Sutton & Dodge & what is all this juice leaking from my steak?

From the Washington Post... full story here.

Discount retailer Target Corp. calls to mind many things. A porterhouse steak isn't one of them.

But as the chain that brought the world a Michael Graves-designed fondue set plunges deeper into the food business, it is adopting an increasingly common tactic in the grocery industry: launching its own line of high-end beef. Sutton & Dodge Steakhouse Quality Angus Beef, named after a fictitious butcher and an equally mythical restaurateur, hits stores this summer, with cuts ranging from rib-eye and T-bone to tenderloin and New York strip.

And from later in the story...

...for sheer stagecraft, nothing tops Target's campaign for Sutton & Dodge.

From CattleNetwork.com...

Sutton & Dodge is Target’s new premium steak line developed to give a designer image to SuperTarget’s meat cases. It’s the brainchild of Hormel Foods Corp.

“Sutton & Dodge,” according to Hormel VP Gary Ray "sounds like a steakhouse chain."

Target's new line of "premium" beef doesn't just sound like a steakhouse chain, it's on the edge of fraudulently posing as one. They have the fancy name, the photos of the two fictitious characters that supposedly own the company and the phrase "Since 1890" on every package.

Yet Sutton & Dodge was invented by Hormel just this year. Look at that quote by the VP of Hormel. He's practically admitting to false advertising!

This "Steakhouse Quality Aged Angus Beef" is exactly that... and then it's stuck with needles and injected with a saline solution equal to twelve percent of it's own weight. Injected with water and salt and flavorings and who knows what else. Then it's tumbled in a big vat much like clothes tumbling in a dryer. All to make the meat "tender".

What you end up with is a cut of meat that is unnaturally tender. What you also end up with is an 8 oz cut of beef that contains 26% of your daily sodium intake. And what Hormel ends up with is an extra $1.20 on every ten dollars worth of meat.

What ends up on your plate looks deflated and tiny as all of the water cooked out of it and as even more liquid continues to leak into your vegetables and all over the place.

All stores without an on-site butcher are selling this kind of meat. It's called case-ready meat and it's been going on for years, most notably at Wal-Mart. But Target has taken it to the next level. They're dressing it up as something upscale and worth a higher price and they're doing it to really good cuts of meat. Ruining really good cuts of meat and overcharging you for it. By all means, pound, needle, inject and tumble a flank steak, but why do that to a porterhouse? To a grade A, aged, Angus filet mignon?

They're turning fresh cuts of meat into pre-packaged luncheon meat, basically.

Have you ever had a Hormel beef roast? You might as well go meat shopping at Arby's.

I wrote an email to Target about all of this. Mostly, to have a response that I could post here when I receive it. My main question was. Where do they get the Since 1890 next to the Sutton & Dodge name? And that I would love to see the company's incorporation papers.