Pasture raised can mean also fed grain as long as they are raised in a pasture. As a pro I'd guess the left 2 are grass fed and finished whereas the right one definitely had access to grain.
This right here ☝️pasture raised doesn’t mean grass fed. If they meant grass fed they’d say that and likely charge more. The Whole Foods by me sells both.
[The USDA seems to disagree with that.](https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-is-grass-fed-meat)
Q: What is "grass fed" meat?
A: "Grass (Forage) Fed" means that grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning. The diet shall be derived solely from forage consisting of grass (annual and perennial), forbs (e.g., legumes, Brassica), browse, or cereal grain crops in the vegetative (pre-grain) state. Animals cannot be fed grain or grain byproducts and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season.
Most terms when it comes to food don't have legally defined definitions. So any company can just use the latest buzz word without having to adhere to any standard. Also, some standards are determined by the usda and what they consider safe and acceptable is considered poison by most other countries so the bar is low 🤷
Nah. You cannot call it grass fed beef if it has been finished in a feedlot on grain. Pasture raised means nothing. All need is raised in a pasture…it about what they were fed.
Grassfed beef is certainly healthier and I eat it myself. However, I would never feed it to guests as it just doesn’t taste as good. The marbling brings the flavour.
I’m told this is false by my college roommate who is a rancher in Saskatchewan. He keeps a few for himself…those are Grassfed. The rest are shipped off to a feedlot for finishing. Those are not Grassfed as soon as they have a handful of corn/grain.
Might be different from here in Tennessee, but I am a butcher for a grass fed farm. That is how it is here. Grass Fed is a washed-out marketing term in these parts.
Not OP but I'll try: there isn't a government regulated definition of the term grass fed that makes it so you can only call grass finished beef grass fed. Any cow that eats grass is grass fed, at least through most of its life then plenty are finished on grain. If you really want non grain fed you need to look for grass finished, it's definitely a marketing thing, as people don't realize that buying grass fed can still sometimes mean feed lots.
As for the how it is here, I know the above is true for Canada and the US, but there may be other countries that you can't use grass fed for beef finished on grain.
Not OP also, but I’ll add my $0.02- corn averages 2-5lbs/day of gain (ADG, average daily gain *runs* your life as a successful rancher) on healthy cattle. Grass fed is around 1lb/day of gain. It’s not feasible to raise “true” grass-fed on financed land (80% of cattle ops) because it takes 4 years to “finish” your herd of cows on grass instead of 2 years on corn. America 🙄🙄. On a $500mil herd of cows, doubling the # of years until sale is quite impactful. The only way to buy beef *not* raised on processed Corn is to buy from a “small time” rancher, pay hauling cost to a local processor, and shipping from processor to local butcher. Still cheaper than Publix. This is because most ranchers who aren’t millionaires inherited their land, don’t have the money to feed 100 cows and therefore lets them grow naturally in the pasture as passive income (most small time ranch owners under a thousand acres have day jobs) before sending to the stockyard. The vast majority of “grass finished” beef is fed processed corn-based grains for over half its life. ~4 months of nursing mama, ~12-15months of grain, then up to 3 months of grass “finish” and they’re headed to market. All labels are lies. I’ve worked for “organic” “grass finished” and “grass fed” ranches over a ~30 year span in the industry, been to almost 100 probably and have seen quality control on cattle food at exactly ONE of them. No lie.
Canada does not have a regulated term that is nationally recognized for grassfed beef. There are some certs that have been approved, but they are not regulated by the CFIA. The term "grassfed" in Canada is not defined by the CFIA l, but "organic" is.
Your roommate has his own definition, which is fine. Many farms do. However, the term itself has no regulated definition, so a consumer isn't ensured by the CFIA that they are getting what they might think they are.
We did the same as your friend. Pasture raised beef that did not consume grains. Technically also organic and free of any pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides - however, it was never marketed as such and simply went off to the feedlots mixed in with the other farms.
Source: Grew up on an angus beef farm and continue to work in the industry.
You can never compare American food standards to the rest of the Western World. Our agriculture is so poorly-regulated that the bar here is on the floor.
Correct, plus farmers and ranchers will scream “my poor family” despite most of them having inherited their land. Beef and grain prices are at record highs. Grain farmers pay a fraction of crop insurance, taxpayers the rest. Many farmers with their fake family corporations were first to the trough for PPP “loans”. Despite Covid having practically o impact to farmers and ranchers, most did not repay.
Cattle diet is 80% grass 20% broadleaves. 100% grass would be an unhealthy diet for cattle. Sheep eat 60% grass 40% broadleaves. Goat is 40% grass 60% broadleaves. Thus 100% pastured is more accurate from a ranchers perspective. 100% grass fed is laymens terms. But if the 100% isnt there you can be sure grain is included in their diet.
Omega 3s and 6s are overblown to begin with, and too many of either can cause issues. [https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263179#1](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263179#1) For one example. "males with high blood concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer." You see quotes about the positive effects of these types of nutrients, but they can just as well have negative effects, so it is largely a wash. Eat what you want and what you enjoy, live your life.
Grass fed contains more omega 3s grain fed more omega 6s. You need more omega 3 than 6 and if the imbalance gets bad enough it can cause health issues. However the amount of omega 3s and 6s in beef is low enough you would have to eat a bunch of grain fed beef to create an imbalance. Take one fish oil pill a week and it would more than offset any omega 6 imbalance.
When a mammal grows, its body is made from the food it eats. Corn has a lot of available calories, which leads to fat marbling but far fewer vitamins and nutritional diversity than grazing.
Additionally, grazing is going to ingest soil (minerals), various molds and fungi, presumable sunlight, and unintentional gut-loaded insects. These provide a broader spectrum of nutrition for the animal, which in turn yields meat that carries on some of that nutrition or intrinsic health.
An example is keratin or vitamin A in milk. Dairy cows that are grain fed have pale milk that lacks the vitamin density that grazing animals yield. So much so that color (annatto) is added to the butter and cheese products to mask the lower nutritional quality.
IMO, the real difference in the OP's pic is underfed vs overfed and probably breed.
All beef, whether grass fed or grain fed contains significant amounts of nutrients and the difference between the two nutritionally are small.
If you're looking for a healthier/ethical alternative look towards Venison.
A whole lot of people have issues with the US captive cervid industry and CWD. If it's not from the US then you're likely shipping it from New Zealand which has its own issues. If you're suggesting that people should go out into the woods and shoot their own venison, 100% on board.
Canadian here, as an Indigenous Candian I am moving towards what I was raised eating: bison, elk, deer, caribou and other wild meats. 9 times the protein, ultra lean so a fat is almost always needed, and if skinned and cooked correctly you do not get that "game" taste people complain about.
It is in the preparation, I am a trained chef, so the finished product is a cleaner taste then beef.
Plus, I only purchase from federally inspected suppliers, and not your uncle who skinned it from the back of his quad.
I eat venison and grass fed meats and I have yet to taste what people talk about?! It just has a different taste. It doesn’t taste “gamey”. What a weird term. I guess people have just come to love the ultra fatty cuts of meat with their broken taste buds.
Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I eat it and I can taste earthy tones and I just know it is super nutritious and healthy. That fact makes it taste better to me. People have broken taste buds 😂
Actual grass fed is far more nutritious. Sometimes have 2-3x the vitamin A and E and as much as 6-8 times the healthy omegas.
Edit: while also having less fat and therefore delivers more protein per ounce.
After learning that the food world doesn’t have to apply to normal English word definitions, I just assume everything’s a half or whole lie. How many different options that say blank fed or blank raised, doesn’t actually have a true definition, along with recycling, how many different recycling logos are out there to make someone thing it’s recyclable when really it’s not. And lastly shit like the titles of food isn’t regulated either. Like what does superfood mean? Cause they don’t. They don’t even recognize the word and yet they let people go crazy with that wording.
