Lean Finely Textured Beef

I have started to branch out with my writing career.  This is an article of mine recently published in the Nevada Rancher.  The magazine isn't on line and I've had a few requests for this article, so I thought I would share it here!  Enjoy!

Recently on a social media site there was a post claiming that a certain fast food chain “is changing the recipe for their hamburgers.”  Jaime Oliver (a British chef/media personality who has made it his mission to prevent the use of processed foods in our American school systems), claims “the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of their hamburgers.”  He calls this the “Pink Slime Process.” 

When heifers make weight they will be shipped to the feedlot to finish and then to a harvesting facility.  Before being portioned, they are misted with ammonium hydroxide to prevent bacterial growth.

There is no “pink slime” in hamburgers.  The correct term is Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB).  LFTB is lean meat that is used in part to make ground beef.  Ground beef is made up of lean beef trimmings and other beef trimmings that are combined and ground together.  The benefit of LFTB is that the fat from the lean in the beef trimmings is separated from the meat and we are able to make a leaner and more affordable ground beef. 

Unfortunately, it is impossible to trim the meat from the fat by hand.  This is where technology comes in.  Before this technology was utilized, roughly 13 pounds of beef was wasted on each carcass.  When beef carcasses are portioned, the pieces that are cut off often have lean meat remaining.  It is virtually impossible (not to mention time consuming) to manually remove the meat from the fat by hand.  To separate the fat from the meat, the trimmings are warmed to their pre-chilled temperature, and then sent to a centrifuge where the fat is removed using a centrifugal force (think spun really really fast until the meat and the fat separate, similar to how milk and cream are separated).  You now have a meat product that is 94% to 97% lean.  It is 100% beef and fully inspected and regulated by the USDA.

Ammonium Hydroxide is another phrase that is used to scare people.  You know ammonia is used in several household cleaning agents and fertilizers.  It is toxic and if mixed with bleach a toxic gas will result.  Did you know that ammonium hydroxide is naturally found in beef, other proteins, and virtually all foods?  So what is ammonium hydroxide? Ammonium hydroxide is a combination of ammonia and water, two things that naturally occur in our bodies.  It is administered in the form of a puff gas which is misted over each carcass, and is used to slightly raise the pH on the surface of beef (where bacteria and germs like to congregate) to create an environment that prevents the growth of deadly pathogens like E coli and salmonella, helping to prevent bacterial contamination of our food. 

Ammonia based compounds are naturally occurring and found in every component of a bacon cheese burger.  In fact, the beef in a bacon cheese burger makes up about 9% of the total 2,013 ppm (parts per million) of ammonium hydroxide in that burger.  It is estimated that people ingest about 17 grams of ammonia daily.  Essentially you could consume 1,000 hamburger patties containing LFTB daily without any adverse effects.

Ammonia based compounds are naturally occurring and can be found in every component of a bacon cheeseburger (bun, bacon, cheese, condiments, and beef). 

According to the World Health Organization, the world population is increasing by 220,000 people every day.  Red meat consumption is rising and the available supply is declining.  LFTB production makes it possible to have more of the leaner ground beef blends consumers want at an affordable price.  If LFTB were not produced, it would be equivalent to throwing 5,700 cattle away each day.  In an era where thousands of Americans do not have access to enough food and we are encouraged to conserve our resources, utilizing lean finely textured beef makes a lot of sense to me.

The Best Thing I've Seen in a Long Time

Last week was a hard week.  With the Boston Marathon bombing and the fertilizer plant explosion in Waco, Texas, there just wasn't much happiness in the world.  On Monday (tax day) we were in town to get groceries and cash paychecks which always makes for a long day.  It wasn't a very nice spring day either.  It was cold and miserable, even for April.  So we decided to go to Dairy Queen.

