Food Blogger Playdate 2 - Artisan Steak Tasting

Wondering just what happens at one of my Artisan Beef Institute (TM) "Provenance of Beef (TM)" steak tastings?

Well, now, thanks to Mark Tafoya and Jennifer Iannolo of The Culinary Media Network, you can take a sneak peek at a live tasting in this fabulous video. (It's actually fun to watch some of the world's best known bloggers arm wrestle over which farm created the best tasting steak.)


It's like a wine tasting, but with steaks!(TM)

Here's how it works. I cherry pick up to six ranchers or farmers whom I've qualified as producing artisan quality meat and then, as in a wine tasting, have participants taste a steak or hamburger from each ranch in a side-by-side comparison. It's amazing how truly great ranchers, in combination with artisan butchers, can create unique, signature style tastes and textures.

Mark and Jennifer are two of the most inspirational and generous souls I've met and they kindly invited me to their Food Blogger Playdate 2 along with Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, Grace Piper of Fearless Cooking, Betty Fussell, award winning author of Raising Steaks (my personal hero), The Life and Times of American Beef, Olga Massov of Sassy Radish, Charles Hope of Blip.tv, and Tommy Hong (he's an ER doctor and also our very gracious host).

Also, a special thanks to Anu Karwa of Swirl Events. Anu is a real sport, she doesn't even eat beef but came to the tasting and carefully selected four great wines to pair with our delicious Rib-Eye steaks.

Look for more opportunities to join a tasting in the coming months including private wine and artisan steak pairing dinners in the New York City area with Chef Mark and Anu Karwa's Swirl Events.

And, for those who'd like to know which ranch or farm was voted #1? Well here's something different: I never look for "the winner." Instead, as you'll see in the video, we have different taste buds and priorities when it comes to buying and enjoying beef.

That said, I will share the five beef styles we did taste. Four are currently available in a home Discover Beef Experience Artisan Steak Tasting kit. Here's a short description of the farms and here's a side-by-side comparison.

We also had the honor of tasting delicious dry-aged, grass-finished Galloway beef from the Beechy Family in Wisconsin, brought to us by Grass Fed Traditions. I am looking forward to including beef from the Grass Fed Traditions network in my next home artisan steak tasting kit. If you want to try it now, pay them a visit!

McWilliams Responds to Pork Fooforaw

If you enjoy thought provoking discussions about food - the good, bad, and the ugly - but haven't been reading The Atlantic's Food section of late, take a gander.

I was impressed in particular with their inviting James McWilliams to respond to those who have criticized his recent New York Times Op-Ed, in which he declared that free-range pigs carry more disease than those raised in confined quarters.

Most of the fooforaw - and McWilliams' thoughtful response to it - has centered on whether what he said was true. Without rehashing the points, he essentially admits he may have erred on a technical point and asks that his critics meet him halfway.

Absolutely, I will do this. But now that we've potentially cleared the air over the validity of his claims, let us focus on the rest of the article. My objections, listed in this post, still stand.

I sure would love to have McWilliams comment on these points, too.

Don't Eat That Pork: Trichy Words From The Prof

The New York Times featured an Op-Ed entitled "Free-Range Trichinosis" from a history professor in Austin, Texas, James E. McWilliams. I initially found this article hard to respond to because I felt the author said a lot without saying anything at all. The more I considered it, the more I understood his real message and the need to blunt the impact of his words.

The author's intended take-away is clear: Free-range pork will make you sick. The science proves it.

Marion Nestle, a well-known expert on nutrition and food politics doyenne, quickly shot down this conclusion with two simple observations that call into question the author's objectivity. See below for details or this nice post over on CivilEats.

Unfortunately, Ms. Nestle's response is not likely to be given equal air time as that given to Mr. McWilliams. Further, she does not address several other things that McWilliams says directly or indirectly with which I take issue.

Issue #1: McWilliams impugns the integrity of those raising and promoting pork from free-range pigs. Indeed, he insinuates that they are disingenuous hacks because the pigs they promote aren't really free range, anyways.

Here McWilliams takes advantage of the fact that there is no single definition of the words "free range." He has a potentially valid point: the only truly "natural" pork would be that from pigs found, and killed, in the wild. He correctly notes that the pork most food connoisseurs and sustainability advocates promote is ... "ultimately an arbitrary point between the wild and the domesticated."