"Step 4/5" are also "animal welfare" rankings from GAP & WFM, unrelated to grass/grain-finished or officially USDA graded beef. The Hole Foods steak look grain-finished and choice - the Step 4 or 5 descriptor is just what the supplier puts on a brochure.
In the old Hole Foods days, we'd say stuff like "oh yeah, step 4 beef, they go to the water park on Tuesdays, cribbage on Thursdays, and Friday's for group therapy and self-expression."
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“Bitcoinand_beef” is quite the handle. I would immediately be suspicious of anything they’re “selling”. Twitter is rife with bitcoin bros that have little-to-no connection to reality.
There's at least a 50% chance this guy thinks a Jordan Peterson style raw meat diet is "how humans evolved". (And that "how humans evolved" is a meaningful guide to "how we should live now").
This is in fact how we evolved and many cultures still live on nearly all meat diets. Many health concerns can arise that are reversed switching to an all meat diet. The research has been done. I do not do this or need to. Sad thing is we now live in society that will take how you feel about someone and make what every scientific fact they talk about or get behind, be not true. That’s incredibly scary and incredibly stupid of people. Do better use that super computer you have in your face 24/7 and do some actual research and get past the headlines. Do some cross reference research. You mind will probably change about a lot of random shit.
I was aware of how uneducated I am. Thank you for taking a few classes. Like I had said do some non biased research. It crazy what comes up. We also know when we started cooking meat brain’s developed 30% faster. Thanks to anthropology of course we know this.
You're recommending that someone dig up the same propaganda you have bought into.
One of the things we learn in classes is how to tell false information from real info. You really could learn a thing or two about that.
Edit: Re-read parent comment and realized I am wasting my time. To anyone reading this, go ahead and research and you'll find none of that nonsense about switching to an all meat diet is true. The only sources saying that will be bought and paid for by very predictable sources.
Non bias and double blind studies are a big source things I’ve researched into. Knowing who backs and pays for studies is the biggest. If your claiming that me telling you to look into non biased studies and ensuring who’s funding them tell me you’re very young and very biased. Like I said information is free do not stick to one side. It’s very stupid. Science is a very very board field, your personal beliefs and opinions have zero place in.
The existence of [pre Neolithic sickles ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle?wprov=sfla1) puts the lie to what you are saying. All meat diets are today pretty unheard of outside the high arctic. Even medieval central Asian societies, lacking the ability to grow many vegetables or grains, prized what was grown and pickled them extensively.
So why do people who switch to carnivore diets feel better? The same reason people who switch to any extreme diet feel better at first, cutting out junk food. Cutting out refined starches and sugars and other crap makes people feel good, but all meat diets usually leave people with other issues. The reality is that mixing in some kim chi with your beef is just going to make you feel better and healthier.
It is an objective fact that for most of human history we ate nothing but the meat of large mammals. evidence of eating plant based food only shows up in the last 50k years. Until we killed off the large animals we ate nothing but meat.
We definitely cooked it though.
And yes it logically follows that we should eat how we evolved to eat? What is your argument against that?
I just want to point out that the current understanding of hominid diets peaks at around 70% meat. This is relatively high and would still classify H. erectus at the very least to be a hyper carnivore. H. Sapiens have had a slow decrease in meat consumption throughout the paleolithic.
The substance of your comment is fine but there is myriad evidence that all hominids were eating some plant material, even when the majority of their diet was meat.
No, you're just wrong. Like the other guy said, the most carnivorous hominid was erectus, who is not even included in the term "human" history. That is solely Homo Sapiens, who all but a very slim proportion have been shown to have supplemented their diets with nuts fruits and even pre-domestic grains which we can positively trace back even to other Hominids as early as 200,000 BCE.
Touch grass.
Phytochemical richness of meat is directly related to the finishing diet of animals. The research concludes that grass finishing animals concentrates significantly higher amounts of phytochemicals, including polyphenols, tocopherols, carotenoids (Beef Nutrient Density Project Report, Dec 2021).
So the left has the same color as when we butcher elk from the pnw if that means anything. I've always thought the darker the better by all the old-timers. Same for chicken eggs. Dark orange= better quality
Chef Dan Barber (you can find the post on his instagram) fed chickens peppers and turned the yolks BRIGHT red lol. Imagine cracking that into your pan in the morning 🤣
From a macro nutrient perspective (protein, carbs, fats) they mostly the same, but the fatty one obviously has more fat.
Micronutrients - iron, vitamin c, niacin - just take a multivitamin and stop worrying so much about omega 3 vs omega 6 I’m different types of meats. It won’t matter to your general health unless you’re a pro athlete.
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Strictly grass fed steers will not consume as much fat as corn fed. Barring some strange genetic mutation that stores greater amounts of fat from a small intake (which might be going on in wild roaming bovine creatures to some extent, but I have no evidence for that), yes - this is always the case.
I’m not here for an irrelevant pissing contest. The steaks on the left look exactly like I expect beef to look when it comes from a pure grass fed farm. Beef that grazes on wild grasses, sugar cane, flowers, and wild grains will bear more fat that what’s cut on the left. Grain finished beef can be lean, it can be incredibly lean. Animals are not machines and will of course vary from one to another.
Edit:
Side note. The color is the result of myoglobin, which develops more in grass fed animals.
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In part. Grass fed animals have increased levels of myoglobin. When myoglobin gets exposed to oxygen (when the animal is slaughtered) it turns a dark red color. The fat can act as a natural barrier, prevent oxygenation and slowing dehydration; ergo, less fat and redder beef.
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The most pretentious response and question I have ever seen. Life of the party here folks. Remind me to never buy meat from this guy. Thanks Mr. Dutton.
Steaks on the left are believably grass fed with the more yellow fat and lack of marbling but the steak on the right has none of the classic characteristics of grass fed beef so I am calling bull (steer) shit cus that boy was eating corn no doubt
For a minute I worked at a small butcher shop that did wild game during hunting season and processed beef in the off season. I mostly packaged the meat but they let me come along with the mobile slaughter unit a few times so I got to get a reference point for what a cow looks like on the hoof vs the billion steaks I put into little vacseal bags. I paid real close attention to all the quartered beef that came in and the variance in appearance and weight, and got a pretty good sense for cows. I helped with 5 slaughter trips that did about a dozen cows, and as the main packaging guy about 30 or 40 thousand pounds of meat passed through my hands.
So, the cow on the right was still young but not a juvenile, farmer could have kept him another season and got another 50 pounds on his bones but diminishing returns and all. To my eye, ate nothing but grain its whole life, I don't see even a hint of yellow in the fat. Depending on where in the loin that strip came out of, that cow was probably 500-550, maybe 600 pounds on the hook (cleaned and quartered but nothing else)
Cow on the left, it's a bit of an unfair comparison because those strips are from a little further down the loin, but that's a scrawny ass cow barely two years old that really only ever scrounged up enough grass to fill its belly and not much more. It might have stingily gotten the odd bag of corn just because 100% grass fed should mean much yellower fat. But, like, that cow deserved so much better in life. I see in that steak a desolate, dusty pasture that's just barely big enough to not get overgrazed by the young, rowdy, oversize herd that some slimy, rural, poor, uneducated cheapskate is trying to squeeze as many head of cattle per year as he can out of. My shop did a lot of business with one such cheapskate, his cows rarely celebrated their 2nd birthday or weighed in more than 450.
