Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation What's wrong with this steak?

My GF and I bought a half a cow, then the other half .. butchered and wrapped. My GF is kinda into this organic / grass-fed shyte. Ok. I'll take it, if it makes her happy, so long as it tastes ok. Apparently this was the butcher's first go-around at raising cows himself. (Her name was "Gracie" before being fitted with white wrapping paper, if that matters. I think she was fairly young, black angus.) Mostly it has been pretty good but last night's t-bone was weird. First thing, it had way more gristle than any t-bone I ever ate. Second thing, the angle between the two parts of the bone was sharper .. more acute .. than I've ever had. I couldn't shove my face down in the notch to get the last bits without getting meat on both sides of my face.

Any guesses? I'm inclined to think he cut too far "north" including too much neck in his "t-bone". Other thoughts? Or am I just too used to venison now?

Tom

Never had grass fed beef I liked

Could be that Gracie was a bit older than necessary.

Grass fat is a tricky thing to master.

Position, age and sex might have had some thing to do with the bone angle....or maybe your face was swelled up.

Oh, the humanity!

I grew up on "mountain beef" .. great grandfather had a small herd of herefords escape. They occupied an area of about 36 square miles of brush and timber, some clearcuts, a few roads. Too nasty off the road for horses ... blackberry vines, etc. We did a .30-'06 roundup a few times a year. Beats store beef by a mile 'cept if you accidentally got the herd bull. Family legend says dad accidentally pulled the trigger on the wrong bull and it was so tough that even after grinding the hamburger twice, the burger gravy would bend your fork.

I don't know what commercial grass fed means exactly, but wild mountain beef is good stuff so long as you still have your original teeth.

Tom

I have eaten a bit of grass fed, gramma seed fattened beef before it came to be the thing to eat.
Have e ven cut up a critter or two for the freezer (1/2 a beef takes some time and effort with a handsaw)

Gristle in a T-Bone?

Can not figure how one would cut a T-Bone and get gristle.

To each his own, but I prefer grain fed beef over beef that's been on nothing but grass. Also, though it's very important how an animal is butchered, I've never heard of a T-bone with gristle being caused by bad butchering.

Gristle is a possibility of an older animal. If the bone didn't come together at a ninety degree angle it was probably from the tail end of the rib section. That area usually has the back bone trimmed off to make a ribeye. There is usually a bit of gristle next to the backbone in that area. Barry

Grass fed makes for excellent hamburger but good beef needs to be finished out on corn for the last month before butchering.

Practice squeezin' your face together more.

You have to remember, the good cows are kept for breeding, the others go to market...

shrapnel,

"Cow beef" is NEVER good, imo.

STEERS, over 4YO, are the best "grass fat" beef. - When our family had a "cow-calf operation"", we saved at least 2 -3 steers to "grow out" into the REAL "aged beef" for family use.

yours, tex

HOW TO MAKE BEEF TASTE LIKE VENISON

Start one year before killing date. Feed the steer only on wild berries, slough grass, weeds, sage, and tree bark. About two hours before you are ready to butcher, let some dogs chase the beef around to get the blood and the adrenaline into the meat. Shoot the beef immediately after it has been chased (make sure it's a gut shot, and try to do this via hind quarter). A good shot will tenderize the meat and get as much hair as possible in the impact area. Be sure to kill the beef in the morning of a hot sunny day, temp needs to be at least 90. Then toss it in the bed of your truck and drive it around until dark showing it off. If you have to park for any length of time be sure and park in direct sunlight. Drag the beef to a slough and field dress it in the slough. Make sure to get as much grass, weeds, cattails and debris in as possible. Drag the beef at least one mile across fields with plenty of beggar lice, broomstraw, fire ant mounds and cockspur to get plenty of dirt and vegetation mixed into the wound and the interior of the carcass. Load the beef on back in the truck and drive down first a gravel road at least 5 miles and then down a highway. This will get as much highway grime, bugs, and rocks embedded in the meat as possible. (For extra flavor this should be done in the rain.) Hang the beef in the garage. (Make sure it is low enough so the dog can chew on the hind quarter and then properly mark it as his territory.) At least once a day have your wife idle a vehicle for 5 minutes in the garage. Carbon Monoxide adds greatly to the flavor. When the carcass smells so bad that you can hardly stand being in the garage, the beef is ready to process.Properly following these steps will ensure that your BEEF is mistaken for VENISON by even the most avid sportsman. Everyone will marvel at how much venison you have and how good it tastes... and you won't have to put on that crazy camo stuff and walk for 5 miles then sit in a tree all day ev

