February 25, 2009 by The Bag.

Meatloaf is a hot seller at Taylor’s — both raw meatloaf mix and cooked.  We make ours a combination of beef, pork and veal.  As fabulous as Taylor’s meatloaf is, some customers may be interested in mixing things up with new recipes.  Especially in these times of economic trouble, restaurants traditionally create cost-efficient comfort foods on the menu.  The hot trend is meatloaf according to this San Francisco Chronicle’s article.

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February 23, 2009 by The Bag.

Taylor’s carries a lot of beef.  A LOT of beef.  For most customers, Taylor’s meat counter can be intimidating until they shop regularly with us and become comfortable with asking questions.  If you’re concerned about where your beef comes from or what labeling terminology means — please ask.

But be warned, there aren’t always easy answers.  Understanding  the “dry aging” process means understanding the “wet aging” process.  Asking about “grass fed” beef requires an understanding of cattle ranching.  And when you finally thought you understood the term “organic,” you’ll realize it doesn’t even apply to beef.  A lot of welcomed questions means a lot of information for customers to process while they try to decide “what’s for dinner?”

The Orgonian has a great news article titled “What’s in your beef?”  about beef, processing, and labeling.  This is great source of information answering a lot of questions our customers ask.  Unfortunately, the article only references beef produced in Oregon, so I’ve included a couple of links to a couple of our sources for beef.

Harris Ranch
5-Dot Ranch
Estancia Beef  (grass-fed beef)

There are no simple answers to all the questions we have about what we eat.  The Bag wishes he could say, “that’s the best piece of meat you will ever eat in you’re life.”  Nothing in life is ever that black and white.  You, the customer, will ask yourself:  What am I in the mood for? How much am I willing to spend? Are you looking for a great gastronomical experience?  Are you feeding your family of four a quick dinner after working ten hours today?  Are you concerned with the humane treatment of animals?  Are you concerned with the environmental impact of raising cattle?

The Bag says: Use your best judgment.  The resources are out there if your interested, and sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Most important of all — trust your butcher.  Trust Taylor’s Market.

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January 28, 2009 by The Bag.

Whether you’re rooting for the Cardinals or the Steelers — or you’re just waiting for the commercials — you’re going to need some food.  Epicurious (the web site for Gourmet magazine) has the inside scoop on what the Super Bowl chef is doing.  “Inside the Super Bowl Kitchen” has a number or recipes, including crab dip, jerk chicken wings, and Cuban pork sandwiches.  Sounds good!  Just let The Bag know what time to come over.

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January 25, 2009 by The Bag.

In addition to Taylor’s Market having the best dungeness crabs in town, we’ll crack and clean them for you as well.  Taylor’s also sells dungeness crab meat and dungeness crab cakes.  It’s been a rough crab season this year, but a lot of Sacramentans can’t go a season without dungeness crabs at least once a year.

Down under, where it’s the middle of summer, New Zelanders are also talking crab… in tins.  This NZ news site has a great retro combination of crab salad in an avocado cup for a bar-b-que.  Don’t worry about the bbq.  And please, please, please substitute fresh dungeness crabs for ‘tin’ crabs (you would think there would be a crab or two in NZ).

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January 25, 2009 by The Bag.

Beef, veal and lamb shanks are a common sight at restaurants in the winter.  They are always a comforting sight in winter - soft, fork tender chunks of meat in a warm rich broth.  The SF Chronicle write about shanks (with recipes).

A note about ham hocks: we don’t sell ham hocks at Taylor’s; instead, we sell smoked ham shanks which are bigger and meatier than hocks.  If you use smoked ham shanks, be sure to pick off all of the meat (there’s a lot!).

For the health conscious or if you just don’t eat pork — Taylor’s also smoke our own smoked turkey legs.  Use the turkey leg like you would use a smoked ham shank.  There’s a lot of meat on that leg, a good amount of cartiledge, and lots of smokey flavor with out the pork!  This is a great substitute for collard greens or split pea soup.

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January 25, 2009 by The Bag.

The Bag forgot to mention that Taylor’s Kitchen serves caramelized onions with our dry-aged rib eye.  Try it out!

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January 22, 2009 by The Bag.

A nice Taylor’s steak with a little salt and pepper can go a long way.  Sometimes, you just want a little more.  Nothing real fancy, but something that will impress your guests.  Caramelized onions are a beautiful compliment to a beautiful steak.  The LA Times have a nice article on caramelized onions (with recipes).

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January 12, 2009 by The Bag.

Taylor’s Restaurant opens this Friday, January 16, 2009.  It’s the next phase of the Taylor’s expansion.  It will be open Wednesdays through Saturday, 5:30 - 9:30.  The Bag saw the menu and will be trying it out at a private “soft” opening.  You can look forward to a Taylor’s dry aged steak or a 5-Dot Ranch hamburger.  Also, look for fresh pasta, seasonal seafood and desserts made in-house.  Wine and beer will be served.

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January 12, 2009 by The Bag.

High above the meat counter in the back corner, you may have noticed the glass box of meat. That box holds one of Taylor’s most valued possessions — dry aged beef. If you bought a prime rib roast (which isn’t the same as “grade - prime”, but that’s a whole other story) for the holidays, one of the Butcher Boys gave you a choice of regular or dry-aged. What’s the difference? The short answer: dry-aged tastes better because it ages naturally resulting in a more tender and flavorful piece of meat. The long answer is below:

Part 1 — the boring, dry-aged explanation for the box.

