A Shopping Primer for Buying Meat

The Meat of the Matter

The flavor of your food is determined well before you enter your kitchen. It starts way back at the farm or the range, but the first time you have any control is in the market. When shopping for meat and poultry, it's easy to get lured in by pretty packaging or the daily price-cut, but try not to get sidetracked. If you want the best, keep your focus on freshness.

Go with your senses

Don't go through the supermarket on autopilot, just picking up familiar packages. Good meat and poultry should smell pleasant and be firm to the touch. Nothing you purchase should be overly musty or off-smelling. Meat and poultry may be slightly wet, but not sticky or slimy. These are all indicators that your pick is past its prime.

Try to see past the cellophane wrap and take a good look at the meat you are buying. Avoid packages with excessive or cloudy liquid. Better yet, buy straight from the butcher who can hold up a cut so that you can examine it up close.

Beef: Look for red to reddish brown coloring and marbling in all the right places. Marbling, swirls of fat on the interior muscle, adds flavor and juiciness to beef.
Pork: Make sure its creamy pink in color, not grey. Also check that your cut has been well trimmed, with just enough fat to provide flavor and juice.
Chicken: Find nice plump pieces with light golden to yellow coloring and no bruises or torn skin.

Learn about labels

While packaged meats may make one-on-one contact with the actual product a little difficult, they often give you helpful purchasing information. The sell-by date tells you how fresh the meat is. Do not purchase anything that sits in the market longer than the sell-by date.

Beef: The USDA grades beef Prime, Choice or Select. Prime means that the cut has the best marbling, juiciness and flavor. Most often restaurants and other foodservice providers purchase these. Choice, the second highest grade, also has abundant marbling and great flavor, just less than Prime. Select is still great for consumers, just a bit leaner than the others. Beef producers may also use terms on their labels to call attention to the added value of their products. For instance, hormone free indicates that no hormones were given to the animals during their lifespan.
Pork: Although pork is ranked from 1-4 by the USDA, there is no packaging mark passed on to consumers. Pork producers may label their meats to indicate that they have been raised with particular care. Source verified means that the animal has been tagged since birth and can be accounted for in each stage of its existence. Organic usually means that this animal was raised on organic feed in a hormone and antibiotic-free environment.
Chicken: Look for USDA grade A chickens, which should have plump, meaty bodies and clean skin, free of bruises, broken bones, feathers, cuts and discoloration, according to the grading system. In addition, producers may differentiate themselves with other labels. Free range indicates that chickens are able to roam free, as opposed to being caged in a pen. Antibiotic-free means that healthy fowl are not given antibiotics in their food source. Fresh chicken has nothing to do with the way it was raised, however, it has never been frozen to a solid state since the time of slaughter.

The Cooking Method

When looking for a piece of beef, pork or poultry, it's important to consider how you plan to cook it.

Beef: Grill, broil or pan sear steaks with generous marbling. Popular choices are New York strip, rib eye, porterhouse, skirt steak, and hanger steak. Marinate leaner cuts like tri-tip and flank steak prior to cooking. Cook tougher cuts with lots of connective tissue like brisket or rump roast in liquid for long periods of time.
Pork: If you plan on breaking out the grill, go with pork chops, loin chops or tenderloin. Boneless chops are also perfect for stove-top techniques such as sautéing, frying or pan-searing. Pork shoulder is great for braising. Ribs are fantastic slow- cooked on a BBQ.
Chicken: The breast is best cooked over high heat on a grill, on the stovetop or in the oven, but it can stand up to braising as well. The dark meat from the legs, thighs and wings can be roasted, grilled or braised. These cuts usually require a longer cooking time than the breast meat. Purchase boneless skinless breasts or thighs for the quickest cooking times. Whole roasters and fryers are perfect as their names suggest for roasting and frying intact. Remember, if you match the right cut with the correct cooking method, dinner is destined to be a hit.