Yet he goes on to cynically say that "A free-range system is engineered in part to achieve a producer’s market-driven goal: protecting his squealing investments from nature’s most obvious threats while allowing them a modicum of muscle-enhancing movement... [so he can] generate flesh retailing for $12 a pound."

What makes a farmer who designs his or her husbandry program to allow pigs to move around outdoors and socialize with other pigs and even root for their own food on occasion any more calculating than the one who chooses to raise his pigs "indoors, fighting their diseases with medicine and feeding them a carefully monitored diet"?

Further, why is the farmer who charges $12 per pound any less virtuous than one who sells her pork for less?

No doubt that there are hacks out there who take advantage of ill-defined claims such as "natural" or "heart heathy" or "free range" in an attempt to snooker the consumer into paying more, perhaps even $12 per pound. In fact, one needn't look any further than one's own cupboard to find dozens of examples of specious claims.

But perhaps that farmer whose pork commands $12 per pound is providing full transparency into her husbandry practices or is loved by her customers or both. Heck, maybe she's even selling better tasting pork.

Further, if this producer selling her pork at a premium price is ultimately found to be taking advantage of her customers by selling them a bill of goods (remember White Marble Farms "all natural" pork?) she will no longer be able to charge $12 per pound because her customers will abandon her.

The truth of the matter is that there is no single "best" set of protocols for raising clean, tasty food. In my opinion, it is also impossible to create a single definition or marketing claim that perfectly encapsulates best practices. Gray areas will always exist and best practices is in the eyes of the beholder.

So rather than do as Mr. McWilliams has done and call one group of farmers fakes, let's encourage all producers - individual farmers, co-ops, or brands - to open their protocols to public scrutiny and let us customers vote with our pocketbooks as to whom to support.

Issue #2. The author also impugns those of us who are actively seeking an alternative to CAFO raised pork.

Mr. McWilliams seems particularly put off by the idea that people should want their food to actually taste good. "Pork lovers, supporters of sustainable meat and slow-food advocates have long praised the superior taste of the free-range option," he writes. But he then follows this with the suggestion that, because free-range pork isn't really natural, "neither is its taste." Ergo, the real reason these people want free-range pork is because they "despise industrial agriculture and adore the idea of wildness."

Sir, there may be some who seek outdoor-raised pork for sentimental, ethical, or similar reasons other than taste and texture. What's wrong with that?

Issue #3. The author suggests that if we continue to promote and eat free-range pork then we are unethical.

Since Mr. McWilliams argues that the only way to create pork that doesn't make you sick is to raise pigs indoors, he challenges those of us seeking tastier meat to look for better indoor solutions. Unless we accept this, he says, "there’s only one ethical choice left for the conscientious consumer: a pork-free diet."

Here I think Mr. McWilliams could have a fair point. It makes intuitive sense that eating genuinely wild pork (or game or whatever) carries a higher risk than eating meat raised under the watchful eye of a talented, ethical farmer.

If eating pigs raised in any outdoor conditions is ever proven to in fact dramatically increase the probability of contracting food borne illnesses, and the individual consumer cannot take reasonable measures to mitigate this risk,* then perhaps we should remove pork from our diets completely.

But then let's take that to the logical end. Note that Mr. McWilliams does not argue that CAFO-raised pork is free of bacteria that can make us ill. He simply says that science "proves" that outdoor raised pigs have a higher incidence (remember, he's done nothing to prove this). Unless we kill off all possible sources of contamination (from insects to housecats, or frankly, all animal life) or somehow sterilize all that we eat, it seems that all foods, whether plant or animal, carry a risk of making one ill.

We can't very well stop eating altogether. I ask what can we do? One key is transparency and education - let's open the books and let consumers decide which purveyors to support and why. And let's not let articles like this go unanswered.

The other thing we can do is to put the food back in meat! Countless hours and words are used every day talking about who's husbandry or land management protocols are the best, whether to use microbials or not, if organic is good or not.

Let's start rewarding people for making really clean but also really great tasting food. As long we agree to a minimum set of standards and let those who exceed them advertise themselves as such, let's celebrate the differences in flavors and textures across the breeds or varieties, seasons and growing regions. Let's remove the many layers between farm and fork so that consumers can give feedback to the producer and create a continuous improvement feedback loop.

Let's take this conversation to a new level and out of the weeds.

