Anyone have any sources for carne machaca (Northern Mexico style) that
will do mail order? There used to be one in Tucson, but I can't find
it's website anymore.

Ted

On May 14, 4:55?am, wrote:
> Anyone have any sources for carne machaca (Northern Mexico style) that
> will do mail order? There used to be one in Tucson, but I can't find
> it's website anymore.

Exactly what was so special about the dried beef that you ate before
that makes you want to mail order it, pay a premium price plus
shipping and handling. wait impatiently for it to arrive and then
rehydrate it, instead of using good quality fresh beef obtained
locally, and just boiling it?

Mexican peasants dried beef because they had no refrigeration. It was
a poor quality, stringy beef anyway, and it would have had to be
boiled for an hour and a half so it could be shredded and used as taco
filling or whatever.

http://cookingfire.com/?p=11

http://www.101recipes.com/recipe.htm...ling+-+Machaca

On May 14, 11:23 am, Rechazador de Disparates >
wrote:
> On May 14, 4:55?am, wrote:
>
> > Anyone have any sources for carne machaca (Northern Mexico style) that
> > will do mail order? There used to be one in Tucson, but I can't find
> > it's website anymore.
>
> Exactly what was so special about the dried beef that you ate before
> that makes you want to mail order it, pay a premium price plus
> shipping and handling. wait impatiently for it to arrive and then
> rehydrate it, instead of using good quality fresh beef obtained
> locally, and just boiling it?
>
> Mexican peasants dried beef because they had no refrigeration. It was
> a poor quality, stringy beef anyway, and it would have had to be
> boiled for an hour and a half so it could be shredded and used as taco
> filling or whatever.

Oye, reflujo todo baboso, tell someone who cares.

I grew up on the border and I like its food. Even menudo. What's the
matter with peasants, anyway?

T.

wrote:
> On May 14, 11:23 am, Rechazador de Disparates >
> wrote:
>> On May 14, 4:55?am, wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone have any sources for carne machaca (Northern Mexico style) that
>>> will do mail order? There used to be one in Tucson, but I can't find
>>> it's website anymore.
>> Exactly what was so special about the dried beef that you ate before
>> that makes you want to mail order it, pay a premium price plus
>> shipping and handling. wait impatiently for it to arrive and then
>> rehydrate it, instead of using good quality fresh beef obtained
>> locally, and just boiling it?
>>
>> Mexican peasants dried beef because they had no refrigeration. It was
>> a poor quality, stringy beef anyway, and it would have had to be
>> boiled for an hour and a half so it could be shredded and used as taco
>> filling or whatever.
>
> Oye, reflujo todo baboso, tell someone who cares.
>
> I grew up on the border and I like its food. Even menudo. What's the
> matter with peasants, anyway?
>
> T.
>
Nothing is the matter with peasants and nothing is wrong with border
food. I'm surprised he went off on you like he did because he is the one
who always wants to stick to traditional preparation. Dried meat has
been a staple in all the Americas even before GG was born believe it or
not. Carne Seca is popular here in Tucson. Some places prepare their own
in special drying areas on the roofs of the restaurant. Brazil exports
it. I don't care for it but do like the fresh machaca preparation in
Tacos etc.

On May 14, 12:53?pm, Sonoran Dude > wrote:

> Nothing is the matter with peasants

It sounds like somebody is getting defensive here. Who ever said that
there is anything intrinsically wrong with peasants?

> and nothing is wrong with border food.

> That's true, if border food is all you can get, you should enjoy it.

> I'm surprised he went off on you like he did because he is the one
> who always wants to stick to traditional preparation.

I have *never* insisted on "authentic" preparation. I have a modern
kitchen and local access to almost anything used in Mexican
cooking.

> Dried meat has
> been a staple in all the Americas even before GG was born believe it or
> not. Carne Seca is popular here in Tucson. Some places prepare their own
> in special drying areas on the roofs of the restaurant. Brazil exports
> it. I don't care for it but do like the fresh machaca preparation in
> Tacos etc.-

My question still hasn't been answered. What is so special about dried
machaca that somebody would want to mail order it?

If I wanted to pay extra for dried beef, all I have to do is go down
the road to the jerky store. But I can get fresh juicy beef at the
market cheaper, all I have to do is boil it for an hour and a half and
shred it and use it in tacos, tortas, whatever.