I was standing in line, it was snowing, and the line was insanely long.  I of course left my coat in the pickup and didn't want to go get it for fear I would lose my place in line.  There was only one girl working on the ice cream side of the Dairy Queen, and I think everyone in line was ordering for at least 10 people.  Standing in front of me was a beautiful little girl. Long blond hair, bright blue eyes.  She was maybe 8 years old.  She kept waving and blowing kisses to her mom who was waiting in their car. 

When it was her turn to order, she asked how much a dipped cone was. The waitress told her the price, and the girl started counting her money (all nickels, dimes, and pennies). She was struggling, so the waitress said "here, let me help." She was very patient, and explained how she was counting it out as she went along. She was very patient with the little girl, and was never cross or uptight with her, which was quite a feat since the girl wasn't grasping the counting money, and there were several people behind me in line.  The little girl didn't have enough money, and before I could dig in my wallet to make up the difference to help the girl, the waitress took what was needed from her own tip cup to cover the cone, and wouldn't let me or anyone else in line pay for it.

I wouldn't have thought much of it if the waitress was an older, grandmotherly type, but she couldn't have been more than 15 or 16 years old, and she never stopped smiling.  It made me smile. So when she wasn't looking, I put a couple of extra dollars in her tip jar.

Dairy Queen isn't open year round here.  They close for the winter, so when they open back up it is a really big deal and there is always an insanely long line (even in a snow storm!).  Most of our town trips can be made a little easier with the promise of Dairy Queen if the boys (Cow Boss included) can just be good for a few more minutes!

I think my sister said it best when she said: "At a time like this, it is easy to condemn our society for the senseless pain it continues to inflict on innocent and unassuming people. It's nice to be reminded that far more people in this world are good and kind!"

I sincerely hope that you have the opportunity to see something as simple and wonderful as this in the next week, and can spread some goodness and kindness.

A Kick to the Face

TR riding the mechanical bull during the Silver State Stampede

This past Sunday, one of my biggest, scariest nightmares came true.  I think it is many a ranch wife/mom's biggest fear as well, having one of your babies, husband, or family member getting hurt, and you not being able to do anything to make things better.

The Cow Boss and I have gotten kind of lax on our rules here on the ranch.  We don't have any horses here we are worried about, and felt like as long as the boys weren't playing in the main road here at the house, they could have the run of the place.  We have a huge back yard here on the the ranch complete with perfect climbing trees, dogs to play with, and a couple water troughs to play in.  Now that the boys are bigger, we don't watch them every second.  I've felt like I can always hear where they are, and when they are quiet you know you need to check on them.  We have our own little "WoooWhoop!" that we call to each other when we are out of sight, and always answer each other back.

Sunday afternoon, a friend of mine came over with her little boys to pick some apples from one of our many apple trees.  She was in no big hurry and I was finishing up a batch of Monkey Butter to can.  The Cow Boss was waiting for a friend of ours to show up and get some hay so he was outside with 3 of the boys.  I didn't know that he had come back in the house when I heard QT screaming.  I met QT at the door and he had been stung by a wasp.  I took him into the living room to sit until he felt better and found the Cow Boss there.  I sat QT on the couch with him and I thought I better go check on the other 2 boys.  Before I even got out the door Jess met me saying TR was hurt.

I found TR sitting in a lawn chair with blood gushing out of his mouth.  His lip was split open, and when I asked him what happened, he told me he fell out of a tree.  It didn't surprise me that he fell out of a tree, he climbs like a little monkey, and we fall out of a tree at least once a week.  I have chalked it up to a being a boy thing.  So I gathered up TR and the Cow Boss and I headed to the ER for stitches in his lip.  On the drive to the ER, TR kept trying to fall asleep on us.  We kept asking him questions, and his answers kept changing.  He told us instead of falling out of a tree, he fell off a wagon.  He also told us his horse, dog, and brother were all named Marty, and when I told him that was wrong, he started to get mad and refused to answer any questions.  About the time we got to the ER my friend called to say QT and Jess were telling her that TR was hurt by the horse.

TR after waking up Monday morning.