There are a lot of very smart, thoughtful people out there trying to figure out how to give people access to cleaner, more humanely raised, tastier food. I'd love to hear what you would suggest, too.

ps New York Times, I realize this was an Op-Ed piece but you could have balanced this piece with someone offering a different perspective. Better yet, you might have turned to someone like Andrew Martin to provide some scrutiny here.

* Such as cooking the heck out of it like we're forced to do with commodity ground beef because the processors can't be bothered to take measures to prevent contamination.

Here in short is Marion Nestle's response to Mr. McWilliams with regard to the validity to his claims on the "science" front. I've added it here at the bottom as many others have addressed this point and quite well. I instead wanted to chip in my two cents above, my personal reaction to the article as a whole.

Mr. McWilliams writes that "scientists have found that free-range pork can be more likely than caged pork to carry dangerous bacteria and parasites" including "higher rates of salmonella and... the parasite trichina."

Nestle notes that the study cited by Mr. McWilliams measured the presence of antibodies to certain diseases in the pigs' blood, not the presence of disease in the meat. In other words, the free range pigs in the study were exposed to organisms and developed immunity to them. The indoor raised pigs were not similarly exposed and thus did not develop a similar immunity.

Nestle goes on to ask why Mr. McWilliams did not clarify this point and answers her own question by pointing out that the study itself was paid for in the first place by The National Pork Board. "Sponsored studies are invariably designed in ways that produce favorable results for the sponsor."

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.

Artisan Steak Tasting Winner (s!)

OK, this will not be my most articulate and thoughtful post. Why? Well, I lost my email files last week, thanks to Outlook just disappearing - poof! - overnight. So I had to hunt and peck to recreate the list of comments, which took me a very long time, making me two days late in announcing... ah, forget the whining.

This is going to be fun. I am cheating on my own contest rules!!!

Greg Rempe of BBQ Central Show (LATalk Radio) invited this Beef Geek aka Beef Sommelier aka The Steak Lady aka Grillmeistress onto his radio show to share the secrets of artisan beef. I truly hope you all are inspired to go out an start asking these questions of me, your grocers, butchers, online purveyors, or folks at farmers' markets and CSAs.

But then right now you really want to know if you won the Discover Beef Artisan Steak Tasting kit for your home. This tasting pack includes beef from four different artisan quality ranches, each raising a different breed in a different region with a different diet and aging technique. You'll also receive instructions for conducting a home tasting, an Artisan Beef Institute tasting guide, plus a personal consultation to help design a fabulous tasting extravaganza.

Well, here's a bit of good news. I had set an internal goal of 50 or more comments on my blog. If I reached that goal, there would be two winners, selected at random by the magic random number generator machine at http://www.random.org/. Well, we did it.

So here are the two lucky winners, I hope you're excited!!

@UrbanBohemian (aka Brian) - who met me over steak on Twitter and who lives in Washington, D.C., my stomping grounds for 8 years after graduation from college. Brian was lucky #24

And....

Lucky #19 Curt McAdams (aka @cmcadams) from Ohio - a competitive BBQer and all around nice person who (whom?) I had the good fortune to talk with by phone a while back. Curt is one of the many who inspires me to learn more about the art of barbecue.

Brian & Curt, congratulations! I will be sending you an email to arrange a time to ship you your artisan steak tasting pack.

For all others, THANK YOU for participating. I look forward to continuing our dialog about artisan beef and why it's important to us and the people who bring it to our plates.

Finally, I'll be sending everyone who provided an email address a copy of my Artisan Beef Institute "Cheat Sheet" in the hopes that you find it helpful in your quest for cleaner, better tasting, humanely raised beef.

Please email me at carrie [at] oliverranch [dot] com with any questions about this contest or artisan beef in general. My goal is to help you find artisan quality beef that meets your needs. It's a win-win situation.

Want To Win An Artisan Steak Tasting?

If you're reading this post you are probably a fan of Greg Rempe of the BBQ Central Show (LATalk Radio) and heard me on his radio show talking about how to find artisan quality beef. Well hopefully you were listening carefully as we have a little contest here and the winner is going to be one very happy steak lover.