If I find cheap cuts of fresh beef similar to what the peasants would
use to make machaca, I can always freeze it, I don't need to sun dry
it or smoke it.

Rechazador de Disparates wrote:

>
> My question still hasn't been answered. What is so special about dried
> machaca that somebody would want to mail order it?

Why do people like the taste of organ meat? Why do people like the taste
of American Cheese on white bread and Miracle Whip? Why do people like a
simple salt and pepper shake on pan fried pork chops? Probably because
the taste brings back memories, comfort food.
When I moved to Tucson all I heard about was Carne Seca. "Tucson has the
best Carne Seca blah blah blah." I ordered Carne Seca in every new joint
I visited to see what all the fuss was about. There is only one place,
Maria Bonita Mexican Restaurant on Oracle, where I really enjoyed it. I
think most Tucsonians like the dead rotting flesh smell that rises from
the plate. My grandfather is 97 and a true Arizona cowboy. Back in the
day cured meat and beans was all you could get from the chuck wagon. He
likes his steak cooked beyond recognition. I think back in the day you
cooked every parasite and bacteria out of your meat or die.

On May 14, 5:50 pm, Rechazador de Disparates >
wrote:
>
> If I find cheap cuts of fresh beef similar to what the peasants would
> use to make machaca, I can always freeze it, I don't need to sun dry
> it or smoke it.

Stuff it, reflujo.

Ever field dress a deer or get to process a 30 lb hunk of elk, moose
or buffalo? I doubt it.

Back when I was camp cook for an archaeology crew on a Buffalo Soldier
fort in the late 70s, we got as pilon, a hunk of buffalo that was
turned into chile meat. There was lots of cutting involved. No one
lost a thumb.

It was pretty tough meat since it was a twelve year old bull dropped
legally at dawn by some Okie paleo-Indianistas who were seeing how
well such a critter could be butchered with bone tools... We lucked
out in getting a batch of previously roasted New Mexican green chiles
to use since it was early fall. The crew et it all.

Maybe I'll thaw that venison ham I have in the freezer and make
machaca out of part of it.

T.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> On May 14, 5:50 pm, Rechazador de Disparates >
> wrote:
>>
>> If I find cheap cuts of fresh beef similar to what the peasants would
>> use to make machaca, I can always freeze it, I don't need to sun dry
>> it or smoke it.
>
> Stuff it, reflujo.
>
> Ever field dress a deer or get to process a 30 lb hunk of elk, moose
> or buffalo? I doubt it.
>
> Back when I was camp cook for an archaeology crew on a Buffalo Soldier
> fort in the late 70s, we got as pilon, a hunk of buffalo that was
> turned into chile meat. There was lots of cutting involved. No one
> lost a thumb.
>
> It was pretty tough meat since it was a twelve year old bull dropped
> legally at dawn by some Okie paleo-Indianistas who were seeing how
> well such a critter could be butchered with bone tools... We lucked
> out in getting a batch of previously roasted New Mexican green chiles
> to use since it was early fall. The crew et it all.
>
> Maybe I'll thaw that venison ham I have in the freezer and make
> machaca out of part of it.
>
> T.
>
The best thing you cold do with the venison ham is to rub it with ground
chile ancho and garlic and put in the oven for slow cook. It would be a
waste to do a nice chunk of venison any other way.

In my humble opinion.

Wayne
>

On May 15, 4:15?am, wrote:
> On May 14, 5:50 pm, Rechazador de Disparates >
> wrote:

> > If I find cheap cuts of fresh beef similar to what the peasants would
> > use to make machaca, I can always freeze it, I don't need to sun dry
> > it or smoke it.
>
> Stuff it, reflujo.

Hey, you sound like you're rather confused about what you want to do
here. One the one hand you tell me to "stuff it" and then you
turn around and ask a question. What is it you want?

>
> Ever field dress a deer or get to process a 30 lb hunk of elk, moose
> or buffalo? I doubt it.

To answer your question about whether I ever field dressed a deer, the
answer is yes, I have and it was a nasty mess. I went out deer hunting
with another teenager and he hunted down in a canyon where we had
previously spotted deer with a 90 power telescope.

I hunted along a ridge so we wouldn't shoot each other. I heard the
echoes of his .30-.30 going blam blam blam blam blam blam
reverberating out of the canyon far below. He was shooting as fast as
he could jack the lever. It sounded like a shootout in the canyon.

About half an hour later, he came crawling out of the canyon all hot
and sweaty from clawing his way up the brush covered slope.

He told the fire watcher in the tower where we used to stay about how
the deer reacted. He said that the deer just walked away, as if it
hadn't heard the rifle at all. The fire watcher thought about it, and
said that he'd probably gut shot the deer and that he should go and
track it down and put it out of its misery.

The kid told the fire watcher that it was just too damned hot to go
back down there, so we waited until evening and went down and dressed
out the deer and quartered it and carried it out of the canyon. I
toted a shitty handquarter and I was covered with ticks and fleas.

We cleaned up and the fire watcher drove us down the mountain and my
friend's father picked us up and drove us home. A few days later, he
brought some of the venison over, and it was the rankest tasting
venison I ever ate, since the animal laid there in the brush with all
the toxins trapped in its bllod.
>
> Back when I was camp cook for an archaeology crew on a Buffalo Soldier
> fort in the late 70s, we got as pilon, a hunk of buffalo that was
> turned into chile meat. There was lots of cutting involved. No one
> lost a thumb.

My great grandfather lived near Whitney, Nebraska. Fort Robinson was a
buffalo soldier fort that was the site of the Cheyenne uprising
of 1879.

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publi...letr/may02.htm
>
> It was pretty tough meat since it was a twelve year old bull dropped
> legally at dawn by some Okie paleo-Indianistas who were seeing how
> well such a critter could be butchered with bone tools... We lucked
> out in getting a batch of previously roasted New Mexican green chiles
> to use since it was early fall. The crew et it all.

The only time I ever ate buffalo was when I had a buffalo burger at a
roadside diner. Or was it ostrich?

My great great grandfather's cousin was with Audubon on his
explorations of the Missouri River back in the 1840's. They took a
steam boat up the river as far as it would go. He wrote about watching
the Indian eat raw buffalo meat and tripe and tried it too.

I will have to live vicariously through his diaries though...

On May 15, 3:09?am, Sonoran Dude > wrote:
> Rechazador de Disparates wrote:
>
> > My question still hasn't been answered. What is so special about dried
> > machaca that somebody would want to mail order it?
>
> Why do people like the taste of organ meat?

I don't like the taste of fried liver at all. I had some baked liver
once that wasn't half bad. When I was a broke biker and the peanut
farmer was president, I used to order a bucket of chicken livers and
gizzards, because that's all I could afford.

>Why do people like the taste
> of American Cheese on white bread and Miracle Whip? Why do people like a
> simple salt and pepper shake on pan fried pork chops? Probably because
> the taste brings back memories, comfort food.

The whole idea of "comfort food" is that poor people eat what's
available. They eat the "lo que hay" and they get used to it and, like
you say, it brings back memories of home.

But, when it gets to the point where you have to *mail order* comfort
food, or drive for hours to another city to find the barbecue that you
grew up eating, maybe it's time to investigate the "lo que hay" that's
locally available.

Rechazador de Disparates wrote:
> On May 15, 3:09?am, Sonoran Dude > wrote:
>> Rechazador de Disparates wrote:
>>
>>> My question still hasn't been answered. What is so special about dried
>>> machaca that somebody would want to mail order it?
>> Why do people like the taste of organ meat?
>
> I don't like the taste of fried liver at all. I had some baked liver
> once that wasn't half bad. When I was a broke biker and the peanut
> farmer was president, I used to order a bucket of chicken livers and
> gizzards, because that's all I could afford.
>
>> Why do people like the taste
>> of American Cheese on white bread and Miracle Whip? Why do people like a
>> simple salt and pepper shake on pan fried pork chops? Probably because
>> the taste brings back memories, comfort food.
>
> The whole idea of "comfort food" is that poor people eat what's
> available. They eat the "lo que hay" and they get used to it and, like
> you say, it brings back memories of home.
>
> But, when it gets to the point where you have to *mail order* comfort
> food, or drive for hours to another city to find the barbecue that you
> grew up eating, maybe it's time to investigate the "lo que hay" that's
> locally available.
>

I wish I could mail order my grandma's Mock Chicken Legs... Small bites
of beef and pork on short wooden skewers. Basic salt, pepper, and flour
fry then baked all afternoon in her big electric roaster... Now that was
comfort...