I was buying some ground chuck today, and the display struck me so I snapped a picture. The difference in color between the "Ground Beef" and the Ground Chuck was substantial.
They've dropped the "Market" and just call it Ground Beef now. Anyone who thinks it's all the same is just plain wrong.
Original Article
Let me start this by saying that I think that Publix is a great organization and they have great stores. They have excellent variety, fair prices and specials on things that you actually want to buy. They don't make you get a "Card" to get the specials. No coupons. They just give you a good price. And at the Deli the other day I bought some Oven Gold Turkey, and they gave me a massive slice to taste; probably 60 cents worth of meat.
I hear people bashing Publix for one reason or another and I just think that they should go to Long Island, where Waldbaum's rips people off with their high prices and lousy service. I started driving way out of my way to go to Fairway before I moved down here; I couldn't deal with people I considered dishonest in their pricing.
That being said, Publix is starting to tick me off with their bogus meat offerings, particularly chopped meat. At least 3 times I've gone when they had something recognizable on sale, like ground round or ground chuck, and they didn't have any out. Instead they have what they call "Market Ground Beef", which is probably a euphemism for "anything we have lying around or couldn't sell last week". If they want to sell mystery meat and people want to buy it, fine, but what I don't like is that they never have what's supposed to be on sale.
Yesterday was the kicker, because I wanted a burger. I stopped in the new Galleria store, and they had a big sign "Ground Chuck $3.29". Unfortunately, the display was stocked 3 deep with "Market Ground Beef"; they had some ground sirloin and "lean" ground beef for substantially more, but not one package of ground chuck. While I was standing there contemplating whether or not I wanted to pay $4.99 for ground sirloin, a dude in a hair net passed by and asked if I needed help. I said, "Well, you have ground chuck on sale but you don't have any out.". "There should be some", he said, but I said "No, you just have the mystery blend and I don't want that". He chuckled, and he said he'd make me some. Just as he headed into the back a women in a hair net and green shirt came over to me and said, picking up a "Market Ground Beef" package, "This is the same price and the same fat ratio". Are you kidding me? Do you think I'm a moron or something? Do you really think that your customers are morons?
I had to wait a bit for the ground chuck, but I got it and I made a pretty good burger with it. It shouldn't be that difficult.
Turns out, it's really terrible. The beef has a super strong metallic/organ meat flavor that just builds as you eat more of it. By the time you finish a bowl of chili it's really overwhelming and gross(and I actually like organ meat).
The Market Ground Beef is really poor quality and should be avoided.
Perhaps you don't grasp the concept that you can't get the same thing twice, so the "next" time it could completely suck?
It's only a big deal if you don't care what you're eating. If you want to save $1 by ordering a menu item called "Steak" without knowing what it is, that's your prerogative. If it doesn't say "chuck" or "round" or "sirloin" then they can put any kind of beef that they want into it.
My "beef" isn't that they sell mystery ground beef; the issue is that they put it out in instead of what's supposed to be on sale at the same price, hoping that their "stupid" customers will buy the less valuable market beef instead of what's on sale. It's called bait and switch.
Market ground beef is made from block trimmings (very tiny pieces, like the size of an M&M) and other cuts that haven't sold in 3 days. All meat that is cut is good for 5 days. So when we grind cuts that are 3 days old the ground meat is good for 2 days. All of the freshly ground beef is good for 2 days. All of this process is extremely tracked and regulated. All meat that is cut is scanned and then when cuts are about to be ground scanned again. Anything that is not acceptable is not ground.
If you are shopping and the beef in your store has a sell by day that is tomorrow, then that meat was ground yesterday. It is still perfectly fine. That just means they ground a little too much yesterday.
Sometimes if you take your meat home and open it up it will be brown on the inside areas. This discoloration is because the inside area hasn't been exposed to oxygen. It is not bad.
Some people hear "trimmings" and "other cuts" and they think "eww...gross". But really, there is nothing bad in there. We don't use organ meats. We don't add mystery fat to add weight. It's 95% straight steaks and roasts. Quite often batches will include rather expensive cuts like tenderloin, ribeye, strip, etc. The labels say 25% fat, but it is typically not close to that.
Yes, the flavor may be slightly different every time you buy some. But seriously, unless you are a beef tasting judge, you won't be able to tell the difference between market and chuck. Except for the fat content. Chuck will almost certainly have more fat. Besides, most people add their own seasonings to ground beef, whether you're making meatloaf or just a burger.
Market is always the same price as chuck. If chuck is on sale, so is market.
Sometimes there is a ton of market and of course, the store will try to sell it before it goes bad. We almost never run out of any kind of ground beef, but sometimes the managers don't order enough and we sell out of what's on sale. So, just because we're out of one particular kind and there is a ton of market doesn't mean they are trying to pull one over on you. It's just the unfortunate facts of business. Publix always offers rain checks for sale items we've sold out of. So you can get the item for the sale price when it is back in stock.
I always purchase the market because I know it has better cuts than chuck, has less fat than chuck and is the same price as chuck.
I don't want it.
“A man still hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” -Simon and Garfunkel
Nobody said anyone was trying to "pull one over" on us; but the butcher was too dumb to understand the point; that some lady at Publix was pushing the market beef saying that only the "ratio" mattered. No, Chuck and Round don't taste the same, and nothing the butcher said changed that. Notody said the meat was spoiled or bad for you; only that it's not as consistent tasting as pure round or pure chuck.
Do the stupid people even care if it's ground round or chuck? No they don''t. Because they're like animals that just eat whatever is in the bowl.
Mark is too dumb to understand this simple concept, to the point of thinking that the butcher's spiel answered some question that was being asked; all it did was confirm that market beef is random scraps that will have a random taste to those of us who know how cuts of beef are supposed to taste.