Hello, meat lovers and food enthusiasts! We are Sierra and Marcos, the proud owners of Midwestern Meats, and we are thrilled to share our story with you. In June of 2023, we had the incredible honor of taking over this beloved establishment from The McConnell family, who had lovingly built Midwestern Meats since its inception in 1990.
Our journey began with a shared passion for community and a deep appreciation for the bountiful offerings of the Midwest. Growing up, we both learned the importance of food in bringing people together and fostering a sense of togetherness. It was this shared belief that led us to the world of culinary delights and the opportunity to serve our community through Midwestern Meats. For more information, visit www.midwesternmeats.com
Our journey began with a shared passion for community and a deep appreciation for the bountiful offerings of the Midwest. Growing up, we both learned the importance of food in bringing people together and fostering a sense of togetherness. It was this shared belief that led us to the world of culinary delights and the opportunity to serve our community through Midwestern Meats. For more information, visit www.midwesternmeats.com
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The following portion of the Arizona Daily Mix is sponsored by Midwestern Meats.
00:06 Welcome back to the Arizona Daily Mix. When buying meat, do you know what you're doing?
00:14 I don't. Here to help us get the perfect type of meat for cooking or grilling is Marcos Perez of Midwestern Meats.
00:20 And the first thing I like, what I said right there, is Midwestern Meats.
00:24 Because we've talked about this, Midwest is where some good beef is.
00:28 Yeah, that's like the best meat that you could get in the country for many different reasons.
00:34 The weather plays a big factor. The natural green grass that grows out there plays a huge factor.
00:40 It's just really high quality meat. They go through this cold weather up there, the cattle,
00:44 so that causes all the fat that they consume to go into the intermuscular system.
00:50 So they get a lot of great flavor from that fat.
00:53 And it's all grass-fed, corn-finished product that we get at Midwestern Meats.
00:57 So that corn finish gives the fat a really good buttery flavor,
01:00 versus sometimes you have a piece of fat that's a little grisly. Our stuff, like butter.
01:06 That's awesome. And did you know about meat before you guys got the company?
01:09 Because you guys just recently got, well not recently, but you've had this for a little bit, right?
01:13 Yeah, we purchased the company in June of '23.
01:16 So I did not know anything about meat other than I really enjoyed eating meat.
01:20 I really enjoyed having it. But I didn't know much about it.
01:24 But just being in the game has helped me learn a lot.
01:27 So let's talk about getting the right piece of cut and the right meat.
01:30 Because like I said, I just walk in, give me that big old piece right there.
01:34 Yeah, you know, some people have their preference of what they like.
01:36 They like their meat a little more beefier. They like their meat to be real fatty.
01:41 Some people don't like that at all. Some people want it to be real tender.
01:44 And so we have a bunch of different pieces here today.
01:46 We have our New York strip right here, which is kind of your in-between.
01:49 Real good beef flavor, but good fatty flavor as well.
01:53 And then you have our rib roast right here, which is going to be our ribeye steaks.
01:58 To me, that's king of steak right there. A lot of great flavor, good fat, good marbling.
02:02 And then we have our most tender piece of meat that you could get, which would be the tenderloin.
02:06 Got it.
02:07 Which turns into filet mignon. But I could cut a couple pieces.
02:09 Yeah, cut a piece of steak. And so when we go to the store and I'm looking here,
02:12 I mean, Lexi brought up a good thing, and that was looking at the fat and how much is there and the flavor and stuff, right?
02:19 Yes. So when you see a steak like this, you've got a lot of good fat right there.
02:24 We would really trim it up for you at the store a little bit, something like this for when we're finishing up.
02:32 So you're going to get something that looks kind of like that.
02:34 OK. All that white stuff right there is fat. A lot of people try to avoid the fat.
02:38 But I say our fat is really good. Grill it. Eat it.
02:41 You want to make sure that it renders down on the grill or on the cast iron.
02:45 Show it to that camera right there so that people can see what we're talking about.
