Grass Fed Cows

ldyminerva
ldyminerva Posts: 21
edited December 24 in Food and Nutrition
I've been looking into (as of an hour ago) this "clean eating" thing...But before that I have been wanting to buy part of a cow for some time now. I am wondering if anyone has bought a grass fed cow and can tell me about the taste difference? I found and emailed a place not too far from me yesterday, still waiting to hear back, that I’m interested in. Their website said they would send us a free sample, but I’m an impatient person and I want to know what strangers I’ve never meet and who properly have much different taste than I do think, because that is what we do now! :laugh:

Thanks
Jenny
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Replies

  • chris1816
    chris1816 Posts: 715 Member
    I used to live in Argentina, everything there is grass fed, and delicious.

    I've been disapointed by steak anywhere else in the world though.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    Before I had grass-fed beef, I would eat the Walmart 97/3 Very Lean and remembered it was very dry and crumbly. I then purchased the same lean cut of grass-fed beef and it was very moist and tender. Now I stick with 90/10 grass-fed beef from Sprouts. But there is no comparison between the two-its yummy with Katsu sauce.
  • ldyminerva
    ldyminerva Posts: 21
    Thank you...I worry about the taste, I married a Texan after all. And my dad, an ex-pig farmer, says I should go grain fed for the taste, but everything I've read leads me to believe that I want grass fed. Now if only I could find someone to go halves on a cow with me!
  • ldyminerva
    ldyminerva Posts: 21
    Ha! you're both in Texas! That makes me giggle a little!
  • mjsunshine16
    mjsunshine16 Posts: 251 Member
    love grass fed.
  • lauleipop
    lauleipop Posts: 260 Member
    There is nothing better than grass-fed beef. I'll never go back to grain-fed. You won't be disappointed.

    (Note: I'm a Texas transplant. Born and raised in Houston, now residing in Denver)
  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
    Nothing better than grass fed beef as everyone else has mentioned.

    Make sure to ask questions to see if they are grass fed 3/4 of the time and then grain fed the last couple of months.........

    You will start wanting butter and other dairy products from grass fed cows also...........nothing compares.
  • MonicaT1972
    MonicaT1972 Posts: 512
    There's no difference it's all in people's heads.

    What makes the supermarket meat different is the additives put in it after the fact to keep it looking pretty for longer on the shelf.

    Grass fed well exercised meat will actually be tougher as just like us on the site here they have more muscle leading to tougher meat.
  • Marll
    Marll Posts: 904 Member
    Yes, just put in an order for 1/2 a cow here in Washington and I have a friend that have about 400lbs of grassfed beef of various cuts in his freezer now. NOTHING compares to his naturally raised, all grass fed beef. Supermarket (even very nice cuts) taste bland and flavorless in comparison.

    Grain fed beef has it's purpose in getting the cow to get fat and marble the meat with fat for more flavor...the thing is that while grass fed beef is much leaner by nature, the fat and meat themselves are MUCH more flavorful than anything grain fed.

    Feeding a cow grain will also eventually kill it (no joke), and why they normally only do that during the finishing phase before butchering. Nothing beats giving a cow exactly what they were designed to eat.

    I liken it also (for thost that like fish a lot) to the taste and texture of wild caught fish and farm raised fish...nothing compares to a fresh wild catch.
  • chris1816
    chris1816 Posts: 715 Member
    There's no difference it's all in people's heads.

    What makes the supermarket meat different is the additives put in it after the fact to keep it looking pretty for longer on the shelf.

    Grass fed well exercised meat will actually be tougher as just like us on the site here they have more muscle leading to tougher meat.

    You're high.

    The cows I ate in Argentina were the most tender, flavorful, heavenly pieces of dead animal I have ever had the pleasure of eating and they were all grass fed.

    Why are you making me revisit this? I'm sad now, I've yet to eat any steak that came close.
  • Marll
    Marll Posts: 904 Member
    There's no difference it's all in people's heads.

    What makes the supermarket meat different is the additives put in it after the fact to keep it looking pretty for longer on the shelf.

    Grass fed well exercised meat will actually be tougher as just like us on the site here they have more muscle leading to tougher meat.

    I don't know where you get your meat, but there really is a big difference. There flavor is MUCH, how shall I say, BEEFIER. Some may liken that to a more gamey flavor, but that is the taste of cow naturally.

    Also, who said anything about exercised beef? Have you ever seen a cow in pasture? They pretty much just stand around and eat all day...not a lot of running done by cows.

    Most cows that are butchered for meat are done so at about 2 years of age, maybe a bit younger or older depending on the size. Anything older is generally not butchered for sale, or will be used at hamburger and stew meats. It's like chickens, older chickens are sold as stewing hens and not as young fryers because as they age they get tougher.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    There's no difference it's all in people's heads.

    What makes the supermarket meat different is the additives put in it after the fact to keep it looking pretty for longer on the shelf.

    Grass fed well exercised meat will actually be tougher as just like us on the site here they have more muscle leading to tougher meat.