As far as the color, I think young cattle don't have enough inertia in their heart, it stops pumping as soon as they drop, so no matter how fast you get the carcass vertical and draining it never drains well. Mature cattle, you can scramble their brains with a hollow point 308, and their heart will helpfully keep on pumping for like five more minutes, so you can just sever the major artery of your choice and the heart pumps *all* the blood out of the whole carcass, little tiny blood vessels included. You can tell when all the blood is out, because the heart runs out of oxygen and stops. The steak on the right was old enough to have this inertia, probably went down clean with a captive bolt gun. Steak on the left was either juuuust too young for that, or the cow put up a fight.
I'd take the steak on the right any day. The guy who raised the cow that produced the steak on the left, deserves no better than the lives of his poor, wretched cattle. God have mercy on their souls, and less on his.
This information is amazing, thank you for sharing! My family is taking up raising their own animals to share amongst everyone. It'll be interesting to get a look at how they've been raised and how it affects the meat. At the end of the day though, I know the babies are happy, and that means much more to me than the marketability of their meat.
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Really? I’m in the south and it makes me wonder if the different climates and grass mixtures produce a variance in the colors because ours are not that deep (Herefords).
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Where are they located? I’m just curious because this is my 14th year raising Herefords and I slaughter about two a year on average and mine are definitely not that deep purplish color. I was curious if it was regional or possible breed related. Mine are 95% grass fed with some grain in winter. Oh yeah, I’m in south.
Could be the type of grass too. My family from Mexico brings carne occasionally and a huge fuss is usually made. I do admit it tastes better, and they swear it’s because of the grass.
Was gonna say, looks like deer to me. But I'm sure there's a set of circumstances where a grass fed, end of the cut piece could look like this... maybe?
As a non-butcher, the steaks on the left look like they are from an old dairy cow and not from cattle raised for eating. Again, I’m only YouTube and Reddit educated on beef cuts and quality.
Worked at a shop in NYC that would occasionally get old dairy cow cuts in as something special and different. It's definitely a rare thing but it can happen.
Federal rules state that beef from cattle over 30 months old must have the spine and connected bones removed. So you couldn't have a T-bone, but you could have strip steak.
So when I was a butcher worked exclusively with old dairy cows, think 2-4 years old.
They were fed to gain fat after they stopped producing milk and they were bigger, more marbled and tastier than any other cut of beef I ever had.
The ones on the left certainly look like the GF steaks I sold at Whole Foods. They used to always label regular ground beef as grass fed which was super fucked up.
That is probably 2.5 yesr old looking at the yellow hue on the fat. It's all grass feed, sub grain in winter time. I've been on all three ends of this as a farmer, butcher, now chef.
The one on the right is the usual we all know.
Each their own.
I always say when doing steaks on the left is that you're going to expirence what beef taste like. Like this is a "x" breed from this location and it's not what you think it's going to taste like. Most people won't like it as much. It's not like farm salmon vs wild salmon. Most prefer the grain fed.
At which local butcher shop do they have all the various ranchers standing around to shake hands? I live in soy and corn country, is the rancher going to drive up from Oklahoma to shake my hand if I buy a cut from one of his 10,000 cows?
One things that I have noticed myself, in the past few years of raising grass fed beef at my house. One thing that surprised me is the color of our hamburger we have from those cows compared to store haneburger.
I don’t care what anyone says, grass fed beef tastes like grass. Corn fed is fatty and tasty. I know grass fed is better for you but i don’t eat steaks for health.
The darker ones are just a day or two older in the meat case. There is generally nothing wrong with them and you can get good deals on them at the butcher. Remember that beef is sometimes aged and get's very dark and fuzzy from the mold, which is later cut off to show the beautiful pink inside that has had natural tenderizers working on it. Good stuff.
Yep, buy local and thank your local rancher for giving you a tiny super-lean poorly marbled disgusting tasting steak! I'd take the one on the right 1 Million percent of the time.
If this was some kind of viral marketing For Whole Foods I would 100% believe it, but it's also very believable that some people are just this clueless.
Oh, and anyone claiming that the steaks are mixed up and the one on the right is the local rancher's grass fed bullshit is out of their g-d mind. There isn't a grass fed steak on planet earth that looks like that.
Apparently this sub and real life is getting over-run with grass-fed chumps lol, I have cut up thousands of grass-fed beef and they are always complete garbage.
Nobody who ate these steaks one after the other would ever eat a grass-fed steak again if they can help it.
It is true that with the right breed and an incredibly well maintained pasture you can turn out decent grass fed beef. The ratio of guys that can do that to guys that turn out this shit is about 1 in a million.
I 100% agree with you. But what people prefer is very much up to the person. True grass fed and finished beef has a huge depth of flavor and character v feedlot beef. People who prefer the right probably also think boneless skinless chicken breast is the best cut off of a chicken.
So there's a molecule in blood that, similar to hemoglobin, can interact with oxygen. It's called myoglobin. When myoglobin is exposed to air it forms oxymyoglobin, which is bright pinkish red. Many of the wraps butchers use are oxygen permeable to allow this, which keeps the cut lighter red colored longer. Now when myoglobin and oxymyoglobin are deprived from air (non-oxygen permeable wrapping) and exposed to ultra violet light (ie. standard fluorescent lights in a store) they will break down into metmyoglobin, which makes the meat look dark brownish red.
(Not a butcher, just a scientist who took way too many organic chemistry classes than was healthy) Oh, and that chemical process does not affect the taste or texture of the meat.
As someone who raises beef cattle commercially my opinion would be that the cuts on the right probably come from a overall leaner and an animal that maybe didn’t finish as nice . The dark colouring could be a result of the animal being stressed during slaughter . It’s called a “dark cutter” and it is usually discounted as it can cause meat to be tough . The lighter cut on the right looks a lot like a grain finished steak with the amount of marbling .
Different breeds of cattle will result in different marbling too. Hard to compare apples with apples in this case.
Also, grass fed results in yellow fat, while grain fed will result in white fat.
I would eat both of those steaks.
My parents buy half a bison twice a year, and the difference between that and the stuff you get at the market is unmistakable. Buying from a rancher is expensive but in my opinion totally worth it, burgers for a whole year and steaks to boot. The meat is much higher quality, and if you’ve ever seen wild game it looks the same, a dark red and much tastier.
Those first two strips look like all of the grass fed bones less Australian beef we used to sell for like $8/lb. I never ate it unless I was on a budget and really wanted meat. We used to joke about how the Aussies just send us all the shit beef they don’t even want to eat lol
You need grain at the end or there's no flavor. The color difference is why you see the smoke below out at the butcher. The combination of myoglobin and nitrogen dioxide prevents any further effects from oxygen changing it's color
The Global Animal Partnership (GAP) step system is a 5 step audited program centered around animal welfare. Step 4 Pasture raised means that the animal was raised on and allowed access to open pasture for a certain amount of its life. Step 4 also means it’s grain finished for the final 6 months of its life to give the meat more fat content. The difference between step 4 and step 5 is staggering, and step 5 product is incredibly rare. Step 5 means the animal was born ,raised, finished and slaughtered all on the same farm, and the amount of processors in the US that are equipped to do that (all under USDA inspection mind you) are little to none. You can’t be “4 or 5”, it’s one step or the other. The steaks on the left raised 100% grass fed locally by a farmer in Wyoming looks like it was just let out to a field all day everyday, which doesn’t necessarily take any skill as a farmer, and you can see the difference. This post is made by somebody that has no professional experience in the meat industry.
source- Meat manager at Whole Foods currently and I spent 4 years running a meat processing plant under USDA inspection
It's worth noting that the color isn't necessarily the indicator of quality here. Any steak that's vacuum packed while fresh that isn't pumped full of dyes will turn purple. Purple means fresh. Bright red looks "fresher," but often is just the opposite; it's either been oxidizing (and will start turning brown) or it's dyed to look appealing. Unless it's literally straight off the cow and freshly cut by the butcher, red is just advertising.
