Post by BBQ Butcher on May 28, 2006 8:52:04 GMT -5
Contributed by and quoted, Eric Weinstein
I have been keeping a kosher home for years, and only use
kosher meat, of course. Whenever we have company, people often
comment about the taste/tenderness difference with our kosher meat.
Its not just that the animals are killed and drained of blood. Part of the
process of removing the blood and impurities involves "soaking and
salting." Essentially, what you get, is pre-brined me. If you read
Cook's Illustrated, or are a fan of Alton Brown, then you know they are
big fans of brining chicken and turkey ahead of time. Also, Cook's
Illustrated considers the "Empire Kosher" turkeys and chickens to be
some of the best tasting on the market, attributing that to the soaking/
salting/pre-brining, which also does away with home brining. You
would not want to home brine a kosher bird because there's already
salt in there.
While not given a bath in salt water, salt is applied to red meat as well,
drawing out the impurities, then rinsed off. Only kosher hamburger
and liver are not salted, though hamburger is made from other parts of
the cow that are salted. So, when cooking kosher red meat, there is
also a nice flavor imparted, which is clean and tasty.
The thing about kosher red meat is that the cow, from the tenth rib
down, is not considered kosher. That part of the cow cannot be
"koshered" and drained of its impurities (at least under common
koshering practices in the United States) to a degree acceptable to the
kosher inpectors, so once the cow is slaughtered in the ritual way, the
lower half of the cow is sold to non-kosher slaughterhouses...the
practical effect is that filet mignon and some sirloin is not kosher.
What you will find as well is the enormous price difference between
regular meat, and kosher meat, both chicken and cow. The common
price around my way for brisket (which I just bought on Thursday) is
$5.69 per pound, for the whole, untrimmed slab. Boneless chicken
breast usually runs about $6.49 lb, and a rib roast, bone in, usually
comes in between $13.99-$15.99 a pound.
All that said, even if I didn't keep kosher, I would be all over kosher
meat. I was raised in a non-kosher home, but my uncle
was a butcher and owned a kosher meat market so I was raised on it.
I have been keeping a kosher home for years, and only use
kosher meat, of course. Whenever we have company, people often
comment about the taste/tenderness difference with our kosher meat.
Its not just that the animals are killed and drained of blood. Part of the
process of removing the blood and impurities involves "soaking and
salting." Essentially, what you get, is pre-brined me. If you read
Cook's Illustrated, or are a fan of Alton Brown, then you know they are
big fans of brining chicken and turkey ahead of time. Also, Cook's
Illustrated considers the "Empire Kosher" turkeys and chickens to be
some of the best tasting on the market, attributing that to the soaking/
salting/pre-brining, which also does away with home brining. You
would not want to home brine a kosher bird because there's already
salt in there.
While not given a bath in salt water, salt is applied to red meat as well,
drawing out the impurities, then rinsed off. Only kosher hamburger
and liver are not salted, though hamburger is made from other parts of
the cow that are salted. So, when cooking kosher red meat, there is
also a nice flavor imparted, which is clean and tasty.
The thing about kosher red meat is that the cow, from the tenth rib
down, is not considered kosher. That part of the cow cannot be
"koshered" and drained of its impurities (at least under common
koshering practices in the United States) to a degree acceptable to the
kosher inpectors, so once the cow is slaughtered in the ritual way, the
lower half of the cow is sold to non-kosher slaughterhouses...the
practical effect is that filet mignon and some sirloin is not kosher.
What you will find as well is the enormous price difference between
regular meat, and kosher meat, both chicken and cow. The common
price around my way for brisket (which I just bought on Thursday) is
$5.69 per pound, for the whole, untrimmed slab. Boneless chicken
breast usually runs about $6.49 lb, and a rib roast, bone in, usually
comes in between $13.99-$15.99 a pound.
All that said, even if I didn't keep kosher, I would be all over kosher
meat. I was raised in a non-kosher home, but my uncle
was a butcher and owned a kosher meat market so I was raised on it.