It's Not You, It's The Steak

A lot of folks blame themselves when the steak they grill comes out bland or tough. Well guess what? Time to give yourself a break. It's not you, it's probably the steak.

Seriously, you can do everything right and still have a sorry eating experience. Here are some reasons why:

Zero aged beef. North Americans like their beef to be tender. One key to tender beef is how long and how it's been aged. Aging helps break down muscle fibers to tenderize the beef. In their quest to keep prices low, most grocers and many butchers do not age their beef at all, it goes right from the processor to the store shelf. Look for steaks that have been aged at least 14 days. More on aging in a later post.

The life it led. Most don't want to think about this but raising livestock in stressful conditions can negatively influence both flavor and texture. It's actually pretty logical. Stress hormones change the chemical balance in the meat. In the worst case it can lead to drier, tougher, darker colored meat. Well a lot of commodity (grocery) beef is raised or slaughtered in stressful conditions. A good meat purveyor will be able to tell you with confidence how livestock were handled from farm to fork. Artisan beef is by defition raised with care.

Your steak was raised on drugs. A natural cattle cycle would take up to 3 years from inception to market weight. That's a long time to wait to get paid for raising the beef. Most commodity beef is raised with the use of growth stimulants, including preventative antibiotics and growth hormones, to get it ready for market faster. Both can negatively influence taste & texture.

Bad luck. Not every apple that falls from the tree tastes exactly the same. Even the very best artisan crafted beef can be an occasional miss. If most of the beef from one producer tastes fabulous but then something's not quite right one time, try to pass on that feedback to the purveyor. You never know, they might be able to use the information to improve their program!

The crap shoot. I am not being derogatory here. There are hundreds if not thousands of potential artisan beef producers but today, their beef shows up at the processor's door and comes out the other end on the retail shelf as "Choice" or "Select" or whatever simple label. In my opinion, it would be worth keeping each producer's beef separate so that you and I could appreciate the unique taste and texture of that beef.

The wrong cut. I've certainly made this "mistake." Some muscles get more work than others and exercise = flavor but also tougher meat. The four most popular premium steak cuts, the Filet Mignon, Rib-Eye, New York Strip Loin, or Sirloin, come from the mid-section of a cattle. They can be grilled or pan friend or broiled using high heat. With few exceptions, beef cuts that come from the front or back got used a lot more frequently. It's best to cook most of these cuts, such as a tri-tip or brisket, more slowly either as a roast, smoked, or braised to help tenderize the beef.

Notice that I am not suggesting that you purchased the wrong "Grade" of meat. More on that later, but I will leave you with this thought: USDA Prime beef is not necessarily the most flavorful or most tender meat.

The key to really fabulous tasting beef? Here's the short summary of my "cheat sheet." I'm working on a downloadable version, too.

• Specific ranch or producer group (source-verified).


• Single breed or cross-breed.


• No added growth hormones (steroids, yuck!).


• No preventative antibiotics (if they can't keep healthy without 'em...)


• All vegetable diet, no funky stuff in there like stale chewing gum.


• Treated gently on farm, in truck, at yard (if relevant), & at slaughterhouse.


• Dry-aged or wet-aged for at least 7 days


• Bonus points: certified organic, humane, grass-only diet, holistic.

The Provenance of Beef - Let The Steak Tastings Begin!

Sometimes dreams do come true, and this one was mine.

60 people were on hand - we sold out twice! - as we formally launched our Artisan Beef Institute to the public in tandem with the highly regarded Commonwealth Club of California's 3rd Annual "How We Eat" series.

In the planning for nearly 3 years, The Artisan Beef Institute's(r) "Provenance of Beef(tm)" series combines an interactive expert panel discussion and comparison steak tasting.

Now mind you, this wasn't about tasting different cuts of "Choice" or "Prime" steaks. Designed to appeal to those seeking to support great ranchers and sustainability, this was something entirely new, was one heck of a lot of fun, and as one guest commented, "made me smarter about beef than anyone else I know, how cool is that?!"

The evening began with an interactive expert panel discussing how individual ranchers, butchers, and chefs influence the taste and texture of beef to create connoisseur quality on the plate.

Then, participants were taken through a blind taste test of four different “styles” of beef from different natural ranches, each representing a different breed, region, diet, and aging technique. Guests were encouraged to use a brand new tasting guide developed by ABI (let's face it, meaty, beefy, juicy, and tender pretty much sums up our vocabulary when it comes to beef).

