Grazin' in the grass

That was the title of a very big top 40 song in the late 60s/early 70s. I was in grammar school, and I don't remember things all that well from that far back. And it's a suitable lead in to the blog for today which is about grass fed beef. You're gonna get a little history, a little philosophy, a little bit of begging and pleading and a recipe, eventually.

At the turn of the 20th century, it really wasn't necessary to say "Grass fed" beef. All beef was fed on grass. That's what there was, and that's what cattle eat naturally. But relative to what beef costs today, it was much more expensive. And there was less of it. There are reasons for that. Grass is relatively non-nutritious, so the animals have to eat a LOT of it to build up muscles and to grow. And they grow more slowly. And as animals age, their meat becomes tougher . So while I don't know for certain, all reports are that beef at the turn of the century tasted stronger, it was chewier, and as I said, it was more expensive.

But something happened as the country "Opened up," so to speak. Animals which eat corn put on weight very quickly. Corn has a much higher calorie count than grass , it has more sugar, more fat, and you can bring an animal to a size that is suitable for butchering much sooner than a grass fed animal. And given the nature of corn, the meat of the animals which eat it is much softer, and more tender. You can bring more meat to market faster, and the price goes down.

So, what's wrong with this? Well, many things. To begin, cattle are not genetically designed to eat corn. It ferments in their stomachs and makes them sick. The solution is to feed them antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause the problems. Well, that means antibiotics in the meat you buy and cook. And with bacerial resistance, the chance of an animal getting sick increases.

And let's get to the question of the meat itself. Remember when I said corn was loaded with sugar and fat? Well, the animal gets bigger, but it gets bigger because it gets FATTER. Beef from animals raised on corn is very well marbled, and very fatty. It is also very tender, because of that fat. And when it cooks, you lose a lot of it the rendering of the fat in the meat. You know this issue if you've ever fried ground meat and wound up with puddles and pools of liquid. It's the melted fat.

And, for many of us, the taste of beef is just, plain BORING.

I started buying and cooking grass fed beef after I had read about the problems with antibiotics and the treatment of animals who were raised on corn. It meant I had to redesign the way I cooked beef completely. Meat that is low in fat cannot be cooked the same way a high fat product is cooked. Fat melts and bastes meat when it cooks. No fat, no basting action. The result of that is that you have to cook the meat much more slowly. If you don't, the meat toughens very quickly, as that moisturizing effect of fat just isn't there. And if you cook the meat too far past rare, you'll get leather. Again, because of the lack of fat. But if you cook it properly, I guarantee you, you will experience a "beefiness" that will make you reconsider your views on eating beef.

But here are the catches: because it takes so much longer to raise a grass fed steer, this beef is expensive. It's HORRIFICALLY expensive relative to what we're used to paying for beef. It's not a lot of money compared to what people pay outside of the United States, but the fact is this: the london broil I bought from my grass fed beef guy cost me 10.00 a pound. A london broil from the grocery store is 3 bucks a pound, MAYBE. Now, that bothers me on a very fundmental level: people can't get access to the right foods. It sickens me. Let me rephrase that. IT BLOODY WELL FREAKIN SICKENS ME. I don't think that the farmers should make less money. Believe me, I know what the margins are on these animals, and this meat, but I wish to all ends that the government would stop subsidizing the big farm conglomerates, let prices regulate themselves, and perhaps even get someone on board who UNDERSTANDS the issue and helps the grass fed beef farmers to compete. I'm leaving out the issues of pesticides on the corn, the "carbon footprint" of getting the corn fed beef to market, all this other stuff that will make you just nauseous (at least it makes me nauseous). Let me just ask you to try it once. Let the taste be your guide. Buy a piece of your favorite cut of beef from someone selling grass fed meat and try it. Ask how to cook it. Then do it. I bet you'll be back.

So, here's how I do a london broil. When you get a grass fed london broil, you will notice something right away: there is very little marbling. And there is only a line of fat on the outside of the cut. It's tempting to slice this away. Don't. It will help with the cooking.

Something I do - and you don't have to, but I recommend it - is Judy Rodgers trick with meat. The morning of the day I'm going to cook the meat, I sprinkle salt all over it, and then leave it in the fridge, uncovered, to dry out. The salt gets sucked into the meat and then flavors it a bit. This is a good technique to use. Please try it too.

When I'm ready to cook, I DO in fact turn up the oven to the broil point. This is another way that people fail to cook the meat properly. When you turn on the oven, it doesn't immediately go to the proper temperature. And even if you have an oven that "beeps" when it gets to the set temperature, all that means is that the oven is at that temperature where the sensor is. I suggest you start ten minutes ahead of time, at a minimum. Get the oven blazing hot.

I start meat on the stove top. I use a ridged, oven proof griddle, but you can use a frying pan if you don't have one. I dip a paper towel in some olive oil, and slick the griddle, and heat it for about five minutes. Then I drop the heat to medium and cook the steak on one side, for five minutes, and then the other for another five. Now, move the whole pan into the oven, and let it broil.

For how long? AH. Now here's where you have to engage some of your other senses. How do you like your meat? Rare? Medium? Well done? If you're doing well done, don't make grass fed beef. But here's a good way to approximate how "done" a piece of meat is. It's the "face test." Touch your cheek. Your cheek is the firmness of rare meat. Squeeze your earlobe. Your earlobe is medium (did you notice how it's a little firmer than your cheek?) Touch your nose tip. Your nose tip is the firmness of well done meat. This is a real approximation but it works. When the meat "feels" right, then take it out. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF and let it rest for ten minutes. You want the meat to reabsorb its juices before you slice it, on the bias.

In that ten minutes, if you want, you can make a quick sauce to put on the meat, but ultimately, this is so good, you may want to just gobble it down with nothing other than salt and pepper.

If the diatribe bored some of you, I do apologize for that. But this is something very dear and close to my heart. It's important that we respect individual farmers, get back to a mode of sustainability and pay attention to what we put in our mouths. And if this little essay makes you think about that a little, then Annalena's moment of serious reflection will have been worth it.