Cooking Grass Finished Beef
Your almost ready to get the knives out. However, it's important to follow a few guidelines to ensure your eating experience is truly memorable. Thawing, seasoning, and cooking are important steps in this process. The recommendations below apply to all beef, not just grass-finished.
Thawing
The best way to defrost beef is in the refrigerator for 24 hrs. If you're thawing steaks and they are wrapped 2 to the package, separate them and thaw individually. Halfway thru the thawing process, turn the steaks to let the thawed juices re-absorb into the steak. Most beef thawed in the refrigerator should be eaten within 1-2 days of thawing.
Seasoning
Everybody likes their beef different ways. Some will only salt, some will marinate in a sweet soy soup, some will dry rub in spices from four continents. I would like to say there is no wrong way to eat beef, but I do wince from time to time at how far we sometimes get from original goodness. Proper salting will accentuate the rich flavor of our beef. We like to use a coarse grain kosher or sea salt.
There is a science to salting, and I would like to briefly point you in what I believe to be the right direction. For steaks, after proper thawing, pat them dry and apply salt and or dry rub a few hours prior to cooking. This will allow the salt and spices to absorb throughout the beef, providing a more even distribution, without losing juice in the process. There's a discussion on this topic and some other guidelines for cooking steak here.
For burgers, it's a little different. I recommend either of two methods of seasoning. If you're making an 8oz or larger thick burger, salt the ground beef as you lightly form the patties, distributing salt throughout. Cook the burgers shortly after salting or the texture will become sausage-like and undesirable. If you're making a thinner burger (6oz or less), you'll be fine seasoning the surface of the burger just before cooking.
Roasts, short ribs, briskets and the like would benefit from the steak method, but the larger the cut, the longer they can rest in the refrigerator with the salt or rub.
Cooking
Steaks were made to be grilled, pan-seared or broiled. High temperature searing creates the Maillard Reaction, necessary in my opinion for praiseworthy steak. There are some guidelines for getting the internal temperature right, but nothing beats a good meat thermometer. Our steaks are best appreciated as close to medium rare as you can enjoy.
Most ovens don't get hot enough to properly broil a steak, but if yours does, it's hard to beat this technique for even searing. My next choice would be to sear in a smoking hot cast iron skillet. It works with boneless cuts, but not so good with the T-bone (the bone prevents the meat surface from getting an even sear across the entire surface of steak). Finally, if your outside or don't want to heat or smoke up your kitchen, grilling steaks can be a great way to enjoy our beef. Turn up the gas grill all the way, or make sure your charcoal is very hot before attempting. There are plenty of discussions on the art of cooking steak and burgers on this site.
Everybody has there own favorite way to cook burgers, but here is a link to some tips to cook the best burger, and here is another.
Roasts, briskets, short ribs, and ox tail all benefit from braising or slow roasting. Most recipes for these cuts will work great on our beef.
If you have any questions concerning these processes, feel free to contact us.
Thawing
The best way to defrost beef is in the refrigerator for 24 hrs. If you're thawing steaks and they are wrapped 2 to the package, separate them and thaw individually. Halfway thru the thawing process, turn the steaks to let the thawed juices re-absorb into the steak. Most beef thawed in the refrigerator should be eaten within 1-2 days of thawing.
Seasoning
Everybody likes their beef different ways. Some will only salt, some will marinate in a sweet soy soup, some will dry rub in spices from four continents. I would like to say there is no wrong way to eat beef, but I do wince from time to time at how far we sometimes get from original goodness. Proper salting will accentuate the rich flavor of our beef. We like to use a coarse grain kosher or sea salt.
There is a science to salting, and I would like to briefly point you in what I believe to be the right direction. For steaks, after proper thawing, pat them dry and apply salt and or dry rub a few hours prior to cooking. This will allow the salt and spices to absorb throughout the beef, providing a more even distribution, without losing juice in the process. There's a discussion on this topic and some other guidelines for cooking steak here.
For burgers, it's a little different. I recommend either of two methods of seasoning. If you're making an 8oz or larger thick burger, salt the ground beef as you lightly form the patties, distributing salt throughout. Cook the burgers shortly after salting or the texture will become sausage-like and undesirable. If you're making a thinner burger (6oz or less), you'll be fine seasoning the surface of the burger just before cooking.
Roasts, short ribs, briskets and the like would benefit from the steak method, but the larger the cut, the longer they can rest in the refrigerator with the salt or rub.
Cooking
Steaks were made to be grilled, pan-seared or broiled. High temperature searing creates the Maillard Reaction, necessary in my opinion for praiseworthy steak. There are some guidelines for getting the internal temperature right, but nothing beats a good meat thermometer. Our steaks are best appreciated as close to medium rare as you can enjoy.
Most ovens don't get hot enough to properly broil a steak, but if yours does, it's hard to beat this technique for even searing. My next choice would be to sear in a smoking hot cast iron skillet. It works with boneless cuts, but not so good with the T-bone (the bone prevents the meat surface from getting an even sear across the entire surface of steak). Finally, if your outside or don't want to heat or smoke up your kitchen, grilling steaks can be a great way to enjoy our beef. Turn up the gas grill all the way, or make sure your charcoal is very hot before attempting. There are plenty of discussions on the art of cooking steak and burgers on this site.
Everybody has there own favorite way to cook burgers, but here is a link to some tips to cook the best burger, and here is another.
Roasts, briskets, short ribs, and ox tail all benefit from braising or slow roasting. Most recipes for these cuts will work great on our beef.
If you have any questions concerning these processes, feel free to contact us.