Q&A with members of the panel follows along with a full four-course meal, including wine pairings from Napa’s Atalon Vineyards.

Importantly, panelists stressed how low stress management techniques and sustainable land management aren't just the right things to do, they contribute directly to beef flavor, quality, and texture. (I argue that connoisseur quality beef is by definition raised with care and respect.)

The main takeaway? Relying on USDA Grade or labels such as organic or grass-fed is not enough. No different than with wine, to enjoy genuinely natural or organic, connoisseur quality beef, you need to know the source and to know the details of what is on the plate: the breed, diet, growing region and the husbandry, harvesting, processing and aging techniques.

The other fun takeaway? I just love this as I’ve seen it anecdotally over three years of blind steak tastings but this was a big enough crowd to gauge the statistical probabilities.

When asked to vote for their favorite, the scores were evenly distributed between the four ranches / beef styles.

So there you have it: There is no such thing as the perfect steak!

But there IS a perfect steak for you.

Here are the styles we tasted. Three are in our marketplace www.oliverranch.com and the other, from the fabulous Mac Magruder in Potter Valley, CA, can be found at Café Rouge in Berkeley, Woodlands Market in Kentfield, and on the menu at Oliveto in Berkeley.

• Dry-Aged Charolais, grain-finished, Elliott & Ferris Families, Front Range Region, CO


• Dry-Aged Black Angus-Shorthorn Cross, grass-only, Mac Magruder, Potter Valley, CA


• Wet-Aged Wagyu-Angus Cross, grain-finished, Kobe Beef America, finished in Holdrege, NE


• Wet-Aged Holstein-Friesian, grain-finished, Bob Beechinor, Bakersfield, CA

Why We Don't Need Cloned Meat - Part II

I have created (I think so anyways) some new terminology to describe most beef sold at retail: Zero-Aged Beef.

What does this have to do with cloned livestock? Well, if the Number 1 complaint among meat eaters is tough or inconsistent tasting meat, then proper aging is one half of the solution. (I attempted to summarize the other half in Why We Don't Need Cloned Meat - Part I below.)

Tough beef can be caused by a number of factors, including breed, the specific genetics of a particular beef cattle (think tenderness genes), diet, temperament, and stress (whether natural or man-made). Also, some cuts of beef are just naturally tougher as they come from more active muscle groups. Most beef cuts are indeed rather naturally tough.

One time-honored way to overcome these variables is to tenderize beef by aging it post slaughter. The "traditional" way (pre-1970s as I understand it) is called Dry-Aging. With Dry-Aging, a carcass or certain parts are air-dried in a humidity-controlled cooler for a period of time, most often 14 to 21 days. Enzymes break down muscle tissues, tenderizing the meat. (More details at a later date.)

The "new" way is often referred to as Wet-Aging. In this case, certain parts of the carcass, e.g. the Round or Tenderloin, are wrapped in vacuum-sealed packages and kept in a cold environment for a period of time. While the process is different, the outcome is the same, the beef tenderizes with time.

Unfortunately, both aging techniques are very expensive. A rancher or retailer must carry inventory and storage costs during the aging period. In the case of Dry-Aging, the seller can also lose up to 20% of the original weight of the beef due to moisture loss and the need to trim off the edges, which become dry and inedible.

Because of this higher cost, almost no retailer or food service operator ages beef these days. The end result is Zero-Aged, very often tougher meat.

The cloning companies are correct, they can use genetic selection to optimize beef cattle for tenderness. But ranchers can already use genetic selection for this purpose. It’s not an easy process, can take years to achieve, and is still subject to the whims of nature or Darwinism, but it can be done. I’ll leave the “hows” to a new post.

Dry-Aging or Wet-Aging beef to tenderize beef will not necessarily lead to higher quality or a more consistent taste - see below. But it's a start.

If you do want all three things (consistent tasting, high quality, tender beef) ask the seller questions what steps are being taken to ensure consistent quality, taste, and tenderness.

If you hear something like “We specialize in X breed and get feedback from our processor about each of our cattle and use this to determine which cows and bulls to keep and pair. We also (dry- or wet-) age our beef (a minimum of 7) days,” then you’ll know you’re on the right track.