I realize the Left would like that. And I think they’ve found a way to accomplish it: making it prohibitively expensive for people to raise, process, and at the receiving end to eat, beef.
I ordered a seven rib roast for my BMD’s birthday celebration, 12/24. Enough to feed 15 people. The butcher called me after I placed the order, “just to avoid sticker shock”, as she put it. The roast would cost at least $400.00. As it turned out, it weighed 20 lbs and cost $418.00.
I went ahead with it, it’s what I traditionally serve at his birthday lunch, and—I wanted it myself ! I 
roast beef!
I had expected it would be $200-sump’n, that’s what it’s been the last few years, or maybe $300 max cuz of Bidenflation.
Unfortunately my BMD wanted to come along on 12/23 when I picked the roast up. He was horrified at the price. What could I say, except, “Happy birthday!” ?
I looked up why beef costs so much now, but nothing explains the doubling of its cost.
WTF are they trying to do to us carnivores? No wait, I know that answer—the only question is, can it be halted?
Happy New Year dear polymaths!
You know the old saying – Only God can make a tree? Same thing applies to cows.
There is quite a long supply line involved in getting that roast to your table. Some ranchers specialize in producing calves. Others buy those calves and rear them for periods which can extend to years, then sell them to yet other ranchers who specialize in “finishing” the cattle for market. Each of those stages is subject to its own economic pressures & incentives. And of course the climate varies from year to year, which can lead to decisions to hold on to the herd or to send it to market prematurely.
Then there is the whole complicated interaction between cattle raised for milk and those raised for beef. There are similar lengthy supply chains in other beef-producing nations in South America and elsewhere which affect their exports. Add to that changes in the demand side of the market, as pro- and anti-meat fads wax & wane and as rising incomes in other countries impact the international demand for meat.
Short answer to the price of beef is that today’s price at the butcher’s shop is the consequence of decisions taken some years ago, and to climate factors in preceding years. And of course this is all before factoring in the almost always negative (price-raising) impacts of excessive government regulation.
I hope you enjoyed that roast beef!
Must be related to all those H1-B visas.
Well, I’m adding this to the list of things I want Trump to do: reduce the price of beef! But yes, even though I overcooked it a bit cuz I was so afraid it’d be too rare, it was delicious!
For expensive cuts rare is better?
Medium rare
Tiger meat is raw ground sirloin mixed with peppers, onions and spices. We eat it every fall.
Great with crackers.
Tiger meat looks like a version of steak tartare:
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of well-aged beef fillet
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon of (Dijon) mustard
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon of ground sweet paprika
- 4 small pickled cucumbers
- 1 tablespoon of drained capers
- 2 shallots
- 6 salted anchovies
- A few sprigs of fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
- A splash of cognac
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Thoroughly clean the beef fillet (trim off skin, tendons, and fat). Cut it into small pieces with a knife and then finely chop or grind it.
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Finely chop the shallots, parsley, pickled cucumbers, and capers. Crush the anchovies into a paste using a knife.
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Add all the ingredients for the steak tartare into a bowl and quickly mix well with utensils. Season to taste with pepper and salt. If desired, add some ground chili or Tabasco for extra spice.
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Shape the steak tartare into a large patty on a plate, platter, or board. Traditionally, it is served with butter and toasted bread. For festive occasions, a glass of quality wine pairs wonderfully.
Yep
A random ancient memory brought back by Hypatia’s observation on the current price of meat – Jay W. Forrester.
Forrester was an MIT professor who was one of the early names in System Dynamics, back when graduate students had to peddle harder to make the computer run. The price of pork bellies fluctuate because of time delays in the supply chain since we can’t hurry Mother Nature. These are analogous to the delays in the beef supply chain. Reputedly, he and his associates built a model of the pork belly supply chain and used it to guide investments in pork belly futures – although I have no idea if that tale is true.
Forrester used a later model to underpin the Club of Rome’s pessimistic (and erroneous) Limits to Growth study – showing how difficult it is to model complex systems.
Bottom line is that, if we want beef today, we have to pay today’s price for beef. And if we want beef to be cheaper in the future, we will somehow have to devise ways to identify and deal with ever-changing constraints in a complex dynamic system.
Do you get your tiger meat from a special butcher?
Can I get it at Costco lol?
edit:
I asked ChatGPT and here is the response:
It sounds like your friend might be referring to a misunderstanding or a joke, as “tiger meat” is illegal and highly controversial. As mentioned earlier, the consumption of tiger meat is illegal in most places because tigers are an endangered species protected under international laws, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The US herd was 89 million in 2023. I read that due to budget cuts, the USDA did not do a count in 2024. Imagine all that spending and there was a budget cut.
That is a fairly large herd. I would have guessed the herd was down due to the fact that raising cattle is hard work and a significant amount of cattle raised was as a type of diversification from crop farming that is no longer really needed.
But prices are at record highs for live cattle. Maybe a higher percentage of heifers were held to expand the herd.
My brothers and sisters buy from a rancher and have a local butcher process the animal. Saves a lot. We were just talking about needing to buy eggs directly from a farmer.
One shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT too much:
Reading the recipe, I’d recommend steak tartare instead.
It was my mistake: poor input. I posted the confusing answer because it made me laugh out loud literally
I would recommend removing the following from the recipe you posted and adding in green peppers or jalapeno peppers. 
Emergency Steak…
Enjoy…