This Steak is better than That Steak...

[C_Claycomb]

You know who I feel sorry for?

All the people who come to this thread looking for information about how to age steak!

It is probably a good thing that the discussion of animal souls and the morality of trophy hunting in Africa is disguised as steak preparation. Threads like this that are clearly started as such have a tendency to be about as friendly as threads about religion and politics...together

 

[Broch]

You know who I feel sorry for?

All the people who come to this thread looking for information about how to age steak!

It is probably a good thing that the discussion of animal souls and the morality of trophy hunting in Africa is disguised as steak preparation. Threads like this that are clearly started as such have a tendency to be about as friendly as threads about religion and politics...together

But, to be fair, that was comprehensively answered in post 2; I don't think there was any more to discuss on that particular topic

But yes, these threads rarely end well.

 

[Nice65]

I eat steak so rarely that when I do I buy the best I can regardless of cost and thoroughly enjoy it. I see no point in buying mass produced and short aged beef that is chewy or flavourless. A cow shouldn’t die for that.

Or this for that matter,

 

[TeeDee]

You know who I feel sorry for?

All the people who come to this thread looking for information about how to age steak!

It is probably a good thing that the discussion of animal souls and the morality of trophy hunting in Africa is disguised as steak preparation. Threads like this that are clearly started as such have a tendency to be about as friendly as threads about religion and politics...together

To be fair , everyone IS ( currently ) being Civil and respectful and there is some interesting Dialogue going on discussing an potentially provocative subject.

If thread drift is a crime then fair enough - we will need to have enforcement demonstrated across the forum.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

You know who I feel sorry for?

The cows. Hang on, they are not people. Sorry Chris. Better go and have some wine.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Indeed TeeDee. Its a good conversation. I should have used a big tongue in cheek smile with the steak comment....post edited to better reflect my intent.

 

[TeeDee]

Indeed TeeDee. Its a good conversation. I should have used a big tongue in cheek smile with the steak comment....post edited to better reflect my intent.

Cheers Chris. Hope you are well.

 

[santaman2000]

Going back to the O.P.’s comment on the price of steak, has the Covid crises begun to effect the price and/or availability of meat there yet?

 

[C_Claycomb]

There was a brief period when a lot of meat was going cheap in supermarkets as they tried to clear stock that hadn't sold for Easter. I read in the news that somewhere on the Continent they were entreating people to eat more meat to help deal with a surplus, all the food not being sold to the restaurant trade.

I haven't seen any obvious changes in prices or availability otherwise, but then I am only shopping once every 2 weeks, and rarely buy the same meat two trips in a row.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

I think things in our sainsbury are a bit dearer, especially the low end brands. There is much less discounting at our sainsbury. I don't monitor meat prices either, but cheese and pasta has gone up a bit. Eggs remain troublesome here as does pita bread for some reason.

 

[Dougster]

As with everything, greed wins out with some. I read of lions being bred to be released for hunters, similar to the way has been done with deer in NZ.

When the morals of this were questioned, the investigative journalist raised an eyebrow and said how the hunters wanted fit looking lions to hunt. The ones bred for the bones to add to the Tiger bone industry are akin to battery chickens.

I try to do my best to keep my faith in human nature, I do my best to ensure I inflict no suffering to any living thing. Then stuff like this takes the wind out of my sails. Shooting a lion is easy to pick on, mass farming, wet markets, and do get me started on how humans treat each other on so many levels.

The more we learn about the meat trade and Supermarkets the more we stay away. When we do buy meat it is from a local butcher and we know we are lucky to afford it, but we don't buy much.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

Do you think people would pay to hunt thier steak cow. We could release 10 in the woods and they have to be tracked and killed before being butchered aged and finally eaten. It might save a lion and the cows are going to get it anyway.

 

[TeeDee]

Also Africa is not America - You maybe able to legalise and ENFORCE a system of payment , fines and legal enforcement actions in America/Canada but Africa is still a Massively splintered and I'd say corrupt Continent in many of its countries. Its just not a case of being/feeling virtuous that one is paying Ones Money and being informed its being delivered to the right organisations.

A genuine Cull of an over populated species I can get behind and support but to try and justify ( some ) Men's ego based requirement to go and trophy hunt Seemingly endangered species on an ever smaller amount of land to support them seems a very limited mindset.

 

[TeeDee]

Which was the UK TV prog that had an audience follow an animal through the whole of the Slaughter and Butchery aspect - from field to plate ???

 

[C_Claycomb]

Alison,
In New Zealand they do hunt cows. There are even videos on Youtube. New Zealand has a lot of problems with feral and introduced animals.

Something that many non-hunters get wrong is that hunting = killing. You could release farmed cows, but no one would pay to hunt one, they would be paying to kill one. Much like "fishing" at a fish farm stock pond.

Hunting Cape Buffalo isn't the same as hunting lion, so shooting Daisy the Dairy Cow wouldn't even come close.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

All the best ideas have gone already. Oh well. Cows are more dangerous than lions, would have thought that could be used as a tag line.

I am not advocating hunting cows for fun, but to protect other animals that might be in greater need.

 

[C_Claycomb]

1. People hunt for food.
2. People hunt for the challenge.
3. People hunt for the social status implied by succeeding at #2

When Number 2 is lacking the difference between hunting and just killing dwindles. Number 2 is where Sportsmanship comes in. Number 3 is where a lot of the bad press comes in because there are too many who want 3 with as little of 2 as possible.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

I wonder if i can address 2 and 3 with gamification and camouflage. This needs an app. I have an original idea. Virtual cow / sheep hunter.

Heck, some one has done it already.

 

[Dougster]

I am.under no illusion about the mentality of many hunters. A movement coming out of this is modern huntsman. In this country headed up by the pace brothers.

I don't always face a challenge in my hunting. I have always used rifles soit is about fieldcraft for me. When I am in these situations I come across all kinds of wildlife I only meet as I am.moving slowly and thoughtfully. This is my motivation, and the clean healthy meat my family really enjoy.

Humbling have been the moments where things have gone wrong, which, if you do enough they will, and I learned from all of them.

Hunting is killing, similes such as 'taking' we have stopped using. We shoot and we kill. We understand what we are doing and take responsibility for it. I have no big trophies on my walls, all small ones that have memories of old bucks watched, damaged stage shot before winter.

That's me. I won't berate those that do it differently, but I try not to engage with the 'd##k swinging' afterwards.

 

[Broch]

Number 2 is where Sportsmanship comes in. .

That is an opinion. Sportsmanship requires equality of competition; you wouldn't call it sportsmanship if a professional boxer was in a ring with a scared, tired, teenager - but people think it is with an animal. We're not even tackling it hand to paw, we're shooting it from 100m with a high powered, high technology weapon.

I shoot, I hunt (that is, I apply field craft to find and get to within killing distance of my prey), I kill and butcher the result. At no point would I consider it worth bragging that I had outwitted the prey.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the need for culling and numbers control etc. and I support it if that is what it is. What I cannot stand is the heroic trophy celebration, the great white hunter on his knee with a big smile and his big gun; that's not sport. I still feel a pang of guilt whenever I walk up to my kill and again when I'm butchering it and long may I do so.