To think meat is getting more and more rubbish

[Daisyxxchainxx]

I have always eaten meat. I also feed my kids meat. On an average week they have meat based tea 3-4 times.

Usually a chicken dinner
Sausage and mash
Bolognese/lasagne or cottage pie
Sometimes pork loins or a pork roast

The rest of the week we have things like pasta, fish, chicken burgers pizza or wraps

I've started to notice I can't eat sausages anymore. They make me feel so sick. Weird as I've in always had them. But I appreciate they are not good for you but it's useful with veg and mash. We also love spaghetti Bolognese but the mince is hit and miss. I often find grey patches in it. It often has a swollen packet and heaps and heaps of fat come out of it. I try and get the 5% fat one but often it's not available.

I've started cooking turkey balls as I figure they are healthier than beef mince?

I've tried musclefood chicken and wow it tasted so much nicer. I definitely noticed a difference in its quality. But they don't sell much else in terms of joints etc.

Is the best from butcher's loads better? Or is meat just rubbish in general?

I'm not wanting to go veggie but I don't want to feed my kids crap. If it's affecting me after thirty years of eating it I worry how rubbish it is.

Sorry for the waffle. Any suggestions?

Eggs and beans are your friends OP, if you want to get your kids used to eating less meat.

Think omelettes, tortilla, quiche, shakshouka (surprisingly popular in our house), bean burgers, bean or lentil curries and stews.

Half the time no one even notices it’s meat free, say with pizza or one of those flaky pastry sheet tarts or falafel in a bun.

I am by no means wealthy, but I don't buy meat from the supermarket anymore. I buy from the butcher and although expensive it is always worth it. As it is more expensive, I buy what I can for the month (between £50 and £100 depending on how good the month was!) and once it's gone it's gone and it forces me to cook plant based for the rest of the month.

I avoid soya-based meat substitutes because of the oestrogen level, just something to be aware of.

Where I am Lidl is actually the best meat and Waitrose is the worst! Go figure. Tesco best for fruit and Asda best for veg. Shopping is a nightmare.

I feel abit dumb. I have never made a curry from scratch. So I wouldn't know where to start. Omelettes are a great idea. My two year old won't eat baked beans or eggs though. my eldest won't eat cheese or butter. That's about it though. So they are not too fussy.

I like the idea of a veggie lasagne. Do you just do the sauce and add more vegetables? I'm sorry I sound dumb!

What is shakshouka?

Thanks for the suggestions I'm going to look into these.

We like veggie stir fry as adults but the kids won't eat it.

Joe Wicks has a good veggie book that’s all healthy meals.
You don’t sound like your kids have a bad diet, you just sound like you’re not an adventurous cook.

@Daisyxxchainxx
Biona do some nice veggie burgers, although are pretty pricey so kind of defeat the point of eating veggie to save money. They are sometimes on offer though.
Paneer curry is great. I also like extra firm tofu. A good marinade for tofu is 2tbsp tomato puree, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp clear honey, 1 tsp mustard powder. You can then grill it in slices, make kebab skewers, fry it, it's pretty flexible. Get smoked tofu if you can.

I'm looking forward to the US produced meat.
Their beef stuffed with hormones and the pork reared on the disgusting ractopamine must be really tasty :(

@sessell
Any brands of soya mince which aren't really soft? My main issue with veggie mince is that it's got no bite.

If you take firm tofu, slice it and press it to remove the water, then fry with onion, Worcester sauce and a bit of Marigold powder, the fragments taste like mince and tasty. Or with soy sauce for a Chinese type dish. I've never mastered actual sliced fried tofu but as a mince substitute it works!

There's some odd people on MN who are convinced any fat content in any food, let alone salt or sugar, is terrible.

They can fuck right off! (I have a very healthy DC with ARFID so have had much practice telling such types to fuck off, with full blessing of the dietician).

Curry for beginners - use Patak's pastes. Or other pastes, but not sauces as they're a waste of cash. Fry a bit of onion and the paste in oil, add meat, add veg, leave to simmer for a while.

I like roasted squash and sweet potato in a tomato sauce as a filling pasta sauce, also roast aubergine and peppers. Sometimes I make a pile of 'meaty' roasted veg then make dishes through the week using them. Just slice or chop veg, brush with oil, perhaps add a sprinkling of rosemary, shove in at 170 for 30 min or so. Frozen veg can work really well for it if you have little energy or haven't bought fresh recently (takes longer to cook).

Quality of meat varies enormously - even by butcher. I had a fabulous butcher who sadly died and the business closed. I spend months in limbo and couldn't settle on the right butcher but found one eventually. Never a duff meal. It's notable that the (former butcher) father of the butcher that died is also a customer of my butcher, even though there are other butchers closer.