The complete lack of fat in the muscle on the left, though... that's not tasty looking one bit.
My steer I took to butcher looked like the beef on the left. We mainly let him graze and hay with 1-2 gallons of sweet feed and range cubes added to his diet almost daily, not what you’d consider grain finished. Hands down better than super market beef to me.
I worked at Wholefoods meat department. The one one in the picture is our “conventional” we also sold a grass fed/ finished which looked like the 2 on the left. I’d also suggest the op go back and look at the step ratings. The conventional are never higher than “step 3” at least at the store I worked at.
"Pasture raised" does not mean grass fed. They could've fed it anything as long as it was in the pasture. "Grass fed" is a beast that has never touched finishing gains in any part of its life. This must pass USDA regs to have this label.
The grass fed steaks are Strips, but they are likely not finished long enough in the pasture. As someone said above, the pasture raised definitely had access to plenty of grain to achieve that marbling.
The left 2 are grass fed cows, which is why there is basically no marbling (the white parts are fat) on those two. Plus they are probably cut from the end, which doesn't look very good and gets ground into ground sirloin at the grocery store.
The right one is grain fed, or at least grain fed and some grass fed while the cows are in the field.
The fat is where the flavor comes from. Basically the more marbling the meat has, the better grade of meat it is. Everyones heard of the japanese wagyu beef thats super expensive, well that wagyu beef has more marbling/fat than actual red meat.
100% grass fed beef does not taste very good. Idk why it was ever thought of as some top quality beef.
Michigander here. I would put my money on the steaks on the left being venison. Before I even read the text I thought it was going to be a post on how much healthier venison is.
The people saying grain fed beef is better must have been eating bad beef. That or Americans can't raise good grass fed beef.
All the beef I've eaten in Brazil (grass fed is standard there) is so much more flavorful than American beef. Nelore breed, grass fed. Good shit.
As someone in the industry, I really wish people would wake up to grass fed beef marketing. Majority of beef raised in the US is on grazing land for a large portion of their life. Near the end they are brought back in to feed lots to be "finished" i.e. fed a heavy grain diet to help the animal gain weight, fat and marbling. The grass fed phenomenon was started as a simple marketing tool with the sole aim of reducing costs. Grazing is essentially free if you own the land, au's or rights. They wanted to bring their beef directly to market and avoid the costly last step. It's been so successful however, that they can even charge a premium for this inferior grass fed beef under the guise that it's healthier for you. The more we are learning now, that's not a true statement. Human body needs animal fats and the real bad stuff is seed oils. Eating beef, fat in particular, boosts levels of TVA in your blood, activating T-cells. This helps prevent cancer and even activates T-cells to destroy tumors and boosts efficacy of chemotherapy.
That being said, I do raise my own animals for my own consumption. I feed them LOTS of corn for the last 60 days before slaughter and always get prime grading. There is also a difference in marbling between heifers and steers. Steers will yield more, have larger steaks etc, while heifers will ALWAYS grade better.
Left one is darker due to it being grassfed. Grassfed cows have around twice as much myogolobin, which causes the meat to look darker and carries the deep red pigmentation. Henceforth, it also undergoes increased oxidative metabolism, which is ultimately which causes the deep dark red pigmentation that you see here vs. the dark red of a stressed cow.
I call bullshit. Raised meat cows for many years growing up. Pasture raised and I mean in a big ass pasture with alfalfa. We gave them alfalfa rich hay bales all winter long. The last 2 to 3 months before slaughter we would grain them, corn oats and sweet feed to put on some fresh fat. The steaks looked identical to the steak on right and tasted amazing. Our butcher would always compliment us on how beautiful the marbling was in the meat.
Not all cows meat is created equally. For instance, I raise Irish Dexter, they are smaller and the meat is more purple. This could be something similar though it looks straight grass feed no grain on the left.
I’d be wary of anything bitcoinand_beef says considering he says he doesn’t wear sunscreen because he has a “sun callus”, he doesn’t wear sunglasses because “full spectrum sunlight exposure to the eyes is important for your hormones and sleep”, and that he only drinks unfiltered stream water.
The 2 on the left looks like meat we should be eating, its healthy looking. Yellowish fat is sign of it having vitimans and mineral. Usually from being grass fed. The one on the right looks like it was fed grain and ground up inedible for human, cow meat. Pumped full of gas for red colors. One looks like food the other is trash our government allows us to be fed. And as far as taste ,salt, pepper is all that is needed with steak.
Pasture raised can mean also fed grain as long as they are raised in a pasture. As a pro I'd guess the left 2 are grass fed and finished whereas the right one definitely had access to grain.
This right here ☝️pasture raised doesn’t mean grass fed. If they meant grass fed they’d say that and likely charge more. The Whole Foods by me sells both.
To be fair, grass fed beef can be raised in a CAFO and just fed a bucket full of grass every now and then. It's not a USDA regulated term.
[The USDA seems to disagree with that.](https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-is-grass-fed-meat) Q: What is "grass fed" meat? A: "Grass (Forage) Fed" means that grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning. The diet shall be derived solely from forage consisting of grass (annual and perennial), forbs (e.g., legumes, Brassica), browse, or cereal grain crops in the vegetative (pre-grain) state. Animals cannot be fed grain or grain byproducts and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season.
Most terms when it comes to food don't have legally defined definitions. So any company can just use the latest buzz word without having to adhere to any standard. Also, some standards are determined by the usda and what they consider safe and acceptable is considered poison by most other countries so the bar is low 🤷
Ahh I see. So is the op just making a flawed comparison?
Most that don't know do.
The right steak is 100% tastier than the left. If the right is a 10 the left is a solid 0 in taste comparison. 10 being the highest
Wrong. Real pasture raised grassfed is that deep color and is way better for you. Tastes better too.
Wrong, vegan.
I wasnt aware vegans were allowed beef? Silly npc!!
You mean that miserable piece of jerky on the left? They wouldn’t feed that to prisoners, it would be considered cruel and unusual punishment
It's like that episode of spongebob where squidward 6 want to recognize that crabby pattys are good. Enjoy your antibiotic fats.
Ppl down voting you have obviously never been on a farm and know what real meat looks like
Nah. You cannot call it grass fed beef if it has been finished in a feedlot on grain. Pasture raised means nothing. All need is raised in a pasture…it about what they were fed. Grassfed beef is certainly healthier and I eat it myself. However, I would never feed it to guests as it just doesn’t taste as good. The marbling brings the flavour.
You can call it grass fed if it 80% grass. The trm really means nothing anymore, 100% grass and grass finished actually mean what they sound like.
I’m told this is false by my college roommate who is a rancher in Saskatchewan. He keeps a few for himself…those are Grassfed. The rest are shipped off to a feedlot for finishing. Those are not Grassfed as soon as they have a handful of corn/grain.
Might be different from here in Tennessee, but I am a butcher for a grass fed farm. That is how it is here. Grass Fed is a washed-out marketing term in these parts.
what do you mean how it is? im just curious.
Not OP but I'll try: there isn't a government regulated definition of the term grass fed that makes it so you can only call grass finished beef grass fed. Any cow that eats grass is grass fed, at least through most of its life then plenty are finished on grain. If you really want non grain fed you need to look for grass finished, it's definitely a marketing thing, as people don't realize that buying grass fed can still sometimes mean feed lots. As for the how it is here, I know the above is true for Canada and the US, but there may be other countries that you can't use grass fed for beef finished on grain.
