Looking for some good steaks

It looks like the butcher on the carretera next to Johanna's is gone. Where can I go now to get 1 1/2" to 2" rib eyes that are really good, well-marbled steaks for the grill?

Costco meat is pricey, but I've never been disappointed in the quality.

Take a look at the meat in Walmart.  They have some steaks already cut and if you want something other, they will cut it for you. Or Tony's next to Super Lake.

Beef, lamb and pork get a lot of their flavor from fat, and being close to the bone. A lot of Mexican meat has not been raised on grass or corn - it is lean by nature. The breed does not really make a difference (except in pork). American beef and NZ/Aussie lamb is raised on acres of grassland - it often carries a lot of fat. Fat is profit to these farmers, selling by the pound, and it is fairly inexpensive to achieve (assuming no droughts). So one secret is to save/freeze your U.S. and NZ/OZ fat trimmings, and mix it with the lean, often tough Mexican cuts. One way is what Brigitte and Hound Dog have called 'larding' - cutting little pockets and sliding chunks of the tastiest fat. Another secret is thin pieces, right down to grinding, or smaller pieces. Think about the world cuisines where the meat quality is often poorer than Mexico (or healthier -depending on your views about hormones/antibiotics) - they use a lot of kebabs- meat on sticks, and unlike here, the kebabs often have chunks of fat on the stick, which gets crispy and flavorful. The other way, is a long cooked stew/wet roast, often with lots of spices. I think Mexican Angus beef, with Mexican pork fat or precooked belly pork, would make some mighty fine tender kebabs.

I got the idea from this restaurant in NYC http://www.ijustwanttoeat.com/2013/07/review-bambootori-yakitori-skewers-union-square-nyc-new-york.html

Although I have loved the meat I've bought at the Sonoran place on the carretera next to Johanna's (sorry it's gone but it wasn't because of a lack of my support) I will second Osoprehistorico's endorsement of the meat at WalMart.

The steaks are surprisingly good.

And if you can't find the perfect cut "in the bins" they will hand-cut whatever you desire at the butcher area.

The (admittedly, frozen) steaks I've bought at Costco have been uniformly disappointing. I suspect they are Texas beef which, despite its reputation, is second rate at best, IMHO.

Thanks Chillin, I'll be looking around. Too bad about the Sonoran beef place on the Carreterra. I had probably my best Tbone from them ever. There was mention, on another thread, of aged local beef at a butcher across from Viva Mexico that is supposed to be good. Next to the "fish place" on the carreterra in W Ajijic there is a butcher. I purchased excellent ground beef there. The product on display looked good and the lady is sweet and helpful with adequate English for those of us who have yet to acquire more Spanish. Good hunting>

We used to like those Steaks Wrapped in plastic... I thought they were some kind of Loin.... maybe not....

Axixic wrote:
The (admittedly, frozen) steaks I've bought at Costco have been uniformly disappointing. I suspect they are Texas beef which, despite its reputation, is second rate at best, IMHO.

Costco doesn't sell previously frozen steaks. As a former farmer of beef cattel I assure you that I can tell the difference. If Costco doesn't have what you want in the case just ask and they'll pull out a chunk of whatever you want and cut it anyway you want. Look at it an you too can tell that it's not been frozen. The Walmart Angus is pretty good but inconsistent. They too will cut what you desire.

Getting back to the OP's question, and cutting through some of the (unintentional) misinformation here: most Mexican beef is grass-fed, which is how cows are meant to feed. Grass-fed beef is much leaner than grain-fed or grain-finished (raised on grass but fattened on grain, which is common in Sonora). Feeding grain to cattle poisons them, to put it bluntly - and it also fattens them. You can read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or any number of other texts to get the low-down, or get the basics here:

http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html
Grass-fed beef, if it is dry-aged for a month or so, can be quite tender and wonderfully flavorful. That's going to be very hard to find down here, where most beef (not to mention pork and chicken) is slaughtered within a day or two of sale. It's no accident that stewing cuts work best, or that heavily seasoned and tenderized steak (arracherra) is the local best-seller.

You can add fat to lean grass-fed beef, or buy good local stuff from the carnicerias and season it with salt and pepper and let it sit in your fridge for a few days and make sure not to overcook it. If you buy Costco or other US-raised beef you're buying CAFO (captive animal feeding operation - again, read Pollan or Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation") beef, which is to say cows pumped full of grain and chemicals and raised in utterly inhumane conditions, and animal welfare issues adie the quality is just meh. For really well-marbled and delicious you'd want dry (not wet) aged USDA prime and I don't believe it can be had here at any price. YMMV.

Dry aging beef at home:

Great video Neil! Thanks.

Given the easy and relatively inexpensive access to sea salt in Mexico, I thought it might offer a solution to meats that haven't been aged?

Another soul happy with WalMart steaks. Just had two T bones from there two days ago on our
new BBQ. I understand there is better but I am happy with the product.

Z

David wrote:Costco doesn't sell previously frozen steaks.

Sorry, I didn't make that clear. I was referring to the three packs of NY Strip which come shrink-wrapped and frozen.

we have bought 3 difernt types of rib eye at wally world and they're all good if you look at the marbling in the eye and the fat on the tail end.

The Angus beef from Wallyworld is pretty good, not excellent IMHO. The Sonora beef is unacceptable to me. Tony's steaks are excellent as are those from Costco and Maggie.

it pays to know what yer looking at. even the angus ain't good if there's no marbling. we've been buying the asador @139/kg which is roughly half the price of sonora and angus. they are smaller and cut thinner so bbqing them is a bit of a chore to get them blue rare. y bought them once by accident and they were a pleasant surprise. we share one steak and there is no left over except the fat fer the pups.
i freeze the steaks and put them on the barby that way with a bit of hy's season salt and garlic powder so's not ta destroy the flavour of the meat. served with my skin on home fries and asparagus or a yogurt cucumber salad.

Yer correct there. I raised beef cattle for 25 years, I know what I'm looking for. Sometimes I even find it!

David wrote:Yer correct there.  I raised beef cattle for 25 years, I know what I'm looking for.  Sometimes I even find it!

Where was your ranch? We kept a small mixed breed herd on 22 acres in western Oregon. Kept the family and friends in beef year round.

Beavercreek, near Oregon City, OR.

how many annually and what exactly did you 2 raise.
i worked on a farm, my last 2 years in highschool, near harriston, ontario where we finished off hereford cattle from alberta. hay and grass silage was the feed. the foreman was swiss as was the owner,who owned 2 deli's in tranna. later, as an adult i worked at swift,so i know nothing about meat. that's why i spend a lot of time at the meat section in grocery stores,etc.,so i can learn.

David wrote:Beavercreek, near Oregon City, OR.

Heck we used to buy calves at auction in Woodburn, mostly polled herefords. My family had 22 acres between Damascus and Boring. Did you raise strictly angus?

A friend from Colton was the State Brand Inspector and attended each auction at Woodburn.  He'd buy feeders for us usually in March.  More often than not they were angus or hereford cross.  Occasionally it was Belgian Blues, we really liked them except for their penchant for chewing on wood posts!

the cattle i saw from the bus south of mazatlan,sinaloa were either cebu or charolais. the herds were quite large. of course some of them could have been blues but then i wasn't close enough to them, but i didn't see any eating fence posts.
whoops it's time to barby a delicious and juicy asador from wally world.

We used to spend a couple of months a year in Guaymas and the beef they served there was certainly as good if not better than what we got from the ones we raised in Boring.