We're giving away one of my Discover Beef Experience Artisan Steak Tasting packs! An artisan steak tasting is like a wine tasting but with steaks. You'll receive four 10 to 12 oz steaks, one each from four different artisan beef producers, each specializing in a different breed, growing region, diet, and aging technique. I'll also send you one of my Artisan Beef Institute steak tasting guides and a how-to for hosting a steak tasting at your home. Finally, you'll receive a personal consultation from me to make your tasting a huge success.

Now I have to admit that I'd be really grateful if you read a bit of my blog or visit my online marketplace, The Oliver Ranch Company, and sign up for my newsletter (don't worry, I don't sell or let people borrow or pay for your email address).

But, to win the Artisan Steak Tasting pack, all you have to do is leave a comment below listing one of the 8 criteria I use to help identify artisan quality beef.

When you comment, make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win. Sorry, because the border police make tend to make life difficult when shipping internationally, this offer is good for shipments to the Continental US, only. The contest closes at 11:59pm EST on Sunday, March 15, 2009. I will use some whiz bang software to select a winner at random.

If you post a link on Twitter or your blog referring people back to this contest you'll automatically be entered a second time. Make sure to come back and leave a new comment with a link back to your post.

If you didn't hear the show, go back and listen to the podcast, it's great! If you're clever, you'll also find the answers on one or both of my sites.

Finally, if you want to read about a tasting, pay a visit to SteamyKitchen and read her hilarious blow-by-blow of a tasting last fall here.

Good luck, and thanks for the visit!

And On The Lighter Side of Beef

This is an example of great journalism, a lightly tongue-in-cheek article in the Seattle PI about the real definition of grass-fed beef. Favorite line, "Officers scraped off the natural byproduct of cows and endured the associated odors to unbolt false panels which concealed... "

Go ahead, it's harmless and giggle-worthy and we need to help journalists stay employed *smile*.

What's Your Beef?

Fabulous article by Leslie Cole of The Oregonian on how to sort through confusing marketing and label claims with beef. Inspired by the same press release that had triggered this previous post, All Beef is Grass-Fed, she offers 5 Lessons for folks looking to buy grass-fed beef.

I have a few extra thoughts but wanted to get this post up so you could see the article as soon as possible.

One bonus to reading the entire article is an interview with Betty Fussell, author of Raising Steaks, The Life And Times of American Beef.

Want Your Kids To Eat Well? Get ‘em Grilling!

Rebecca Bent is a woman after my own heart – a female Grillmeister. (Actually, that'd be a Grillmeistress, wouldn't it?) Here she shares a great tip for grilling or broiling steaks – just when you think you know it all, someone shows you something clever like this.



See if her story is similar to yours. I sure relate to it.

Like me, Rebecca adopted the grill at an early age. She was first drawn by the sheer theater, watching her father and Uncle Henry squabble over who was in control, swatting each other with their spatulas, laughing it up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

She later realized tending the grill was a position of power. “Everyone’s watching and waiting for you…. There are some very basic rules to follow and if you master them, you are worshipped.”

The other thing she loves about grilling is that “Unlike cooking rice, grilling is interactive, it’s always a thrill, every detail - whether the meat, the wind, who will be eating it and their preferences - makes a difference.”

Finally, for Rebecca, cooking for others is not only a privilege – parents this is the key – it is also just plain fun. I just love the fact that Rebecca gets her girls out there with her in the kitchen doing prep or tending the grill (in the snow, too!)

So get out there with your kids, teach them what real food is (meat, vegetables, fruit are all great when grilled) and give them a respected skill on the way. If it takes a little extra coaxing, do what Rebecca does: make them heroes, today’s technology makes it easy – inexpensive digital cameras and free photo and video sharing sites are your friends.

Finally, Rebecca’s number one tip for perfect grilling:

“The biggest mistake I see people make is to touch the meat too much. Don’t flip or fidget with it. Put it down and leave it. Use a timer to tell you when to flip it and whatever you do, don’t try to scrape it off, you’ll lose the crust!”

Find her on Twitter @RebeccaBent and http://rebeccabent.blogspot.com

The Higher the Calories, The Cheaper the Food?

A Los Angeles Times article from November caught my attention. It seems food policy and obesity experts are worried that as our economy sours, we will buy more highly processed foods, most of which are very unhealthy for our bodies and the land. When money is tight, we trade off fresh fruits, vegetables and meats for cookies and chips. And while we spend less, we get fatter.

