So, I prepared my grass-fed T-bone on the grill last night. For a fair comparison to the usual fare, I treated it exactly as I do every other piece of grilled meat with some Kon-Rico Cajun spice rub. In the interest of full disclosure, I wasn’t able to compare apples to apples (sort of) because the farm I bought the T-bone from didn’t have my usual cut, a New York strip.
An aside is in order here. When I went to the Farmer’s Market, I met Mary, a lithe and helpful lass, easy on the eyes. I inquisited her in re her beef’s pedigree: Where is your farm located? What do you feed them? Do you use drugs? What is the best cut you have available? What do you recommend?
Mary, to her credit, was as truthful as she was vivacious: “I’m not the right person to ask. I’m a vegetarian.”
You have to give the farmer credit for his marketing acumen. As for his beef raising skills…
The grass-fed meat had a “different” flavor which I can not describe adequately. I was struck by a strange sensation at one point during my repast; it reminded me of being on the ocean. I have no idea why that occurred to me, but I’m all about full disclosure.
The texture contrasted with the grain-fed beef I’m accustomed to consuming. When the meat fibers separated, it wasn’t a clean break; it was more like a tearing away. The fibers were sort of “clingy” like when you pull chewing gum off your shoe. Long fibrous strings of meat clung to the bone. That was unexpected, and I offer no explanation based upon anything other than conjecture (one might ponder the difference between kernels of corn breaking free and trying to pull a stalk of grass apart). I couldn’t really discern any difference whilst masticating.
One other thing I noticed which varied from store to farm fare: the farm steak was bloodier in its package than the usual store variety. However, once cooked and under attack by knife and fork, the farm meat didn’t “ooze” as much juice onto the plate as a store cut. That was kind of weird, but I guess the grass-fed beef, once cooked, retained more moisture? I have no idea.
In any event, it was pretty good. The package came, surprisingly, with two steaks inside, so I had one left over for breakfast (I cooked them both).
Now I’m in search of chicken and pork to compare with store-bought animal flesh…