02:48 All that white stuff right there is going to be called marbling right there.
02:51 So this right here is a New York strip steak comes off the New York strip loin right there.
02:56 But all that white stuff is just good flavor, good marbling right there.
03:00 Not as heavy marbling as you would get like on a ribeye because the ribeye is part of a section of the cattle that gets a lot of good fat on there.
03:07 This part, not as much, but still great flavor. And that's what I'm looking for is the whiteness in there.
03:11 Yeah. You want it. You want to look for a lot of good marbling.
03:14 A lot of people say, oh, that's too fatty for me. But I say, let's do it. Get that.
03:18 That's a lot of great flavor right there. Nice steak.
03:20 So now with this, do you grill this one or do you put it on the griddle? Which one is better?
03:24 You know, I always say if you're going to cook a steak, these are called grilling steaks.
03:28 I say you throw it on the grill, throw it on the cast iron, get a good sear on there.
03:32 You could do a reverse sear like, you know, a lot of great chefs do.
03:35 But me personally, for something like this, I'll grill it and then do like a little butter base at the very end of it.
03:41 So that's just that's just my opinion with that. I like cast iron to cast iron.
03:46 Gives us a great, great flavor there. So you could see more of that inner muscular fat right there.
03:52 What should you do with the fat that you cut off? Can we cook that up to if we cut it off?
03:55 So over at our shop, we always turn the extra fat.
03:58 We turn it into beef tallow, which is a great oil to cook in.
04:02 It's just natural beef fat. Gives your food like a heartier, beefier flavor.
04:07 All natural. So it's not you know, some people like to avoid the seed oils and stuff like that.
04:12 Me as well. I like to cook with beef tallow. We also throw this into like a grind, like for hamburgers and stuff like that.
04:19 Also, to a lot of hunters like to purchase this. So we always have this for sale, too.
04:23 If you want to make your own beef tallow or a hunter wants to come in and make his own grind right there.
04:29 Let's also talk about when people see the price of the meat, they kind of go, oh, my goodness, I can't afford it.
04:33 But that is by the pound. But we don't eat a pound of meat ourselves.
04:37 That's what people realize, right? You can get it cut to what you need.
04:41 Exactly. So at our shop, exactly. We like to do custom cuts at no extra charge.
04:46 So if you're like, oh, I need six ounce steaks, eight ounce steak.
04:49 Some people will want, you know, a big 20 ounce steak. 20 ounce. Yeah.
04:52 Like 24 ounce. People want that. Well, actually, 20 ounce cuts down to what when you cook it to like 18.
04:57 It depends on what you're cooking. So a rib eye would probably go down to maybe like I would say maybe 20, 18.
05:02 Ounces, depending on how long you cook it for. But this right here, this is just this right here is a beauty.
05:09 So like this piece right here is probably about like three pounds. You could turn this into a prime rib.
05:13 Yeah. Rose. I'm sorry. Just his eyes lit up when he went to grab the piece of meat.
05:18 I wish I could. We just show the eyes on this. This is what we say.
05:21 What he did. He's like this baby right here. Oh, man.
05:25 This right here. Oh, this is the Cadillac. I like this. This is my favorite of all of all the beef that we have.
05:32 The rib eye is the king. Yeah. You could turn this into a prime rib roast for the holidays, New Year's, Christmas, anything like that.
05:39 People people love to do this. I like it. All right. You guys are open.
05:43 What time we open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
05:48 There you go. Look at that. Cutting up information around the screen where you can find this midwestern meats and Mesa.
05:54 Look, everybody just piped. Everyone piped in on that bad boy. Like, oh, yeah.
05:59 So also, if you want more information, head over to AZ daily mix dot com.
06:03 Margo, thank you. And thank you. Thank you guys for having.
06:07 The preceding portion of the Arizona Daily Mix was sponsored by Midwestern Meats.
06:11 Midwestern Meats.
06:13 Midwestern Meats.
06:15 Midwestern Meats.
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