Why? We're not stupid. It's about bang for the buck. Processed foods (chips, candies, mac & cheese), on a calorie for calorie basis cost less than low calorie, more nutritious foods (broccoli, apples, salmon).

But where's the logic there? How can machine created foods cost less than something that comes pretty much straight from a tree?

One reason is that with manufactured foods, one can add preservatives to extend shelf life and keep costs low. Think less waste. A second reason is that the government subsidizes the main ingredients, such as corn, wheat, rice, or soybeans.

Here's how this connects to beef, or just meat in general. If we collectively substitute boxed food for fresh food, my fear is that the good folks who actually produce fresh, clean, great tasting meat will be forced economically to return to producing commodity food e.g. beef laden with growth hormones or cheap feed or both.

Troubling.

We can't ask people to spend money they don't have.

But here are some thoughts on how you might be able to keep clean, well-raised meats in your diet and support good farmers, humane treatment, and sustainable practices while you’re at it.

• We've been successful at keeping costs down by buying even fewer packaged goods than before and maintaining our purchases of high quality meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.

• Buy meat in bulk and freeze it or, far better, buy meat that's been professionally frozen to begin with. Today's blast-freezing technology freezes meat so quickly that it prevents the formation of ice-crystals that can lead to freezer burn or a loss of liquid during thawing.
  


• For steaks, do what many restaurants do, buy a whole piece, e.g. the entire Strip Loin, and have it cut into steaks and vacuum-sealed for you. You can also save by choosing Sirloin or Flat Irons or other less expensive cuts or eating smaller portions – a 12 oz New York Strip Loin steak can easily feed 2 or even 3 people.
  


• For stew, try a cross-rib roast and cut it into cubes yourself.
  


• If you have a food processor or meat grinder, buy a whole brisket and use this to make delicious homemade ground beef.

As long as the cattle were raised with care and without the use of artificial growth stimulants (hormones, antibiotics) and the beef has been properly aged - at LEAST 7 days (and ideally 14 days or more) - you can get great, flavorful, tender meat. By being smart about the way you buy it, you can also get it for a very good price.

If you have further tips to share, please let me know, I’d welcome guest posts.

Or, if you’re looking for more tips, please send me a note at Carrie [at] oliverranch [dot] com.

All Beef Is Grass-Fed

Thanks to Caron Golden, a San Diego based food writer and radio host (@carondg on Twitter), on December 29, I was alerted to a news story covering a taste test in a Portland, Oregon-area elementary school comparing burgers from grass-fed vs. grain-fed cattle.

I found the story disheartening, so much that I’ve spent the last week trying to track down the author or other participants in the study to clarify what I saw as significant flaws. Today I spoke with Cory Schreiber of the Oregon Department of Agriculture – what a great person - who confirmed some of my fears.

The two-part study, funded by the USDA but managed by Oregon State University, had two key findings. The first was that the school children could tell the difference between the grass-fed and grain-fed patties. The second was that about half (45 of 91) preferred the grass-fed burgers.

Based on these results, the school district elected to stick with commodity beef, with a representative explaining, “For now, since there was not a strong preference for the grass-fed patty, and it is more expensive, we will not be able to afford to serve the grass-fed patty on a regular basis."

So what’s wrong with this picture? Too many things to count but let’s just focus on the big one.

These kids were NOT, I repeat, NOT comparing grass-fed with grain-fed beef.

Actually, the burgers were both created using grain-fed beef. The article even says this up front, citing the "grass-fed" beef supplier as saying: “[The patties are] made from Angus steers in Oregon and Washington that are raised on grass, but for the last four months of their lives are fed grain and corn to fatten them up.”

How could the journalist get this wrong?

Oh wait, it gets worse.

The study was not set up to determine the relative merits of grass-fed vs. grain-fed hamburgers in the first place. The grant program that funded it was created to help interested parties evaluate the merits and costs of investing more into locally produced food.

It’s simple and unfortunate. This is a complicated category of food and there are a heck of a lot of fuzzy definitions floating around out there (and frankly, a fair amount of obsfucation, too, but that’s a whole other conversation). However, if you’re a reporter covering this news, I think it’s worth taking the time to ask questions, to clarify and confirm. And then keep an eye out for any editing that might inadvertantly change the meaning of the story.

Unfortunately, this story is being widely circulated. Not only is this hurting the prospects of those who do produce grass-fed or naturally raised beef, but it also underminessupport of the promotion of locally sourced products in our nation’s schools.