Our stomachs dropped, hearts sank, and we were gripped with fear.  TR had been kicked in the face by a horse. Everyone has heard horror stories about little kids being kicked in the head by a horse, and few of them have happy endings.  Knowing he had been kicked, and his wrong answers, not to mention falling asleep in the 15 minutes it took to get to the ER, we were a wreck.

We spent 5 hours at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, where they did several ct scans and x-rays, and we did a lot of waiting.  We didn't have the care we would have liked, but that is another story.  TR's accident happened around 3 in the afternoon, and finally about 5:30 (we still didn't know the results of any of his scans) they told us we would have to take him to Primary Children's in Salt Lake City.  The doctor finally told us that TR's jaw was broken and that he would need surgery, but no word on his head.  The Cow Boss and I began to make plans to drive to SLC, and the nurse came and informed us we would have to fly.  With TR's jaw swelling they were concerned about his airway.

It is a 50 minute flight from Elko to SLC, and then about 25 minutes from the airport to Primary Children's.  We arrived there at 9 local time.  The ambulance drivers and Paramedics from Elko were wonderful.  At the airport they wheeled Trent and I over to check out the air tanker stationed there before loading us on the plane.  Once on board one of the paramedics told me "Don't worry mom, kids are usually asleep within 5 minutes.  It will be an easy flight."  Not my cowboy.  He has wanted to fly on a plane for years and wasn't about to miss a second of it.  His little nose was glued to the window from take off to landing.  I tried to point out our house as we flew over, but it was getting dark and hard to see.

I can't tell you how wonderful the doctors at Primary Children's Hospital are.  From the moment we walked in the door someone was with Trent or popping in to check on us.  Several different doctors examined him, his scans, and bent over backwards to make him comfortable.  Due to swelling and his age they hoped that his jaw would heal well enough on his own and we could avoid surgery.  We were finally able to get his lip cleaned and stitched up.  They put us in a room about 3 that morning.  A full 12 hours since his accident.

I have so much awe and pride in my little man.  I know he was hurting, but he never cried or complained once.  Everytime I as about to break down, he would squeaze my hand and smile at me the best he could.  He is so amazing, here I am I'm supposed to be consoling him and making him feel better and instead he is taking care of me.

TR sleeping in Wednesday morning.

The next morning they brought him a room service menu and spent the morning making him comfortable.  By the time to doctor came in he had drank 2 glasses of chocolate milk, a smoothie, ate some yogurt and pudding.  He told the doctor "I sure like this place, it's really nice!"  But, he had every ones undivided attention, got to watch anything he wanted on TV, and cute nurses to fawn over him.  The doctor discharged us that afternoon.  In his wranglers and cowboy boots, my little cowboy walked himself out of the hospital.

Back at the ranch, the first thing TR did was go and let his dogs out of the kennel, and then go to check on "Dot," the horse that kicked him.  He went to her corral and she met him at the fence.  I asked if he wanted to pet her, and he nodded yes.  I lifted him up so he could reach, and my heart melted when I watched him put his little hand on her face.  He knows that it wasn't her fault he got hurt, and he wasn't afraid of her either.

We had a long talk that night about what had happened, and while I don't think we will ever know for sure what took place, we kind of have an idea about what happened.  TR was in the corral with Dot, and he knew he wasn't supposed to be there.  He was petting her when something spooked her.  Whether it was QT getting stung and screaming or what, we will never know.  As she ran past TR she cow kicked him, catching him on the jaw.

All I know for sure is that TR took a kick to the face and was able to walk away from it.  Every time I look at him and his bruised, swollen jaw I smile and thank the powers that be that he is here with us today.  We are so fortunate that he wasn't hurt more.  I am so thankful to my friends and family, and complete strangers who have taken the time of offer up prayers on our behave and those who left us messages via facebook, texts, emails, and phone calls.  You will never know how much we appreciate your thoughts and messages.  You've all helped us get through a dark time in our lives and we appreciate each of you!

TR today, 7 days after getting kicked.