Meat Run!!

I made my first real meat run tonight since we move to Nebraska from Houston.


The Sam's was on my way home from work in TX, but now I have to go 25 miles out of the way, so I'll be doing fewer, bigger trips from here on. I picked up ground beef, hot italian sausages, two pork butts, 3 racks of BBs, a pork loin and a brisket. I also picked up some disposable aluminum trays and we were out of peppercorns and ketchup.

A lot of people prefer to get their meat from an old-fashioned butcher. If I could find a good one, maybe I would too, but I'll let you in on a little secret....a lot of regular butchers get old animals, especially cows. Sam's for the most part gets younger ones because they buy in bulk from larger slaughterhouses. This, of course, doesn't mean that some (probably most) butchers don't have quality products, but you should know what you're looking at and pick cuts that look good. I'm just saying that I've had good luck at Sam's.

Personally I've never gotten a bad brisket or a bad pork butt from Sam's. Their ribs, for some reason I can't figure out, are more variable than the other cuts, so I carefully pick through them until I find a satisfactory one (I do this for all cuts, actually). That's why I ended up with baby backs today...their spares didn't look great. Sam's sausage is not my favorite either...but they are decent, and relatively inexpensive. I rarely fire up the smoker without putting some sausages on, so I use these. If I have a hankering for some primo sausage, I get it elsewhere.

I'm firin' up the smoker on Saturday...stay tuned!!