During the COVID shutdown I decided to start smoking or grilling something at least every Friday (weather permitting). Sometimes weather or schedule pushes it a day or 2, but I haven’t missed a week since I started in March and many weeks had 2 meals cooked that way.
It’s Friday! Today was a mixed grill with mustard vinegar chicken, sausages, and bacon wrapped dates.
My main beef (HAH!) with Costco is they find it necessary to “tenderize.” And I don’t think they actually do that. They just use a blade which might not be the most sanitized and their lawyers require the label to state that the beef should be cooked to 145 F or else Costco bears no responsibility.
These rib eyes were awesome. So much so, that I hesitate to buy Choice beef at my local grocery when it’s $4.99/lb. I mean, why should I? I’m not supposed to be eating so much beef (cholesterol levels), so on the rare (HAH!!) times when I do eat red, I should get top grade.
Yeah, I choose not to buy blade tenderized beef. With nice cuts I prefer my steaks medium rare, and that might not always be the best idea with blade tenderized meats in terms of food safety.
I went to Costco once to buy meat, because everyone talks about what a great value it is. But everything i might have wanted, except the rack of lamb, said it had been blade tenderized. The rib roast, all the larger cuts of beef.
So i picked up a couple racks of lamb, and didn’t go back. I’ve cancelled my membership.
I am not a Costco member, but one of my friends that is said in his experience almost all their steaks are blade tenderized but that the bigger cuts like rib roasts generally aren’t.
I think that’s true, all the steaks I’ve seen have been tenderized but not large cuts. I always do sous vide, and usually do medium (135°F), so I feel like that’s pretty safe. But good to point out, we discussed this on the zombie AO but not here.
I think technically you should be cooking to medium well or hotter with blade tenderized meats for safety. Not sure if sous vide changes that formula.
The one time i shopped for meat at Costco, all the roasts were blade tenderized. 
Wow that looks delicious!!
Seems like a stupid thing for Costco to do, when people can choose whether or not to tenderize on their own.
So. They should simply stop this process. Problem solved.
Unless there is a different problem not disclosed.
Meanwhile, I just got a tip about a company called “Crowd Cow” that has some awesome meats. I mean, if I have to cut back on red meat consumption, I night as well get the top quality.
Bump…
Reviewed this thread to see if I noted it, but I bought the Weber at Costco. My local one had it when I was buying those steaks (with my wife and her car) a few weeks ago, so I had to run over there the next day with my larger car (hatch) to snag one before they were gone.
https://www.costco.com/grills.html?brand=pit-boss%2Bweber&refine=||Brand_attr-Weber
Buying it there means saving $130 off the delivered price, but I have to (or get to) put it together myself. Includes the cover and thermometer probes, so now I’ve got another project.
I decided to smoke tomorrow, but started prep early today. This side of salmon got a salt+sugar cure all day today. I’ll rinse the cure off soon, let it air dry overnight in the fridge, and smoke it tomorrow
yaaaas I love smoked salmon.
I don’t own equipment to blade tenderize. Do you? Also, it sounds like a nuisance that most people won’t do. I can completely see Costco deciding that more of its customers will enjoy the meat if it’s tender.
There are other ways to tenderize without requiring a higher temperature and ruining the meat as a result.
Yep. tenderizing meat in this way makes cheaper cuts as tender as pricey cuts. Most people will prefer that, and in the event you get ecoli and die the lawyers have it covered by telling you they warned you that you should have cooked it until it is shoe leather.
Yes, but if you feel the need to include a link in your post, these are not things that customers routinely do.
Yup. That’s my theory.
Good turnout, would make again. It’s a little on the salty side for me so I might cut back the salt cure time a little next time.
Mmm, I love salmon. And I haven’t had it in a year because my husband doesn’t eat fish.
