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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1958-05-01, Page 2Enzymes rut Cost of Steak A big, tasty, 11 -ounce sirloin strip steak with a Roquefort dressing tossed salad, a giant- sized baked potato covered with butter and a huge toasted roll. And all for $1.09. This- is a part of the innova- tion in steak production that is taking the Americanpublic back to the days of pre -inflation steak prices. It may not be a rollback in the price of a necessity; but It is a rollback on an item that countless American families in- sist on listing as a "must" on their limtied budget. So the roll- back is going to be a very real help to .the consumer in this day of ever -lasting prices. Right away, of course, it. should be understood that the mouth- watering menu cited above is restaurant fare, from Tad's Steaks, Inc. — with a res- taurant ih Chicago that serves 1,700 $1.09 steak dinners (cafe- teria style with no. tip) a day. Tad's is singled out because its $L09 price has made quite an impression in that city. People, when they first saw this price in that extremely high -cost -of -liv- ing city, couldn't believe their eyes. Tad's accomplishes this $4 steak dinner for one-fourth the price through volume sales and an enzyme -treated meat. Tad's takes range -fed cattle (not the expensive corn -fed variety usual- ly used for the best steaks) and turns this commercial - grade meat into delicious, tender steaks. "Commercial -grade steaks are usually better flavored than choice steaks," says Neal Town- send, president of Tad's, "So when we are able to tenderize the commercial grade, we have a wonderful steak." Several of the big meat pack- ers now are producing these treated steaks. Several differ- ent tenderizing formulas are be- ing used, but they all stein from a discovery by the Spanish con- quistador H e r nand o Cortes, Some 400 years ago he found the Aztecs in Mexico tenderizing tough cuts of meat by wrapping them overnight in papaya leaves., Papaya and other tropical fruits contain enzymes that break down tough meat. In the early 1900's meat ten- derizers were being discovered and marketed but with very little fanfare and without ex- tensive use. According to the Wall Street Journal, papain was brought to public attention in 1949 when Adolph's, Ltd., Burbank, Calif., started selling its tenderizer to grocery stores and restaurants. "These two uses," the paper says, "have steadily expanded but the biggest gains now are being shown in meat -packing plants." The big rush by restaurants to tenderizers has been noted in the past two years, with the advent of the packing houses into this business. Before that time, one meat authority ob- served, the use of tenderizers by restaurants was not a prac- tice that was causing too much of a stir in the restaurant busi- ness — at least in terms of an integrated economic operation. For the restaurants, it seems, were confronted with the same difficulty that discouraged many housewives: the problem of get - ling a flavor that was liked— and then controlling the afnount of tenderizer so that this flavor eould be consistently maintained. The forte of the packing house research people is, of course, this control,. Prior to two years ago the government had not per - nutted the use of enzymes by. the packing houses, Now the permission has been given -se' long as the meats',used are frozen writes Godfrey . Sperling Jr. in The Christian Science Monitor. Families right at this point would have to get their Inez - , pensive steak dinners at restaur- ants serving them, Tad's, Peter Pan, and hundreds of other res- taurants across the country now are featuring the budget -priced luxury items. How about the .housewife at the grocery stores? She probably will be able to buy these inex- pensive luxury steaks in the very near future. All meat packers realized the big business involv- ed in selling steak at stew -beef, prices, So their researchers are working assiduously to come tip with a product that the house- wife will like, At least one small packer; now has marketed these steaks in the frozen -food department. Main problem now, one packer official says, is the color of the treated meat. "Treated steaks," he says, "lack the ' bright, red color that the housewife de- mands in her steaks. Restaurants are not that fussy, realizing that the cooked steaks will look most appetizing by the time they are charcoaled and sizzling." Some housewives, too, are prejudiced against treated meats since they may have tried ten- derizers on their own meats with less than satisfactory results. "A good part of getting good results in using tenderizers," an author- ity says, "is in using just the right formula and the right amount. This can be done best by the packer with his research staff," Armour's makes several cuts of steak available for the restaur- ants: T-bones at about 93 cents a pound, bone -in strip steaks at $4 cents, rib -cut steaks at 99 cents, and top -sirloin at 93 cents, The same cuts from choice aged beef are about $2.15 a pound. This is for 16 ounces, of course, and Tad's and other restaurants are serving smaller (although good-sized) steaks. Tad's, too, has a special