    ^^^ This, to an extent.

    Grass-fed or more to the point "cow is allowed to move around a lot" beef will tend to be leaner. Leaner is healthier in terms of protein/fat ratio, but not necessarily tastier or more desirable, and certainly not moister.

    But, a lot of "grass fed" beef is LOCAL product, especially if you're buying a fraction of a critter and having it custom-butchered for you. Since the presumption is that you know what you are buying, they don't add red dye and pretend it's blood instead of red-dyed water. People think "red=fresh" for meat, when "red = {fresh OR supermarket added red dye}".

    Local product means it hasn't been transported as far, hasn't been stored as long in cold rooms, hasn't had dyes added to make the meat look artificially better because the meat has "browned" as it should, etc. So you'll end up with a (tendency toward) leaner meat, with a tendency to taste better because it's fresh.

    I'm going to go out on a limb and say for most people... if you had recently-slaughtered grass-fed beef and recently-slaughtered grain-fed beef, you'd probably lean toward the grain-fed. It'll be juicier because there's more fat in it.
  • fiveohmike
    fiveohmike Posts: 1,297 Member
    Grass fed sucks.

    If you dont have beef that is massaged, brushed, fed beer and tended to by 973 year old Japanese men, the beef just sucks.

    Wagyu!
  • Marll
    Marll Posts: 904 Member
    There's no difference it's all in people's heads.

    What makes the supermarket meat different is the additives put in it after the fact to keep it looking pretty for longer on the shelf.

    Grass fed well exercised meat will actually be tougher as just like us on the site here they have more muscle leading to tougher meat.

    You're high.

    The cows I ate in Argentina were the most tender, flavorful, heavenly pieces of dead animal I have ever had the pleasure of eating and they were all grass fed.

    Why are you making me revisit this? I'm sad now, I've yet to eat any steak that came close.

    He's right. I ate at a steak house in Hanau, Germany that was run by a man from Argentina, imported all his meat....best steaks I've ever had in my life. Some of the local grass fed in Washington State comes close, but it's still not as good as true Argentine beef.
  • RunningDirty
    RunningDirty Posts: 293
    I only eat grass-fed beef, but just like any meat you have to find a good farm/distributor.
  • marsellient
    marsellient Posts: 591 Member
    Totally grass fed beef is tougher than grain fed or grain finished, so you may have to adjust your cooking techniques for some cuts. It tastes like I remember the beef from our own small farm tasting when I was a kid. It's the same with chicken that is out running around rather than factory farmed.
  • Joanne_8595
    Joanne_8595 Posts: 64 Member
    I'm very sensitive to flavor and smell of meat and can tell you that a grass fed cow has a stronger flavor and tougher texture then do the ones that aren't. The flavor and texture increases if it's been raised in an area where it's allowed to range a wide area of forest and grasslands, vs simply pastures. The flavor will also be stronger the longer the meat is allowed to hang before it is cut up, but the texture improves and it's not nearly as tough the longer you hang it. The lightest tasting, tenderest beef (not including those spoiled japanese steers) is grain fed (corn), the longer it's grain fed the better, but if you buy it from a farmer who only raises a few each year and it's butchered by a local butcher chances are you will get healthy tender meat but it will be higher in fat content.

    There are range fed beef all around me, but they still have to take them to huge feed lots to be butchered by a big slaughterhouse in my area. The small farmer though takes his down to the local butcher and can control how he feeds his animals a lot better. Make sure you research who you are buying from and where it is being taken to be butchered, it really does make a difference in how "clean" your meat is.
  • chris1816
    chris1816 Posts: 715 Member
    I'm very sensitive to flavor and smell of meat and can tell you that a grass fed cow has a stronger flavor and tougher texture then do the ones that aren't. The flavor and texture increases if it's been raised in an area where it's allowed to range a wide area of forest and grasslands, vs simply pastures. The flavor will also be stronger the longer the meat is allowed to hang before it is cut up, but the texture improves and it's not nearly as tough the longer you hang it. The lightest tasting, tenderest beef (not including those spoiled japanese steers) is grain fed (corn), the longer it's grain fed the better, but if you buy it from a farmer who only raises a few each year and it's butchered by a local butcher chances are you will get healthy tender meat but it will be higher in fat content.

    There are range fed beef all around me, but they still have to take them to huge feed lots to be butchered by a big slaughterhouse in my area. The small farmer though takes his down to the local butcher and can control how he feeds his animals a lot better. Make sure you research who you are buying from and where it is being taken to be butchered, it really does make a difference in how "clean" your meat is.


    Make it a point to travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Go to any restaurant downtown, or even in the suburb areas (Accasuso, San Isidro etc), you won't find a place where the food is not mazing.

    Order the lomo, or bife de chorizo.

    It will be like a rape of your taste buds you don't want to admit that you enjoyed so much.

