Beef Tips
~ This article first appeared in The Leader Vindicator newspaper. ~
Many people seek advice regarding meal preparation. Beef is frequently researched because home chefs find trouble with the results of their cooking efforts. I am obsessed with beef and devote a considerable amount of time to the subject. Following are several tips that have helped me better understand my favorite protein.
Slow down.
Cooking methods parallel food production methods: As beef rearing transitioned to a grain-based system, professional chefs transitioned to a parallel high-heat, fast cooking method, which is today orthodox beef preparation.
When a steak touches heat, muscle fibers contract. If you’re starting with a buttery soft piece of muscle from an animal that has lounged its whole life, the contraction of fine fibers is barely noticeable. This is the case with grainfed beef. Thicker, stronger muscle fibers in cattle that roam and forage for food (grassfed) will harden up when shocked with excessive temperatures.
Grazier Joel Salatin recommends a simple solution for cooking grassfed: SLOW DOWN. If you cook a grainfed steak for five minutes on high, then cook a grassfed steak for fifteen minutes on medium. If you slow-cook a grainfed roast for five hours, slow-cook a grassfed roast for seven. Remember: if you change what your beef eats, you must also change how you cook.
I’ve discovered a huge difference in beef palatability as a result of this one adjustment. The best part is that you don’t need any new gadgets, just a new understanding.
Buy a tenderizer.
I love Ohio grazier James Coffelt’s direct language. His website simply states “If there is a concern about tenderness, buy a Jaccard (tenderizer) on Amazon. $13.” (http://www.ohiolandandcattle.com/)
In other words, if you like his approach to raising beef, yet find that you cannot deal with texture that’s different from what you’re accustomed to, take action!
Tenderness is almost never discussed by cattlemen because tough beef is a sign of incompetence (this limits experimentation and new ideas). Therefore the customer is left to take the risk; if your steak is tough, too bad, nobody will speak up to help. Such aversion worsens the problem because a buyer will perceive that there isn’t a solution. Being noticed as an outfit that offers solutions is perhaps the best attraction for customers.
I’ve noticed at home that some customers love the idea of our grassfed beef, but they favor the ultra-tender reliability that is available with our grainfed beef. I didn’t know how to coherently discuss that topic. What am I to say? “We have well managed, high quality grassfed beef, but you might think it’s tough.” Presented with such a sales pitch, zero people would try grassfed. Fail.
How about this: “Some people think it’s wonderful!” Uh, right. Some people think Mountain Dew is wonderful. Fail.
Being direct is best. At-home tenderizer options are a gateway to help align food choices with personal preferences. If you research and find a beef production method that you believe in, you must also research and discover methods to align that production method with your chewing inclination. That’s easy enough to do, but rarely considered.
Add herbs.
Fred Provenza in his book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom devotes many pages to describing how red meat can harm the human body. Taken at a glance, the noisy vegans are right: We should avoid beef. Of course, when it comes to understanding anything, a glance is grossly misleading.
After making his point about beef in isolation, Provenza turns a corner and directs readers into the world of food diversity. So many different plants are edible because living creatures need variety to balance meals; stated another way, different foods negate the toxicity of each other. Red meat in association with phytochemical richness found in herbs, spices, and vegetables is a recipe for longevity that, when implemented, makes the vegans look silly indeed.
It’s time to ditch the bottled sauce and the frozen crinkle-cut starch fries. Use herbs and spices for flavor. Better yet, give up on making a meal from a recipe; doing so pigeon-holes you into eating only what is presented at the table. Instead, “surround yourself with wholesome foods … and eat to your heart’s content.” (pg 208) I submit again that the most enjoyable meals I eat are consumed standing and picking through a multitude of single ingredients, one of which is often a hunk of beef. My son, 3, enjoys this method, too.
If you’re a fan of grain-finished beef, it’s more important to ramp up the herb and spice (the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory) component of your diet because fat from grained animals is simple. Grassfed fanatics can find the equivalent of summer herbs packed into the fat of their steaks and roasts; many indigenous tribes survive winter without green plants by eating the fat of wild herbivores. (pg 219)
All eaters benefit from rearranging the order of dining: Try vegetable-protein-carbohydrate instead of the traditional carbohydrate-protein-vegetable routine. Your glucose levels will thank you. (pg 146)
Eating doesn’t require lists of specific information coupled to the latest Pintrest recipe. It requires awareness and a willingness to take action. You have the ability to expertly handle nutrition and health that far exceeds the abysmal standard of “good.” If you care, you will become aware. When you’re aware, you’ll stop seeking outside help. With you as head chef, meals will become more than just ingestion.