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I know there was a thread about where to buy good meat, but that isn't my question.
For those of you that have lived in WNC for at least five years, have you noticed a declining quality of beef at Ingles?
They used to sell a brand of Black Angus beef that was pretty good, but it disappeared a while ago. Lately, I've gotten some really inferior beef from them that's been a complete disappointment.
Recent purchases have been two rib eye steaks that were tough, a brisket that shrank at least two-thirds during cooking, and some cut up strips of steak that contained a ton of water.
Now Ingles has remodeled two stores in my area and added a separate higher-end meat and seafood section in all the stores. Are they trying to get us to purchase in the higher-end section by making the regular section really bad?
One of their meat department employees told me the meat was the same in the new section; it's just cut thicker (which I don't like).
I'm really disappointed and will have to start going to a separate butcher. Anyone else noticed this change for the worse?
Sure have. We started buying the organic meat there for that reason if we had to get it from ingles. We would usually hit Harris Teeter or Earthfare/fresh market, but if we forgot to get something, Ingles was right there.
We also use to get stuff from hickory nut gap farm, but we also noticed a decline and higher prices. So stopped going there about a year and a half ago. We think they got too big and can't handle it.
Ingles as a whole is rather subpar, but you don't really have much of a choice unfortunately.
Wait. Your Ingles has organic beef? Mine sure doesn't. My only other choice is a local butcher and that's my next step.
You know what chaps my hide? The whole WNC area is lucky enough to have all these local growers and meat producers, and Ingles isn't even interested in selling very much of their stuff.
Even most of the organic stuff at Ingles isn't local - at least not in my area.
As I have ranted before, Ingles is a C to C-, in general, and their meat dept at the Waynesville store, ranges from barely tolerable to suspect, imo. The beef there, may be the worst of the lot; the pork/chicken is ok, but one has to get lucky.
The 'fish dept' at the Waynesville store is pathetic: cat fish fillets and stuff.
Fortunately the Farmer's Mkt by the Hart Theater, has Bernie the Fish Monger...
GL, mD
SS,
We moved in a couple weeks post 9-11, 2001.
From fading memory, it may have seemed better then...but, we always liked the Food Lion at the foot of Eagles Nest Mtn on EN road.
That FL store has been 'gone' a few years now.
We aren't frequent steak/beef eaters like we were in the '70s,'80s & '90s, but our local Ingles may be my least fave grocery store,
regardless of what I'm looking for...just my opin.
I may have to try the Ing in Canton that gets better reveiws from some freinds that live in that area, but it isn't handy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shooting Stars
Motor David,
Have you been in WNC long enough to remember when Ingles had good meat? It's recently gone downhill.
I just googled Wholefoods locations and there's one in Asheville called Greenlife Grocery . They have organic food. I'd lay off of meat as much as possible.
I was the one who asked about a good place to buy beef in that other thread. What prompted it was the low quality beef I found at Ingles. I don't have the perspective to know if Ingles once carried good beef. All I know is that it doesn't match up to well finished, properly marbled, good quality tender beef that I'm looking for.
I really haven't found any place in the mountains that has good quality beef. The emphasis seems to be on "grass finished" or some kind of "organic" emphasis. What I found overall is that it produces tough meat that's not good tasting. I might as well get Buffalo or Beefalo for what the regular beef turns out to be - dry, tough and tasteless. Undoubatedly it's healthier, but I might as well be cooking shoe leather.
Did you try Poppies in Brevard? I know they sell Brasstown Beef, which is located in my area. I think they grass-feed, then finish them off with grain.
Yes, we did and they were the best we found. It's a bit of a drive for us and their prices are high for what we have always expected to get at a local grocery, so that's what would hold us from frequenting them often. However, when we want to get something I think it's going to be the only game in town.
We also went to a local (Fairview) ranch that raises and sells their own beef. It was fresh and thier marketing concept is great, but they were grass fed so that's what kept their product from being what we would consider top quality.
I agree that Poppies is about the best place to get good quality beef anywhere in the area, otherwise it's a commodity that's not a common animal (so to speak) in this neck-o-the-woods. I sure miss enormous, juicy and tender beef ribs!
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Mine sure doesn't. My only other choice is a local butcher and that's my next step.
