Your Own Beef vs. Organic Beef

[Guest]

Over the years, my family occasionally gets a couple calves and eventually has them butchered for our own meat. Can meat from your own cows be made so it's just as good as organic meat?

 

They're raised close to my family's house. They eat the weeds, hay, and corn. I imagine the hay and corn may be a problem depending on if pesticides were ever sprayed on them? What about before we bought the calves? Does anyone know if they are given bad things before that point? Is this more of a hassle than a benefit?

 

Carolyn

[tarabeara]

Unless the stuff they're eating has been sprayed, like you said, they are organic. It works out really well that way, doesn't it?

 

Does anyone in your family hunt? We eat deer meat for half the year that my husband kills. We salt it to remove the blood, b/c the bible says to remove the blood, and boy does it make the meat tender and tasty! The other half of the year, we eat kosher organic grassfed beef.

[kim]

tarabera,

 

Can you tell me how you use the salt, and what kind on the venison?

[tarabeara]

tarabera,

 

Can you tell me how you use the salt, and what kind on the venison?

 

 

Yeah. We use sea salt for cooking and stuff, but we use kosher salt for koshering meat. It's big and coarse. The kind we have in the cupboard right now is Morton brand. We've used some other brand before that came in a white box...don't remember what it was. But, anyway, you should be able to find it in just about any grocery store. It comes in a big box.

 

You cover the meat thoroughly with salt--you can put all the meat in your sink or a cooler--and then let it stay for about two hours or so. You'll be able to see the blood coming out of it. Salt draws it out. Then, you rinse all the meat with water.

 

It's so nice to get a package of meat out of the freezer and thaw it, and there be no or very little blood in it. Whenever we sometimes buy organic meat that is not kosher from the health food store, I rinse it, but that's such a pain, and the meat is still not as tender. When the meat blood is removed at the beginning with salt, the meat will be so tender when cooked. YUM!

[Guest]

I'll have to check into more about if any pesticides were sprayed on the hay that the calves would eat and also if the calves are given any hormones, etc. before being sold at the auction. It works out very well like that if we can find some calves that would fit the organic profile. We won't be getting any until the spring.

 

No, my family does not hunt anything other than pheasants once a year for fun.

 

Carolyn

 

Unless the stuff they're eating has been sprayed, like you said, they are organic. It works out really well that way, doesn't it?

 

Does anyone in your family hunt? We eat deer meat for half the year that my husband kills. We salt it to remove the blood, b/c the bible says to remove the blood, and boy does it make the meat tender and tasty! The other half of the year, we eat kosher organic grassfed beef.

[kim]

Thanks terabeara.

 

We have a freezer full of venison, and I hate it. My oldest son likes it, but if you overcook it, it gets tough, and I don't like to see him eat it pink/undercooked. Maybe this would work.

[tarabeara]

Yes, venision cooks very quickly...especially frying it. We fry some little battered steaks in coconut oil sometimes. The stuff is done in three minutes or less!

 

You also have to be careful how it's cut, too. If it's cut the wrong direction, it'll be tough.

 

But, definitely try the salting the next time a deer is killed. It does make it more tender.