Grass-fed beef on the menu

[greybeard]

I would expect the burger from beef hung that long to smell more than a little off to most people.
The Argentinians hang their grass-fed a relatively short time and have a good scientific and logical explanation for it.
Cryovac beef I believe has a 60 day expiry date. Makes market timing much less risky. Virtually no shrink. Dry age shrinks 5-7% ? Like 50 to 70 head per 1000 died in the lot before getting to the kill floor.
I think Cryovac is a big part of the reason beef consumption continues to decline. Crappy,tough stinkin beef. But the numbers say it's here to stay.
Good opportunity for direct marketers.

[grassfarmer]

Not at all Greybeard - we get more compliments on our ground beef than anything else - because it DOESN'T stink to high heaven when you cook it. When they cut our beef it's done one half at a time, cut the steaks and roasts and grind the trim then start fresh on the next half. It's all off prime young animals too, not cull cows.

I've been told that in the big plants it's a continuous process of adding trim to a big vat that isn't necessarily cleaned out even between shifts. Hmmm, I wonder if that would make the hamburger smell, or be responsible for the huge scale recalls over ecoli contamination? Some of the very lean old cows that get ground can make some pretty rank tasting beef too.

[gaucho]

I could not disagree with you more GF
and gregbeard on cryovacing. Yes there
is a lot of hype about dry aging but
that is related more to the middles and
high valued cuts for steak houses.
Everyone wants some differentiation for
marketing their restaurant. Yes the flavor can be more intense with dry
aging but it does not guarantee any more
tenderness than wet aging. Dry aging is
a new vogue. .. as far as dry aging hips
and chucks... no one one gives a rats
ass. Shelf life on cryovacted products
is well beyond 60 days and we can get 90
- 120 days on the product provided that
it is kept at minus 1.5 degrees celcius.
The reason consumers are backing off
beef is not cryovac but all the other
shit we put in beef to make it grow
faster and cheaper... implants,
antibiotics, and and beta agonists....
not to mention poor animal management
and husbandry.. yes it all makes beef
production cheaper but it kills,
tenderness, flavor and consistency. The
hotels and restaurants in Europe that we
sell too are some of the highest priced
and managed by the most finicky executive chefs... if our cryovacted
product was not to snuff I doubt we
would be growing at 25%! the 3rd is food safety.... Besides selling it froze how would you think we could sell fresh
chilled beef globally without this
technology? GF nothing against your dry
aged beef... but you should see what
kind of crap is growing on the outside
of your carcass after 3 weeks hanging.
Its a good thing that provincial
inspected plants do not need to do
microbiologicals like salmonella and
ecoli before they are allowed to sell
the product. GF good on you for your
marketing.... that said everything
cargill and XL all do is not part of a
giant conspiracy plot to kill us all.

[grassfarmer]

Fair enough Gaucho, you undoubtedly know more on the beef product end than I do. I agree the reason consumers are backing off beef is " the other
shit we put in beef to make it grow
faster and cheaper... implants,
antibiotics, and and beta agonists...". Equally I realise Cargill and XL are not trying to kill us with their processing methods but they are in the business of processing it faster and cheaper and I'm sure that does entail them cutting corners and endangering human health in some instances. Look at the number and scale of ground beef recalls there has been in recent years, particularly in the US because of ecoli.

[gaucho]

one thing on the ecolis.... look at how we
raise cattle and have them stacked up on
on top of another in feedlots and then add
to this faster and intense line speeds at
the plants.... its no wonder there are
ecoli's...cheaper, faster and more....
thats how it happens

[tman]

And have the animals living in their own feces for how long. Whenever there is a news story about a puppy mill or a house with 17 cats, everyone (except the owners) are appalled and disgusted about the living conditions. But somehow too many people think that it's totally acceptable and fine for livestock who are destined to be our food to live in their own excrement.

I doubt there is a pen rider out there who would think it's acceptable to have their horses living in those conditions.

[rkaiser]

Thanks for the update gaucho. Nice to know you are growing at 25% per year. That either means you will have to help build on at Lacombe or work with us at the Balzac plant.

As for the beef soaking in it's own brine in the cryovac cool aged method. After a bit of experience at our stores, we find that the drier the carcass when bagged, the better. Some of this is due to the methods used at different plants and I have to say that the best product we had processed came from the Canadian Premium Meats boys at Lacombe. Once again proving that size can make a bit of a difference. The small provincial plants seem to cut some corners, mostly due to profit margins. The chances of leakers -- or tiny wholes in the cryovac bags was definitely less prevalent in the CPM product.

I personally feel that dry aging has potential to tenderize the beef, but the extra cost needed to compensate for loss in weight is hard to recapture. It does not change the taste and I don't really think implanted hormones or beta agonists change the taste much either. These are more ethical issues and issues that we are experimenting with on humans; similar to antibiotics. And these experiments do cause tenderness and lean issues.

What can change the taste or flavour is feed, and grass finished definitely has a different flavor. So does corn vs. barley and the addition of peas and some of the other feedstuffs we are working with to trim tab the product in our Second to None stores. The Canadian Celtic product that is. The Heritage Angus product we are buying ( for pricing reasons only) is very good, and packaged well by CPM, but our loyal customers can still taste the difference. Maybe some genetics involved in flavor as well.

Have a great day everyone.

[grassfarmer]

I guess this proves there are horses for every course in the world of beef. Every customer is different - some of mine like my grassfed because they perceive it to be leaner, some because its better marbled and some because the taste is better. Gaucho thinks dry ageing can improve taste but will not definitely make it more tender. Randy reckons dry ageing will make it more tender but won't alter the taste and the shrink loss value is hard to recapture. On the restaurant deal I was talking about a steak runs $40-$65 and you have to pay extra for the potatoes and vegetables to go with it so I think they can recapture the shrink loss pretty easy.

That left me wondering what Randy was talking about with "tiny wholes in the cryovac bags ...." Is that what you get when you use Pharo genetics?

[gaucho]

Randy just so you are aware the points that I put on this sight are scientifically reviewed stats peer reviewed in the Journal of Animal science and other peer reviewed scientific journals... the data is very clear that implants and betagonists effect the sheer force of meat and therfore the tenderness of meat... when these products are used in tandem the effects on meat quality are even greater. I like to stick to facts and not feelings. GF hats off to the reataurant for being able to sell your beef at that price... unfortunatley there are not many like that.

[rkaiser]

I am sorry that your feelings come in to play each time you read and pull out the tiniest bit of information from my posts to tear apart gaucho. so much so that you obviously don't even read my words carefully before reacting.

What I said was that beta agonists and implants do not effect taste, and by the way, taste is more experiential than scientific.

I do not argue, and in fact support the facts with my opinion, that beta agonists and implants change the texture and therfore tenderness of beef.

And it is my "feeling", which I believe I am allowed, that using these experimental procedures, along with antibiotics, is causing colateral damage to the people that conventional beef producers are experimenting on.