Grass-Fed/Free-Range: The USDA is currently working on legal definitions for the terms grass-fed and free-range. In their absence, some producers continue to use the terms loosely. The term grass-fed may lead consumers to think the cattle feed only on organic grass, but that’s not necessarily the case. The pastureland may have been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. It’s most likely that these cattle have also fed on hay. And unless the label says “100 percent grass-fed” or “pasture-finished,” they have spent some time in a feedlot. So when you find a producer advertising grass-fed beef, look a little closer at the details (many nationally distributed producers have Web sites that provide more information). The good nutrition news, according to a research report from the University of California and California State University, is that grass-fed beef has 60 percent more omega-3 fatty acids (which help prevent heart disease) than beef from grain-fed animals, and more than twice the amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids that is thought to reduce the risk in animals of cancer and heart disease.
In the Kitchen
For a casual blind tasting of steaks with the aforementioned labels, we ordered boneless rib eyes from the nine nationally distributed producers listed below. (Their meat is available at many supermarkets, butcher shops, and natural foods stores, and by mail order.) With the exception of Waterfall Hollow Farm’s, which were frozen, they were packed with ice bricks in a cooler. We seasoned the steaks with kosher salt on both sides and cooked each kind in exactly the same way. Our first impression? The variation in the cooked steaks was immense. (That variation results in large part from the differences in breed of cattle and within individual steers, the type of pasture on which they are fed, and how they are handled both before and after slaughter.) Second, there was an almost equally wide variation among our tasters: No two people’s idea of the perfect steak is the same. Some food editors preferred a steak with a nice chew over one that was more tender but just as flavorful; to others, “clean-tasting” was not a compliment—it meant too lean and gamy.
Natural: Niman Ranch (grass-fed and grain-finished, no antibiotics or hormones), based in California, offers both fresh and aged steaks. The aged steaks had a rich, beefy-but-clean flavor, and a tender, juicy, fine-grained texture. The fresh steaks were milder in flavor and well marbled. (866-808-0340; nimanranch.com) Coleman Natural Meats (grass-fed and grain-finished, no antibiotics or hormones), from Colorado, had fresh steaks; they were juicy but bland and a little mushy. (800-442-8666; colemannatural.com) Meyer Natural Angus (grass-fed and corn-finished, no antibiotics or hormones), in Nebraska, sent us fresh steaks that were very lean. They had an almost gamy flavor and tender (some said mushy) texture. (800-856-6765; www.meyernaturalangus.com) Fresh steaks from B3R Country Meats (grass-fed and grain-finished, no antibiotics or hormones), from Texas, had good flavor and chew. (800-245-7230; www.b3r.com)
Certified Organic: Virginia’s Sunnyside Farms (grass-fed and grain-finished) raises beef cattle that are three-quarters Wagyu (commonly called Kobe). The fresh steaks were very beefy and tender, with good flavor and a coarse, almost pot roast–like texture. (540-675-3636; www.sunnysidefarms.com) Organic Valley (grass-fed and grain-finished), based in Wisconsin, sent us wet-aged steaks; some thought they were on the bland side, but others liked the tender “baby beef” quality. (888-444-6455; organicvalley.coop)
Grass-Finished: Conservation Beef (free-range, no antibiotics or hormones) provoked intense discussion; some found the dry-aged steaks dry and too funky, while others found them juicy and flavorful. Go figure. (406-495-8653; conservationbeef.org) We wanted to like the dry-aged steaks from Waterfall Hollow Farm, in Arkansas, but were disappointed: Our samples were tough and not very flavorful. (870-423-3457; www.waterfallhollow.com) Napa Free-Range Beef (no antibiotics or hormones) steaks, from California, were tough and fishy-tasting. (707-968-9111; napafreerangebeef.com)
Find Your Own
Here are a few Web sites that will help you locate a producer in your area and may provide details on producer practices. Eatwellguide.org: Select preferences such as “No Antibiotic Use” or “Certified Humane” to find restaurants, markets, and producers. Localharvest.org: Search by zip code and product for producers, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture groups. Eatwild.com: Information and sources for organic and pasture-raised meat and poultry.—Nanette Maxim and Jane Daniels Lear
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