How can you help? Help others understand the differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Here's something easy to remember:

ALL Beef Is Grass-Fed.

Yes, all. It’s just that some beef is fed only grass right up to their last day. The other 98 percent or more may be fed grass early in life but are finished on a diet of grasses and grains. This is an important distinction as the diet has a huge affect on taste and texture. In addition, a grass-only diet is a more natural diet for cattle and a proper grass-only program can keep land healthy and even help fight global warming.

If you know me at all, you know that I am a strong proponent of grass-fed beef. But I take a practical view, knowing that it will take years, even decades, to transition the industry to a grass-fed only system. So, I’m willing to support top-notch grain-finishers who meet or exceed my company’s minimum (and quite high) standards, thinking of it as like supporting a farm in transition to organic. But, there is a difference and consumers (as well as journalists) should know and understand this.

If you want the benefits of grass-fed beef -- Eat Wild is an excellent reference -- ask your butcher or grocer or farmer or online purveyor if it is GRASS-ONLY beef.

Don’t be surprised if the seller doesn’t know what you’re talking about but ask anyway. We need to create transparency in this category. Consumers have a right to know what exactly they’re eating and sellers should be more interested in providing consumers what they want, as well as educating themselves. It’s their business after all.

ps Sorry for the more strident tone. Perhaps I'll be smart enough to come back and edit this at a later date ;-)

Tag - 7 Strange Things About Me

Jenna at Food With Kid Appeal (@KidAppeal) has tagged me! The general idea behind "Tag" is to help great people discover blogs worth reading and I have several folks to introduce you to, how exciting. But first, I'm to tell you several "strange" things about myself.

To be honest, I find it awkward to invite people to learn more about me. But I really, really want to change the meat industry -- I want people to be able to find and support ranchers and truckers and slaughterhouse workers and butchers and others who do the right thing. Please consider joining my cause, and definitely look up the folks I'm tagging below - they are worth your follow.

1. Having encountered a few of them, I believe in ghosts. Have never (knowingly) seen one but have definitely felt their presence. Each time, there was at least one other person who shared the experience. Life is interesting that way.

2. Just out of college, I literally put words in the mouth of The Vice President of the United States (George Bush, Sr.). Was asked by the head of the Economic Policy Council to boil down a 30-page document into three bullet points & put on index card. The VP was to announce that the US was filing an unfair trade case against Japan for their business practices in semiconductors. He read the card verbatim on live TV. I learned a quick lesson in diplomacy – the word “retaliate” was a no-no. Ooops!

3. A New York Times journalist misquoted my boss in a prominent article on US-Japan trade relations. I was not only there during the interview but I had it on tape. The newspaper would not correct the record. Became a skeptic then and there.

4. Arrived at a staff meeting and the big boss says, before we start, I would like to know which one of you was written up in The Washington Post Federal page. All 20 people look at me. Much to my surprise, my recent promotion had been announced right next to a story about then-Senators Robert Byrd and Kit Bond. Big boss was upset – said I got more coverage than he – this was THE place to be in that paper. Called the reporter to ask what happened. He asked what I thought. I said “Slooooowwww news day in Washington.” I think I heard him fall off his chair, that it was! Lesson in the power (serendipity?) of timing.

5. Moved to Toronto from San Francisco, sight unseen, in November. I must have been in love. Still am, fortunately.

6. First car I ever drove was a scaled down Model T that had a lawnmower-type engine. I was around 4 years old. Second car was a 1928 Buick Roadster, I sat on my father’s lap and steered while he worked the double clutch. Might have been about 10? I love to drive.

7. I was a pom-pom girl in high school. Tried to make up a dance to the Grateful Dead. Settled for the Rolling Stones.

And so now I tag the following:

ChezUS and not just because Denise has the same Coach purse but because she is a lovely person and a genuine food maven, self taught since she was a wee little gal. Check out her post on Montana beef to see what she's all about. And encourage her to have her favorite food critic, Laudalino, bring his voice to the blog.

Cooking By The Seat Of My Pants a delightful food blog by a guy named Jerry who is a passionate, caring work-from-home dad who juggles multiple blogs (including a beautiful one about his autistic son Lil 'B) and an online t-shirt shop. His wife is in the military so they're currently living in Texas, though he's from the SF area. He keeps asking me if I've had Longhorn beef which, sadly, I have not. At least not knowingly.

