Tag: food safety

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Why Our Pastrami is Impossible to Pass By

When you think about pastrami, you are likely to imagine the classic rye bread sandwich. The smoky aroma coupled with a soft texture and a salty flavor of cured meat can make an average lunch an unforgettable experience.

The reason why our pastrami is so appetizing is a special approach we take to selecting high-quality meats, using the latest equipment, and, most importantly, studying the needs of our clients.

Pastrami was part of our original product line. Even though we went further to provide a wide selection of freshly cooked and restaurant quality products, pastrami is still part of what we do and love.

A Little History

Before making its way to the United States and becoming what everyone knows as a classic Jewish American delicatessen, pastrami had to do some serious traveling.

Some sources say that pastrami appeared back in the 13th century during the days of the Ottoman Empire. When going out to conquer new lands, warriors needed a way to bring food with them so they put cuts of meat under their saddles.

While the warrior was riding and fighting, the meat became tender and absorbed the salty horse sweat. Doesn’t sound very delicious, does it? Meanwhile, Turks loved the taste and learned how to copy the effect in the kitchen. Their version of pastrami is called “pastirma.” Turkey still makes over 2,000 tons of pastirma every year. However, it doesn’t taste like the pastrami we know in the U.S.

Another pastrami invention story has Romanian roots. Romanians created the meat curing approach to keep the food edible longer. The word “pastra” that gave its name to the Romanian “pastrama” (later to become our pastrami) means “to conserve”.

In the late 19th century, Jewish immigrants from Romania brought pastrami to the United States where it gained immense popularity.

Another version of where pastrami originated dates back to ancient Rome. Supposedly, Romans brought the “meat under saddle” method to Turkey.

No matter which story is true, pastrami, as we know it today, is made much differently than in the ancient days and is highly popular all over the world.

How Pastrami is Made Today

Pastrami can be made from any cut of meat, it is the process that makes it pastrami.  Classic pastrami is made from beef brisket or the navel portion of the beef plate which produces a delicious, tender product due to the long cooking process.

Traditionally, Kosher Delis brined the meat in a salt-water solution enriched by various spices and seasonings. Science has improved the process. Today, most pastrami is brined by passing the meat through a bank of hollow core needles that inject the brine into the meat.  This process provides even brine distribution for perfect color and flavor. It also allows the meat to cure in hours verses days. After it’s removed from the brine and dried, it’s then rubbed with our proprietary blend of spices and smoked for several hours.

By using the just right blend of old-world spices and seasonings and modern technology, our tasty pastrami comes out perfect every time.

Our Delectable Pastrami Options

At Burnett Foods, we have taken pastrami to a new level. Besides offering your customers delicious lean sliced pastrami for sandwiches, we also suggest using it as a delicious topping for pizza. Smoky, salty bits of pastrami will complement any pizza, creating a brand new way for your customers to experience this delicious treat.

We also offer these timeless classics – whole and sliced pastrami. You can pile it high on rye bread, top with mustard and pickles and ensure 100% customer satisfaction.

You can also buy uncut pastrami to create your own special dishes and surprise your clients. Whole pastrami is highly convenient and opens up new serving possibilities.

Why Is Our Pastrami So Popular?

We’ve been making pastrami for over 40 years and know all ins and outs of the process. We spend extra time choosing top-notch beef, spices, and seasonings and take an innovative approach to meat curing and smoking.

Our pastrami experts know how to combine century-old recipes with the new methods and technologies to maintain the highest quality.

Contact us to discuss which pastrami is best for your customers today.

 

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The Amazing Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking

With Sous Vide being mentioned everywhere these days, many people are curious about it and wondering “what is Sous Vide?” as well as “is Sous Vide better than traditional cooking methods?” We aim to provide answers to both questions, as well as to list the many benefits of Sous Vide and explain why your best choice is to purchase Sous Vide food your customers will love.

Pronounced “sue veed,” the term is a French one meaning “under vacuum.” Simply put, meat, vegetables, and so forth are vacuum-sealed in bags prior to being cooked using precise temperature control. The practice of Sous Vide cooking has long been employed in fine restaurants because of the many advantages it offers compared to traditional slow cooking methods. Those advantages carry over regardless of where the food is being served and is the absolute best choice for businesses that provide heat-and-eat meals to consumers on a large scale. Following are only some of the many advantages Sous Vide has over other forms of cooking.

Perfect, Consistent Results Every Time

With traditional oven-cooking, food is only perfectly cooked for a relatively short window of time. Take it out too soon and it’s undercooked (possibly dangerously so), take it out too late and it’s overcooked: dry, tough, blackened…ruined. This is because food in an oven or on a burner continues to cook as long as heat is applied to it, and for a while after. Thus, it’s relatively difficult to time everything in order to ensure perfectly-cooked food, and even the best chefs will occasionally under or over-cook meals.

With Sous Vide, food will never exceed the programmed temperature controls. What this means is that once the perfect temperature is reached, it will not overcook. Even novice cooks will find it virtually impossible to produce anything less than perfect meals. Sous Vide guarantees consistent results with textbook doneness. Customers will be thrilled with the quality of the meals they can produce with Sous Vide products. In turn, happy customers will continue to buy food these products and maybe even give you invaluable word of mouth advertising.

Food Safety & Longer Shelf Life

A home chef is charged with handling ingredients in a safe manner as well as to not serve undercooked meats which could possibly make people ill. This is an issue that retailers must face when selling foods that are meant to be cooked in an oven or on a stovetop. Obviously, once somebody has suffered food poisoning, they will be unlikely to purchase the food product again, regardless of the fact that the fault lay with the cook rather than the retailer. With Sous Vide products, however, the food purchased by the consumer is already in its vacuum-sealed packaging and it’s exceedingly difficult for the food to be undercooked to such a degree that it would pose a danger.  In fact, Sous Vide meals remain shelf-stable for an astounding three to four weeks after being cooked! Customers will love the quality and safety they enjoy with Sous Vide.

Superior Flavor, Texture & Volume

Sous Vide cooking allows food to be perfectly cooked within its sealed pouch so the herbs and spices can truly permeate everything, and without the inevitable drying out and shrinkage that takes place with oven-cooked foods. This results in truly flavorful meals that are head and shoulders above anything in terms of taste and quality. Customers will soon be spoiled and unwilling to settle for anything less than food products produced by Sous Vide cookery.

Burnett Fine Foods was one of the first food manufacturers to produce Sous Vide products. In fact, we have been perfecting this art for more than 30 years. Contact us today to find out more about how Sous Vide meals will please your customers and improve your bottom line!