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Grass fed beef vs grain fed


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I don't think you'll find any top steakhouse in North America serving grass-fed (aka beef that hasn't been fattened on grain) beef.

At the same time, top steakhouses in South America usually serve grass-fed beef, I think.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
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In Britain, esp. Scotland which is where the best beef here comes from, and in Italy the best beef (or what is generally considered to be the best beef) is generally grass-fed. It tends to be leaner than grain-fed beef, but allegedly has better flavour.

Here is a link to an article (originally from the New York Times) about this: NYTimes article

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Does anyone know if the USDA currently allows Argentine beef (overwhelmingly grass-fed) to be imported into the US? I think this has gone back and forth over the years due to foot and mouth concerns.

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MadVal, Seattle, WA

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One thing you certainly notice when reading about grass-fed and grain-fed beef is that the overwhelming majority of arguments for grass-fed beef are not flavor-related. Articles that show (implicitly or explicitly) an editorial perspective favoring grass-fed beef often carefully avoid addressing the issue of flavor head on. Whereas, most of what you hear in defense of grain-fed beef, at least at the premium level of the market, is that it tastes better. Certainly, it's going to be difficult to get the kind of marbling and tenderness one sees in a Peter Luger steak with an all-grass diet. I'm told the best grass-fed steaks from South America have great flavor, but aren't as tender and luscious as the American Western grain fed steaks. That certainly seems to be what my limited comparative tasting experience indicates.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I have an acquaintance who raises a few grass-fed cattle, and once in a while we go to his place for a cook-out, where steaks from his farm are featured.

In a word, I find the taste simpler. It lacks a bass note, if I can indulge in a bit of musical metaphor. This is not due to aging, or not entirely; he has the meat dry-aged for 21 days. There is a grassy or vegetal note to it as well, but I'm not certain that I'm not projecting.

He sells quarters, and one year we took him up on it. Except for short-loin cuts that use high-heat methods, I was disappointed. Braises and burgers just didn't have the depth that I like. But an occasional grass-fed steak is a nice change, kind of like roasting a turkey once in a while instead of a chicken. I like it, truth be told, but it's not going to replace grain-fed beef in my menu rotation.

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Does anyone know if the USDA currently allows Argentine beef (overwhelmingly grass-fed) to be imported into the US?  I think this has gone back and forth over the years due to foot and mouth concerns.

AFAIK, Argentine beef has been allowed in the US since summer 1997. As with any import, this can change short or long term as the result of politics, cattle diseases, etc.

Pampa on Amsterdam and 98th serves Argentine beef.

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In The Atlantic Corby Kummer has a nice article on corn-fed vs. grass fed as well as some links to a couple of places for buying grass-fed beef.

Atlantic Online

Corby Kummer's article is the sort of whiny, agendized, blatantly political piece that is almost universal in the literature that argues for grass-fed beef. You can see in it a certain degree of desperation to prove that grass-fed tastes better, yet the key points of comparison are carefully avoided. Is there a single first-person comment on the steaks by which normal people would tend to judge the quality of beef: the strip, the tenderloin, the porterhouse, the rib eye? Kummer rests his whole argument on brisket and generalized language not befitting a serious food writer, and makes one reference to somebody else's tasting that favored Pasture Perfect filet mignon. It would be nice to see some honesty and forthrightness in these discussions: if one tastes better than the other, just say so, and let people decide if they favor taste or other considerations. For all I know, grass-fed beef from Argentina really is as good as American Western grain fed, but every time I read something like the Kummer piece, or Fast Food Nation, or the New York Times piece, my doubts increase.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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AFAIK, Argentine beef has been allowed in the US since summer 1997.  As with any import, this can change short or long term as the result of politics, cattle diseases, etc.

In William Grimes's June 20, 2003 "Diner's Journal," he writes:

For the time being, government health regulations bar imports of Argentine beef, so diners who hanker after grass-fed steaks will have to make a big detour.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...755C0A9659C8B63

In addition, my understanding is that when beef from Argentina has been allowed into the country, only the boneless cuts have been permitted.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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AFAIK, Argentine beef has been allowed in the US since summer 1997.  As with any import, this can change short or long term as the result of politics, cattle diseases, etc.

In William Grimes's June 20, 2003 "Diner's Journal," he writes:

For the time being, government health regulations bar imports of Argentine beef, so diners who hanker after grass-fed steaks will have to make a big detour.

In addition, my understanding is that when beef from Argentina has been allowed into the country, only the boneless cuts have been permitted.

I think you're right about the boneless cuts. As for the rest of it, that is probably true for the time being due to hoof and mouth in Argentina. I do know that they were allowing it into the US in the late 90s, and hopefully will again when hoof and mouth is under control in Argentina.

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Argentine beef was (and might again be) allowed into the US--but only boneless cuts, packed in cryovac. So. You've got a leaner, tougher, less flavorful piece of meat--that's been soaking in its blood inside plastic for God knows how long . And you can't even dry-age it.

Sound good? Not to me.

abourdain

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Tony, maybe you've been to Argentina. Have you tasted beef down there? Is it better, or on par with US? I keep wondering if its import is being restricted because US producers don't want the competition.

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Argentine beef was (and might again be) allowed into the US--but only boneless cuts, packed in cryovac. So. You've got a leaner, tougher, less flavorful piece of meat--that's been soaking in its blood inside plastic for God knows how long . And you can't even dry-age it. 

Sound good? Not to me.

That's too bad. I was hoping that I might be able to get some and do an actual head to head taste test vs. prime grain fed steaks of the same cut. So much for that experiment.

Chief Scientist / Amateur Cook

MadVal, Seattle, WA

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Perhaps this is oversimplifying things a bit, but I can't help wondering: if grass-fed beef tastes so great, why doesn't Lobel's sell it?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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what makes a good steak is very simple. Fat( intramucular ie; marbleing), age and breed. In my humble opinion nothing beats a youngangus or angus-herferd cross finished on grain for 120 days and it only gets better when left on grain up to 200 days.

But keep in mind, like it or not it's a beauty contest. Not every animal is going to taste good even with the above criteria.

PETA: people eating tasty animals

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I spent a week in Venezuela in the early 90s and ate a large amount of grass-fed beef. This was a long time ago, so while I have fond memories of the experience, I don't remember exact taste notes. We ate at some serious beef restaurants, though (the US dollar went a long way), and I remember the beef being good but not as good as the best beef I'd had in the US. Not exactly a scientific comparison. On the whole, I'd rather see people's energy put into figuring out how to make grain-fed beef more environmentally and ethically sound.

Matthew Amster-Burton, aka "mamster"

Author, Hungry Monkey, coming in May

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Fat Guy wrote:

I don't think you'll find any top steakhouse in North America serving grass-fed beef.

Acme Chophouse in San Francisco serves grass-fed. I haven't been, but its reputation is stellar. Traci des Jardins, the big cheese there, was nominated for Best Chef/CA by the folks at James Beard this year. The restaurant was reviewed, coincidentally, in last week's SF Weekly. The link will likely be good for only a few days, but here you go:

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2003-07-02/...ml/1/index.html

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Interesting. I've never heard of the place, but I've heard of her other restaurant. I wonder if all the beef is grass-fed or just the occasional cut. On the menu, it says they use Niman Ranch for all meat except whatever they get from Western Grasslands (Niman Ranch is grain-fed). Only one steak on the menu actually says it's grass fed. Still, I'd like to try it sometime.

http://www.acmechophouse.com/dinnermenu.html

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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