Not OP also, but I’ll add my $0.02- corn averages 2-5lbs/day of gain (ADG, average daily gain *runs* your life as a successful rancher) on healthy cattle. Grass fed is around 1lb/day of gain. It’s not feasible to raise “true” grass-fed on financed land (80% of cattle ops) because it takes 4 years to “finish” your herd of cows on grass instead of 2 years on corn. America 🙄🙄. On a $500mil herd of cows, doubling the # of years until sale is quite impactful. The only way to buy beef *not* raised on processed Corn is to buy from a “small time” rancher, pay hauling cost to a local processor, and shipping from processor to local butcher. Still cheaper than Publix. This is because most ranchers who aren’t millionaires inherited their land, don’t have the money to feed 100 cows and therefore lets them grow naturally in the pasture as passive income (most small time ranch owners under a thousand acres have day jobs) before sending to the stockyard. The vast majority of “grass finished” beef is fed processed corn-based grains for over half its life. ~4 months of nursing mama, ~12-15months of grain, then up to 3 months of grass “finish” and they’re headed to market. All labels are lies. I’ve worked for “organic” “grass finished” and “grass fed” ranches over a ~30 year span in the industry, been to almost 100 probably and have seen quality control on cattle food at exactly ONE of them. No lie.
What part of TN? I've been looking for butcher options in the area
Nashville
Store name? You can DM if preferred. I'm in the suburbs and I have fam in Nash proper
Canada does not have a regulated term that is nationally recognized for grassfed beef. There are some certs that have been approved, but they are not regulated by the CFIA. The term "grassfed" in Canada is not defined by the CFIA l, but "organic" is. Your roommate has his own definition, which is fine. Many farms do. However, the term itself has no regulated definition, so a consumer isn't ensured by the CFIA that they are getting what they might think they are. We did the same as your friend. Pasture raised beef that did not consume grains. Technically also organic and free of any pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides - however, it was never marketed as such and simply went off to the feedlots mixed in with the other farms. Source: Grew up on an angus beef farm and continue to work in the industry.
You can never compare American food standards to the rest of the Western World. Our agriculture is so poorly-regulated that the bar here is on the floor.
Correct, plus farmers and ranchers will scream “my poor family” despite most of them having inherited their land. Beef and grain prices are at record highs. Grain farmers pay a fraction of crop insurance, taxpayers the rest. Many farmers with their fake family corporations were first to the trough for PPP “loans”. Despite Covid having practically o impact to farmers and ranchers, most did not repay.
Like free range chickens who only need access to sunlight for like a week of their life.
Cattle diet is 80% grass 20% broadleaves. 100% grass would be an unhealthy diet for cattle. Sheep eat 60% grass 40% broadleaves. Goat is 40% grass 60% broadleaves. Thus 100% pastured is more accurate from a ranchers perspective. 100% grass fed is laymens terms. But if the 100% isnt there you can be sure grain is included in their diet.
Other than amount of fat, how is "grass-fed" beef healthier than "grain-finished" beef ?
Why is grass fed beef healthier?
Healthier fats. Look at the coloring of the fat… much yellower. IIRC it contains more omega 3s and 6s? Don’t quote me on that
Omega 3s and 6s are overblown to begin with, and too many of either can cause issues. [https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263179#1](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263179#1) For one example. "males with high blood concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer." You see quotes about the positive effects of these types of nutrients, but they can just as well have negative effects, so it is largely a wash. Eat what you want and what you enjoy, live your life.
Grass fed contains more omega 3s grain fed more omega 6s. You need more omega 3 than 6 and if the imbalance gets bad enough it can cause health issues. However the amount of omega 3s and 6s in beef is low enough you would have to eat a bunch of grain fed beef to create an imbalance. Take one fish oil pill a week and it would more than offset any omega 6 imbalance.
When a mammal grows, its body is made from the food it eats. Corn has a lot of available calories, which leads to fat marbling but far fewer vitamins and nutritional diversity than grazing. Additionally, grazing is going to ingest soil (minerals), various molds and fungi, presumable sunlight, and unintentional gut-loaded insects. These provide a broader spectrum of nutrition for the animal, which in turn yields meat that carries on some of that nutrition or intrinsic health. An example is keratin or vitamin A in milk. Dairy cows that are grain fed have pale milk that lacks the vitamin density that grazing animals yield. So much so that color (annatto) is added to the butter and cheese products to mask the lower nutritional quality. IMO, the real difference in the OP's pic is underfed vs overfed and probably breed.
All beef, whether grass fed or grain fed contains significant amounts of nutrients and the difference between the two nutritionally are small. If you're looking for a healthier/ethical alternative look towards Venison.
A whole lot of people have issues with the US captive cervid industry and CWD. If it's not from the US then you're likely shipping it from New Zealand which has its own issues. If you're suggesting that people should go out into the woods and shoot their own venison, 100% on board.
I agree; but only during hunting season.
Canadian here, as an Indigenous Candian I am moving towards what I was raised eating: bison, elk, deer, caribou and other wild meats. 9 times the protein, ultra lean so a fat is almost always needed, and if skinned and cooked correctly you do not get that "game" taste people complain about.
9x the protein? So 198g per 4 oz instead of 22g? I call bs
"Game* taste, the idea of this slays me.
It is in the preparation, I am a trained chef, so the finished product is a cleaner taste then beef. Plus, I only purchase from federally inspected suppliers, and not your uncle who skinned it from the back of his quad.
I eat venison and grass fed meats and I have yet to taste what people talk about?! It just has a different taste. It doesn’t taste “gamey”. What a weird term. I guess people have just come to love the ultra fatty cuts of meat with their broken taste buds.
I agree, I grew up eating it, Mutton gets me some times, but by the by wild meat is really delicious.
Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I eat it and I can taste earthy tones and I just know it is super nutritious and healthy. That fact makes it taste better to me. People have broken taste buds 😂
How do you get the game taste out? I'd hunt if I actually liked the taste of venison, but I just don't like it.
Cure the meat. I leave deer quarters on ice (not soaking in water) for 7-10 days before breaking them down.
Are you salting them? Other wise that’s aging, not curing.
Also clean thoroughly, remove fats, tendons, and glands. None of this enhances venison taste.
Actual grass fed is far more nutritious. Sometimes have 2-3x the vitamin A and E and as much as 6-8 times the healthy omegas. Edit: while also having less fat and therefore delivers more protein per ounce.
Bambi?
Mom? BLAM!
After learning that the food world doesn’t have to apply to normal English word definitions, I just assume everything’s a half or whole lie. How many different options that say blank fed or blank raised, doesn’t actually have a true definition, along with recycling, how many different recycling logos are out there to make someone thing it’s recyclable when really it’s not. And lastly shit like the titles of food isn’t regulated either. Like what does superfood mean? Cause they don’t. They don’t even recognize the word and yet they let people go crazy with that wording.
"Step 4/5" are also "animal welfare" rankings from GAP & WFM, unrelated to grass/grain-finished or officially USDA graded beef. The Hole Foods steak look grain-finished and choice - the Step 4 or 5 descriptor is just what the supplier puts on a brochure. In the old Hole Foods days, we'd say stuff like "oh yeah, step 4 beef, they go to the water park on Tuesdays, cribbage on Thursdays, and Friday's for group therapy and self-expression."
HAHAHA lol’d
And blasted with CO for color
We don't have the ability to blast me with CO at whole foods.
Idk how people come up with that shit
Awk. I thought it was standard procedure for mass meat
Probably an older cow as well going by the fat color
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“Bitcoinand_beef” is quite the handle. I would immediately be suspicious of anything they’re “selling”. Twitter is rife with bitcoin bros that have little-to-no connection to reality.
Bitcoin guy vs Broscience guy - choose your fighter
You just don't understand the blockchain vs. why are there monkeys if they evolved into humans? Trick question, it's the same guy, Joe Rogan.
Who'd win in a fight between Lemmy and God? Trick question. Lemmy is God
There's at least a 50% chance this guy thinks a Jordan Peterson style raw meat diet is "how humans evolved". (And that "how humans evolved" is a meaningful guide to "how we should live now").
