I admit I eat too much meat.  One could say, an occupational hazard, but then that would sound like I don’t enjoy it!

I love beef.  I like cows, but I love beef.  I like the fragrance of good beef hanging in a dry aging cooler.  I like the texture, and the color.  I just love beef.  I guess that’s an occupational hazard as well.

I also admit that I am a lazy cook.  My recipes tend toward the practical and the utilitarian.  I never ruin a good cut of beef, but I could do so much better by it.

So over the next couple of blogs I’d like to share my love of beef and also explore some better ways to both cook and enjoy the finished product.  I figure this is a journey of exploration that we both can learn from!

First, let me share what makes good beef, so good.

Cows.  Well bred and well raised, cows are almost Zen.  I like haying them in the early hours, especially when it is cold.  The steam rises off of them while they are munching their hay.  They grab big mouthfuls and roll it around with their tongues as they swallow it whole.  Cows are delayed eaters.  They do a basic munch up front to get it down, but do a more thorough job later when they “chew their cud”.  There is nothing more satisfying than a field full of happy cows, usually laying down, chewing their cud.  It’s a sign that their tummies are full and they are not hungry.

Cows that are happy and not hungry produce great milk, which makes their calves happy and fat.  Happy cows.  Happy calves.  Good meat.  It’s a Zen thing.

The next thing is calm cows.  Calm cows make better mothers.  They make more milk and they make fat calves.  They also tend to make calm calves.  Again, Zen.

The trick is to keep them calm.

Now here is the part you may not want to think about, but it is important.  We want them calm all the way through to the end.  Yes, that is end with a capital E.  You know what I mean.  It’s got to be done.  However, the way it’s done affects the beef.  If the calf is calm right up to the end, then there is no release of adrenalin.  Adrenalin toughens meat and it means the calf has panicked.  We don’t want that!  We want a calm, swift, humane end.  It’s the best for everybody.

So, we’re now past the big E.

Do you ever wonder what’s next?  Well, you should.  Aside from curiosity, how beef carcasses are handled over the next hours determines quality, hygiene, taste, everything.

A carcass is hung and gutted.  It is also under the watchful eye of a State Meat Inspector (at least in the plant we use!).  A skilled butcher will swiftly remove the head and large leg bones, the hide, and internal parts.  Hygiene dictates that he makes sure there is no contamination from either the internal parts or from any outside material (fecal matter).  Once the Inspector is sure of this (and has inspected lymph nodes, heart and liver), the carcass is moved to a chilling cooler.

The reason for the chilling cooler is to let the carcass cool down and set.  The meat is still warm and too soft for cutting.  Rigor mortis needs to set in and then wear off – about 24 hours after the killing.  The carcass can then be moved into the dry aging cooler.  This will now allow a natural chemical process to take place.  Enzymes in the meat break down, this enhances both the tenderness of the meat and concentrates flavors.  Because of the young age of our carcasses – remember BCC processes calves under one year of age, effectively making it rose veal – we only dry age the whole carcass for a week.  Larger, older carcasses – both grass finished and grain fed -  can be hung for up to one month.

Note I said “dry aging”.  This is the time honored – going back thousands of years – way to age beef.  Dry aging works from the outside in.  I (personal opinion) consider it superior to “wet aging”.  Wet aging entails wrapping the carcass in cellophane or cutting the carcass immediately after the cooling period and vacuum packing cuts (you know the ones you see in grocery stores) making them ready for retail.  The “advantage” is wet aging loses no moisture (read weight) out of the cuts.  Its final weight (and retail value) remain unchanged.  This makes wet aging cheaper and the preferred option of many large retailers.  However, it can be argued that letting meat “age” in its own blood while sealed in packs is neither effective nor desirable.

Aging can be taken to another level as well.  Many chefs like to take large sections of the carcass (known as primals) and do additional dry and wet aging.  This is done in a temperature-controlled room (like the dry aging cooler) and allows the meat to concentrate its flavors.  Additional dry aging is an expensive process – as much as twenty percent of the original weight can be lost – but it produces more flavor and tenderness.