department in a local meat -packing company that is set up to observe this one res- taurant chain alone, With res- taurants in Chicago, San Francis- co, Sacramento, Detroit, and New, York, Tad's now uses 30,000 pounds of steak a week, The price of this mass buying per pound is "considerably lower" than the prices cited by Armour's — according to Mr. Townsend, Already restaurants in the vicinity of Tad's are lowering prices. Tad's is selling something that resembles a Cadillac at Ford prices. If this enzyme - treated innovation should sweep the country, it might have a bearing on lowering restaurant prices everywhere. Fresh Pears Decorate Various Fowl Dinners For eyeand palate appeal, serve fresh pear relish with your fowl dinner. Peel, core and half 6 to 8 fresh pears. Bring to a boil 1 cup water, rh cup sug- ar, ?a tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. ground allspice. Drop pear halves into liquid and cook until tender. Fill pear centres with fresh cranberry sauce and arrange on a serving platter with roast chicken, turkey, duck or goose. #tCCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE — A Cadillac convertible right, 119 headed for a test crash into a Chevrolet standing across the Toad at a distance at General Motors proving ground. From tcontrol console, left, en the back of a truck, the crash car driver" ean remotely steer or brake the convertible using the steering wheel; and brake pedal en the console. 'lectrical im- pulses through•a cable (on ground) guide the crash car, so the "driver" can watch the smash-up from a safe distance. The system yips '.,., til' -'peel. .e eliminate giver s!Cs ill .lis car -to -car crash ,research MIGHT HURT A BIT -- This little pup, winces a little as he prepares for a king-sized rabies shot. Better that than to be a candidate for the pound. Dog owners were hurrying to comply with an edict to get their pets vaccinated. OVERBOARD OVERBOARD — Hanging to- gether,.Rudoipf Pedrola and his daughter, Dagmar, 9, display some eye-catching acrobatics aboard a liner in New York Harbor. A comedy high -wire act from Hanover, Germany, the Pedrolas came to appear with a circus. Keeping Women In Their Place Funny thing happened when a Yarmouth group was kicking around Aristotles "Politics" at a Great Books discussion session the other evening. Aristotle, sage that he was, begins his description of the ideal state by putting women in their •place—subject to the male, by nature' the inferior creature. The strange thing about the Yarmouth discussion was that nine out of ten women present seemed to go along with Aris- totle. For a time, the men present were quite puffed up about it. Then one young housewife ex- plained: "It's this way. Men have their egos. My husband has to think he's superior to me in all things. So I let him -think that. He thinks he makes all the decisions. It's the only way to have peace in the family." Reminds us of the woman who. was explaining to a friend why she and her husband got along so well together. "You see, we have agreed that I am to make all the minor de- cisions in our household, and he is to make all the major de- cisions, so we never quarrel," she said. 'That's very interesting," . her friend replied, "Can yuo tell me about some of the minor de- cisions that you make?" "Well," replied the happy wife, "I decide what college our child ren shall go to, when to buy a new, car, whether to rent or buy a house." "Hmmm," hmmmd the friend, "if those are the minor decisions you make, what are the major decisions you allow your hus- band to make?" "Oh," said the wite, "I let him decide how to solve the Suez crisis, what to do about the Russians and things like that." —Portland (Mame) Press Herald Man::old Presr "'es. In Colum- bus,- Ohio,' a T"' Constellation: made an unschc tiled landing, and police 'tools Flight Engineer" Eugene Manning to a hospital, where, after 24 uncertain hours, the trouble was diagnosed as air sickness. jj7A6LE TALKS ksrteeremeemi In the wide field of food there are several nonprofit organiza- tions set, up by industries for research and the spreading of in- formation obtained by it to the consumer. The Poultry and Egg National Board, with its main office in Chicago, is one of these organizations where research for more tenderness,' better fla- vor, and greater variety in ways of cooking chickens and tur- keys is carried on constantly with Mrs. Kathryn B, Niles, di- rector of its home economics division, "When I entered the poultry field of home economics a cou- ple of decades ago, little was known in the scientific field on these subjects," explained Mrs. Niles. "We had to depend most- ly on old cookbooks fod our gen- eral information about prepar- ing and cooking poultry. Since then, we have pioneered in basic materials and methods, and have made great strides in helping housewives to cook poultry, as well as in the field of improving poultry." ,Mrs. Niles, who trained for teaching home economics at the universities of Minnesota and Washington, and then taught several years, had a difficult de- cision to make when she was offered a position in industry. "For a long time after chang- ing to the business end of home economics, I missed teaching, which