U.S. beef tasting bland lately?
 

Interesting new development. Most U.S. beef cattle are being treated with originally anti-asthma drug to grow more muscle instead of fat for no additional feed or water.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health...e_chicken.html

My parents have been complaining about the beef just being tasteless recently.

I haven't had this as I've been buying from the farmers market local grass fed cattle without this stuff!

Are you sure you are getting beef,, The Europeans are adding horse to there beef products :(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21467989

Yeah, could be horse (said to be bland and neutral, and a great way for a saucier to show off his/her expertise) but I think this (anti-asthma drug treated beef) probably impacts steaks and other fine cuts.

FWIW, seen horse meat produly advertised by butchers in France and sausage stalls in Germany.

That horsemeat thing probably applies mostly to processed and fast foods which I rarely eat. Not sure which is better: ground beef from downer cattle/old milk cows - common in the U.S.) or drugged horse meat.

Since you brought up the horse topic:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...eat-horse.html

I'd been sort of wondering about this.

I've noticed this as well, after my dad (who used to be in the restaurant business) pointed this out to me. I originally attributed it to vendors trying to avoid price increases in mid-level retail places such as Costco, but I've noticed it when eating out as well.

I've switched a lot of my consumption to pork instead.

And the lamb is nice this time of year.

On a side note, I have been eating lean beef for 9 years and know what leannest tastes like. Not sure if Canadian beef is treated that way but the striploin/NY steak and Tbone cuts I buy on sale ($5-6/lb) is generally lean (all red, very little white). Usually not tender and tasteless. Whenever I buy the marbled cuts, they nearly always taste better.

I guess leaner is better for you but tste wise...

Cuts with a little bit more fat content on em are almost always going to taste better. A little bit of fat for flavor won't kill ya!

Cuz there is no horse in the mix. :D

I've been complaining about this for years. I can't afford grass fed but switching to a real butcher with better sourcing has made all the difference.

Feed lots are to blame.

I'm not a foodie or even just one to know all the differences between different cuts of meat, but I recently had some local, organic, grass-fed beef in Kansas and it was amazingly tender and so full of flavor. It was quite the experience.

Yup. Raw horse is very much a delicacy in Japan and Korea. Had it several times at various work events. It's great. Whale, however, is pretty awful.

I don't understand all the angst over horse meat. Dead cooked animal is dead cooked animal. Or raw, in the case of Japan. I can understand being annoyed if you were sold cow & it turned out to be horse, but given that hose tends to be a nicer meat anyway....

Don't want to derail the topic, so I'll just say that there is a thread discussing horse meat in omni, and that I'd be willing to try it. I saw some travel show and showed a butcher shop in Venice with horse meat in the window. I believe the host had some horse sausage.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...ed-sweden.html