http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x66153Oh my.
Neecy (1000+ posts) Thu Jun-18-09 03:37 PM
Original message
My first experience with grass-fed beef
I've been meaning to experiment a little with grass-fed beef, because I like the sustainable nature of it plus the lack of growth hormones and antibiotics. There's a producer nearby who - unfortunately - doesn't have a retail outlet so I ordered some ribeye steaks from them online.
Cooking them was a little tricky - overcooking makes them tough, and because they have a much lower fat content than their grain-fed counterparts they have to be cooked over a lower heat. I rubbed them with a little olive oil before putting them on the grill to keep them from sticking and cooked them to medium rare, as anything above medium pretty much dries them out.
Despite the fussy nature of cooking it, I have to say it was a terrific steak. The only way to describe the flavor was beefy, which sounds strange but so many of the steaks I've gotten from the grocery store lack that big, beefy flavor. This definitely had it. It wasn't overly juicy but enough so to keep it from tasting dry.
The price wasn't bad. I got 8 14-oz ribeyes for $79, which is competitive with the price I'd pay at my local grocery store.
As much as I liked it, I wouldn't go with the grass-fed exclusively. Sometimes it's nice to just throw a steak on the grill and not have to obsess about it, but I'm going to experiment a little more with grass-fed - I think a cut I can braise would be relatively easy to keep juicy without a lot of fuss.
If anyone has cooking suggestions for grass-fed, I'm really open to trying more of it. The flavor was amazing.
I dunno. franksolich, having been born and raised where he was, has had all sorts of beef in his life--corn fed beef, grass fed beef, fish fed beef, organically fed beef, chemically fed beef, and so help me, some sort of beef raised in Massachusetts (of all places) where the cattle were fed on some sort of combination shredded-newspapers-and-molasses.
franksolich, who doesn't eat beef much--but however who is an enthusiastic proponent, a stout friend, of the beef producers--has always found beef to pretty much taste like.....beef.
It's not a big deal, these slight little tiny microscopic subtle differences in flavor, and with that new report coming out today, about how billions of people in the world are starving, the primitives should be grateful they have any beef at all, no matter its source.
However, that's a major characteristic of the primitives, especially the wealthy ones, their sheer ingratitude and disconcern for others who have less.
Grandma, trying to live life as it was in the good old days, but unlike Abe and Mary in the log cabin or Joe and Sadie in the sod house, she "needs" to have that microwave oven, a computer with internet access, cat-litter boxes, motor vehicles, television, and chemical pharmaceuticals:
hippywife (1000+ posts) Thu Jun-18-09 08:02 PM
Response to Original message
1. It's the only kind we ever buy.
During the winter, I marinate ribeyes and then fast sear them in a really hot cast iron skillet with butter and worchestershire sauce and then let them cook to medium or medium rare with a nice crust on them. Nice, juicy and very tasty.
pipoman (1000+ posts) Thu Jun-18-09 10:18 PM
Response to Original message
2. I think you would find a locally raised beef every bit as good if it isn't exclusively grass fed. The traditional method has been to graze cattle while the grass is in season, and feeding a small amount of grain along with baled forage when grass is out of season. If corn, milo, sorghum, or other crop is raised and the stalks are fed, they have high carbs and will increase marbling.
Then in the last 90 days or so the (preferably steer) is brought into confinement (not bad confinement, he is just corralled) and given larger quantities of carbs in molasses, grain, some hay and plenty of water. The meat should be well aged by the processor. The marbling, flavor, and tenderness will shock you. I honestly believe that much of what is in the grocery store either isn't aged at all or the cattle are old.
kestrel91316 (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #2
8. I suspect that factory beef is minimally aged if at all. Aging requires significan space to hold all those carcasses for how many days? And the refrigeration costs for them in the meantime..... So factory beef processors, ever mindful of the bottom line, have little interest in aging. Perhaps USDA prime cuts ARE aged - the good stuff for the $100+ a plate fancy restaurants.
The rich kid grazing primitive, who tried to be the nemesis of the cboy4 primitive during the Democrat primaries last year, denigrating, ridiculing, mocking, deriding, cursing, Hating the cboy4 primitive:
jgraz (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 01:45 AM
Response to Original message
3. Pan-searing works best for me
Especially if you like them ultra-rare. Nothing can sear a steak better than a rocket-hot piece of steel.
Whole Foods carries great grass-fed beef, as does Berkeley Bowl and El Cerrito Market (I'm guessing your location from your avatar). You can also find them at Andronico's, but I don't like the brand they carry as well.
What producer did you order from? The price you got is great.
Neecy (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 10:44 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Oh, I wish....
I moved from the Bay Area a couple of years ago to the midwest. Still love my A's and Raiders, though.
I ordered from Tall Grass Beef - they've been running a half price special on the 8 pack of ribeyes. Their ranch is just outside of my town and I drive by it all the time.
jgraz (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 11:08 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Well, here's something that may help you feel better
Whole Foods' grass fed ribeyes are selling for around $23 / pound in the Berkeley store.
Uh huh. Of all the primitives, the rich kid grazing primitive's in the best situation to pay twenty-three bucks a pound for beef.
Neecy (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Everything's cheaper in the sticks
But then, when I walk out the door I'm not in San Francisco anymore, so life is full of little compromises
hippywife (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 12:23 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Where in the sticks are you?
We have many, many farm markets here in Oklahoma. I buy grass-fed and finished for around $14-15/lb from the local producers.
By the way, Grandma ends her message with one of those stupid waving "smileys;" franksolich learned a long time ago, from a
bona fide primitive on Skins's island, that the primitives in the cooking and baking forum who do this, are waving to franksolich specifically.
Hi, Grandma.
Neecy (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 04:07 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. SE Kansas
I'm just a couple of miles from the OK border, about half an hour from Bartlesville.
hippywife (1000+ posts) Fri Jun-19-09 05:57 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. If you're near Coffeyville it looks like you have some options for local product available:
http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?map=1&lat=37.039...
We're south of Tulsa a little ways. Howdy, neighbor.