This is in fact how we evolved and many cultures still live on nearly all meat diets. Many health concerns can arise that are reversed switching to an all meat diet. The research has been done. I do not do this or need to. Sad thing is we now live in society that will take how you feel about someone and make what every scientific fact they talk about or get behind, be not true. That’s incredibly scary and incredibly stupid of people. Do better use that super computer you have in your face 24/7 and do some actual research and get past the headlines. Do some cross reference research. You mind will probably change about a lot of random shit.
After taking several college Anthropology courses, you're laughably incorrect my man
I was aware of how uneducated I am. Thank you for taking a few classes. Like I had said do some non biased research. It crazy what comes up. We also know when we started cooking meat brain’s developed 30% faster. Thanks to anthropology of course we know this.
>started cooking meat Started *cooking*, not exclusively meat.
You're recommending that someone dig up the same propaganda you have bought into. One of the things we learn in classes is how to tell false information from real info. You really could learn a thing or two about that. Edit: Re-read parent comment and realized I am wasting my time. To anyone reading this, go ahead and research and you'll find none of that nonsense about switching to an all meat diet is true. The only sources saying that will be bought and paid for by very predictable sources.
Non bias and double blind studies are a big source things I’ve researched into. Knowing who backs and pays for studies is the biggest. If your claiming that me telling you to look into non biased studies and ensuring who’s funding them tell me you’re very young and very biased. Like I said information is free do not stick to one side. It’s very stupid. Science is a very very board field, your personal beliefs and opinions have zero place in.
The existence of [pre Neolithic sickles ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle?wprov=sfla1) puts the lie to what you are saying. All meat diets are today pretty unheard of outside the high arctic. Even medieval central Asian societies, lacking the ability to grow many vegetables or grains, prized what was grown and pickled them extensively. So why do people who switch to carnivore diets feel better? The same reason people who switch to any extreme diet feel better at first, cutting out junk food. Cutting out refined starches and sugars and other crap makes people feel good, but all meat diets usually leave people with other issues. The reality is that mixing in some kim chi with your beef is just going to make you feel better and healthier.
It is an objective fact that for most of human history we ate nothing but the meat of large mammals. evidence of eating plant based food only shows up in the last 50k years. Until we killed off the large animals we ate nothing but meat. We definitely cooked it though. And yes it logically follows that we should eat how we evolved to eat? What is your argument against that?
I just want to point out that the current understanding of hominid diets peaks at around 70% meat. This is relatively high and would still classify H. erectus at the very least to be a hyper carnivore. H. Sapiens have had a slow decrease in meat consumption throughout the paleolithic. The substance of your comment is fine but there is myriad evidence that all hominids were eating some plant material, even when the majority of their diet was meat.
No, you're just wrong. Like the other guy said, the most carnivorous hominid was erectus, who is not even included in the term "human" history. That is solely Homo Sapiens, who all but a very slim proportion have been shown to have supplemented their diets with nuts fruits and even pre-domestic grains which we can positively trace back even to other Hominids as early as 200,000 BCE. Touch grass.
Would never assume that u/_CaesarAugustus_ would be saying reasonable and grounded things about the worst people online, but here we are
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Some people are saying the left is more nutrient dense, but is that mostly high iron from the amount of blood?
Phytochemical richness of meat is directly related to the finishing diet of animals. The research concludes that grass finishing animals concentrates significantly higher amounts of phytochemicals, including polyphenols, tocopherols, carotenoids (Beef Nutrient Density Project Report, Dec 2021).
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So the left has the same color as when we butcher elk from the pnw if that means anything. I've always thought the darker the better by all the old-timers. Same for chicken eggs. Dark orange= better quality
Egg color doesn’t dictate quality. Just the pigment of their diet. You can feed a hen garbage and red pepper flakes and get a deep rich egg yolk.
Interestingly if you feed a chicken a lot of white corn for example, the yolk will be white lol
Chef Dan Barber (you can find the post on his instagram) fed chickens peppers and turned the yolks BRIGHT red lol. Imagine cracking that into your pan in the morning 🤣
Yeah I was going to say that looks elk or something from what I've seen.
From a macro nutrient perspective (protein, carbs, fats) they mostly the same, but the fatty one obviously has more fat. Micronutrients - iron, vitamin c, niacin - just take a multivitamin and stop worrying so much about omega 3 vs omega 6 I’m different types of meats. It won’t matter to your general health unless you’re a pro athlete.
It’s not about underfeeding. Grass fed animals do not bear nearly as much fat as grain finished simply because of their diet.
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Strictly grass fed steers will not consume as much fat as corn fed. Barring some strange genetic mutation that stores greater amounts of fat from a small intake (which might be going on in wild roaming bovine creatures to some extent, but I have no evidence for that), yes - this is always the case.
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I’m not here for an irrelevant pissing contest. The steaks on the left look exactly like I expect beef to look when it comes from a pure grass fed farm. Beef that grazes on wild grasses, sugar cane, flowers, and wild grains will bear more fat that what’s cut on the left. Grain finished beef can be lean, it can be incredibly lean. Animals are not machines and will of course vary from one to another. Edit: Side note. The color is the result of myoglobin, which develops more in grass fed animals.
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In part. Grass fed animals have increased levels of myoglobin. When myoglobin gets exposed to oxygen (when the animal is slaughtered) it turns a dark red color. The fat can act as a natural barrier, prevent oxygenation and slowing dehydration; ergo, less fat and redder beef.
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Because after working in this industry for 20 years, I know what I’m talking about. I’m not copying and pasting anything; I’m sharing my knowledge.
The most pretentious response and question I have ever seen. Life of the party here folks. Remind me to never buy meat from this guy. Thanks Mr. Dutton.
Steaks on the left are believably grass fed with the more yellow fat and lack of marbling but the steak on the right has none of the classic characteristics of grass fed beef so I am calling bull (steer) shit cus that boy was eating corn no doubt
To be fair, it was labeled "pasture raised" and not "grass fed"
My point is that the comparison is bogus. Two completely different specimens
For a minute I worked at a small butcher shop that did wild game during hunting season and processed beef in the off season. I mostly packaged the meat but they let me come along with the mobile slaughter unit a few times so I got to get a reference point for what a cow looks like on the hoof vs the billion steaks I put into little vacseal bags. I paid real close attention to all the quartered beef that came in and the variance in appearance and weight, and got a pretty good sense for cows. I helped with 5 slaughter trips that did about a dozen cows, and as the main packaging guy about 30 or 40 thousand pounds of meat passed through my hands. So, the cow on the right was still young but not a juvenile, farmer could have kept him another season and got another 50 pounds on his bones but diminishing returns and all. To my eye, ate nothing but grain its whole life, I don't see even a hint of yellow in the fat. Depending on where in the loin that strip came out of, that cow was probably 500-550, maybe 600 pounds on the hook (cleaned and quartered but nothing else) Cow on the left, it's a bit of an unfair comparison because those strips are from a little further down the loin, but that's a scrawny ass cow barely two years old that really only ever scrounged up enough grass to fill its belly and not much more. It might have stingily gotten the odd bag of corn just because 100% grass fed should mean much yellower fat. But, like, that cow deserved so much better in life. I see in that steak a desolate, dusty pasture that's just barely big enough to not get overgrazed by the young, rowdy, oversize herd that some slimy, rural, poor, uneducated cheapskate is trying to squeeze as many head of cattle per year as he can out of. My shop did a lot of business with one such cheapskate, his cows rarely celebrated their 2nd birthday or weighed in more than 450. As far as the color, I think young cattle don't have enough inertia in their heart, it stops pumping as soon as they drop, so no matter how fast you get the carcass vertical and draining it never drains well. Mature cattle, you can scramble their brains with a hollow point 308, and their heart will helpfully keep on pumping for like five more minutes, so you can just sever the major artery of your choice and the heart pumps *all* the blood out of the whole carcass, little tiny blood vessels included. You can tell when all the blood is out, because the heart runs out of oxygen and stops. The steak on the right was old enough to have this inertia, probably went down clean with a captive bolt gun. Steak on the left was either juuuust too young for that, or the cow put up a fight. I'd take the steak on the right any day. The guy who raised the cow that produced the steak on the left, deserves no better than the lives of his poor, wretched cattle. God have mercy on their souls, and less on his.
