Last week, we were invited to the local Weston A. Price Foundation chapter (http://www.westonaprice.org/) to do a demonstration on cutting up a 1/2 hog. And we were so honored to find out that over 100 people attended! We feel so privileged to be the “meat” voice for 0ver 100 people and share our knowledge of 45 years with them. Last week really cemented for me that we should start hosting public seminars to educate the everyday consumer about what it is that we do, because they want to know. They want to ask questions. And we love to answer questions and show what it is that we do! So enough words for wordless wednesday… I brought my camera along and captured some photos.
This is what a half carcass hog looks like
Tools of the Trade
Pulling the leaf lard (fat)
Showing the carcass
“Breaking” (separating) the shoulder from the rest of the carcass
The pork shoulder (boston butt)
He is explaining something Love the knife in his hand.
“Breaking” (separating) the loin from the belly and spare ribs
Ta-Da! The pork loin!
Mmmm…Bacon. The pork belly!
The spare ribs, which came off the belly!
Answering questions.
Thank you so much to the local Weston A. Price chapter for hosting us, inviting so many members, and making us feel like meat rock stars! I didn’t capture all of the parts of the process SO if you are interested, please check out my blogpost on cutting up a whole hog from START to FINISH with photos! http://chicolockersausage.com/2011/08/25/where-do-your-favorite-pork-cuts-come-from/
Ever since 1984, Chico Locker & Sausage Co. has been attending the California Association of Meat Processors (CAMP)’s annual convention. CAMP is a great organization full of wonderful people, many of whom have become like family. People who are willing to share their knowledge, expertise, and passion. Every year CAMP hosts it’s annual convention in the spring and this year we were lucky enough to host it in Chico! The turn out was amazing, one of the most successful we’ve had in a long time. Over 30 meat processing plants from all over California drove up for the weekend. Many new faces as well as students with a passion for the meat industry. For the “old timers” in the association this is exciting, the younger generation is taking an interest in what is slowly becoming a lost art. The younger generation is realizing that this organization is a wealth of knowledge and that if left untapped, it will not be shared and continued.
The convention begins Friday with checking in of meat into the Cured Meat Competition. Products are entered into specific categories and are then judged by some of the best in the industry on external appearance, internal appearance, aroma, flavor, texture. Points are given and then calculated in order to find out who placed first, second, and third in each category. Judges and assistants work hard for two days and during our closing session on Saturday, awards are given.
But this is just a portion of what goes on at our conventions. There are also two days of workshops on all kinds of topics. Making ham and bacon, cutting up a lamb, making snack sticks… Just to name a few. Lots of valuable knowledge is shared. I was given the opportunity to speak on utilizing social media for your business. I spoke about the success of this blog as well as Twitter. And really shared with everyone the passion I have found through educating people about meat. I was pleasantly surprised that many people found my presentation motivating and hopefully in the next few months I will be able to share with you all some new blogs that are popping up!
I am extremely honored to report that we took home FIVE awards from the Cured Meat Show as well as received one of the highest honors, The Wayne Hall Excellence in Curing Award. Some of our products that brought home awards were: teriyaki jerky, peppersticks, potato sausage, bone-in ham, and bacon. The Wayne Hall Excellence in Curing Award is a memorial award that is awarded to the individual who has the highest combined score in the following categories: bone-in ham, boneless ham, bacon, and smoked turkey. So it really is a testament to quality of your cured products.
All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. Good people, good food (that’s a given when you’re dealing with MEAT people!), and lots of good times. My family hosted the President’s Party on Friday night at our house. My best friend and fabulous chef Amber Kirpes of recipeshmecipe was gracious enough to travel from Santa Cruz to cater the appetizers for the party. And let me tell you, they were fabulous! She did an amazing job and our guests were raving all night long. That’s saying something because these people know their food. If you are in the Santa Cruz area and looking for a caterer for your party or you want a tasty recipe to cook for dinner, please check out Amber’s blog. http://recipeshmecipe.com/
Now enough with my babble about this weekend, here is the convention captured in images:
Some of the food presented at the party Friday night
Salmon Dip and our carved and garnished Smoked Turkey
More delicious appetizers
Meat people know how to party
Woo hoo! Accepting our awards! Congrats to our employees who made many of the products we won with AND they got to accept their own awards!
