French meat is often too tough 

To the Editor,

In reply to the July letter on the quality of cuts in France. I have to concur.

In my former home, South Africa, farmers pride themselves on the quality of their beef and restaurant chefs and home cooks make the most amazing dishes, including the ubiquitous braaivleis (barbecue).

Whether a whole rump and all the trimmings around the pool, or animal head on the half-oil-drum fire by the homelands bus station, it is universally enjoyed.

Hung for 21-45 days, beef is full of flavour and melts in the mouth. It's cheap too. Steakhouses are everywhere: burgers, spare ribs, fat rump steaks, fillet, and T-bones so big you could feed a family.

I love living in France, but the meat? I suppose you cannot aspire to something you have never experienced and it would be ungracious to criticise my new host country.

V.C., by email

To the Editor,

Generally speaking, the quality of supermarket pre-packaged beef in France is appalling.

I think that it is probably due to meat from older cattle and meat not being aged for long enough.

Meat from the butchery counters tends to be better but is expensive.

We live in Pyrénées-Orientales, on the Spanish border, which explains the long queues at the butchery counters of the supermarkets in La Jonquera (Spain).

We see many French people filling trolleys with a month’s supply of fresh meat. The quality is excellent, the choice of cuts and breeds of cattle are so much better than in France, and the price is much lower.

The French love to support French farmers, but that does not prevent them shopping around for quality!

N.L., Pyrénées-Orientales

To the Editor,

There are cuts that even the cow wouldn’t recognise. Overall, whenever they kill it, it's tough. This is probably why they provide a scalpel with a decent handle to eat it. No wonder France produces so much pork.

R.B., by email

To the Editor,

I think the toughness is as much, if not more, to do with the cooking than the quality of the meat.

R.C., by email

Do you agree with this assessment of French meat? Share your opinion at letters@connexionfrance.com