Coconut & Lime is the work of Rachel Rappaport who delights us with her own completely original recipes. I'm wondering when she's going to bundle them into a cookbook - wouldn't that be great? Check out her recipe for homemade dog treats, they look delicious. For your dog, of course.

Wild Idea Buffalo is new to me, discovered via Twitter and @CurlyBill. Raising pastured buffalo to regenerate the prairie grasses. Great example of how livestock can actually nurture the land and environment. Some day, I'd like to try their meat - never found buffalo (or beefalo) raised on grass-alone.

Food Woolf from Brooke Burton, a screenwriter and one very cool cat who I had the great pleasure to meet in Los Angeles last week at one of my artisan steak tastings. She and fellow blogger Leah (see below) blew me away with their knowledge of food, food politics, and wine. I would love to spend a week following Brooke around, maybe some of the magic will rub off on me. I'm just a simple Grillmeister, lots to learn.

Spicy Salty Sweet is as full of energy as the creative genious behind it, Leah Greenstein. This funny lady is a wine buyer (she favors barnyard to fruit bombs) and farmer's market addict. She has her finger on the pulse of the food community and rumor has it that she and Brooke are about to share their secrets in a whole new and exciting way. Follow them!

The White on Rice Couple Todd & Diane have to be two of the nicest, most interesting people I've met in a very long time and they have one gorgeous blog. As someone who has long wanted to learn "Asian" cooking, it was a thrill for me to have the two of them show me how to make hand made Vietnamese spring rolls. And Todd grew up on a cattle ranch and has a dad that whispers to horses, so I also get to learn more about how to raise great beef.

Lessons From Argentina, Walking Away from GrassFed is Bad

Allan Nation, the man when it comes to pastured finished livestock, blogs about Argentine farms in a perfect storm situation. I encourage you to go to this page and choose "Click Here for Allan's Blog" and read the short note entitled "Argentine Farming In Melt-down."

If you don't have time (it's a really short, easy read) the basic issue is this. Traditionally, Argentine ranchers rotated their grain crops with grassfed beef every few years. This allowed the ranchers to grow grain without the use of added nitrogen as the cattle naturally fertilized the pastures in the off years.

Last year, many looked at soaring grain prices and sold off their cattle to switch to grain-only.

Well, grain prices have dropped and it now costs more to grow the grain crops than the crops are worth. Combine this with some odd-sounding government policies to keep domestic beef costs artificially low and you have a real problem.

Allan doesn't come right out and say this so I will. Pasture finishing livestock can make soil healthy and reduce carbon footprint (and even sequester it). We should be encouraging this and remember this point when others suggest instead that we should stop eating meat altogether.

The Next Artisan Butcher - New Reality Show?

Great article out of West Cork, Ireland, about traveling artisan butchers.

Why might this matter?

One of the first things I learned while becoming an official Beef Geek (aka The Steak Lady): You can do everything right on the farm but the moment that cattle walks onto a truck, a lot of things can go wrong.

First, no sharp corners, no slippery ramps, no cattle prods or yelling. Spooking cattle is not only ethically wrong, it = tough, dark, dry beef. No kidding, stress directly impacts taste and texture.

And bruises hurt and also ruin the beef - the bruise shows in the meat and has to be cut out.

Second, at the slaughterhouse itself, very special care must be taken. Cattle are herd animals, they're okay with their group but you cannot introduce them to another herd in the yard. A good slaughterhouse will be specifically designed to minimize stress and likely come with a stamp of approval from Temple Grandin.

Bottom line: one of the most important things that influences taste and texture is low-stress handling.

Now these totally cool traveling artisan butchers in Ireland offer a fabulous solution for minimizing stress. The slaughterhouse comes to the farm, no trucking needed. There are a few pioneering folks trying to do the same thing here in North America, but I think what's intriguing is that these folks are real butchers - they know how to age and cut beef, too.

How might we support these folks? I say we should create a new reality show, America's Next Artisan Butcher!

Just What Is Angus Beef - Part 2

By the way, that black hair gene is pretty dominant. In other words, most cattle crossed with a Black Angus will come out 51% or more black haired.

Some estimate more than 80% of cattle in North America could qualify.

Intrigued? Here's a bit more (linking to Just What is Angus Beef - Part 1).