Grass Fed/Finished Beef vs Grain: Your Thoughts?

[Satch12879]

"Wet-aged" is nonsense.

But you can't put any useful amount of age on a skinny cow anyway. So you have an animal that's older since growing out takes 2x as long (tougher), can't be decently aged (tougher and less tasty), and has inadequate marbling -- and all for a premium!

If you're set on a grass-only cow, look around for someone who will sell you a cow off their land and have it butchered. That way you can get more reasonable price since it's bulk and since you avoid the markup involved in retail handling of a fashionable product (where plenty of the price is a marketing game).

The latter is absolutely true here in the States. Most of the grass-fed around here is basically beef jerky. It comes from the cow equivalent of marathon runners.

I’ve seen butchers try and get into the aging game and they sell cuts that are barely aged for astronomical prices, because they stick well-trimmed sections in their fridges and can’t risk too much loss. If you’re not starting with the primal basically intact with all the fat layers present, you’ll barely make it to two weeks.

Stef, have you and Rip watched the documentary “Steak Revolution” that was on Netflix? It’s about this guy going around the world, visiting butchers and cattle breeders and eating a lot of magnificent beef. The really, really good stuff was coming out of Europe from old cows. We’re talking years old animals. These were huge and well-cared for specimens whose copious fat looked like butter. And they aged it for a long time, too.

The best steak he had came from a Spanish breeder. Runners up were true Wagyu in Japan and Peter Luger in Brooklyn. The French had the least favorite beef.

[stef]

If you’re not starting with the primal basically intact with all the fat layers present, you’ll barely make it to two weeks.

Aging a side is the way to go.

We’re talking years old animals. These were huge and well-cared for specimens whose copious fat looked like butter. And they aged it for a long time, too.

Old is fine if it is aged for weeks.

Genetics are real important in getting what you want. Lots of beefs are hamburger beef. Period.

[IdahoJ]

Is the different fat content, etc... what you're referring to? This article weighs in on it. I'm in the grain finished camp for taste... and price.

Grass-Fed Vs. Grain-Fed Ground Beef -- No Difference In Healthfulness | Beef Magazine

I prefer to buy whole cuts of meat (skirt steak is a favorite). The article addresses ground beef. Is there a difference?

If you are getting fatty fish throughout the week I'm not sure it's that much more beneficial but if you don't notice a difference in taste and are willing to spend the money I say go for it. Certainly cannot hurt

I'm not, I dislike fish. However, I eat bowls (usually around 200 grams) of katamala olives and usually consume two medium avocados/day which might make up for the lack of fish.

-----

Alright, this is probably the post I should've originally made.

Is grass fed/grass finished beef worth the premium?

If it is, why?

I've seen mention of grass fed beef being better than the grain fed beef. Most prominent in memory being this article: Power Foods | T Nation

Grass-Fed Beef

Most of you probably know that the vast majority of beef in the US is corn-fed. Hell, they advertise it like it's a good thing: "We have corn-fed beef at $9.99 a pound!"

Well it's not a good thing.

Here's what I wrote about the subject in a previous article:

"Nowadays, most cattle spend an average of 60 to 120 days in feedlots where they're fattened up before being slaughtered. Obviously, most of us know that heavily marbled beef isn't exactly part of a healthy diet but there are other things going on that you need to know about. Feeding cattle corn instead of grass drastically upsets the balance of essential fatty acids found in their meat.

"The modern American diet is criminally short on Omega-3 fatty acids and these fatty acids, when consumed in optimal amounts, can potentially prevent coronary artery disease, hypertension, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and various inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. Conversely, the American diet is high in Omega-6 fatty acids. While Omega-6 fatty acids are important to health, too, bad things happen when the ratio of these fatty acids is altered; namely, the aforementioned maladies.

"Many scientists guess that man evolved eating an Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acid ratio of 1 to 1 from both meat and plant sources. An acceptable modern day ratio would be approximately 3 to 1. Trouble is, corn-fed cattle, in various studies, have exhibited ratios of 21 to 1, 11 to 1, and 20 to 1. Not good. Grass-fed cattle, on the other hand, exhibit ratios of 3 or 4 to 1.

"Similarly, the meat from grass-fed cattle contains significantly higher amounts of CLA, which supposedly lowers the risk of cancer."

I hope one part of that sunk in, the part about grass-fed cattle having a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 of 3 or 4 to 1.

That makes grass-fed beef about as good a food as wild salmon. And we weight lifters shouldn't forget that grass-fed beef contains relatively large amounts of creatine. Maybe that's why we feel stronger when we eat it.

Lastly, grass-fed beef has a lot less saturated fat than corn-fed, and that in itself is noteworthy.

I've bought grass fed beef. Except for the price I don't notice much of a difference in taste or texture (though I'd need a blind taste test to tell for sure). One thing I've noticed is how much leaner grass fed beef is. So you're probably getting more protein per pound, but the reason you buy grass fed is for the fat, right? Well, that'd be my reason for it anyway...

So I am curious what you all think. If there's no difference, I'd rather buy the manager's special beef (that stuff that's 30% off because it's the last day of the sell-by date).

[poser]

Worked for awhile in a craft butcher shop where we aged whole sides of beef in-house and did whole animal butchery across the board. One thing that the master butcher emphasized was doing a lot of sampling while beef was aging, so we would routinely hack off a tiny bit of a side here and there and taste it raw. We would also cook and eat “butcher’s cuts”, mainly the conflexus muscle, but Tri tips were also preferred, on a regular basis. My experience was that beef not finished on grain would tend to develop complexities superior to grain finished beef during the dry aging process. That being said, in terms of what you get at the chain grocery store that is wet aged and about 2 weeks old, grain finished is probably going to taste “better”, though the average consumer largely tends to only care about familiarity and consistency of taste as the qualifiers for better and since they’ve mostly eaten grain finished beef their whole life, that’s what is familiar.