Beef is never fresh. That is too say, the beef you buy in a market has to be aged before being sold. After a steer is slaughtered, the meat is referred to as “green”. Green meat is tough and has an unfavorable taste to it, but if allowed to sit, certain bacteria and enzymes break down the muscle. In the old days, beef carcasses where hung in coolers — think Rocky Balboa punching the side of beef. This technique was to age the meat. When it sits like that several things happen — one: it starts to grow bacteria on the surface (bacteria that’s naturally in the air); two: the meat loses water weight. The bacteria contributes to the flavor of the meat. The loss of water means that flavor becomes concentrated. Dry aging produces this intense flavor as a result.

So why doesn’t beef taste like this any more? Cryovac is a pantented technique to age meat in its own juices. This technique is referred as “wet aging.” This is now the standard practice in the meat industry. If you buy your meat at Costco, you’ve probably bought a NY strip or prime rib roast in this packaging. Instead of hanging the side of beef to age in refrigeration, meat companies butcher the meat in smaller parts (primal cuts or even retail cuts) and immediately Cryovac them. They’ll immediately ship out to distributors and stores - aging in the packaging. This saves time and space which translates into money savings for the consumers. To summarize: you trade quality for cost savings.

Part 2 — Taylor’s Butcher Boys go to work

At Taylor’s, we order high quality beef from local ranches like Harris Ranch and 5-Dot Ranch (both are Northern California companies). Both companies dry age their meats before shipping to Taylor’s where we age the cuts an additional 21-28 days. (note: our “standard” rib roast meats (rib eye, New York, etc.) are from the same ranches (they just don’t get the extra 21-28 day lovin’) which is why it still has a better flavor than most other retailers) We receive whole sides of beef or primal cuts (first cuts of the carcass — once again, a whole other story that will include pictures!) and break them down (i.e., butcher) into roast form to be cut into steaks later (or sold as whole roasts).

If you happen to shop when the meat department receives a shipment, you’d be treated to quite a show with huge cuts of beef being sawed and butchered — a show you are not going to get anywhere else in the Valley!

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January 12, 2009 by The Bag.

Cured sausages are frequently heavily seasoned with salt to “cook” or “cure” the meat over a period of time. Salami is a cured sausage, but it isn’t cooked with heat. There are other cured meats as well - most of which are pork based, but aren’t ground into a sausage - a leg of pork is a good example (country ham in the US, prociutto in Italy and Serrano ham in Spain). Other meats are cured and cooked - mortadella and Thuringer are two examples. Here’s a little bit more information about cured meats Taylor’s Market sells in its deli case.

-Prociutto di Parma: Prociutto is cured and air-dried leg of pork. It’s the same leg of pork as American ham. Prociutto, however, is salt cured and hung to dry anywhere from 4 to 14 months. The drying allows water to drain, as much as 30 percent of it’s body weight which intensifies the flavor. Prociutto becomes sweet, delicate and succulent. Frequently sliced thin, it can be topping on a pizza or wrapped around asparagus, shrimp or even cantaloupe.

-Serrano Ham: The Spanish version of prociutto - but not really. A very distinct flavor, it is more robust, drier, pungent and assertive. It has a certain spiciness to it that adds complexity that prociutto doesn’t. Eat Serrano with a more assertive flavors like roasted bell peppers (especially Piquillo peppers), fino sherry, Manchego cheese, fresh figs or toasted almonds.

-Pancetta: This Italian dry cured meat is the same cut of meat as bacon (from the pork belly). The significant difference between pancetta and American bacon is American bacon is smoked while pancetta is not. Although sold flat like slab bacon in Italy, Americans are accustomed to buying it in it’s rolled form. Eventhough pancetta is sold in the deli case, most Americans do not eat it raw (but the Europeans have been know to eat it raw in sandwiches). To prepare it, you can slice it thin like bacon (or even thinner) and fry it up like bacon or wrap it around trout, chicken breast, shrimp or pork loin. Try dicing it to be fried as lardons and tossed in a salad like bacon bits.

-Mortadella: This is the predecessor to the bologna (mortadella originates from the Italian city of Bologna). The significant difference between mortadella and bologna is the fat. Mortadella contains cubes of fat, and may traditionally contain pistachio nuts. It is eaten like a coldcut.

Liverwurst: Another sausage with a percentage (around 20%) composed of pork liver. It is fully cooked and can be eaten like a cold cut. A common way to eat it is as a sandwich with rye bread, onion and mustard.

-Canadian bacon: Outside of the US, it is commonly referred to as back bacon. Canadian bacon is cured and smoked loin of pork. It is very lean and for some people can be a leaner alternative to ham. Why is it called bacon? Because it still uses the same technique as the more common American favorite, “streaky” bacon. The real question is how “Canadian” bacon became part of the “Hawaiian” pizza?

-Thuringer: Taylor’s Thuringer does not refer to the German grilled sausages from Thuringia. In the US, thuringer is a smoked deli meat like summer sausage. Think Hickory Farms (without the cheese barrel).

-Headcheese: Speaking of cheese… There isn’t any cheese in headcheese, either. It is a coldcut that is traditionally made from meat from the head of a calf or pig and formed in aspic. Although not popular in the US, it is made in most meat eating countries around the world.

In Part 3, the Bag will cover some other cold cuts sold out of our deli case.

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