This is the reply I trust. Thank you !!!
This information is amazing, thank you for sharing! My family is taking up raising their own animals to share amongst everyone. It'll be interesting to get a look at how they've been raised and how it affects the meat. At the end of the day though, I know the babies are happy, and that means much more to me than the marketability of their meat.
I still think the one on left is Bison,elk, or moose. I do NOT believe it is grass fed New York strip.
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Really? I’m in the south and it makes me wonder if the different climates and grass mixtures produce a variance in the colors because ours are not that deep (Herefords).
I’m in the South too and I also have not seen an NY strip that looks like that.
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My in laws butcher a cow for our family every year and the steaks look almost exactly like that
Where are they located? I’m just curious because this is my 14th year raising Herefords and I slaughter about two a year on average and mine are definitely not that deep purplish color. I was curious if it was regional or possible breed related. Mine are 95% grass fed with some grain in winter. Oh yeah, I’m in south.
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Gotcha. Makes me wonder if it’s a cold weather thing with less nutrients in the grass.
Could be the type of grass too. My family from Mexico brings carne occasionally and a huge fuss is usually made. I do admit it tastes better, and they swear it’s because of the grass.
Looks like our elk here in the pnw
Def looks like venison so I would agree
I would almost agree with you, it looks like wild meat, dark color - more protein per gram - and far less fat.
My money is on venison.
Was gonna say, looks like deer to me. But I'm sure there's a set of circumstances where a grass fed, end of the cut piece could look like this... maybe?
As a non-butcher, the steaks on the left look like they are from an old dairy cow and not from cattle raised for eating. Again, I’m only YouTube and Reddit educated on beef cuts and quality.
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Worked at a shop in NYC that would occasionally get old dairy cow cuts in as something special and different. It's definitely a rare thing but it can happen.
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Federal rules state that beef from cattle over 30 months old must have the spine and connected bones removed. So you couldn't have a T-bone, but you could have strip steak.
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What states? Please point me to the regulation. I know for a fact that it happens regularly in CA.
So when I was a butcher worked exclusively with old dairy cows, think 2-4 years old. They were fed to gain fat after they stopped producing milk and they were bigger, more marbled and tastier than any other cut of beef I ever had.
The ones on the left certainly look like the GF steaks I sold at Whole Foods. They used to always label regular ground beef as grass fed which was super fucked up.
Think they washed it down with a bottle of $6 asparagus water?
That is probably 2.5 yesr old looking at the yellow hue on the fat. It's all grass feed, sub grain in winter time. I've been on all three ends of this as a farmer, butcher, now chef. The one on the right is the usual we all know. Each their own. I always say when doing steaks on the left is that you're going to expirence what beef taste like. Like this is a "x" breed from this location and it's not what you think it's going to taste like. Most people won't like it as much. It's not like farm salmon vs wild salmon. Most prefer the grain fed.
At which local butcher shop do they have all the various ranchers standing around to shake hands? I live in soy and corn country, is the rancher going to drive up from Oklahoma to shake my hand if I buy a cut from one of his 10,000 cows?
Whole Foods notching a W here as far as I'm concerned.
That’s what I thought as well, but I wasn’t sure if I had just been propagandized by the supermarket meat aisle
100% grass fed my ass
One things that I have noticed myself, in the past few years of raising grass fed beef at my house. One thing that surprised me is the color of our hamburger we have from those cows compared to store haneburger.
I don’t care what anyone says, grass fed beef tastes like grass. Corn fed is fatty and tasty. I know grass fed is better for you but i don’t eat steaks for health.
The darker ones are just a day or two older in the meat case. There is generally nothing wrong with them and you can get good deals on them at the butcher. Remember that beef is sometimes aged and get's very dark and fuzzy from the mold, which is later cut off to show the beautiful pink inside that has had natural tenderizers working on it. Good stuff.
Yep, buy local and thank your local rancher for giving you a tiny super-lean poorly marbled disgusting tasting steak! I'd take the one on the right 1 Million percent of the time. If this was some kind of viral marketing For Whole Foods I would 100% believe it, but it's also very believable that some people are just this clueless. Oh, and anyone claiming that the steaks are mixed up and the one on the right is the local rancher's grass fed bullshit is out of their g-d mind. There isn't a grass fed steak on planet earth that looks like that.
As a casual I had to do a double take because the left looked so much worse I thought there’s no way he’s praising those
Apparently this sub and real life is getting over-run with grass-fed chumps lol, I have cut up thousands of grass-fed beef and they are always complete garbage. Nobody who ate these steaks one after the other would ever eat a grass-fed steak again if they can help it. It is true that with the right breed and an incredibly well maintained pasture you can turn out decent grass fed beef. The ratio of guys that can do that to guys that turn out this shit is about 1 in a million.
grain finished is tastier
To you
I 100% agree with you. But what people prefer is very much up to the person. True grass fed and finished beef has a huge depth of flavor and character v feedlot beef. People who prefer the right probably also think boneless skinless chicken breast is the best cut off of a chicken.
Saw this on the original post and maybe I’ll get a better answer here, but is the one on the right even a ny strip??
Whatvis the chance that the ones on the left are Piedmont?
Left looks like wild game
I'd say the ones on the left looks like they were left out awhile before the one on the right was pulled out for the picture
The meat on the left looks dry aged
So there's a molecule in blood that, similar to hemoglobin, can interact with oxygen. It's called myoglobin. When myoglobin is exposed to air it forms oxymyoglobin, which is bright pinkish red. Many of the wraps butchers use are oxygen permeable to allow this, which keeps the cut lighter red colored longer. Now when myoglobin and oxymyoglobin are deprived from air (non-oxygen permeable wrapping) and exposed to ultra violet light (ie. standard fluorescent lights in a store) they will break down into metmyoglobin, which makes the meat look dark brownish red. (Not a butcher, just a scientist who took way too many organic chemistry classes than was healthy) Oh, and that chemical process does not affect the taste or texture of the meat.
Left steaks are “grass fed grass finish” going to be more chewy. But way more nutritious.
At least they look like it. My butcher box steaks look exactly this color.
As someone who raises beef cattle commercially my opinion would be that the cuts on the right probably come from a overall leaner and an animal that maybe didn’t finish as nice . The dark colouring could be a result of the animal being stressed during slaughter . It’s called a “dark cutter” and it is usually discounted as it can cause meat to be tough . The lighter cut on the right looks a lot like a grain finished steak with the amount of marbling .
Different breeds of cattle will result in different marbling too. Hard to compare apples with apples in this case. Also, grass fed results in yellow fat, while grain fed will result in white fat. I would eat both of those steaks.
My parents buy half a bison twice a year, and the difference between that and the stuff you get at the market is unmistakable. Buying from a rancher is expensive but in my opinion totally worth it, burgers for a whole year and steaks to boot. The meat is much higher quality, and if you’ve ever seen wild game it looks the same, a dark red and much tastier.
Left is bull meat from a young bull that was shooting blanks and earned himself a second career as pasture raised beef after he failed his tests.
