Grass-fed Cooking Suggestions

Two Basics For Cooking Grass-Fed Beef

1. Don't overcook.

2. Don't let the juices out.

How to do it...

Grass-fed meat has less fat than grain-fed supermarket meat. It should be
cooked more like venison - another grass-fed, lean meat. There are just a couple
of important changes in cooking methods:
First, grass-fed doesn't take as long to cook as fattier meat so it should be
cooked at a lower temperature for less time.
Second, it doesn't have all that fat to keep it juicy, so you want to make sure
you don't lose the natural juices.

To grill, broil or pan-fry a grass-fed steak:

* Sear it first: Lightly oil the meat, put on a very hot grill or frying pan and sear
each side just until it is browned on the surface. This creates a 'crust' that keeps
the juices in.
* Then turn down the heat. Move to a cooler area on the grill, lower the broiler
rack or turn down the burner.
* Cook without cutting. Don't let the juice out - don't use a fork to turn, press
down, or cut it open to see if it's done. Insert a thermometer into the thickest
part of the meat and rely on it to tell you when it's done.
* Watch the thermometer closely. Even at a lower heat, grass-fed meat cooks
faster than grain-fed. The most common culprit for dry, tough grass-fed meat is
overcooking. Rare is 120 degrees, and medium is 135 degrees. Many people
suggest not cooking more than medium unless you also baste to keep it juicy.
* Wrap in foil for 5 to 10 minutes after it's done, before cutting, to let the juices
in the center redistribute to the edges. Slicing across the grain, and in thinner
slices, will make any meat more tender.

Moist cooking grass-fed meat
One easy way to make a great meal from almost any less-tender cut of meat is
to put it in a crock pot, Dutch oven or other heavy lidded pan with some kind of
liquid - a sauce or broth - and let it cook at a very low temperature until it's
fall-off-the-bone tender. A large chuck roast might take 8 or more hours; a
smaller cut much less time.
You can cook it in a barbeque sauce then shred it with a fork and have beef
barbeque. You can add carrots, potatoes, onions, or other vegetables for a
Yankee pot roast one-dish meal. You can use almost any recipe for moist cooking
grain-fed meat. Just remember to cook at a lower temperature, remember it might
cook faster, and don't lose the natural juices.

If you want to grill or roast a less tender steak, like a round, skirt, flank or
chuck steak, it's a good idea to tenderize it or you'll get a pretty chewy steak.
Here are a few ways to do this:

Meat mallet
Pounding a piece of meat (wrapped in plastic to avoid spattering) with a meat
mallet or a similar flat surface at least 1 ½ inches wide will help break up the
connective tissue that makes meat tough. Be gentle unless you want to
squash it into a pancake.

Marinades
Herb and spice marinades are often used to add flavor to an already tender
cut of meat. But a marinade will also tenderize steaks if it includes an acid like
lemon juice, wine or vinegar; oil to lock in the flavor; and natural enzymes
from foods like garlic, fresh pineapple or papaya juice. Some of these enzymes
are sold dried as meat tenderizers; be sure the ingredients are only natural
enzymes, not not MSG or chemicals.

A marinade doesn't have to be fancy. a high quality oil, vinegar and garlic
would work. Put the thawed meat and marinade in a zip lock bag with the air
pushed out, mix it until the meat is covered. Refrigerate it for an hour or two if
you just want to add flavor; to tenderize it should be refrigerated several
hours or overnight. Mix it around in the bag occasionally to keep the whole
steak is covered. Marinades don't penetrate very far into the meat so they will
tenderize steaks, but don't do much for roasts.

Jaccard tenderizer
This is a handheld tool many people love. Its thin, tiny knives go an inch down
into the meat, piercing connective fibers to tenderize. Searing will seal the
tiny cuts to keep the juices in. But be careful about how you use it - too
much piercing can turn a tender steak into the consistency of a hamburger.
Jaccard tenderizers work especially well with roasts and thicker pieces of
meat, which don't tenderize as well with mallets and marinades.

If you want to use a marinade to flavor a roast, using a Jaccard tenderizer
first allows the flavor to penetrate much further into the roast. It also will
shorten the cooking time for slow-cooking, since the moisture will penetrate
more quickly.

Storing and Thawing Frozen Meat

Keep it frozen: Our beef is vacuum packed and frozen at the butcher to
preserve maximum freshness. Frozen beef will retain its full flavor for at least a
year if it's kept wrapped and stored below 10 degrees F. If it is stored in a
freezer that sometimes gets warm enough for ice cream to soften, it will lose
flavor more quickly, although vacuum packing helps even when the storage
temperature isn't ideal.

Freezer burn and vacuum packing: When meat is not covered,
circulating freezer air will suck out the moisture, leaving an off flavor and
freezer burn (dried out, tasteless edges). As long as it's totally wrapped so
that air can't easily get in and out, it's protected. The seal on vacuum packed
meat will sometime leak and there will be air inside. But the meat is just as well
protected as meat that's not vacuum packed. Unlelss it has a hole and you
can easily squeeze the air out, the same air stays in the bag. It doesn't
circulate and continue to dry out the meat. If you should get some freezer
burn on a piece of meat, just cut off that portion and the rest should be fine.
While it might loose its taste, or get freezer burn, meat doesn't go bad (make
you sick) as long as it's kept frozen.

Storage: To store a large amount of meat for a long time, you might want
to separate them into large heavy duty bags of related cuts. Less searching
through the meat - less handling - protects the vacuum seal. The heavy outer
bag protects it from freezer burn if one of the vacuum bags is ripped or
punctured.

Thawing meat: If you want the best taste, don't cook meat that isn't
completely thawed, and don't thaw it in the microwave. The best way to thaw
it is in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours, more if it's a thick roast. If you're in
a hurry, wrap it in a water tight bag and put it in a pot of cool water. A steak
or thin piece of meat can thaw this way in less than half an hour; a large
roast can take much longer.