Two Reserve Grand Champions!
Our owner, David Dewey, upholding his title with a Grand Champion bone-in ham
Receiving our Excellence in Curing Award from Wayne Hall’s son Dale. It was a special night!We are so honored!!
This photo is near and dear to my heart. Two of the greatest experts in curing meat you will ever find. Who also happen to be good friends. I love it.
Viewing of all the products entered into the competition
140 products total entered, so to win amongst all of the entries really shows you the quality of your products.
Our award winning bacon everyone knows and loves!
Well that’s all folks. We are ready for a normal week back at the shop and are going to need it to recover from this weekend! I have some exciting things coming up for this week. So stay tuned for Wordless Wednesday and Fun Meat Fact Friday! Also I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to read our feature on Meat Me’s blog. I am utterly blown away at the number of views we received. So thank you! To all of you for the support! Without all of you out there reading, I wouldn’t have this passion for sharing! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and let’s have a GREAT week!
Well it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for… And hopefully some of you have as well! Remember this…?
Our feature on Meat Me was finally released yesterday! And we could not be more excited!! The feature is full of beautiful images as well as a wonderful narrative (which I worked hard on for two days, editing) about what it is that Chico Locker & Sausage really does. And how we started. A little glimpse into our day-to-day lives so to speak…
Again, I don’t think enough gratitude can be expressed to Sean and Laura for driving all the way up here and putting in a lot of hard work and dedication to share with the world what it is that we have been doing for 45 years. Helping us tell our story and share with people knowledge about the meat industry. He really is helping us reach more people than I could have ever dreamed so THANK YOU!
There was no denying that Sunday night, most of America spent the evening watching the Grammys. In fact, the 2012 Grammys went down as the most watched since 1984. But I am not writing to hail the wonder that is Adele or to give a tribute to the late Whitney Houston. No, I am writing in response to Chipotle’s new marketing campaign video, Back to the Start, shown during the Grammys. If you happened to miss it, here it is:
A few months back this video was actually released via the Chipotle website and Facebook, but thanks to it’s showing during the Grammys, Chipotle’s marketing campaign was really brought to the forefront. And since then, it has caused quite an uproar in the Agricultural community. Why you ask?
Well although the video may seem light-hearted and gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, in all reality, it is bashing modern agriculture and presenting “facts” to consumers that couldn’t be further from the truth. Chipotle is banking on the fact that as a consumer, this video makes you feel warm and fuzzy but also makes you question or criticize modern agriculture, when it is possible you know nothing about it. After all, I’ve read a couple times that something like 2% of our entire population make up farmers and ranchers feeding the rest of the 98% of our population. This statistic tells me that the majority of people out there have never even stepped foot on a farm or a ranch. It also tells me that it is my job being part of the 2% in agriculture to educate the rest of the 98% on what it is that my family does and has done for the past 50 years and that we strive to produce a safe, quality product that you can put on your dinner table and nourish your family. And I guarantee you that all farmers and ranchers share that same goal with me. But rather than sit here and nit pick at Chipotle’s video and criticize it, I am going to take this time to provide you with resources and statements about agriculture that are factual and true, not based upon a light hearted cartoon with a celebrity singing the lyrics.
Fun Meat Fact #1: If you want to know how meat (or food) is produced or where your meat comes from, ask a farmer, rancher, or meat producer DIRECTLY, don’t rely on sources like documentaries such as Food, Inc. or Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. After all, farmers and ranchers are EXPERTS in the field and many have been practicing for generations and if you wanted information, who better to consult than an expert in the field?
