How to cook grass fed beef
As recently as a decade ago, grass-fed beef got a bad reputation as a health food that cooked up tough.
We’ve never been here to sell vitamins, as much as we want to support healthy sustainable farms and encourage our farmers to care for their land as well as their animals. The good news is that thanks to farmers’ genius work with both their land and their animals’ genetics, grass-fed is no longer a tough fat free health food. Some of what we sell is so marbled, the only way you know it’s grass-fed is by reading the label.
It’s Lean
Generally speaking, grass-fed beef has very little fat. It’s lean. It needs to be cooked in a specific way. Don’t salt it before cooking. It can really draw out its moisture. You can add salt (and pepper) for taste after, not before. Also, when you’re cooking grass-fed beef, lower the temperature by 25 degrees and always give it time. You don’t want to cook it quickly over high heat — in a pan or on a grill. Heat also draws out moisture. It goes from medium to well done in seconds. The less fat in a muscle, the faster it goes between temperatures. Fat is a buffer. It has a different melting point than muscle. When there’s no fat, there’s no buffer. Our Black Angus is quite lean compared to our Wagyu (F1) which produces good marbling off the grass, and it will cook on a grill or pan differently.
Keeping Some Colour
We know this can be tricky for people who like their beef rare with some pink, or if you like a “dead cold center”. Trying to get a quick crust over high heat on a grass-fed steak’s exterior and keeping the center rare takes a deft hand. Cook it too fast and the moisture—this is the colour, the blood—bleeds out very fast.
We’re going to be honest and say that people who like their beef medium-well to well done might not wind up converted grass-fed beef fans. Cooked past medium, grass-fed beef can be pretty chewy. But we’re not here to yuck your yum. We all have our food preferences. Josh Applestone our American Butcher friend loves stale popcorn, which is arguably not for everyone. If you like tough steak, then you will enjoy your grass-fed beef past medium. Try a steak low and slow in at 120C oven for about 30 minutes, basting it with olive oil. Slow cooking at a low heat will allow grass-fed beef to retain cellular structure without beating it up.