A good butcher will advise on cuts of meat, what's come in that week that's really good, and will only sell you his steak when it's been hung just right length of time - real melt in your mouth steak. I'll generally spend £20-30/week in there, including his own sliced ham.

Shakshouka; make a spicy tomatoey beany sauce, (can add any veg you have hanging around) cook until it thickens, make wells in the mixture, crack in some eggs and cook.

OP re Curry's see Jamie Oliver online chickpea, sweet potato and spinach curry. Very simple and delicious. Or PPS recipe - you can exchange meat for a can of chickpeas for protein.

@glumygloomer maybe try dried rather that frozen for more bite. I just get it from a deli store but I think some supermarkets sell packs. The content is the same but as frozen is essentially soaked it's likely softer.

Why don't you drop to once a week and only eat organic meat? Plus one or two fish a week and veggie / vegan all other times.

The only good thing to come out of this pandemic is that my fussy 11yr has finally accepted more veggie meals and quorn products now she knows how bad animal treatment is.

During lockdown we've started getting meat deliveries from www.campbellsmeat.com/ . They are a little more expensive than the supermarket, but the quality of everything is much better especially the sausages and burgers. We're going to continue to get meat from them now as service is good and they usually have some sort of offer on via facebook or email.

Most veggie stuff is imported from countries that have more suitable climates for plants. As a country we are meat eaters since we have rain, grass and cold winters. I live in the country and cheap, free range, fresh game is avaiable all winter too.

I hate the butchers as it’s not priced by pack but by the kilo. So a couple of sausages, a steak and a bit of mince costs £14. Would be £7 in Tesco. But my word ....unbelievable taste. It’s clearly what meat should be. And the butchers only open when I work. Opening early us no help and closing early is daft.
But in lockdown it was revelation.

Our local butcher’s meat is the worst I’ve ever had. Absolutely awful and I tried everything, Chicken (was delivered frozen without them mentioning this), steak, topside, lamb, burgers...all horrendous, tasteless, stringy, yet it had rave reviews.

Booths meat is excellent and all local and usually my very first choice for price and consistent good quality. Our local Lidl’s beef comes from the same farm as M&S and I have had really wonderful brisket and stewing steak from there. Sainsbury’s whole chickens are very tasty. At a push, Aldi’s Aberdeen Angus mince is fine. Asda and Tesco are awful.
Morrison’s just ok but the fish is quite nice. Sainsbury’s only ok for chicken. M&S is a bit blah, their Oakham chickens were nice but then I discovered they were the absolute same as my local Lidl. Their red meat was awful, in particular the mince and burgers but their hache steaks are nice and their turkey breast mince is the only one I’ll eat. We don’t often eat Sausages but I’ve actually really enjoyed some low fat butchers choice ones from Asda and I’m tempted to only buy those now.

Tom Hixon’s meat is absolutely top rate. Absolutely outstanding, so tasty but very pricy and so not great for weekly shops for most people.

I will give a nearby farm shop a go in future and hope it’s good but I’m also happy to shop around.

I find supermarket premium ranges acceptable. The Aldi Aberdeen Angus mince is the best supermarket mince I’ve found. As someone else said, meat needs a good bit of fat but it’s only tasty if it’s good quality meat. 5% fat mince is always going to be chewy.

Meat from a decent butcher is always going to be better but it’s a case of finding one with the right balance of quality and price. There’s a trendy butcher near me that doesn’t actually do any butchery.

@GrandAltogetherSo I was about to say the same thing! We moved to Ireland some 20 years ago, and I find the meat from the local butcher to be outstanding, but even meat from Tesco Ireland is good - their ribeye steaks (2 for €6, not the 'Finest' range) are really tasty. I've spent some time back in the UK over the past few years, shopping from Waitrose and Ocado, and I think the meat over here is superior. That goes for fish, too, but then I get mine delivered from a fishmongers in Galway - fresh as it can be.

I am not going to buy meat from asda ever again. Can't get a delivery from anywhere else and dh is vulnerable although not on shielding list. The chicken is full of gristle, and doesn't last up to its user by date, the mince even looks awful but smells worse, the sausages are just terrible. I actually tried Heck pork sausages this week and the kids couldn't eat them, when I tried one all I could taste was salt. Butchers meat is the best but only if you get a good butcher, some that offer bargain meat packs are awful. Also butchers meat usually doesn't last long in the fridge so you need to eat or freeze within a couple of days.

@sessell
I didn't even know you could get it dried. I'll have a look.

@jackparlabane
I love tofu so I'll give mincing it a try.

Thanks for the ideas

YABU I haven't been able to touch any meat since March and have thrown meat away and not bought anymore.

**YANBU !^^