Counterpoint: grass fed, grass finished steak can be outstanding!

[Mosca]

I don’t want to say that it IS outstanding, but that it can be.

















I wish I could serve this to you. Yes, it is different. No, it doesn’t have the unctuousness of a great grain finished steak. But it’s a trade. In return you get an intense beefiness that a grain finished steak can only hint at.

Yes, absolutely grass fed/finished is chewier. But in return, every bite EXPLODES with umami. Tender is great. Flavor is great, too!

My opinion is that they shouldn’t be compared. They’re different. Great steaks deliver great results. Eat them both!

[58limited]

I had two today that were wonderful: an oyster steak and a teres major. I have a couple of friends with grass fed beef operations so I can pick some up whenever I drive through there localities.

Grass fed is variable, that is why I get it from my friends who run farm to fork operations - they really strive for quality whereas some producers are trying to pawn off their worn out breeding stock onto the public. The good grass fed beef that I've had is not chewy but it is leaner than grain finished.

[ecowper]

I love grass fed and finished beef. I also love grass fed and grain finished on the feed lot. And venison. And elk. And wild boar. And rabbit, for that matter. I like meat of all sorts. And I know that they all are going to taste differently. I take that into account, cook them different, serve different sides with them, etc.

[Mr. Bones]

Reckon ahm'a haveta make ya some my famous Squirrel Stew...

Over biscuits, taters, rice, or even pasta, it's a right treat, I'll warrant!

[ecowper]

My hounds will be mighty unhappy if I get the squirrel and they don't!

[Henrik]

I agree, I’m a big fan of grass fed steaks. And yes, they are different, so no need to compare and just pick one.

[JoeSousa]

I have had some pretty bad grass fed beef but some pretty amazing stuff as well. Cheap grass fed steaks are usually a disappointment but high quality grass fed steaks can be pretty amazing. My most recent grass fed steaks I ate were from Pursuit Farms and were some of the best steaks I have had in a long time.

Here is a video I shot featuring them:

[MarkN]

Steaks are a gamble. However, I have never been disappointed by grass fed ground beef for burgers and such. When I hold a package of it next to the regular pasty pink stuff, the pasty pink stuff is down right unappetizing.

[Jerod Broussard]

I know folks that claim liver is outstanding, so not terribly surprising that some find a variety of beef outstanding. ​​​

I do find it interesting that my dad consumes liver and beef tripe, but passes on the grass fed stuff. If you ask me, the tripe and liver are crap so I guess it's pretty hard to get worse than that if it came from a grass fed bovine.

[Mosca]

Most grass fed beef is pretty tough. I don’t blame people for being put off by it. Even at supermarket prices, it’s a lot of money for dinner, why take the chance?

[Jerod Broussard]

Mosca the texture was fine, better than a non-sous vide Tri-tip.

[JakeT]

I've had grass finished beef in restaurants before that was delicious. I'm sure there is a lot to be said for what type of grass and where, how dry or "alive" the grass is...so many factors. At least we can all agree that beef is good!

[Greygoose]

I’d eat it ,,,,

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I think it depends too... actual steaks were iffy to find in the UK, but it's all grass fed. At Gordon Ramseys in London you can pick between 2 regions of grass fed (one was US import even) and a grain finished. Anyway, I didn't mind grass fed there, but I don't prefer it here. So my thinking is the grass is THAT much different or there's more to it than just the feed

[Mosca]

Good point. The steak I cooked was Australian.

[Mosca]

I think it depends too... actual steaks were iffy to find in the UK, but it's all grass fed. At Gordon Ramseys in London you can pick between 2 regions of grass fed (one was US import even) and a grain finished. Anyway, I didn't mind grass fed there, but I don't prefer it here. So my thinking is the grass is THAT much different or there's more to it than just the feed

Mark Schatzer writes, in his book Steak,

"There is more than one way to tell how sweet a field of grass is. You can take a Brix reading, for example, which is what winemakers do when they want to tell if the juice inside their grapes is sweet enough. Grass doesn’t give its juice up as easily as a grape does, however, which means you have to squeeze it through a garlic press and aim the drops onto a device called a refractometer, which tells you the Brix levels. A good reading is around 12 or 15, although Allen Williams will settle for 10. He hopes for better, though. He has seen grass that scored in the upper 20s, at which point it’s as sweet as a ripe grape."

That is the first paragraph of the final chapter, which is all about grass fed beef. It’s fascinating. The gist of it is that the best grass fed beef farmers know as much (or more) about grasses as they do about cows and beef.

"There is a term for when cows eat like this: managed grazing. It is the key"or, more precisely, one of a set of keys—to finishing cattle on grass. Williams explained how it works: "Cattle want the highest-energy feed," he said. "They’re like me or you. They like their food to be sweet. On a grass plant," he explained, "the top growth is the sweetest and softest. That’s what they always go for first." The problem with cattle is that, left to their own devices, they’ll eat down the sugary parts of the grass, and then, when the grass becomes less sweet, they won’t eat a thing. They’ll just stand there, almost as if they were on a hunger strike, or they’ll wander too much, as though the land itself were distracting them from eating. When you cordon off a big field into many little paddocks, however, and move cattle from one paddock to another, a mob mentality seems to take hold. They will eat everything, mowing the field almost down to the ground, if you let them. "When you move them," Williams explained, "they tank up on top growth. By moving them often, you can induce them to eat more than they would if you left the pace up to them."”

— Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef by Mark Schatzker

https://a.co/9qqE3vO

And, finally, the crux of it all: "Bad grass equals bad steaks."

[JakeT]

This would totally make sense to me in California. Some of the taste in the local grass fed beef I dislike tastes very similar to the aroma I meet every morning leaving for work. That earthy, country smell of dry grass with dew that’s very unique to the dry summers here locally. In the UK, where dry summer don’t exist, I could see the flavor being totally different. I definitely want to continue to try different beef from different regions. It’s a fun and tasty experiment to see what happens!

[JakeT]

@Mosco I just downloaded the audiobook...that’ll be an interesting listen between The Godfather and Star Wars audiobooks.

[JoeSousa]

Love that book. Very entertaining read.