"beef" news and stories

Happy National Hamburger Day!

According to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Americans eat roughly one hundred burgers -- per person! -- annually. Though it would seem that the burger is universally prized across the U.S., Americans seem to argue passionately about what they deem to be the very best variety.

Some vouch for West Coast chain In-N-Out; others passionately back local institutions, like Brooklyn stalwart Peter Luger's beefier bite; while many are torn on the eternal McDonald's versus Burger King debate. Which burger is your favorite? Argue your case in the comments -- and grab your favorite burger come lunchtime to support your cause!

Of course, there's nothing like grilling your own. Read 16 Tips for the Perfect Burger and then fire it up with these burger recipes.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured on the site.

In tough times, diners aren't going for the prime rib or petit filet mignon.

Instead, they're looking to get their gourmet beef fix from designer hamburgers -- and restaurants are turning the fast-food sandwich into a "fine dining experience" all over the country, Voice of America News reported.

"I think with the economy the way it is now, honestly, I think there is more room for profit in a burger restaurant than there is in a steak house right now," Greg Cook, head chef at the BLT Mirage in Las Vegas, told VoA News. "I think that the general public can always afford to have a burger."

And they're not the only ones turning to toppings like fried eggs, spicy fresh aïoli and even truffles to take burgers to the next level.

The CAFO Reader is meaty. Maybe it's the fact that I read it while on vacation in Iowa, smack dab in the very heart of hog and egg laying hen confinement operations. These industrial "farms" have been here for years. Pass them on the highway, and the smell can be eye-watering, even if you can't see the operation itself from the road. Locals are fond of saying, "That's the smell of money." And it is, but too often that cash doesn't make it back into the very communities where these operations live.

That's just one of the points editor Daniel Imhoff makes as he sets out on a myth-busting mission in this book. Chapters are voiced by some of the most notable thinkers in our country's sustainable food movement -- Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry Fred Kirschenmann, Dan Barber, Tom Philpott, and Eric Schlosser among them.

From intensively farmed beef, pork, chicken, fish, dairy and eggs -- the curtain of "Big Agriculture" is pulled back with fact-driven arguments on the true costs of pollution, animal cruelty, overuse of antibiotics, immigrant labor and more, which many feel has mired our food system. Republican speech writer Matthew Scully says "instead of redesigning the factory farm to suit the animals, they are redesigning the animals to suit the factory farm."

"Ribs and beer go together like Martin and Lewis, football and Sunday," say the lads at foodthinkers.com, who pair these rolls of oven-baked, scallion-stuffed beef (top round, sliced paper thin) with an English brown ale (Newcastle). While the color palette may be a little, er, brown, the marinated beef rolls are flavorful with ginger and soy sauce, and very tender. After marinating they only need to be baked for five minutes. (Get the recipe here.) So enjoy the wee touch of green in scallion form, sip your ale and take in a Newcastle United Football Club match, while you're at it.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Some local food advocates in Kentucky are questioning a new Department of Agriculture program that will slap "Kentucky Proud" labels on beef processed in the upper Midwest.

A Business Lexington columnist reported there was an "outcry" from readers after learning of the state's plans to partner with Minnesota's PM Beef to overcome economy of scale issues that have prevented beef from becoming a major component of Kentucky's nine-year-old homegrown foods initiative. The situation's familiar to many cattle-farming southern states: Consolidation in the meatpacking industry has left Kentucky without the processing facilities it needs to keep its citizens supplied with affordable red meat.

"If we assume everyone in Kentucky eats an average of 80 pounds a year, with the processing capacity we have in Kentucky, we can provide only four percent of that consumption," Kentucky Department of Agriculture spokesman Bill Clary explains.

Under the new program, Clary says, PM Beef will purchase certified Kentucky-raised Angus cattle through Kentucky markets.