thread and the direction that it turned. Thanks for buying U.S. beef!

I peeped in again.
Terri and Pkguy: It's all according to what the animal was doing when it was taken. If it was calm , that's better.

Another thing is how it is cooked.

I'll make you a Venison Stew and a Beef Stew. If you bet that you can tell the difference you will lose !!!!!
LOU

I'll only pipe in to say I have purchased free range Aussie beef at Shop Rite - I did purchase the whole filet mignon this week - and I do find it to be very palatable and it cooks a little faster [according to my DH who is the grill master of the family] than the US variety.

We're grilling tomorrow and I'm whipping up bearnaise.

Pkguy: I still don't know what a Gamey taste is like.
Probably because I never ate Grass or Straw. LOL!!!

LOU

Lou,
The gamey taste saying goes back to my grandmother, who used the saying to describe a strong tasting meat, not always pleasent. Most likely started with hunters and as Pkguy stated, depending on what animals eat will also affect the taste of that animal. May not be a real word to some but I grew up with it:)
Kim

I too grew up with the word "gamey." When I taste something with a gamey taste I know it immediately, however I can't describe it. Perhaps it's just the taste of a meat we aren't used to. To me, goat, deer and any birds have that taste. I don't know about buffalo because I haven't tried it, but I bet it does to.

Beverly

Sorry guys: Like I said,it all according to how the animal is taken and how it is cooked. If a Deer is on the run and chased back and forth before it is taken ( shot ) I didn't want to say that and upset some of you, it is pumping adrenaline and may give the meat a funny taste.
Then you have to know how to cook Venison,too.

I've eaten just about everything, including Bear and Cougar.
I won't tell you what I said to a waitress after having Cougar and Eggs, for breakfast
but she wacked me across the head with a menu. It was one of the heavy kind, too.
I'll leave that to your imagination !!!

I wonder what the Early Settlers said about the taste of Cattle when they first came to be ?????
Probably something like " I don't care for that new fangled meat, it don't have that Gamey taste"
Yeh!!!" And just wait til they start shipping that meat in from Australia "

PKGUY : You have to admit, I can really keep a Thread going
and get everyone worked up. Now everyone is going to wonder,"
How do you cook Venison " ?????

LOL! LOL! LOL!

LOU

lou - go make a cheesecake!!!!

i too grew up with gamey. i always thought deer tasted gamey. sometimes though, we weren't told we were having deer, we were having "roast", and i guess that translated to roast beef and sometimes that "roast" just had a different type taste.

maryanne

Maryanne: Thanks! I made a Cheesecake, Braided Bread,
Cinnamon Buns, Spaghetti Sauce ( Gravy ) Apple Upside Down cake .

It's all in the freezer.
LOU