To sample some of the steaks that appear in this book, contact the following:
ALDERSPRING RANCH
May, Idaho
Appears in: Chapter 8
The beef: Angus and Angus cross born on the ranch, grazed in the high country and finished on the extraordinarily mineralized soils of the Pahsimeroi Valley.
Type: Grass-fed
Aging: Dry aged for 10-14 days. Age at slaughter: 18-30 months.
Notes: Full flavored, sweet and very beefy capped off by a stellar finish. This is grass-fed steak at its best.
Grade: A+
BEEFALO MEATS
Ellensburg, Washington
Appears in: Chapter 7
The beef: Bulls — that’s right, bulls — and heifers of the enigmatic beefalo, a bison/cattle cross, finished in a feedlot setting on hay (and sometimes apple pomace from nearby juice factories.)
Type: Grass fed.
Aging: Dry aged for 5-6 days. (Longer-aged is available on demand.)
Age at slaughter: 14-16 months.
Notes: You would expect critters this young to produce baby grass-fed beef — lean, tough meat that tastes like dirty dish rags and old fish. Think again. Rib eyes are tender, surprisingly marbled and possess a brooding, building flavor with a finish that’ll take you into the next bite. Despite less than a week of aging, steaks possess nothing in the way of the dreaded “chew.”
Grade: A (when supplemented with apple pomace);
A- (when not)
COMMODITY BEEF
Appears in: Chapter 1
The beef: Steers and Heifers finished in sprawling feedlots all across the continent, fed on steamed, flaked corn or, rarely feeds including barely, processed potato biproducts, stale candy, citruss pulp and more. Fed antibiotics and treated with growth hormones and beta agonists in an effort to produce maximum yield for the lowest possible price.
Type: Grain fed.
Aging: Usually wet aged for anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks. Certain “premium” steak houses will dry age for up to six weeks.
Age at slaughter: 16-20 months.
Tasting Notes: Cardboard. Glue. Like pork, but with less flavor. Commodity beef is often tender and sometimes juicy, but it almost never has anything in the way of flavor.
Grade: C
SWEET GRASS FARM BEEF
Lopez Island, Washington
Appears in: Chapter 7
The beef: Grass-fed Wagyu — and we’re talking purebreds, not those Angus-crosses that get stuffed full of corn and potato peelings and sold as “American Kobe” in crappy steak houses all over the continent. These black beauties graze on a mix of cool season grasses including fescue, orchard grass and rye grass and, at the peak of the dry summer, reed canary grass, an unusual forage variety that farmer Scott Meyers has grown to great effect.
Type: Grass-fed
Aging: Dry aged for 14 days.
Age at Slaughter: 27-36 months. (Wagyu take longer to finish than other breeds.)
Tasting Notes: A beef so intense it nearly qualifies as an out of body experience. And yet it’s tender, soft, supple and so fine your steak knife feels like its cutting satin.
Other: This beef has the most favorable ratio omega-6 to omega-3 fats I’ve ever seen.
Grade: A
TALLGRASS BEEF
Appears in: Chapter 8
The beef: British crossed with British (e.g. Angus x Herford), the product of Allen Williams unending quest to find the best grass-fed genetics, finished on ranches that are on the cutting edge in managed grazing.
Type: Grass-fed
Aging: Wet aged for 14 to 21 days.
Age at slaughter: 20-24 months
Tasting Notes: A mild and smokey finish. Not the intense beefy zing you get with some grass-fed steaks, but a muscular steak all the same. (Don’t go reaching for the merlot, or anything.)
Other: Since Tallgrass finishes on ranches in states that include Kansas, Nebraska, Georgia and Iowa, so your steak may not taste the same as mine (which was finished on fields near Sedan, Kansas, the pretty little town where the company is based.) Tallgrass is considering labeling steaks with ranch of origin — and if you think that’s something they ought to do, why not send them an email saying so.
Grade: A-