Anyone purchased a side of beef?

We bought our first side of grass-fed free range beef about a year ago, and I'm not going back to that crap from the store ever again.

I think the portions of cuts you get depends on how you plan to cook it. We tend to eat more hamburger and steaks, and less roasts, because the portions are smaller and more convenient. You'll certainly use the roasts, but they require more planning and larger family meals, which we don't always have. Next time, now that we have a dog, I will ask for more bones and organ meat.

 

Evan, we raise a few cows, in addition to all the sheep. When you buy a side of beef, you don't usually get any offal (organs, tongue, etc), so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If they are asking whether you want it you can politely decline - they will likely on-sell it to a pet food company. I was a little surprised about the estimate of 1/2 ground beef. We usually take those cuts as stewing beef, as we prefer big hearty stews in the winter and can also use those pieces in burritos, asian wok dishes, etc.

Corn-fed is a non-starter as far as we are concerned - just grass for our beasts. Huge difference in taste!

 

PS - we like roasts. You don't have to eat them all in one sitting, usually we get three meals out of even one of the smallest roasts: Roast dinner, followed by a one of either a casserole/burrito/taco/steak sub dinner, followed by cold sandwiches during the week.

 

FYI

There is a great crock pot cookbook called "fix it and forget it"
Stews are a nice way to do quick but healthy dinners in winter if you have time to start them in the morning.

Does my post qualify as "most helpful" yet? I'm trying to out-do raevynn.

 

Octavia suggested using a crock pot - probably a VERY good idea for a family of 5.

While you can cook roasts that way, you MAY want some of the meat cut into cubes for stewing in a crockpot. Sure, you can cube a roast or a steak yourself, but I'd think that would be too much work when you can get the butcher to do that in advance.

You may also want to look into making broth from the bones and then freezing it in smallish containers as a base for soups and gravies (assuming you have a huge freezer to accomodate all this!)

 

When I can afford it I purchase grass-fed range beef and lamb from the guys that graze my grassland preserves. Awesome stuff and a crockpot makes cooking roasts a breeze. I agree with the others when they say buy a crock pot and a good recipe book!

 

Octavia, you aren't going to come close - mostly because of the shock factor.
Evan, and most other PCers, know me as the resident vegan. I've suffered amazing amounts of grief from these guys concerning my dietary preferences! (all in good fun, generally speaking, though)
The fact that I even weighed in and offered a usable opinion has so knocked Evan off balance, that it counts double

There is a Vegetarian Fix It and Forget It cookbook, too, btw

 

All deserved, I want to add.

Tom

 

:Cry:

 

There there Rae

:hug:

 

Try reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma". It'll change your outlook on corn-fed beef for sure.

 

Holy crap, $1500 dollars is a big one time purchase!
Side of Venison....about a hundred bucks for a deer license and etc.

Just a few random thoughts after reading this thread:
The heart is excellent meat, if the cost is the same, take it, you'll be surprised.
My old timer father complains if we don't keep the heart from our deer.

Bones should not go to family pets. It's not worth the risk. Besides the aforementioned problems, they can also throw it up on your carpet or crap it out on the yard in a way you cannot easily "collect". I don't like to mess with the dog's diet when it is working well.

I think I'd go heavier on the hamburger, your family will tend to use that up faster than the roasts. By deer hunting season, roasts are ussually what's left in the freezer and nobody wants them.

Deer that feed off of corn fields taste better than deer that feed on grasses. Not as lean, but definately less gamey.
Yes, I have read omnivore's dilemma. If corn was merely a supplement in a cow's diet (IE: like the above deer that eat corn), they'd be much better off. But due to the corn subsidies, many factory farms use it as the main feed, which the cows have not yet evolved to handle. It's not the corn that's the problem (corn is a type of grass BTW), it's the misuse/overuse of the corn (much like our use of HFCS). It comes down to economics. The rancher saves more money using corn than he spends treating sick animals. That's what we get for demanding 99 cent hamburgers! (factory farms, feeding subsidized corn grown from cheap subsidized oil).

 

OK, Ok.. ok... I'll have to settle for "kinda helpful" then.

I did not know they had a vegetarian version too! I use the moosewood series for vegetarian specific cooking mostly and haven't branched out in a while. Might be time I did!

 

My comment has nothing to do with corn fed beef, and everything to do with Rae.

Tom

 

great choice to "grass-ful"...

1) yep, and for the reason, ask the dog.

2) good question, so i have posted a "Cow Map" which shows cuts, best options for cooking, etc.

3) cubed is for like beef stews and such. roasts i think work better cause its easy to make a big piece smaller.

4) heart, tongue, best part of cow. my first choice for roast beef sandwiches. liver, well... if you like it, sure, but high in fat, iron, etc. but its definitely an acquired taste. i do eat it on occasion with lots of grilled onions and peppers

i have been doing grass-fed beef for almost 4 years now. its not cheap but i like it and what it stands for. plus, the lack of hormones and whatnot is something that i think might be important.

its all good. does sound like a lot of hamburger, but what the heck, a couple of major family BBQ's will take care of it. remember, Ground Beef makes the most menu items by far

yepper $5 a lb is a pretty good price. Trader Joes sells grass fed GB for $5.99. you have a mix of steaks and roasts which would sell for more

see below

ahem... highly recommended reading for EVERYONE. after TJ's passing, its even more important to understand what food is really made of

i agree

with 300 lbs of meat, he better have a huge something!!

butchered, cut and wrapped, its not all that bad. probably something close to a buck a pound is the cut and wrap fees.

i do case on corn fed which aint good, but the real issue is feed lots and how cows are raised. they live their entire lives in a 14 square foot pen. they gain weight 400% faster than normal due to drugs, steroids and a super rich diets.

they live in such close contact, they have to be laddened down with antibiotics, etc. to prevent disease from running rampant. remember, 14 square feet?? ya thats right. just BARELY enough room for the cow to shift its weight, no more.

so, its not the corn, i have the biggest issues with

as far as roasts, we dont have the time to cook it either, but i load up the crockpot the night before, turn it on in the morning on low, let it run all day (hope the thing does not catch house on fire... for at least a year, i used to worry about that a lot...the feeling has faded a lot)

 

My 20 pound Border Terrier gets two tablespoons of raw grass fed beef a day. As a puppy, he also got half a raw organic chicken wing for breakfast (skin, muscle, and bone all consumed in about 5 seconds). The breeder said that dogs tend to live a few years longer when fed a mixture of raw meats, bones, organic grains such as oats and barley, kelp, and green vegetables like broccoli.

Now why on earth would a person want to eat dog food?

 

all my cows i bought, i requested the bones, gave them to my in-laws who have a golden retriever. he has been munching on them for 4 years, no issues yet, but they are all raw, uncooked.

another thing, grass-fed greatly reduces e coli and completely eliminates the possibility of mad cow. granted, neither one i lose sleep over, but still