I loved—but then I rea- lized that I was really teaching in a different way and to a wider field when I show home cooks how to serve chicken that is so good that the children say,w, 'Please fix it again this way, Mom!'" • * * Mrs. Niles is especially enthu- siastic about her test kitchen method of broiling chicken. No rack is needed, since there is little fat to drain, and the chick- en is placed on the bottom of the broiler pan. Her favorite recipe for broiling includes using lem- on with which to rub the entire surface of the chicken before cooking. Use 1 lemon or each. broiler; Next 'coat the chicken with butter and then sprinkle with a mixture of salt and sugar (2 teaspoons of each for each chicken), . a little paprika, and pepper. If you prefer your chicken plain, fix it this way, advises Mrs, Niles. Broiled Chicken Halves 2 broiler -fryers, 1,-2 pounds each, halved Soft butter 1 teaspoon salt Pepper Place chicken in broiler pan— not on rack. Bring wing tips onto back to expose thick breast meat to heat. Brush generously with butter. Season halves with salt and, pepper. Flatten halves, skin: side down. Place pan so Piquant Sauce On Seafood Cocktail If yo,u are serving any kind of .. seafood cocktail at one of your parties this coming Festive sea- son, the following sauce is high on the list of v'hat is did'ere'rt and delicious. Blue Cheese Sauce x/z cup blue cheese, crumbled 11 tablespoons lemon juice a/i cup chili -sauce , 1 teaspoon. Worcestershire' i/e teaspoon Tabasco 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish. Beat cheese end lemon juice• until blended. Stir in chili sauce, Worcestershire, a n d Tabasco, then horseradish. Mix well and chili. Serve a little sauce on the seafood cocktail and have a bowlful of it for there who like to add more. that chicken is 7, to 9 inches from heat, regulating distance Or heat so that chicken just be- gins to brown after 15 minutes. Broil 'slowly, turning after 30 minutes. Baste frequently. Broil skin side up for 20-25 minutes until drumstick twists easily Out of the thigh joint. Serves 4. 0 * * French -Broiled Chicken:. Fol- low above recipe, substituting 1 cup French dressing and 1 tea- spoon paprika for the butter, salt and pepper. For a buffet arty nothing beats creamed chicken ready fon self- service. A simple pear salad, a hot beverage and a chocolate torte complete this buffet lunch- eon or supper. Serves 6. Creamed Chicken n/s eup chicken fat, or butter 1,4 cup flour 1 cup broth 1 cup milk 1,6 treaspoon san 1/2 teaspoon ground. pepper 1 teaspoon finely grated onion 12 cups large dice cooked chicken 1 can (4 ounce) sliced mushrooms 1 tablespoon chopped crystalized ginger 1 green pepper, diced 1 pimiento, diced Melt fat, add flour, and stir over low heat until bubbly: Add broth and milk all at once. Cook, stirring constantly, until uniformly thickened. Add sea- sonings, chicken, mushrooms, pepper, pimineto, and ginger;. heat thoroughly. Serve in heat- ed patty shells. If you want to have a party„ serving 24-30, make your creamed chicken this way: Creamed Chicken -1 Gallon 1 / Dupe chicken fat or butter n� pound mushrooms sliced 15/¢'cups ` flour 11. quarts broth, ` 1 quart rich milk 1 tablepsoon or more salt 34 teaspoon ground pepper 2 tablespoons minced onion 2` pounds or 1% quarts cooked diced - chicken' 1 cup choppedgreen pepper 2 pimientos, chopped Melt fat, add mushrooms and cook over low heat until slight- ly softened, about 5 minutes. Add flour and `blend thorough- ly. Add broth and milk all at once. Cook until thickened throughout, stirring constantly, Add ether ingredients. Heat thoroughly. Season to taste. 0 0 * For thenovice cook: when you're cooking macaroni, noo- dles, or any similar pasta prod- uct, always have the water boil- ing before you add the pasta. And don't go far away from the stove for the first few minutes. You'll need to stir to keep macaroni or spaghetti from sticking to the bottom of the kettle, and unles you keep it turned down, it will boil over and make a sticky mess to be cleaned up, Remember, too, that these products cook quick- ly, and shouldn't be allowed to get too soft. If you have always bought just elbow macaroni, take a look at the shelves of pasta products in a supermarket some day. Pasta comes in fascinating shapes and sizes, and despite ,a similarity, they do not all taste alike, Team canned PINEAPPLE CHUNKS with TANGERINE SECTIONS for a refreshing dessert to be served after a fish dinner.. FRENCH TOAST for break- fast brings folks hurrying to the table. When it's made with raisin bread, they'll call for sec- onds, so make plenty. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE- One of ,the easiest driving rules ofthumb to remember, but not always easy to 'visualize, is to keep at least one car length behind the car ahead: for each 10 mi!«; at driving speed. Drawings; above, show how the car ahead ,t,ould.:appear to a driver following it at speeds from 30 to 70 miles per hour. Driving experts stress,; Ile ;v=ver, that this role is for the abso- lute minimum safety c)' t .ice and tho. other factors should alwc�s be taken ,nto ac,.uunt, such as read condition, car's mechanical condition: and the individual driver's reaction time.