It was a bit scary being asked to leave the comfort of my kitchen, with all of its smells permeating the air, its tastes triggered simply with a slight inhale of the nose. But I was up for the challenge. Winger's Roadhouse had laid claim that they had the best burger around and an actual homemade meatloaf.
"Psh, what restaurant that doesn't have a gazillion stars makes anything from scratch", I thought.
They invited me to try for myself. They promised that they would provide the break that I must admit I sometimes desired, even though cooking in my own kitchen is who I am, what I love to do.
Well, my first night at the Roadhouse, I tried the Roadhouse Burger. Cooked exactly to my liking, (medium-rare), with that juicy pink center oozing its goodness down your jaw as your teeth sink into it. With the touch of Earl's Burger Butter it truly was a five-star attraction. While there was a bit too much bread for my taste (really a bun big enough just for my fingers to touch would be ideal for me), everything else added together perfectly! But as I continued savoring and taking mental notes of each bite I had another thought; "where did the burger actually come from". You see, the other thing that made me decide to leave the comfort of my kitchen for the roadhouse was their claim of fresh, hormone free, 'we know our food' fare. My mission? Meet the meat-makers.
Driving towards Stone Meats I was a bit nervous. Had I really just volunteered to go visit a meat-packing industry? Then my stomach did another flip - oh yeah, I had also asked Burke of Stone Meats to show me where he gets his meat, JBS foods in Logan. Wow, I'm either crazy or stupid, I volunteered to go visit a Slaughterhouse.
Stone Meats, located just outside of Odgen, Utah, used to be your typical mom-and-pop meat shop back when the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker all had their own stores. Papa Stone took one of their sheep one day and made a family feast of lamb chops on the kitchen table (mama stone wasn't all too happy). Papa stone eventually made his own little meat shed, where the residents of Ogden and Pleasant Grove could come and get fresh cuts for dinner. That was when Burke Stone, current owner (with papa still keeping a watchful eye) was two-years-old. Since then, Stone meats has extended past the shed on the side of the house to a good sized facility with a small family of people they work with. Each worker has a smile on their face as they work to process their meats to create ground beef and burger patties of the highest quality.
Burke Stone is a man who knows his meat. An avowed every-day carnivore, Burke was a man I felt slightly more comfortable touring a slaughter house with. As we began our tour, Burke started pointing things out left and right as Oscar, our tour guide, went into the details he knew so well. I had never been in a true factory before and my goodness was it a sight to see. JBS had rows of people, each section tightly fitting 30-40 workers. Oscar told me that each one knew exactly what kind of meat to grab and exactly where to make their cut in order to keep the most, best meat as much as possible. Trust me when I say that if you find out a man who wants to get in a fight works in a factory like this, be sure there are no knives near. Watching how fluidly they moved with their razor-sharp blades was both beautiful and extremely intimidating.
We worked our way through the factory, seeing each and every part of the cow and how it was used (which was impressive, no part was not used for something). I guess we have evolved a bit from our cowboy days where we would simply kill for fun, leaving it for the buzzards. Everything had a purpose, even the "honeycomb" (if you really want to know what area this is I suggest looking it up, it's a bit too icky for my tastes to share). And wouldn't you know - cow tongue is hugely popular in Japan, with JBS having a large export of meat to the islands (Burke also says the tongue makes a mean sandwich, hmmm).
As we got closer to the "kill floor" I had to take deeper breaths. You see, while I love a good ribeye and a juicy burger, I also love animals, so the thought of watching them get systematically stunned made my stomach lurch a little. I kept reminding myself that this is what they are bread for, and with Oscar knowing so much about the animals I felt assured that they were treated well throughout the entire thing. As the bodies grew larger I began to notice a couple cows passing with large chunks of meat already cut out. Oscar informed us that the meat was already cut out due to bruising. You see, if a farmer does not treat his animal well, beating it and stressing it, the meat will bruise - bruised meat = no can eat. Oscar said they had had to travel to farms to warn the farmers that they would no longer use them if their cows did not come treated better. Oscar also told me that while they know the age of every single cow that comes in, some farmers are so good to have an actual birth certificate sent with them with the day, month, time, name of mom, etc. The others will simply have the month and year they were born. I'm not sure that seeing a birth certificate would make it any easier (actually it would probably make it harder to stun them), but it was touching to know, what with all the angst from people against slaughterhouses and big meat companies.
I won't go into detail about the kill floor for you. If you really want to know I suggest finding out for yourself. I can tell you that it really is an amazing thing to see and that the cows really feel no pain. The process is fascinating, and the effort and speed at which the factory workers do each individual job is truly impressive (you would be absolutely ripped if your job was to carve out the pelvic bone!). Doing the tour gave me a great respect for both the farmer and small meat shop owners like Burke Stone, as well as factories like JBS foods who get so much flack for simply feeding a growing world population.
As I returned home, I stopped by Winger's in Brigham City and yes, I enjoyed a burger. And I felt completely confident in eating it, because I knew exactly where this meat had come from and what people had done to get it on my plate. They had tested it to be sure it was free of everything from hormones to e-coli, they had cut it gently but efficiently to ensure this meat was of the highest quality, and perhaps most importantly, they had made sure it came from cows who were treated well.
Winger's Roadhouse can say they know exactly where their meat is coming from, and that just makes it taste that much better. An inch and a quarter of true prime meat!
Interesting fact: The cows at JBS are sprayed with Organic Ammonia at the very beginning of the process, with a concentration of only .75% that kills any e-coli that may have been on the hide. By the time the meat is trimmed down to the perfect cut, barely a trace of this organic chemical is left!
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