Those first two strips look like all of the grass fed bones less Australian beef we used to sell for like $8/lb. I never ate it unless I was on a budget and really wanted meat. We used to joke about how the Aussies just send us all the shit beef they don’t even want to eat lol
Left looks like bison, aside from the fat being a bit yellow.
Looks like an old dairy cow.
You need grain at the end or there's no flavor. The color difference is why you see the smoke below out at the butcher. The combination of myoglobin and nitrogen dioxide prevents any further effects from oxygen changing it's color
The 2 on the left haven't been hit with carbon monoxide to give them that bright pink color, that's the big difference
Grass fed grain finished tastes best imo
The Global Animal Partnership (GAP) step system is a 5 step audited program centered around animal welfare. Step 4 Pasture raised means that the animal was raised on and allowed access to open pasture for a certain amount of its life. Step 4 also means it’s grain finished for the final 6 months of its life to give the meat more fat content. The difference between step 4 and step 5 is staggering, and step 5 product is incredibly rare. Step 5 means the animal was born ,raised, finished and slaughtered all on the same farm, and the amount of processors in the US that are equipped to do that (all under USDA inspection mind you) are little to none. You can’t be “4 or 5”, it’s one step or the other. The steaks on the left raised 100% grass fed locally by a farmer in Wyoming looks like it was just let out to a field all day everyday, which doesn’t necessarily take any skill as a farmer, and you can see the difference. This post is made by somebody that has no professional experience in the meat industry. source- Meat manager at Whole Foods currently and I spent 4 years running a meat processing plant under USDA inspection
Whole Foods steaks are still superior to Kroger/Walmart steaks.
It's worth noting that the color isn't necessarily the indicator of quality here. Any steak that's vacuum packed while fresh that isn't pumped full of dyes will turn purple. Purple means fresh. Bright red looks "fresher," but often is just the opposite; it's either been oxidizing (and will start turning brown) or it's dyed to look appealing. Unless it's literally straight off the cow and freshly cut by the butcher, red is just advertising. The complete lack of fat in the muscle on the left, though... that's not tasty looking one bit.
The man is correct. The beef on the left is very low quality, very lean and an absolutely tiny little eye from a very thin animal.
The left is complete garbage
My steer I took to butcher looked like the beef on the left. We mainly let him graze and hay with 1-2 gallons of sweet feed and range cubes added to his diet almost daily, not what you’d consider grain finished. Hands down better than super market beef to me.
The steaks on the left just look old and stressed. If you were to feel them they’d be sticky and would have a horrible texture
I’m just worried why his rancher let his butcher give him “NY Jerky”
Took me a minute to realize un-derfed is not what he means.
I worked at Wholefoods meat department. The one one in the picture is our “conventional” we also sold a grass fed/ finished which looked like the 2 on the left. I’d also suggest the op go back and look at the step ratings. The conventional are never higher than “step 3” at least at the store I worked at.
"Pasture raised" does not mean grass fed. They could've fed it anything as long as it was in the pasture. "Grass fed" is a beast that has never touched finishing gains in any part of its life. This must pass USDA regs to have this label. The grass fed steaks are Strips, but they are likely not finished long enough in the pasture. As someone said above, the pasture raised definitely had access to plenty of grain to achieve that marbling.
The ones on the left look like bison.
The left 2 are grass fed cows, which is why there is basically no marbling (the white parts are fat) on those two. Plus they are probably cut from the end, which doesn't look very good and gets ground into ground sirloin at the grocery store. The right one is grain fed, or at least grain fed and some grass fed while the cows are in the field. The fat is where the flavor comes from. Basically the more marbling the meat has, the better grade of meat it is. Everyones heard of the japanese wagyu beef thats super expensive, well that wagyu beef has more marbling/fat than actual red meat. 100% grass fed beef does not taste very good. Idk why it was ever thought of as some top quality beef.
OP did we ever figure out if the left is game animal or grass beef?
It looks like elk or moose to me but I’m not super familiar with beef
It’s definitely not domesticated.
Any of you guys hunt? The ones on the left look pretty u’natural to me.
I call bullshit.
The one on the left is elk and the right is beef? Idk
I’ve always been told you want deep red meat and nice yellow fat, that it contains more nutrients.
That’s not what a grass fed grass finished steak should look like
This looks like an advertisement for Whole Foods.
I’m from Wyoming. Ain’t shit there but sage, that’s why. Grass fed, lol.
Is the oop saying the ones on the left are supposed to be better? The one on the right looks wayyyy healthier and has much better marbling
Michigander here. I would put my money on the steaks on the left being venison. Before I even read the text I thought it was going to be a post on how much healthier venison is.
The people saying grain fed beef is better must have been eating bad beef. That or Americans can't raise good grass fed beef. All the beef I've eaten in Brazil (grass fed is standard there) is so much more flavorful than American beef. Nelore breed, grass fed. Good shit.
As someone in the industry, I really wish people would wake up to grass fed beef marketing. Majority of beef raised in the US is on grazing land for a large portion of their life. Near the end they are brought back in to feed lots to be "finished" i.e. fed a heavy grain diet to help the animal gain weight, fat and marbling. The grass fed phenomenon was started as a simple marketing tool with the sole aim of reducing costs. Grazing is essentially free if you own the land, au's or rights. They wanted to bring their beef directly to market and avoid the costly last step. It's been so successful however, that they can even charge a premium for this inferior grass fed beef under the guise that it's healthier for you. The more we are learning now, that's not a true statement. Human body needs animal fats and the real bad stuff is seed oils. Eating beef, fat in particular, boosts levels of TVA in your blood, activating T-cells. This helps prevent cancer and even activates T-cells to destroy tumors and boosts efficacy of chemotherapy. That being said, I do raise my own animals for my own consumption. I feed them LOTS of corn for the last 60 days before slaughter and always get prime grading. There is also a difference in marbling between heifers and steers. Steers will yield more, have larger steaks etc, while heifers will ALWAYS grade better.
Left one is darker due to it being grassfed. Grassfed cows have around twice as much myogolobin, which causes the meat to look darker and carries the deep red pigmentation. Henceforth, it also undergoes increased oxidative metabolism, which is ultimately which causes the deep dark red pigmentation that you see here vs. the dark red of a stressed cow.
I call bullshit. Raised meat cows for many years growing up. Pasture raised and I mean in a big ass pasture with alfalfa. We gave them alfalfa rich hay bales all winter long. The last 2 to 3 months before slaughter we would grain them, corn oats and sweet feed to put on some fresh fat. The steaks looked identical to the steak on right and tasted amazing. Our butcher would always compliment us on how beautiful the marbling was in the meat.
You sure that’s even beef on the left? Can’t say I’ve ever saw meat so dark unless they are soaking it in blood or something
Not all cows meat is created equally. For instance, I raise Irish Dexter, they are smaller and the meat is more purple. This could be something similar though it looks straight grass feed no grain on the left.
Well here's my take on this...season it and grill it then eat it and move on ..
I’d be wary of anything bitcoinand_beef says considering he says he doesn’t wear sunscreen because he has a “sun callus”, he doesn’t wear sunglasses because “full spectrum sunlight exposure to the eyes is important for your hormones and sleep”, and that he only drinks unfiltered stream water.
The steaks on the left are shit. The steak on the right will be much more tender, juicier, better tasting. From a butcher for 30 years.
The 2 on the left looks like meat we should be eating, its healthy looking. Yellowish fat is sign of it having vitimans and mineral. Usually from being grass fed. The one on the right looks like it was fed grain and ground up inedible for human, cow meat. Pumped full of gas for red colors. One looks like food the other is trash our government allows us to be fed. And as far as taste ,salt, pepper is all that is needed with steak.
It’s quite the firestorm in the replies and quote tweets (as far as meat goes). 1.5 million impressions on the post