Dry aging can also be taken to one more level.  Certain primal cuts – the brisket, the round, the loin – can be hung for several months and turned into “cured” meats.  Bresaola is such a cured meat.

Over the next several blogs, I would like to discuss the various cuts of beef and all the various ways they can be cooked, cured, smoked, and dried.  Beef is amazing!

I guess its just a Zen thing with me.

As many of you know, I've been talking about how much our beef is inspected by the State of Texas, which under the guise of the USDA, is responsible for enforcing Federal regulation on the small processing plant that processes our beef.

Well, it’s just getting worse – and a bit surrealistic!

As I told many of you in my blog last year, beginning in 2012, all meat sold to consumers will have to be labeled for nutrition content.  This means that the sirloin Bastrop Cattle Company sells you must have a little list of how much cholesterol, saturated fats, unsaturated fats, calories, etc. the meat contains (in general) for a serving of four ounces.  Now, the big meatpacking corporation will proudly tell you they already have this done.  Of course, what they won’t tell you is that they have worked hand-in-hand with the USDA to come up with a generic label – based on feed lot, grain fed beef – that can be slapped on all their meat. (I wonder if the lists include the quantity of antibiotics and growth hormones in the meat?).

This leads me to two items:  One, when did beef become a box of cereal?  I mean, exactly how do you determine how much nutrition is contained in cells of protein?  And how do you say "in general" when every cut varies from animal to animal?
Better yet . . . how do you determine what is in the general population of feedlot animals versus grass fed, or organically raised animals?
Am I being paranoid to think that these kinds of labels will favor the big agroindustrial producers with their oh so homogenous “product”?

Even more troubling – and detrimental to grass-fed, free-range cattle operations like ours – is that we can either use this labeling, thus giving the “big boys” the opportunity to say, we’re selling the same thing they are.  Or, we can have every cut of our meat sent out for independent sampling (minimum $25.00 a sample), and have our own labels made up.  Oh, and by the way, since we’re NOT using the USDA label, we will be open to much more scrutiny and continued inspection by the USDA – of which we will have to pay for more sampling to prove that our labels are truthful.

But wait, it doesn’t stop there.

We have also been informed that we will need to start labeling and vacuum packing our bones for dogs!

Apparently, the fear is that some of you are snatching those oh-so-good bones away from Fido and using them yourself!  Since this meat is all State Inspected beef, the Texas Health Department has decided that we need to protect both you and Fido from unwanted pathogens, by wrapping all meat in vacuum-sealed packs, and labeling it!

Now, I just have one question – does Fido read?

I asked CiCi, our Quality Control Expert if she had been perusing nutrition labels lately.  From her seat of power on the office couch (where she was taking her late, mid-morning power nap), she opened one eye.

“No,” she answered.

“But aren’t you concerned about the nutritional content of your food?” I asked incredulously!

“About as much as how fat my ass looks in the mirror”.

“But you never look in the mirror”.

“I’m glad you’re following the drift of this conversation,” she muttered as she buried her head deeper into the pillow.

“But reading the labels would enlighten you”.

“Are the labels salient?”

“No, but that’s not the point.  If you read the labels you will become more aware of what you’re eating.  This will help you make better choices”.

“If the labels are gibberish, what’s the point?”

“Knowledge is a good thing”.

“There is a difference between information and knowledge.  Gibberish is not even information, it’s static,” her head popped up slightly to make a point, “if the labels are accurate, that’s one thing, but if the information is merely generalized data, has no context and I can’t relate it to my own life, how is it suppose to help?”

“It gives you a place to start,” I answered with a bit of condescension.

“No, it doesn’t.  It just acts to confuse me,” she answered, and shot me an evil sign with her paw.  “If you want to be helpful, just tell me the truth and let me make up my own mind,” she yawned, and closed her eyes, “I’m not stupid.  I can smell out a bad bone when I meet one”.

Dogs are such noble creatures!  And if you have a problem with me carrying on a conversation with CiCi, just remember I live in a world where the USDA and the Texas Health Department expect her to read!