Your Guide to Lean, Grass-Fed Beef

Beef that’s conscientiously raised, good for you, and incredibly tasty ― now that’s something to sink your teeth into. A “new” alternative to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef is increasingly available in supermarkets and from sources online. Grass-fed operations are easier on the environment than grain feedlots are, and easier on the animals too (grass is, after all, a cow’s natural diet). Grass-feeding also gives the meat a truer beef flavor that’s not masked by the marbling of fat typical in grain-fed beef. Plus grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fats and higher in omega-3s and other essential nutrients. 3 HOT COOKING TIPS Because it’s so lean, though, it cooks in a flash (marbling slows heat conduction). So before you grill that grass-fed rib-eye, check out these 3 keys to success: 1. Lower the heat Grass-fed beef cooks fast. Instead of searing burgers and steaks, put them over a medium flame. 2. Add moisture  With a larger cut (like a roast) that needs a longer cooking time, marinate or braise the meat to keep it from drying out. 3. Don’t overcook  Rare to medium rare grass-fed beef is tender, but medium to well-done is tough and chewy. The Recipes: Grass-fed burgers with chipotle barbecue sauce You’ll have plenty of the spicy, tangy sauce left over. Have it with grilled chicken or ribs. Grilled grass-fed rib-eyes with herb lemon butter   Nothing shows off the natural, clean flavor of grass-fed beef like a thick, juicy steak. Herb lemon butter   Compound butter (butter blended with flavorings) is a great and simple way to add taste and texture to a dish. For variety, try these two other delicious butters: Caper, tomato, and olive and Cabernet gorgonzola. Vietnamese-style steak salad  Lemongrass nicely complements the clean flavor of grass-fed steak. A RANCHER WE LOVE Ed Jonas works his Blacktail Mountain Ranch with one idea in mind: to produce the healthiest, tastiest beef in the world. Jonas, an East Coast lawyer turned Montana cowboy, has bred two of the leanest cattle breeds―the Scottish Highland and the Piedmontese―to create what he calls the HighMont. Nutritional testing of HighMont beef shows that it’s lower in cholesterol than turkey, with a fat content roughly a third that of regular beef. No wonder local physicians endorse it for their red-meat-loving patients (it’s on the menu in some Montana hospitals). What’s even better is the deep, minerally, beefy flavor. Jonas’s approach to ranching is simple and candid, and he encourages anyone who’s curious about it to “come to Montana and see for yourself.” Year-round, the cattle roam on open pasture, drink from a mountain spring, and receive all the personal attention Jonas can give. “I help deliver them (at birth), raise them, bring them to be processed, and then package and ship out orders,” says Jonas. “You can’t get fresher meat than that.”