Despite what Chipotle’s video may suggest, if you do the research, you will actually find that according to MEAT Myth Crushers, Fun Meat Fact #2: ” Agriculture operations of any size can be managed in environmentally sound ways. But modern operations can benefit from sophisticated environmental controls.” A study conducted on modern beef production found that since 1977 advances in production practices resulted in:
But if you do even more research, you will find even more facts about modern agriculture. Explorebeef.org provides us with even more information suggestion that modern agriculture is indeed sustainable. And continues to strive to produce the best possible product they can for their consumers all while using less resources. In addition to the facts concluded by the study above it also finds that:
Today vs. 1977….
use 14% less water.
85% of all land is not suitable for agricultural crops, but can be used to graze livestock.
A total of 2.8% of all greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to livestock production, compared to 26% from transportation.
So not only are we utilizing fewer resources to produce our beef, but we are also improving efficiency. Fun Meat Fact #3: In 1977, it took five animals to produce the same pounds beef that it takes four animals to produce today. According to an interview conducted by BEEF magazine of Dr. Jude Capper of Washington State University, Dr. Cappers tells us that: “Beef yield over that time has gone up fairly consistently,” she says, noting carcasses can’t keep getting bigger because of consumer acceptance and processing challenges. “What we can do is improve productivity, improve growth rate.”
So all it takes is a little research to find out that what Chipotle is trying to show us in their Back to the Start Video is not actually fact based and also presents a very skewed view of modern Agriculture. Now I would like to leave you with a video that does exactly the opposite. It indeed provides you with FACTS and FIGURES and shows you that indeed the Beef Industry is meeting today’s ever growing demand for beef while using less resources and producing that same quality, healthy, wholesome product.
If you are interested in what some other industry professionals say about the Chipotle ad, check out these reads:
Happy Friday Everyone! Today, I invite you to seek out a farmer or rancher. Get in contact with them. Ask them what you’ve been meaning to ask about food production. Share this article and the resources listed above. Let’s help to educate that 98% on what the 2% of us do to provide them with food and nourishment for their families and generations to come!
So today while attending the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA I learned about a campaign called I Heart Beef which kicks off in the month of February to coincide with Valentines Day and runs until June. This campaign aims to:
help strengthen interest in beef middle meats, cuts that have a proven return on investment for beef producers, by reminding consumers of their passion for great steaks like the T-bone and tenderloin. Not only that, but February is Heart Health Month.
So even if you missed out on beef for Valentines Day, there is still time to enjoy some delicious, heart healthy beef.
And join the campaign for the rest of the month of February by sharing your favorite beef recipes! And include the tag I Heart Beef! Happy Wednesday everyone!
Fun Meat Fact Friday is on hiatus seeing as how I’m on vacation enjoying some time on the East Coast. However, I came up with the grand idea for a guest blog. I know many of you have been asking me about recipes and how to cook some of the meat items I’ve featured on here. Well here we go. I’d love to continue this trend. Thank you so much to my good friend Natalie who is our trial run! And if you have a meat recipe you’d like to feature, please contact me! I’d love to feature you!! Happy Friday everyone! Go cook some ribs!! Natalie shows us how!
I’m Natalie from www.aggirl.com. I’m 25 unemployed and today we’re gonna cook ribs in a CrockPot.
I got these spareribs at Safeway for 50% off (DEAL). First, I cut them up because obviously the whole rack as is was not going to fit into the crockpot.
Aren’t they pretty?
Then I whipped up some sauce. This is the tricky part because I never follow recipes, I look a bunch over then pick and choose. When I cook it’s usually throwing things together. This happened to be a mixture of BBQ sauce, honey, brown sugar, and little bit of water.
After the sauce was concocted I tossed the ribs into a ziplock, poured in the sauce and shook it around a bit. Then I let it rest for about 2 hours until I went to bed
Right before bed I put the ribs and sauce into the crock pot
Set it on LOW for 10 hours
And had wonderful BBQ Rib filled dreams.
When I woke I had ribs so tender they fall off the bone.
