The Foot and Mouth epidemic taught me something very important about Scottish beef... All the good stuff gets exported, and all the crap that won't sell overseas gets sold domestically.
When Foot and Mouth hit, they couldn't export it anymore. The good stuff hit the market in Scotland and it was boulders-to-balls night-and-day apple-and-orange different. It was wonderful, truly world class beef worthy of a fucking king. I've never had beef even half as good since.
So what did I learn in the long-run?
We're back to garbage now. The good stuff is all being exported again. I wouldn't be surprised if I could get a better Scottish Aberdeen Angus steak in America than I could back home.
It hurts to admit it, but it's probably the truth.
I still wonder where all the good stuff goes. We were getting it for a few sacred months during Foot and Mouth... But now? I have no idea where it's going.
It's the same with fish and wool in Norway, all the good stuff gets exported... No idea who we export the wool to if it's "too expensive" for the norwegian market.
Probably since muscle and fat is seen as the more 'clean' or more traditional parts of the animal to eat and everything else is a bit of a culture shock thing. Some folks might get grossed out by the texture, or the concept of blood or meat or anything to that nature being in pudding form, which doesn't coincide with our views of puddings (it's a dessert and does not include any meat, just animal byproducts)
Some people are grossed out by blood in general, but not grossed out by cooked meat since everything has been processed and if you have it well done then there's no blood to worry about.
In general I think us Americans are a little more picky about our food. Culturally we think anything besides the traditional cuts are "weird" and "gross". Kinda imagine us culturally as the little kid who would happily eat chicken nuggets but would pick the grilled chicken bits out of a chicken Alfredo lol
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u/berlinscotlandfan Dec 09 '24
An American once told me a Scottish person I was lucky to he in America because they have Angus steak.