Do you use grass-fed beef?

I have been trying to convert us slowly to grass-fed beef, but we find it very tough and can't get used to the different taste. I think the worse thing is the toughness. What things do you to make it more tender? Do you pound everything before cooking? Use marinades? Brine? I tried to make kettle-cooked beef with some stew meat I bought, and it never did get tender, even after slow cooking for 7 hours! It is pretty discouraging to pay twice as much for meat, and not even be able to chew it. Suggestions?

I had the same experience. It was like shoe leather! And the worst tasting beef I'd ever tasted...and this beef was 18 mo. old.

My grass fed lamb wasn't like that at all, so I don't know why the beef was. Everyone argues that grass fed beef should be like eating a deer but I know that deer have eaten a lot of mast right before and even during deer season and this may sweeten their meat considerably.

If I were to raise beef, I would raise them on grass but maybe finish them the last two weeks on some grain if I could. I used to date a guy that did that and his beef was supreme.

We eat grass fed beef. It is very nicely marbled and quite tender, unless I over cook it in the grill. Roasts I cook in a Dutch oven with 2 large onions quartered, salt, pepper and garlic and enough water to mostly cover it all. I cook it in the oven at 350 F for about 2-2.5 hours. It falls apart. I wonder if you are cooking it to long. Also my hamberger I had ground to be 80-85% lean. The breed of the animal may have a lot to do with it. So a grass fed dairy cow is going to have a taste and texture very different from a Galloway or Angus that is eating really nutritious grasses. If your animal is eating grass but it is of poor quality your results won't be so good either.

DH got some grass fed beef from Ohio this past spring. It has been the best, and the cheapest beef!! I have had grass fed beef before, down in SW MO, many moons ago, but getting a farm raised and butchered beef for a meal is so hard to come by. I do know, DH family, who he got it from, said sometimes they butcher a cow that turns out not so tender and tasty.
I would say, use the pressure cooker and crock pot as much as possible. Oh, we have also been given deer this past year...several different times. I wasn't sure what o do with it..but, I just cook it and use it like beef. Has turned out super every time.

We dont use grass fed beef, our calf we bought was raised in a stall with grain and hay. It was 2 dollars a pound, and it looks pretty and you can smell and taste the difference when it cooks!

Grass/pasture fed with some grain/chop once a day. Always good and tender.

So many variables, I guess.

Depends on the cut of meat you are using (some are naturally tougher), age of the beef when butchered, how is was processed.

I wouldn't give up on the grass-fed beef just yet. But that's just me.

YMMV

At our house, price wins. I buy meat only when it's on sale, and whatever is on sale. I honestly don't know if I've ever had 'grass fed'. Haven't paid too much attention. oops

We're splitting a cow that MuttlyCrew is raising next year, so we'll have some variety at a good price. I'm sure she'll grain the critter as all her critters get the very best of chow and care.

Marianne said:

At our house, price wins. I buy meat only when it's on sale, and whatever is on sale. I honestly don't know if I've ever had 'grass fed'. Haven't paid too much attention. oops

We're splitting a cow that MuttlyCrew is raising next year, so we'll have some variety at a good price. I'm sure she'll grain the critter as all her critters get the very best of chow and care.

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I had no idea of this SS/BYC forum when I lived out in KS. Working 3rd shift, healthcare.....I just didn't have any life at all so to speak. It was easy tp leave Kansas in Jan 08, because I basically had not made any friends, or the ones I had made...gone, my having moved to diff parts of the state. I was just up the road from marianne, and didn't know it.
So, it is fun getting to know people in here.

I grew up on grass fed from my great uncle. Don't remember any tough cuts but the cube steak. Mom usually had the tough stuff made into burger, or she roasted it.

Getting just grocery store meat when we lived so far away from family, I had so many tough steaks and such that the cut should never have been that tough. We're talking, cant hardly cut through with a scalpel sharp knife tough. They must not have been letting it age correctly or something. Same thing with some of the meat from the city butcher, be it grass or grain fed.

Now the butcher we go to out in a small town, their meat is great. Never had a tough piece. Just bought half a cow. Grass fed there is 11 cents a pound more than the grain fed. That is to only make up for the weight difference at slaughter. Grass fed doesn't put on as much fat. I know a lot of people prefer the extra fat in the muscles to make it feel more tender.

Now old animals are great for burger and stew meat. So tasty. I've never had stew meat turn out tough. But then I cook it the same as my great grandma on down did. The meat is browned then simmered on it's own until tender, then all the veggies are added to cook. Mom always makes up a roux to add near the end and thicken it. I like the broth best of all so I don't thicken it beyond what the potatoes do.

We eat grass fed beef. I can't remember the last time I ate grain fed beef. We get most of ours for free *ducks to dodge flying tomatoes* because FIL works for a man with a Longhorn ranch.

I think it has a far superior flavor to grain fed beef, so I have no suggestions there. DH says that marinating and undercooking slightly will make it more tender.