We recently processed the first two steers from our Registered Angus bull.  These yielded some Ribeyes that the processor said would grade Choice, a rarity for grassfed, grass-finished calves.  The USDA inspector was quite impressed, as well.  This processor where we had these steers processed uses vacuum packing, so now you can even see what you are getting.  I know I’m biased, but folks, it looks great!

Shown below, during processing, the Ribeyes with the bone-in, also known as Club Steaks.  The processor estimated these would grade Choice.

Shown below are the Ribeyes, vacuum-packed and ready for freezing:

And some of our Laredo Ribs, look at the meat on these!  These have wonderful taste, are priced at $2.99/# – give ’em a try!  Fantastic in the Crockpot!

And this is what a packaged and frozen Sirloin looks like:

Finally, a Brisket with a little fat on it:

So, there it is, you know what to do next!  Buy the Beef!

Last weekend we traveled down south to the recently completed Rancho Maderas, aka Woodyville.  We had a great, relaxing time.  Among other things, I let the guys taste some Condalia Farms Brand tenderloin, shown here about to go on the pit.  We cooked this on the smoke box at about 250 – 300 or so for about 10 min per side, or longer and lower than you would on a normal grill.  Came out wonderful!

And speaking of condalia, I showed Mark W. where he has a plethora of condalia hookeri on his place!  This neat, July maturing berry is uncommon up where the ranch is, but it is very common in South Texas.

Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential to life.  However, most docs feel like we get way too much sodium, especially in relation to how much potassium we get.  You see, cells thrive when the sodium/potassium ratio is correct, and problems ensue when it is not.  So, I’ve been waging a war on salt over the last year.  It’s a difficult fight, you really have to read all the labels and shop around.   But when it comes to spices, you can get a lot of flavor with very little sodium.  Shown below is what I use to season steaks.  The three on the right, garlic powder, Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper and Mrs. Dash contain no sodium at all.  There is some in the Worcestershire Sauce – I consider that my “salting” of the beef. But if you can avoid one of the many dry seasonings that include a ton of salt, and use the three shown here then you should be way ahead on the war on sodium.

No sodium in these three dry seasonings!

Now this sounds good, and easy enough for me to try!

1 cup water

1 tbs sea salt

1 large garlic clove, peeled (author actually uses an entire head of garlic, which I will try!)

1 cup packed flat leaf parsley

1 cup fresh oregano leaves

2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar (think I will try Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Cook the fajitas, perhaps as we suggest here, then serve with the chimichurri sauce, enjoy!  (If you don’t have flank steak or skirt steak, aka fajitas, slice up a London Broil and try that.)

(From Seven Fires, Francis Mallmann, via the Wall Street Journal, 7/14 – 7/15/2012.)

Some pics from earlier in the week.  These are looking good!  Some of the first calves from our registered Angus bull.  These guys are about 18 months old, made it through an epic drought with flying colors!   Bottom-line,  David knows what he’s doing!

It turns out the London Broil cut makes wonderful jerky!  Here’s how you can do it:

We started with a 3.7# London Broil (which included some bone).

Defrost it in the refrigerator, but it is good to cut it when it is still a little frozen.

We used a friend’s jerky cutter to cut the chunks into strips.  A knife would work just as well, but the jerky cutter is nice to have if you plan on doing many London Broils.  It is fast.

Anyway, slice the beef into 1/4″ thick strips.  Place those in a glass (or other non-metallic) tray.  Season with low sodium soy sauce, worchestshire sauce, fresh black pepper and of course garlic powder.  Refrigerate overnight.

Place on silicone baking sheets in your dehydrator.  We acquired an Excalibur dehydrator a while back – what a great machine.  (you can order one factory direct)  It holds five trays; one tray will hold one London Broil if you pack it in, so you could do 5 at once, if you like.  Anyway, dehydrate it at 140F for 7 hours.  (we went 8.5 on ours, it was perfect).  The beauty of the Excalibur is the temperature control and the forced draft – no more moving trays, and the results are fantastic.

We wound up with about 11 ounces of wonderful jerky.  Best I think I’ve ever had, but then I’m biased.  Put the jerky into ziplocks, store in the refrigerator till the kids find it, then it is gone!  But what a great snack for them.  It’s also great to take on vacation, hiking, backpacking, family reunions, whatever.

I’m pretty much of a simpleton when it comes to cooking, I guess.  I had never really heard of “stock” until last year, when Ben C. and Mark J. introduced me to it.  Maybe you’ve never heard of it either, though.  The reality is, most of us do a less intensive form of cooking than our ancestors did.  Even when we don’t eat formally “prepared” foods, we still start with some building blocks that our ancestors didn’t have.  And we do it because we are in a hurry, don’t have time, don’t know how.  I haven’t heard much about the Slow Food Movement recently, but I want to “get to that place”.  Thing is, I’ve just been too busy …

Anyway, stock is a wonderful semi-secret of good cooks and chefs, I am convinced.  It is made from cooking down bones with a variety of spices and veggies.  What you wind up with is a wonderful “material” that can be used in cooking almost anything, and it makes that anything taste great!  You can buy it in tubs, over the web, but why not make your own?

So here’s a recipe and some comments from our customer, Fred S.:

For my stock, I tend to use whatever is on hand. Random herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, sage), veggies (greens, broccoli stalks, celery, carrots, onions), garlic, red peppers, etc. I put the bones, veggies, and seasonings into the crock pot, fill it with water, and put it on the 10 hour cycle. The real treat is how much marrow LSGF bones have. That is a real delicacy.

Alton Brown is a solid chef, and his stock recipe surely will not lead you astray:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/abs-beefy-broth-recipe/index.html
I haven’t tried it, but we swear by a number of his recipies at my house, our favorite being http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/traditional-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Marrow ideas:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Bone-Marrow-with-Parsley-Salad-365791
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Tenderloin-with-Red-Wine-and-Marrow-Sauce-105500

Many thanks, Fred!

A tip from David on cooking London Broil on the grill/bbq pit/smoker:  After seasoning, he wraps his London Broil in foil, leaving just a little opening for some smoke to get in.  Then he cooks it over mesquite coals for about 2 hours, or until done.

A London Broil from last night makes a wonderful steak salad today, steak sandwiches tomorrow!  Took about 30 minutes to cook in the oven.  A very tasty cut of beef!  See the recipes under Beef Recipes – Steak – London Broil, or click here.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal mentioned that BPI was temporarily shutting down three plants that make “lean, finely textured beef”, aka pink slime.  Now this is startling:  according to that article, the annual pink slime production was, most recently … 850 million pounds per year!  The article further states that this is equivalent to 1.5 million head of cattle!  (Ron Plain’s, University of Missouri January 2012 estimate is that the 2011 calf crop was 35.3 million.  So, recently, pink slime has made up over 4 % of our total beef supply???  Which would make it a much larger percentage of our ground beef supply …)

The WSJ article goes on to say that “lean, finely textured beef” has been in our ground meat for … 20 years!