Dear Tex,

Unlike most Texans, in Montana we did play with our food, it was called a “Rodeo.” Other than that we chased all sorts of beef steaks all over God’s creation as we range doctored and rode herd on all sorts of cattle. I once roped a cow that prolapsed and tied her to the truck while we stuffed her uterus back inside her and brushed most of the sagebrush off that we could beforehand.

She went to the sale ring where she was grained up for someone to butcher, as she was no longer any good for breeding. She wasn’t any steer, although some Texans and a few millennials might try to convince you otherwise...

shrapne,

Did you try to do "the Coke bottle trick" to deal with the prolapse or give up on breeding her, W/O trying again??
(Our family did that trick more than once to fix the problem & our Polled Herefords seldom prolapsed again, thereafter.)

Btw, I don't rope/ride anymore. - My "cowboying" (such as it is) is limited to supervising another guy from a PU or ATV, at 72YO.
(Btw, we still have the gentlest bull, that I've ever seen. = His name is DOMESTIC MISCHIEF 128 & his "call name" is "Baby Boy". = His mother died when he was 12 hours old, Dr. M_____________ gave him to my kid sister & I brought him home, wrapped in a blanket, in the backseat of my car. = Nancy raised him on a baby bottle, until he was big enough to drink from a calf bucket. - When he grew up, Nancy could ride him bareback, as he thinks that she is: MAMA.)
Note: "Baby Boy" is quite a modest fellow. - NOBODY has ever, to my knowledge, seen him service a cow. - NIGHTIME is his time for "bovine romance", evidently. = I think that that's just: FUNNY.

yours, tex

That is absolutely fantastic! You should have also noted that if you make sure that your children eat no other meat while they are growing up, they will believe that this is the way that meat should taste, ensuring that when they eventually are exposed to anything else, they will find it revolting.

I knew a guy that had a bull like that. Till one day it stomped him into oblivion.

No way to confuse neck and t-bone... A whole lot of ribeyes between.

Lots of different cattle breeds and I bet there is quite a bit more variation than we see in the typical grocery store...

I deal with them a lot. Let me say this, put a grass fed beef half and a grain fed half beef side by side, you would never chose grass fed! They look terrible in my honest opinion. It's all a fad to make more money.

Second question; They didn't cut to far north, but rather south. North would get you a nice porterhouse, south would get you the end loin starting of the sirloin junction which sounds more plausible. Bones kinda turn there a little too if your cutting straight on the band saw.

However, there is a steak right between the t-bone and rib (porterhouse) that can be tough where the muscles change. But you would notice it was a porterhouse because if the loin, unless they cut it off, in which case the steak would look like crap but have a longer T with a straight bone. If there was any injuries to that area would make it tough as well, but being very little marbeling in the meat due to grass fed would make it tougher than others.

Lastly, grass fed cannot hang as long because there is no fat to protect the meat from drying out. Also very little marbeling gives less food for enzymes to break down connective tissues, as well as dry out before a good rendering cooler age can set in. I typically see them hang for under half the time of a really nice grain feed beef. So regardless they won't be as tender if done correctly. And I have to say this; a lot of lockers tell you 12 days, well that's because anything over it they start to rot because of terrible conditions if the cooler. Good beef in a good locker can go for a good 18-28 days without a bit if mold on them and no odor. Meat takes on the cooler off odor and mold runs rapid so some lockers push it out faster.

Just my 2 cent opinion.

Good post - thanks.