primitives discuss grass-fed beef

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x66153

Oh my.

Okay, so this campfire was lit, and burned out, nine months ago.

But trust me; Skins's island is about as exciting as changing the air in the tires of the automobile today, and one's desperate, really desperate, to find material.

Note: this was before the primitives started trashing Whole Foods.

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.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jun-18-09 08:02 PM
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
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.

One wonders if Mrs. Alfred Packer realizes that might not necessarily be beef she's cooking.

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.

pipoman  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jun-20-09 09:06 AM
Response to Reply #8

13. My processor will age for 21 days for no additional cost. Their standard is 14 days. This is a link to the processor I use. I have been through their facility and it is very clean and well ran.

http://healthymeats.net/ 

jgraz  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 01:45 AM
THE RICH KID THE GRAZING PRIMITIVE
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.

https://www.tallgrassbeef.com/ecommerce/catalog/product...

jgraz  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 11:08 AM
THE RICH KID THE GRAZING PRIMITIVE
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.

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
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
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.

Try this website to find local suppliers: www.localharvest.org

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.

Aha.

The needy primitive's practically a next-door neighbor of Mrs. Alfred Packer.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 05:57 PM
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
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.

Neecy (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 06:39 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
11. I'm west of Coffeyville, next county over

Hey, neighbor! I'm going to hit the Independence farmer's market on Saturday, plus there's an organic farm over in Cedar Vale I'd like to visit. Lots of good stuff around here, and since there isn't much else to do at least I can be healthy

I moved down here from Kansas City and now my local news stations come out of Tulsa. Interesting place - do all of the cops down there sport crew cuts? They all look really scary, the types that would just smash a baton into your face for looking at them the wrong way. It's a pretty area, though.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 07:07 PM
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
Response to Reply #11

12. I don't know about the cops.

I spend little time in town, myself. I work in South Tulsa and live in a rural area south of there. I go to work, grocery shop and them get my ass outta Fundieville, ya know?

I bet you find some good stuff in Independence. Let me know how it is.

[Chris]

Eighty dollars for seven pounds of meat? 

[The Village Idiot]

Eighty dollars for seven pounds of meat? 

Omaha Steaks is pretty expensive, 8 hot dogs for around $10 (says it a sale)... of course you could cut them in half they plump so large.

[GOBUCKS]

I guess "grass-fed beef", which in the language of normal people would be "tough, stringy beef", is a subset of the organic scam. You butcher an old, dried-up dairy cow, label it "grass-fed", and then jack the price out of sight, as is customary for the well-meaning numbskulls who fall for the organic scam. For higher volume production, you just pasture your beef, don't spend a dime on it, and you can get that tough, stringy texture expected by organophiles. Since cowboys no longer drive beef hundreds of miles to the railhead, that's about as tough as you can get beef to be. Most normal people prefer tender, marbled prime beef, which requires the brute to be confined for several months, on a diet that would please the Las Vegas lardass, and then hung for 30 days or so after slaughter. It's very expensive, so most commercial beef falls somewhere in the middle.

[Odin's Hand]

Neecy (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-19-09 06:39 PM
Response to Reply #10
I moved down here from Kansas City and now my local news stations come out of Tulsa. Interesting place - do all of the cops down there sport crew cuts? They all look really scary, the types that would just smash a baton into your face for looking at them the wrong way. It's a pretty area, though.

Yeah they do and yeah they will. Stay out of Oklahoma, DUmmy.

 

[The Village Idiot]

Yeah they do and yeah they will. Stay out of Oklahoma, DUmmy.

 

I hear they now have miltiple shot tasers and I remember the shotgun-style wireless taser too.

[franksolich]

Yeah they do and yeah they will. Stay out of Oklahoma, DUmmy.

 

Isn't it most peculiar how the primitives move from their native areas to somewhere else, usually voluntarily, and once they get there, all they do is criticize and condemn the natives of that area?

Why the Hell don't they move back home then?

I'm thinking especially of Oscar Wilde, the large-proboscised primitive, the "Cyrano" primitive, born and raised in New York City, now living in Florida.  All he does is bash Florida and Floridians.  Why the Hell doesn't Oscar Wilde move back to New York City then?

And now we got Mrs. Alfred Packer, born and raised in Ohio, now living in northeastern Oklahoma.  Hippyhubby Wild Bill's wife takes every chance she can get, to bash the decent and civilized people of Oklahoma.  Why the Hell doesn't Mrs. Alfred Packer move back to Ohio then?  (Other than, of course, the very real possibility hippyhubby Wild Bill has her padlocked to that home-made home.)

Geezuz.  I lived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which I found considerably different from where I had been born and raised, and in some ways much worse (congestion, corruption, foul air)--but while I was there, I held my peace, speaking only good (or at worst, indifferent) things about the states and people of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Even today, more than two decades later, I'm reluctant to bash Pennsylvania and New Jersey (other than, of course the Penn State football team); there's no point in it, and it's their places anyway.

