(mostly) grassfed beef tips

[FrenchHen]

We bought a half cow from a local guy. She was fed some corn, but was on pasture until she was slaughtered.

I love the flavor of the ground beef.

I'm having trouble cooking the steaks. They're all tough, even at medium rare.

Do I invest in a pointy meat mallet?

I'd appreciate any tips for cooking a real cow

 

[herfrds]

Post a pic of the steaks.
If there is not some marbling or fat through the meat it will be tough.

 

[Kim_NC]

I'm wondering the age of the cow?

We raise grassfed beef. Our steaks are exceptonally lean with little to no marbling - and are exceptionally tender. We cook ribeye, t-bone, ny strip, etc to medium rare and cut them with a butter knife. Customers have told us it's "the best steak I've had in years".

We don't do anything special for cooking - we grill or broil them most often.

I'm really wondering if the cow was past prime butchering age.

 

[FrenchHen]

That's possible. I'm thinking I'll braise the next steaks and see what happens. the ground was wonderful, and sliced thin for stir fry things are tasty.

We've just had problems with the steaks.

 

[Blue Skys]

The grass fed beef I buy is dry aged for 23 days or so... very tender! I don't know thee process to properly age it, but maybe you could look into it??

 

[herefordlovinglady]

how old was the cow? how long did the processor let it hang before cutting?

 

[FrenchHen]

I don't know. This was our first shot at it, so we're obviously learning as we go!

Maybe she was too old.

 

[Kim_NC]

Yep, how long it was hung to age before final processing is also a good question. We always specify a minimum of 18 days - and up to 23, depending on how the slaughterhouse & weekend schedules might fall.