Ideally, you’d want to cook these during the day when you could spread sauce on them continually, however, I added more sauce and the ribs are just sitting in it until tonight when I’ll heat the ribs and have some deliciousness!
Dry aged, Wet aged, what’s the difference? Does it really matter?
Well yes and no. But before we delve into the specifics of it all, let’s get a quick overview of what aging really means and what it does in beef.
Fun Meat Fact #1: Meat is aged by holding either carcasses or primal cuts at refrigeration temperatures for extended periods of time after slaughter and initial chill and sometimes even after packaging.
Fun Meat Fact #2: What this aging process does is improves the tenderness and flavor of meat. There are two methods for aging meat: wet aging and dry aging. A more scientific explanation of what’s going on here involves two things: First, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. And second, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which (what we learned in the Marinating blog) leads to improved tenderness.
Ever wonder why dry aged steaks cost so much more? It’s because dry aging is much more expensive and takes longer than wet aging. Fun Meat Fact #3: Meat which is dry aged is hung in a very clean, temperature and humidity controlled cooler for a period of two to four weeks. An inedible crust forms on the outside from moisture being lost and it often includes mold which must be trimmed off and discarded. Think like aging cheese, kind of the same idea. The carefully controlled environment, the time involved, and the loss of outer portions from trimming that inedible crust of the carcass make dry aging more expensive and exclusive.
In fact it is very rare outside of hotels, restaurants, and specialty shops to find retail meat that has been dry aged. We dry age our custom beef carcasses a minimum of 14 days. A lot of how long we hang the beef we kill depends on a few factors. First being how large the carcass is, a beef weighing 400 lbs. hanging will not be able to hang as long as a beef weighing 800 lbs. hanging. Another factor in how long we can let beef hang is how fat they are (or how much “cover” they have). The more fat a beef has on it, the longer it can hang because there is more to trim off. Remember that outer crust that forms? A beef with little to no fat must be trimmed way more close and will experience more loss if left to hang too long than a beef which has adequate fat (or cover). We have hung an average size carcass (750 lbs or so.) with adequate cover for over 30 days without an extreme amount of loss.
Fun Meat Fact #4: Wet aging is when meat and its own juices are vacuum packed in plastic and boxed for distribution much like most of our commercial, retail beef. Unlike dry aging, the plastic packaging does not allow loss of moisture, leaving little to no loss. Wet aging is much less costly and allows for a quicker entry to into the retail market and therefore a much longer shelf-life all of which are selling points for a retail market.
So there you have it. The basics of aging beef. So the next time you and your sweetie head to Fifth Street Steakhouse and wonder why their steaks cost so much, you will know that it is because they dry age their meat and that the process is not only time consuming, but also costly. Some goes with why your local supermarket or butcher shop doesn’t carry dry aged steaks, it simply isn’t cost effective as well as requiring the essentials needed to dry age.
Happy Friday everyone! And go eat a steak, will ya!? For more in depth information about dry aging, check out this awesome article: HERE
Here’s to proving the fact that not all cattle are created equal. Just like us, they are all different. And that there is variety in one breed to another. Ever wonder why Angus is one of the choice breeds for meat products?? It’s because they produce a consistent product. These are all rib eye steaks and check out the variety. From grass fed to grain fed I love that our meat industry provides something for everyone. Variety really is the spice of life.
About Us
Hello! Welcome to Chico Locker & Sausage Co. Inc! We are proud to be family owned and operated and have been serving the North state for nearly five decades!
This is what a half carcass hog looks like
Tools of the Trade
Pulling the leaf lard (fat)
Showing the carcass
“Breaking” (separating) the shoulder from the rest of the carcass
The pork shoulder (boston butt)
He is explaining something 
Love the knife in his hand.
“Breaking” (separating) the loin from the belly and spare ribs
Ta-Da! The pork loin!
Mmmm…Bacon. The pork belly!
The spare ribs, which came off the belly!
Answering questions.
I love it.