    And those cows sure don't eat corn.
  • Marll
    Marll Posts: 904 Member
    Grain fed beef, while generally what I've ate for many years, is something that I don't want to continue to eat if I can avoid it. Cows are not meant to eat grain and it acutally makes them very sick over time. I'd rather eat a healthier animal that might be tougher (though not in my experience at all).
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    I was raised on grassfed.

    Not that long ago, I bought a fair amount of hamburger from the store to make a dish. I normally don't buy beef due to the price.

    Since I had extra, I decided to cook one as a hamburger and eat it. Even though it was much, much fattier than I was used to (the hamburger from our farm is from non-breeding cows so tends to be older and leaner), it was damn near inedible. Absolutely, totally bland. I covered it in ketchup and ate it anyway, but yeck.

    I don't find the slight extra toughness to be an issue, but you do have to cook it with more care.
  • Rhea30
    Rhea30 Posts: 625 Member
    Before I had grass-fed beef, I would eat the Walmart 97/3 Very Lean and remembered it was very dry and crumbly. I then purchased the same lean cut of grass-fed beef and it was very moist and tender. Now I stick with 90/10 grass-fed beef from Sprouts. But there is no comparison between the two-its yummy with Katsu sauce.

    I love the beef at Sprouts!!! I never had such good beef before until eating some of theirs.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    I agree that grass fed beef is better tasting but even if it's not and it only just as good, look what you gain. No homones, no anti biotics, freshness. I just looks better! If you can get a part of a cow butcherd and at a reasonable price, do it!
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
    I eat beef from this farm frequently: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/2011/07/25/salad-bar-beef/

    I don't find the taste or texture significantly different than grocery store beef. It's a little bit 'beefier' - if that makes sense, but I have found it's always juicy and tender.
  • mikeyboy
    mikeyboy Posts: 1,057 Member
    I get hay fed, stall kept, local raised herford beef.... the best I have had.
  • Bobby_Clerici
    Bobby_Clerici Posts: 1,828 Member
    I use both grain and grass fed.
    Overall, I prefer grain fed with more fat-marbling which is better tasting, and it's less expensive.
    The grass fed is healthier, and it's "politically correct"...lol
    When I grill, I always go with grain fed T-Bones or Rib-eyes, but for my healthy dishes, I will toss in an organic beef blend from 5 star meats.
    They deliver, but the meat cost twice what I can pick up at the market.
    I do not know if it's worth the extra cost really. Decide for yourself and just see what works best for you.
    Anyway, I wish you well with your meal planning.
    ENJOY!:drinker:
  • paulwgun
    paulwgun Posts: 439 Member
    I used to live in Argentina, everything there is grass fed, and delicious.

    I've been disapointed by steak anywhere else in the world though.

    So you obviously have not eaten Welsh Black beef, or Aberdeen Angus then ?

    Or to take it a step further Kobe beef ?
  • Honka1
    Honka1 Posts: 5 Member
    A lot of places will let you buy even just a quarter of a cow. Last year I bought a 1/2 cow which was... 200+ lbs of meat delivered to me. Freezer was PACKED. I let the farmer walk me through picking cuts and sizes, but they had a premade form with suggested portions (1lb bags, 1/2in thick filets etc etc). These cows were grass fed and grass finished, effectively organic too but hadnt been certified. TASTED GREAT. Definately different flavor and texture, good red color. The ribeyes and filets werent as red as I am used to, but maybe that just means the stores dye their cuts more often than I thought! My only problem was that I got a few pieces that I didnt know what to do with. This farms products were all flash frozen (CO2 poured on it) with good packaging so it never got freezer burn, and I eventually figured out what to do with the odd cuts. Same experience with the pigs I bought. The only part I didnt like as much as store bought... the bacon. I actually liked Oscar Meyers' better... but the breakfast sausage was insanely good!
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
    We purchased a quarter cow and have tried most of the cuts. The flavor is spectacular. The texture of most of the cuts was more difficult than the grain-fed we were used to -- tougher and chewier -- but we did some research and adjusted our cooking methods (or I should say, I did the research and my mom adjusted, as I don't cook meat). Texture problems went away.
  • chris1816
    chris1816 Posts: 715 Member
    I used to live in Argentina, everything there is grass fed, and delicious.

    I've been disapointed by steak anywhere else in the world though.

    So you obviously have not eaten Welsh Black beef, or Aberdeen Angus then ?

    Or to take it a step further Kobe beef ?

    Kobe beef, yes, it's good, but I prefer Argentine steak still. I have not had any Australian beef though I heard it comes very close.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    I used to live in Argentina, everything there is grass fed, and delicious.

    I've been disapointed by steak anywhere else in the world though.

    So you obviously have not eaten Welsh Black beef, or Aberdeen Angus then ?

    Or to take it a step further Kobe beef ?

    I haven't had Welsh Black or Aberdeen Angus but I have had Kobe and honeslty, I was unimpressed. Oh, it was good but not $75 a pound good. The value vs. the price was just not appealing to me. I was on a corporate expense account dinner so it wan't my dime but I've never felt the desire to repeat the experience in the 12 years since.
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