Home grown meat?

readytomove

Is there any reliable way to judge meat that is NOT bought at the store? My husband and I are from farms in WV, so our meat comes from animals that our families have raised. For the main part, it's pretty lean, and I really don't eat the steaks much anyway (they're HUGE t-bones), so I leave them for my husband, but as far as the ground meat and everything goes, I'm at a loss. I've thought about just buying our meat from the store, but it's really expensive, and not only that, really greasy! I made a meatloaf one time from some store bought hamburger, and before it was done I had to drain the grease off twice! With our normal meat, there's barely any grease to drain off......

What should I do?

readytomove

Is there any reliable way to judge meat that is NOT bought at the store? My husband and I are from farms in WV, so our meat comes from animals that our families have raised. For the main part, it's pretty lean, and I really don't eat the steaks much anyway (they're HUGE t-bones), so I leave them for my husband, but as far as the ground meat and everything goes, I'm at a loss. I've thought about just buying our meat from the store, but it's really expensive, and not only that, really greasy! I made a meatloaf one time from some store bought hamburger, and before it was done I had to drain the grease off twice! With our normal meat, there's barely any grease to drain off......

What should I do?

MontanaGirl

I eat home grown beef also - I usually log it as 95% lean - there is so little fat, but I know there is some. The steaks are great and the calories really aren't that bad. You could have 1/2 of one for dinner and then cut up the other half the next day in a salad - works really good and is reasonable on calories. Thats what I do - good luck!!

barracudamuscle

That's a tough question, wish I knew the exact answer for you, I did a little research for you and came up with a couple different websites that might help you "ball park" your meat.

http://www.wegmans.com/pdf/nutrition/beef.pdf More like a Omaha steak place

http://www.askthemeatman.com/beef_nutritional_values.htm A do it yourself butcher website pretty cool!

If all else fails send me your cows ( preferably dead ) and I'll send you store bought meat!:laugh: Good luck!

readytomove

Thanks for the suggestions.....:bigsmile: My husband made a good point....Why get meat that you don't know what it was fed or has been through, when you can eat the meat that you know ALL about, what it's been fed, even who its parents were and how they tasted! (I hope I'm not offending anyone......:ohwell:

I guess that it's worth maybe not knowing the total calories in order to get that kind of peace of mind.....

annhjk

I grew up on a farm so I TOTALLY understand having "real" beef.

One other idea is that the next time you get one butchered you could ask the locker/butcher to make it as lean as possible. I know my mom does that so I figure it's probably about 95/95% lean.

And I drain off any of the grease when I'm browning it too.