Brisket - what did I do wrong?
Discussion
Watchdog recently revealed that Tesco have been selling a tougher cut of beef as topside, so who knows what the beef labelled as brisket comes from! Maybe 16 hours would have done it with that first piece you bought, but I've had brisket turn out dry and tough with plenty of slow cooking (with and without a lot of liquid) and I think it's just that the beef wasn't that good in the first place.
I now regard Tesco in the same way I regarded McDonalds many years ago when I finally realised that the quality of the food you put in your mouth is actually quite important if you want to live a reasonably healthy life.
Tesco pile everything high and sell everything cheap. To do that they screw their suppliers into the ground and buy the cheapest meat they can source. No wonder it's not very good.
Just to be fair(ish), it's not only Tesco. We bought a shoulder of Welsh lamb from another 'leading supermarket chain' a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing and tasteless compared to the last few we've had from the same place cooked in the same way.
There just isn't the consistency in supply required to source good quality produce these days and it all seems to be price driven. Once in a while you'll get a good piece of meat from the supermarket but the next week the supplier has changed and it's rubbish. Maybe it wasn't your cooking that was the problem, but the piece of meat you started with.
So my advice is pay a bit more, get meat and poultry from a known and trusted source (even if it is bought through a local supermarket or shop) and enjoy better meat less often so it becomes more of a treat without costing you more money. I'm now doing a lot more ordering on line for meat and I've finally found a reasonably local butcher who has really top quality meat and sensible prices. From time to time I fill up the freezer with a few goodies from these places and then we know what to expect when we have our Sunday lunch!
I now regard Tesco in the same way I regarded McDonalds many years ago when I finally realised that the quality of the food you put in your mouth is actually quite important if you want to live a reasonably healthy life.
Tesco pile everything high and sell everything cheap. To do that they screw their suppliers into the ground and buy the cheapest meat they can source. No wonder it's not very good.
Just to be fair(ish), it's not only Tesco. We bought a shoulder of Welsh lamb from another 'leading supermarket chain' a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing and tasteless compared to the last few we've had from the same place cooked in the same way.
There just isn't the consistency in supply required to source good quality produce these days and it all seems to be price driven. Once in a while you'll get a good piece of meat from the supermarket but the next week the supplier has changed and it's rubbish. Maybe it wasn't your cooking that was the problem, but the piece of meat you started with.
So my advice is pay a bit more, get meat and poultry from a known and trusted source (even if it is bought through a local supermarket or shop) and enjoy better meat less often so it becomes more of a treat without costing you more money. I'm now doing a lot more ordering on line for meat and I've finally found a reasonably local butcher who has really top quality meat and sensible prices. From time to time I fill up the freezer with a few goodies from these places and then we know what to expect when we have our Sunday lunch!
Edited by FasterFreddy on Wednesday 1st December 18:38
FasterFreddy said:
Watchdog recently revealed that Tesco have been selling a tougher cut of beef as topside, so who knows what the beef labelled as brisket comes from! Maybe 16 hours would have done it with that first piece you bought, but I've had brisket turn out dry and tough with plenty of slow cooking (with and without a lot of liquid) and I think it's just that the beef wasn't that good in the first place.
I now regard Tesco in the same way I regarded McDonalds many years ago when I finally realised that the quality of the food you put in your mouth is actually quite important if you want to live a reasonably healthy life.
Tesco pile everything high and sell everything cheap. To do that they screw their suppliers into the ground and buy the cheapest meat they can source. No wonder it's not very good.
Just to be fair(ish), it's not only Tesco. We bought a shoulder of Welsh lamb from another 'leading supermarket chain' a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing and tasteless compared to the last few we've had from the same place cooked in the same way.
There just isn't the consistency in supply required to source good quality produce these days and it all seems to be price driven. Once in a while you'll get a good piece of meat from the supermarket but the next week the supplier has changed and it's rubbish. Maybe it wasn't your cooking that was the problem, but the piece of meat you started with.
So my advice is pay a bit more, get meat and poultry from a known and trusted source (even if it is bought through a local supermarket or shop) and enjoy better meat less often so it becomes more of a treat without costing you more money. I'm now doing a lot more ordering on line for meat and I've finally found a reasonably local butcher who has really top quality meat and sensible prices. From time to time I fill up the freezer with a few goodies from these places and then we know what to expect when we have our Sunday lunch!
THIS^^^ Thanks for this FF, i could'nt of put it better.I now regard Tesco in the same way I regarded McDonalds many years ago when I finally realised that the quality of the food you put in your mouth is actually quite important if you want to live a reasonably healthy life.
Tesco pile everything high and sell everything cheap. To do that they screw their suppliers into the ground and buy the cheapest meat they can source. No wonder it's not very good.
Just to be fair(ish), it's not only Tesco. We bought a shoulder of Welsh lamb from another 'leading supermarket chain' a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing and tasteless compared to the last few we've had from the same place cooked in the same way.
There just isn't the consistency in supply required to source good quality produce these days and it all seems to be price driven. Once in a while you'll get a good piece of meat from the supermarket but the next week the supplier has changed and it's rubbish. Maybe it wasn't your cooking that was the problem, but the piece of meat you started with.
So my advice is pay a bit more, get meat and poultry from a known and trusted source (even if it is bought through a local supermarket or shop) and enjoy better meat less often so it becomes more of a treat without costing you more money. I'm now doing a lot more ordering on line for meat and I've finally found a reasonably local butcher who has really top quality meat and sensible prices. From time to time I fill up the freezer with a few goodies from these places and then we know what to expect when we have our Sunday lunch!
Edited by FasterFreddy on Wednesday 1st December 18:38
FasterFreddy said:
I now regard Tesco in the same way I regarded McDonalds many years ago when I finally realised that the quality of the food you put in your mouth is actually quite important if you want to live a reasonably healthy life.
That's a very good analogy. For a long time now I haven't seen the point in buying meat if it's going to come from a supermarket.Gassing Station | Food, Drink & Restaurants | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff