Why is the fat from beef meat cuts and even the skin of chicken so chewy and har

[bharminder]

Like the topic inquires, whenever I eat raw beef or chicken the fat is always so chewy and hard(not like crunchy, but I can never adequately break it down with my teeth). Generally I end up spitting it out, then at the end of the meal, putting the piled up pieces of fat in my mouth and chewing it like gum until it is completely dry. Then I just spit it out because what's left is a dry and hard/chewy blob. The meat, on the other hand, breaks up very very easily in my mouth, it almost melts. The fat on the other hand, is so chewy and and pretty hard that it almost seems undigestible.

What do you do with the fat from meat cuts and how do you ingest them? Do you just swallow big lumps of it, spit it out, grind it somehow, other methods?

Thanks
Bobby

[Nation]

is the meat grainfed or grassfed?

[bharminder]

The beef is 100% grass-fed and the chicken is 100% grainfed.

[miles]

Are you sure it's fat you're talking about..?

[bharminder]

lol what else could it be?

[miles]

Well it could be connective tissue, fat enclosed in connective tissue, connective tissue with fat on the out side of it etc...

[bharminder]

hmm, interesting

Most definately a strong possibility. Should I separate the fat from it? Do you eat connective tissue?

[miles]

Well the most you can do with that is chew/suck the fat out of it until you can't be bothered any more. The fat is never chewy and hard in the way you describe, just sometimes the stuff mixed in with it is. There is stuff called suet which is just dry, but that's not what you describe. Generally I find the toughest parts of the meat(usually at the outside, with fat under it as well) are the tastiest.. I just rip them with my teeth/jaw/neck(using the direction of the fibres to make it easier), but the fat underneath that would be soft. I think you're talking about the connective tissue that has fat mixed in, which you can only really chew as the fat sort of melts out of it. You can't really eat it though I don't think... Are you eating shin meat or something?

[MoonStalkeR]

I only eat the breast now. Only part that isn't a hassle to eat and has little connective tissue.

This is different from my cooked chicken-eating days, where the breast would be my least favorite and I preferred wings/legs.

[Inger]

My beef fat is never hard!
I order it online, it is grassfed. I just got it delivered today, about 1 kg, and I made a pic for you:



It really is delicious! So soft and melts in my mouth..  

Inger

[miles]

Woah. How did you order it, where from? Is it grass-fed beef?

[Inger]

I ordered it from www.max-metzger.de /mail. They have grassfed beef and regular grainfed too.
Their farm is in north Germany.

I got the fat for free.  
(I also ordered meat and marrow and beefheart)

Inger

[miles]

Farmers suck here. They 'all' lie and say they don't have stuff, or can't send it. The farmer I ordered grass-fed beef from a few times tells me there is no fat at all except what is in the muscle-cuts. He doesn't even reply about the marrow...

In Morrissons I've seen that whenever they get lamb out of the pack, if there's any nice chunks of fat on it, they chop it off and throw it in the bin before they display the cut... When I asked the butcher though he told me they don't cut any fat off.. wtf??

[bharminder]

Thanks guys!

Miles, thank you for the tips. I had some beef cuts earlier today before reading this. I saw the soft fat connectected to the connective tissue. I chewed the fat off of it but it was still chewy, but it was soft not hard...so I ended up just spitting it out. The meat cut(sirloin tip) is so soft and melts in my mouth basically just like how Inger describes the fat cut.

Thanks Inger for the pic that looks pretty nutritious!!