Safeway San Ramon CA


 
I just eyeball the fat percentage. The more the better anyway :D except when I am using it in something like a Bolognese then I grind a very lean cut i.e. sirloin, round, etc. But for burgers unless it's that awful really "hard" fat it stays there and gets ground right up
 
Our local little grocery store always has 1.5 lbs. (< or >) 97% ground beef on Fridays for $5.00. I usually buy it for tacos, but I prefer 80%-85% for everything else.
 
Barb worked yesterday and checked to see what her Safeway store was selling 93/7 for, $3.99 lb. 80/20 was $3.39 LB.
 
I usually pay close attention to meat prices but apparently I do need to be a bit more diligent.

We ended up using 50% ground Turkey and 50% of some 80/20 I had.
We use our home canned veggies and the Carrol Shelby chili mix and you could not taste the Turkey at all.

I’m not sure if any of you have tried the Carrol Shelby Chili mix but it’s the best spice pack for Chili base I’ve ever had.
We like to add a bunch of goodies to it and slow cook the heck out of it.
 
Never had Carrol Shelby's, but I'm partial to *** Kickin' Chili Fixins. It comes with enough heat you can make 2 batches and still have a good amount of kick to it.
 
I’ll give that a try Bob.

Mean while back at the ranch….

So I’m getting ready for another cook and I have to go back to the same Safeway for an organic bird I’m gonna cook on my new beer can toy thingy and I see the ground beef section.

They freaking raised the price on the ground beef again.
YIKES!!!!
 

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Never had Carrol Shelby's, but I'm partial to *** Kickin' Chili Fixins. It comes with enough heat you can make 2 batches and still have a good amount of kick to it.
I remember buying Shelby's chili bag in the 80s (I think). I haven't seen it for years in our stores. I just figured they stopped making it. I recall it was pretty good. Seems like his had chili powder, some kind of corn starch or flour, cayenne powder, and a bag of "secret" spices.

This recipe has more or less been what my home made chili has evolved into. It's rich and thick and has a lot of spice.

Makes about 6 bowls, takes 5-6 hrs start to finish

  • Beef Brisket flat or other cubed meat, 3 to 4 lbs. (about 1/2 of the brisket flat), rubbed with savory rub, seared to medium rare over mesquite charcoal and wood, in a closed Komado (substitute pork, wild game or whatever you like) cubed a little bigger than the size of your little toe (1/2 to 3/4 inch).
  • 29 oz. can of Hunts tomato sauce (Hunts is the best, ask any self-respecting beer swilling chili cookoff chef. But I used Cento tomato paste on this batch and it was a bit on the tomato-ee side, but not bad)
  • 1 12 oz. beer (I used Modelo Negra)
  • New Mexico Chili 1 oz. package (tastes much different than others)
  • California Chili (Gebharts or similar) ½ oz.
  • Diced Green Chili 4 oz. (can Ortega mild or roasted Anaheim or Poblano chilis)
  • 1 Onion (medium sized) diced and dark caramelized with butter
  • Garlic, 2 tablespoons of minced and fried in butter, loosely packed (or just enough to suit your taste).
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic salt (I know, you’re thinkin fresh garlic above and the salt below … what’s he thinkin’, I dunno, by now I’d had some of that beer, just put it in)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • cumin (1 teaspoon)
  • Paprika ½ teaspoon
  • Beef suet (I put in a couple ounces of suet from the clarified broth of a pot roast.)
  • Broth (I put in about ¼ cup of broth from pot roast)
  • Bacon (I put in about a strip of smoked bacon or two, diced and fried crisp first)
  • cloves (a few in a spice bag or a pinch of ground clove) on this batch. Go easy or leave it out.
Combine all the above ingredients in a large pot and start it to simmerin. Don't forget the meat juices. Simmer for at least a couple of hours, 3 hours is better. Tough meat (brisket) will take 3 hrs minimum, 4hrs is better) You can add beer or water to keep it a bit thin, not too soupy, for the simmerin to keep it from burnin.


The following ingredients are optional

  • Pinto beans - A 29 oz can, rinsed works about right for this recipe. Add it after the flour below, when the chili is about done cookin. If you use fresh beans, cook ahead of adding.
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (hold off puttin this in til you taste this mess after its half cooked)
  • 3-6 fire roasted Jalapenos to suit your temperature preference (canned Ortega or La Victoria jar or fresh roasted)
  • If you need to thicken it, add the flour mix below and simmer another hour or two.
  • ½ cup of flour (add the flour to a cup of hot water a little at a time to desolve it to a smooth cream ‘fore you put it in just in the last hour of cookin). You can leave this out altogether or use just a little to thicken up this pot of chili to suit you. I think it gives the chili a little body that the tomato base can't quite produce. A little goes a long way. (I used about a 1/3 cup of the thick slurry on this batch about an hour before it was finished.)


For the Nov 2021 batch, I cubed 1lb 4oz of slow bbq’d brisket. Also added 15 oz can of pinto beans (not 29 oz as above)
 
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On the home grinding of beef, I stumbled on the FDA website and they recommend against home grinding beef. Something about the whole cut meats not being e-coli tested.
 
Looks like the same ad as here. They do odd chops quite often. They may not be pretty, but there ain't nothing wrong with the flavor.
On the home grinding of beef, I stumbled on the FDA website and they recommend against home grinding beef. Something about the whole cut meats not being e-coli tested.
Ecoli only resides on the surface of meat, so ground meat naturally is more apt to have traces. That's why they only test ground meats. Meats are only spot checked and only in USDA inspected plants as a rule. IIRC, the USDA recommends that ground meats be cooked to 165 F to be safe, but make no such recommendation for steaks, chops, roasts or primal cuts. This means you're much safer eating home ground meats. The same reason you don't get burgers cooked to order in fast food restaurants.
 
I went through a phase where I kept a diluted spray bottle of bleach and cleaned all the cutting boards and surfaces.
It’s good to do that every now and then but I really don’t do that anymore.
I’m more of an antibacterial soap every now and then kind of guy but I wash my hands a lot and never get sick.
I do scrub clean veggies.
 
Context, context, context!

So, after reading the sentence just after what you highlighted in that link, "However, primal cuts, such as steaks and roasts, are usually not tested." They should be recommending against eating steaks or roasts because they usually aren't tested. So, the beef chubs that are mass processed from scraps that are spot checked for E. coli, in USDA inspected facilities, are the safe beef products :)

Think I'll just stick with grinding my own burger and sausage meat like I've done for 40+ years without a problem.
 
To be clear, I'm not taking sides here. Just found that blurb when I was looking for something else. Thought it might informational for some. I'm not looking for a debate on ground beef. We use very little and seldom buy it.
 
To be clear, I'm not taking sides here. Just found that blurb when I was looking for something else. Thought it might informational for some. I'm not looking for a debate on ground beef. We use very little and seldom buy it.
Not debating the issue. Just pointing out a few things that are, at best, half-baked assertions that don't stand up in the real world. Some of the statements make sense on the surface, but within the context of the entire article, quickly fall apart.
 
Has someone done this with brisket? If so, and you trim the obvious fat, like, the hard stuff, whats the ratio ? I would guess its no more that 70/30. Ya think?
I trim off most of the fat cap and big chunks of fat and then do a 50/50 mix with top Sirloin. My target is ~80:20.
 

 

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