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Post by wildhorseluvr on Dec 3, 2021 22:13:01 GMT
DD and I cooked a turkey breast for Thanksgiving. Flavor was fine and it wasn’t tough in the usual sense but had somewhat of a rubbery texture. This wasn’t any pressed/rolled type meat, just 1/2 a turkey breast from a very small turkey. Bought some boneless pork chops the other day. Have cooked several of them and they are not “somewhat” rubbery, it’s totally like chewing on a piece of rubber. Last night I only managed to eat half the chop before giving up and tossing the rest to the dogs.
Any ideas what would make meat turn out like this? Never had anything like this before.
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Post by UseLess on Dec 3, 2021 22:53:50 GMT
Overcooking meat makes it rubbery. Did you cook as usual? Use your the oven? Maybe your dial or the stove's thermostat are off.
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Dec 3, 2021 23:32:14 GMT
Overcooking meat makes it rubbery. Did you cook as usual? Use your the oven? Maybe your dial or the stove's thermostat are off. No. Used a thermometer. Meat was not at all overdone or dry. Turkey was cooked at DD’s house, pork chops at mine. Hard to explain but was not dry and tough. Just very, very chewy…makes your jaws tired.
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Post by fordy on Dec 4, 2021 2:57:14 GMT
...............I've always wondered WHY the American Meat eaters don't raise Hell with the Agricultural Dept. over the issue of Adding water to meat before it is placed in a counter for sale to the public ? ...............It seems the same policy was established when the Government IDIOTS who control the petroleum refining business forced the inclusion of Ethanol into gasoline ! OF course we KNOW who was behind that issue..........The Corn farmers ! OUR Buddy Mr. Trump was AOK with adding Ethanol to gas and didn't do a Damn thing to stop the practice ! , fordy
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Post by joebill on Dec 9, 2021 11:54:42 GMT
We all endured an endless lecture from the mid-western family elites on "pressed chicken" many Thanksgivings ago while they were cooking a tasteless offering in a family member's oven.
Finally, from the back of the room, a young voice offered..."We don't press our chickens....WE CHOKE THEM!"....end of conversation......Joe
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Dec 9, 2021 12:25:48 GMT
LOL, joebill. This is a new problem for me, I’ve run across tough meat before but nothing like this rubbery texture. Cooked another pork chop last night, very carefully. Same texture. ☹️ For some time now I’ve had to buy only a couple tomatoes at a time, as they will rot if on your counter for 1-2 days. Sometimes they will rot overnight even though I inspect them carefully when I purchase them. So 5-6 days ago I bought 4 on-the-vine tomatoes. Beautiful color, not quite ripe…but still on the hard side so figured maybe they’d last a few days. Been checking them daily…still hard. Cut one up and it was starting to get a bit mealy like an overripe apple. I ate it but sorta tasteless. Checked the tomatoes again this morning…still hard. They won’t ripen. Starting to wonder what kind of Frankenstein food we’re getting.
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Post by woolybear on Dec 9, 2021 14:26:21 GMT
wildhorseluvr, for store bought tomatoes the best tasting that I've found are the grape tomatoes or the campri? tomatoes. The campri are about twice the size of the grapes, cost more and you get fewer in a pack but at least they have a bit of flavor. The on the vine tomatoes that I've bought before just never had any flavor to them. I can remember years ago tomatoes were accused (maybe correctly) of being picked green, gassed to make them red, hard as rocks and flavorless....sounds just like today's tomatoes.
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Post by woody on Dec 9, 2021 17:38:45 GMT
Well I’ve found with this last two containers of blueberries that I bought , they would not ripen. They were very small and really hard. Usually if I leave them out for a few days they’ll get softer. Both containers were left on the counter and never ripened, for over a week.
They were on sale for $2.00, maybe because they knew they wouldn’t get soft enough to eat.🙄
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Dec 10, 2021 2:18:57 GMT
While at Winco today I searched through numerous bins of tomatoes, all were from Mexico. 🙁 Then…success at last! Found some 1.5# containers of cherry(?) tomatoes from Canada. I hope these are better than what I’ve been buying. Salad is on the menu pretty much every night this next week.
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Oct 26, 2022 12:56:37 GMT
Never did figure out for certain the cause of the rubbery textured meat but it wasn’t my cooking. Since moving to ID the meat quality has been very good.
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Post by daw on Oct 26, 2022 13:32:27 GMT
What is your height? Do you live in the mountains now ? A higher elevation than where you were living ? Or maybe lower elevation?
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Oct 26, 2022 18:42:47 GMT
What is your height? Do you live in the mountains now ? A higher elevation than where you were living ? Or maybe lower elevation? I’m 5’10. Sorry, couldn’t resist. 😁 Former town was just under 3,000 ft, current town is 2,100 approx.
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Post by woolybear on Oct 27, 2022 18:40:41 GMT
wildhorseluvr, sometimes I think the texture of meats has a lot to do with - how it's raised, what it's fed, and it's genetics. Take turkeys for example... I've been cooking turkeys for 40 years. Sizes between 12 lb up to 24 lb. Average length of time to cook one 3-4 hours stuffed. Doneness checked with an internal thermometer. I've had turkeys that are perfect in texture, and moistness. I've had turkeys that were cooked to proper temp, but the ligaments and meat in near the bone was so tough no amount of additional cooking would render it tender. I've had turkeys that were dry as a popcorn fart and the meat was almost like dust. With massed raised meats it's a crap shoot as to what you're going to get. Best turkeys ever were farm raised and freshly butchered. Even the over 30 lb turkey that we wanted to cook for Thanksgiving and my idiot sister said she would never talk to me again if we butchered it and we found it on Christmas Eve after church service dying of a heart attack and DH and I were butchering it at midnight, and the part that we cooked was tender (how'd y'all like that run on sentence?? lol)
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Oct 27, 2022 19:21:23 GMT
Hey, I’m probably the queen of run on sentences, but you surely deserve an award for that one, woolybear. 👍🏻 After ruling out variations in cooking, I’m also inclined to think the feed program and/or genetics were the likely culprit. I’ve had tough or dry meat before but this rubbery texture is a first. Sure makes me wonder where those stores (in my former town) were getting their meat. 😦 Here I’ve bought at WinCo and our local store, not had any bad meat yet. The meat from the local store seems especially tender. Hope that continues, I’m enjoying their steaks and pork chops. Speaking of turkeys, I raised one once (last to be butchered) who was something like 45-50#. It was interesting trying to find a pan big enough. Barely managed to fit him in the oven. He turned out every bit as good as the younger ones though.
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Post by fordy on Oct 27, 2022 21:01:20 GMT
...............I wish someone would tell me HOW to bake a whole chicken in a Toaster oven , i.e. temp and time so it doesn't end up having the same texture as Jerky . ...............Is it better to buy chicken breasts\thieghs and cook the Parts rather than try and cook a whole chicken ? , thanks , fordy
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