I must've read too many books by Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, Letitia Baldridge, and Dale Carnegie, or something.

[JohnnyReb]

, and then hung for 30 days or so after slaughter.

Hung for 30 days...That should be some tender meat......hell, it's rotten by then.

Now who knew we were eating so high on the hog....when I was a kid we'd pick out a calf (male, female, steer, didn't matter) shut it up for a week, feed it dry feed and hay...take it to the slaughter house....go back in a week and get the meat....start eating right away.....and when momma cooked it, it was fork cutting tender. 

[GOBUCKS]

Hung for 30 days...That should be some tender meat......hell, it's rotten by then.

Now who knew we were eating so high on the hog....when I was a kid we'd pick out a calf (male, female, steer, didn't matter) shut it up for a week, feed it dry feed and hay...take it to the slaughter house....go back in a week and get the meat....start eating right away.....and when momma cooked it, it was fork cutting tender. 

Seven to 14 days minimum hanging time for prime beef, up to four to six weeks. Of course it's refrigerated! The sweetest, most tender beef is the product of controlled spoilage, which is what aging is.

[dutch508]

Seven to 14 days minimum hanging time for prime beef, up to four to six weeks. Of course it's refrigerated! The sweetest, mosgt tender beef is the product of controlled spoilage, which is what aging is.

you are correct, the beef is aged in a cooler. However, Iwouldn't put itpassed the DUmpmonkiez to hang it outside the pouch, al la Shogun.

One of my goals after I retire is to sell beef to DUmpmonkiez from the sandhills of Nebraska...and mahe a tidy profit.

[JohnnyReb]

you are correct, the beef is aged in a cooler. However, Iwouldn't put itpassed the DUmpmonkiez to hang it outside the pouch, al la Shogun.

One of my goals after I retire is to sell beef to DUmpmonkiez from the sandhills of Nebraska...and mahe a tidy profit.

Buy cow at $1 per pound....minus dress weight loss...slaughter...storage....hmmmm comes to about $2.50 a pound maybe...subtract from $10... =$7.50 a pound profit....sounds good to me....

[dutch508]

Buy cow at $1 per pound....minus dress weight loss...slaughter...storage....hmmmm comes to about $2.50 a pound maybe...subtract from $10... =$7.50 a pound profit....sounds good to me....

The family is in the cattle business but I have been in the Army for the last 26 years. I have a part of the ranch in my name and won't be playing cowboy with any seriousness. I'll only raise twenty to thirty head a year. Since the family has bulls, that cost is taken out.

Buying spring calves that fall is the way to go. Raise them and butcher for personal use. The cost is much lower that way. The ranch used to be able to butcher and dress out it's own cattle, but that was stopped a few years back by the government for 'health' reasons. We now have to truck them 50 miles to the closest plant.

Needless to say, we'll see what happenes when I return home.

I sometimes think it's funny- sort of a Roman legion sort of way- when I retire and move to the edge of civilization to live out my years on the farm...

[Odin's Hand]

Isn't it most peculiar how the primitives move from their native areas to somewhere else, usually voluntarily, and once they get there, all they do is criticize and condemn the natives of that area?

Why the Hell don't they move back home then?

I'm thinking especially of Oscar Wilde, the large-proboscised primitive, the "Cyrano" primitive, born and raised in New York City, now living in Florida.  All he does is bash Florida and Floridians.  Why the Hell doesn't Oscar Wilde move back to New York City then?

And now we got Mrs. Alfred Packer, born and raised in Ohio, now living in northeastern Oklahoma.  Hippyhubby Wild Bill's wife takes every chance she can get, to bash the decent and civilized people of Oklahoma.  Why the Hell doesn't Mrs. Alfred Packer move back to Ohio then?  (Other than, of course, the very real possibility hippyhubby Wild Bill has her padlocked to that home-made home.)

Geezuz.  I lived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which I found considerably different from where I had been born and raised, and in some ways much worse (congestion, corruption, foul air)--but while I was there, I held my peace, speaking only good (or at worst, indifferent) things about the states and people of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Even today, more than two decades later, I'm reluctant to bash Pennsylvania and New Jersey (other than, of course the Penn State football team); there's no point in it, and it's their places anyway.

I must've read too many books by Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, Letitia Baldridge, and Dale Carnegie, or something.

Being a whiny smart-ass is all part of the "DUmpmonkey experience".

[DumbAss Tanker]

Isn't it most peculiar how the primitives move from their native areas to somewhere else, usually voluntarily, and once they get there, all they do is criticize and condemn the natives of that area?

Sadly, they have an irresistable desire to make their own surroundings a hidebound, inbred and crushingly-expensive purgatory of politically-corect, nanny-state, entitlement-driven adult daycare.  This always has the entirely-foreseeable consequence of causing social breakdown, a decreasingly-productive populace, and a punitive taxation level to sustain the whole thing on the diminishing number of productive people, most of whom eventually leave for better opportunities.  Having fouled their own nest irretrievably, the Libtards set out in search of as-yet-unsullied lands to ruin.