Charles Gifford wrote:
> "Sheldon" > wrote
> >
> <snips>
> >
> > Flash freezing does little to retain the quality of beef... one should
> > never freeze tender cuts... those who stock up their freezers with beef
> > from the rib, loin, and sirloin are morons.
>
> While close, I am not an actual moron. I recently was the recipient of a
> package of 6 porterhouse dry aged prime steaks from Allen Brothers. They
> arrived frozen. Nevertheless they are the best steaks I have ever eaten. I
> can't imagine how much better they could be if they were never frozen! Along
> with the Porterhouse steaks I got 8 Allen Brothers Steak Frankfurters. They
> are superb but a little underspiced. Very snappy skins on them. I would like
> to be able to eat like this all the time! I certainly can recommend Allen
> Brothers as a online source. Bless all friends bearing gifts!

That must've been awhile back, Allen Brothers doesn't list any
porterhouse by six-packs (they list 2s, 4s, and 8s), and they seem to
only sell those dogs by the five pound package, Regulars (40 dogs) and
Jumbos (20 dogs)... $49/either size... that's like $10/lb for dogs.

I guess when it's not you paying... you're not going to look a gift
horse in the mouth.

With shipping your friend paid more than $60/lb for frozen beef, that's
sad. I'm sure it tasted fine but unfrozen would have been much
better.... USDA Choice porterhouse from the stupidmarket ($8/lb) would
be better than frozen Prime. From reading the Allen Brothers web site
it's obvious to me that they increase sales volume by taking advantage
of the lower shipping rate for frozen (2 day) as compared with the much
higher rate to ship never frozen (over night shipping)... they've
learned a common marketing fact, more people will buy when total cost
is lower... even wealthy folks purchase by total price. Allen
Brothers has hidden away on their web site that they also ship the same
products unfrozen (they'd not if they truly thought unfrozen were
equal), but they tout frozen by pandering to those who for whatever
reason will not cook their meat within a reasonable time (2 days) upon
receipt... again to increase sales volume.

I would never purchase any tender beef for my freezer, and I'm
certainly not going to pay the price of USDA Prime and accept frozen.
In teh US of A fresh meat is available every day, I see no real savings
in stocking up on expensive cuts just to initially save a dollar if
when I go to use those steaks/roasts they've lost half their value I
don't care what anyone claims, there is no way I can be convinced that
freezing any fresh food doesn't cause massive deterioration. I'll buy
frozen corn on the cob when fresh is not in season, it's texture (and
flavor) is nowhere as good as fresh picked, but with corn we're talking
a few pennies per serving, not $50/serving. To me freezing beef is no
different than freezing fish... I suppose those used to Mr's Pauls
wouldn't notice. Even less tender cuts like chuck and round are
noticeably better when never frozen, even when ground for burgers,
especially burgers... anyone who hasn't eaten a fresh ground burger
they've ground themself from never frozen beef has never tasted a real
burger.... pre-ground mystery meat is bad enough, but then when it's
been frozen, that's heaping harm on injury. Didja know that never
frozen burgers can contain far less fat and still be juicy, in fact
they'll be juicy rather than greazy.