In terms of the age of the animal, I’ve never eaten one that couldn’t be worked with and I’ve eaten 10 year old milk cows as well as a lifetime’s worth of wild game: elk, deer, bear, sheep and goat. For the most part, people’s perception is based exclusively on the information provided to them. If you serve 10 year old big horn sheep (probably he toughest meat out there in the wild) and tell someone that it’s lamb, they’ll believe it to be tender and delicate. Much the same way as people will refer to game meat as “gamey”, yet if you ask them what they mean by that description, they completely lack the ability to articulate anything beyond the use of that word. Serve them the same piece of game meat without telling them it’s elk or Whitetail, and they’ll usually assume it beef and describe it as delicious.

[Robert Santana]

I prefer to buy whole cuts of meat (skirt steak is a favorite). The article addresses ground beef. Is there a difference?



I'm not, I dislike fish. However, I eat bowls (usually around 200 grams) of katamala olives and usually consume two medium avocados/day which might make up for the lack of fish.

-----

Alright, this is probably the post I should've originally made.

Is grass fed/grass finished beef worth the premium?

If it is, why?

I've seen mention of grass fed beef being better than the grain fed beef. Most prominent in memory being this article: Power Foods | T Nation



I've bought grass fed beef. Except for the price I don't notice much of a difference in taste or texture (though I'd need a blind taste test to tell for sure). One thing I've noticed is how much leaner grass fed beef is. So you're probably getting more protein per pound, but the reason you buy grass fed is for the fat, right? Well, that'd be my reason for it anyway...

So I am curious what you all think. If there's no difference, I'd rather buy the manager's special beef (that stuff that's 30% off because it's the last day of the sell-by date).

From a nutritional standpoint I'm going to go with no. There are cheaper ways to get essential fatty acids and for you personally the taste profile doesn't justify it either.

[Robert Santana]

Worked for awhile in a craft butcher shop where we aged whole sides of beef in-house and did whole animal butchery across the board. One thing that the master butcher emphasized was doing a lot of sampling while beef was aging, so we would routinely hack off a tiny bit of a side here and there and taste it raw. We would also cook and eat “butcher’s cuts”, mainly the conflexus muscle, but Tri tips were also preferred, on a regular basis. My experience was that beef not finished on grain would tend to develop complexities superior to grain finished beef during the dry aging process. That being said, in terms of what you get at the chain grocery store that is wet aged and about 2 weeks old, grain finished is probably going to taste “better”, though the average consumer largely tends to only care about familiarity and consistency of taste as the qualifiers for better and since they’ve mostly eaten grain finished beef their whole life, that’s what is familiar.

In terms of the age of the animal, I’ve never eaten one that couldn’t be worked with and I’ve eaten 10 year old milk cows as well as a lifetime’s worth of wild game: elk, deer, bear, sheep and goat. For the most part, people’s perception is based exclusively on the information provided to them. If you serve 10 year old big horn sheep (probably he toughest meat out there in the wild) and tell someone that it’s lamb, they’ll believe it to be tender and delicate. Much the same way as people will refer to game meat as “gamey”, yet if you ask them what they mean by that description, they completely lack the ability to articulate anything beyond the use of that word. Serve them the same piece of game meat without telling them it’s elk or Whitetail, and they’ll usually assume it beef and describe it as delicious.

I can get on board with this

[stef]

That being said, in terms of what you get at the chain grocery store that is wet aged and about 2 weeks old, grain finished is probably going to taste “better”

Wet dog fur tastes better than that. Buying grocery store beef is not a winning game. If the OP is talking about junk from a grocery store...well, my advice is not buy any of it. It's all horrific.

Just last week I bought a little pkg of 80/20 hamburger while traveling. I was trying to get in and out of the store as fast as possible since my dogs were waiting and had already been in the truck 8hrs. I figured it could be a quick thing to eat after another hour of driving. Well, it was. For my dogs. Because it was that bad. Not edible. Been about 15 years since I've bought anything like that. Commercial beef is not any good.

[Robert Santana]

Wet dog fur tastes better than that. Buying grocery store beef is not a winning game. If the OP is talking about junk from a grocery store...well, my advice is not buy any of it. It's all horrific.

Just last week I bought a little pkg of 80/20 hamburger while traveling. I was trying to get in and out of the store as fast as possible since my dogs were waiting and had already been in the truck 8hrs. I figured it could be a quick thing to eat after another hour of driving. Well, it was. For my dogs. Because it was that bad. Not edible. Been about 15 years since I've bought anything like that. Commercial beef is not any good.

I'd have to agree with you stef. I am occasionally forced to eat the stuff when my friends and colleagues want to meet at a pub and always leave disappointed when that does happen. I literally never "feel like a burger" if said burger means eating it at a restaurant, or worse a pub, with very very few exceptions.

[IdahoJ]

Where do you find this high-level beef?

I've ordered from 100% Grass-Fed Beef | Buy Healthy Meats Online | US Wellness Meats (they have elk on there, if anyone is curious). It's decent, though I'm not the beef connoisseurs some of you are. Their inside skirt steak is awesome over the grill with some carne asada seasoning (or just salt and pepper) Beef Inside Skirt Steak - 1 lb | US Wellness Meats

[bracemaker]

What's the consensus now on omega 3s? I assume we don't believe, as many "experts" and other lifting sites will claim, that we need the 3:6 ratio to get back to much closer levels that a pre-industrial diet would have caused? As long as you get a meal of fatty fish or something containing high O3 a couple times a week you should be healthy? That seems to be a big part of the grass fed/grain fed argument, grass fed results in more omega 3.