Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
How to Find Steak in Pot Roast, and Save!
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Seven-bone pot roast cut from the chuck.
One of the biggest problems people have with grassfed meat is the cost. All meat is expensive, and grassfed meat is usually more expensive than factory meat. But knowing your meat can result in paying pot roast prices for tender steaks. I do it regularly.
The ordinary chuck pot roast, also known as a seven-bone pot roast, contains several different cuts of meat. Two of them make wonderfully tender and delicious steaks that you can easily cut from the pot roast.
So, get ready to find steaks in that pot roast.
How to Find the Steaks in the Pot Roast
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and seeing is believing. The top photo is of the typical seven bone pot roast, cut from the chuck. Can you see the tender rib steak and flat iron steak in the picture?
Unless you are a butcher, probably not. But they are there.
Rib steak, chuck pot roast, and flat iron steak.
The second photo shows the same pot roast, cut into three pieces.
The top piece, which has a bone on top, is a bone in rib steak. That is right—the meat is the same in flavor and tenderness as a rib steak that would sell for at least three times the price of the pot roast. The bone gives incredible flavor to the meat.
The piece of meat in the middle is the chuck pot roast, a tough cut of beef that is suitable for pot roasts or stews, not steaks.
The piece of meat at the bottom, below the long bone, is the flat iron steak, a very tender and flavorful piece of meat that makes a very popular and delicious steak. Flat iron steak sells for at least twice the price of the pot roast, often more.
It takes me about two minutes, or less, to separate the steaks from the pot roast.
How I Save Money on Steaks
First, I look at the pot roast carefully before buying. Some seven-bone pot roasts have a much larger rib steak and flat iron portion than others. It all depends on the exact area of the chuck that the roast is cut from. I select the pot roasts that have the biggest rib and flat iron portions. Fortunately, the larger rib portions and flat iron portions occur together. In other words, the bigger the rib, the bigger the flat iron.
I will buy several of these pot roasts, and separate them into three parts, as shown in the second photograph. I group the same cuts together, and now have several meals of rib steak, flat iron steak, and pot roast. All for the price of pot roast. I wrap each meal size portion in natural wax paper coated with extra virgin olive oil, place it in a gallon-sized freezer storage bag, and freeze what I am not going to make in the immediate future.
There is another saving you get by selecting grassfed meat. Grassfed meat has far less water in it that factory meat, and you end up with more meat and less water after cooking, as there is much less shrinkage.
Tender Grassfed Meat has some great recipes for rib steaks and flat iron steak, as well as pot roasts. These steaks are absolutely delicious, and you can have them for the price of pot roast!
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Frugal, Delicious Hungarian Hash
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Ingredients: grassfed meat, bacon, potatoes, eggs, onions, and paprika.
What to do with leftovers is often an issue. The very word “leftovers†is unattractive. However, leftovers can be the foundation of some absolutely wonderful and frugal dishes. Meat was so valuable and scarce in traditional Europe that it could never be wasted. The Europeans developed many traditional dishes based on leftover meat, usually adding many ingredients to stretch the meat. This recipe is based on this European tradition, and is very tasty and nourishing.
The word “hash†comes from the word “hache,†which means “to chop†in French. There are many variations, from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, and other countries. All of the recipes include meat, potatoes, onions, eggs, and plenty of fat. I have tried many of these versions with grassfed meat leftovers, and they were all good. But my very favorite is this one, which I based on the traditional Hungarian flavor combination of bacon, onions, and paprika. I continue the European tradition of cooking potatoes with plenty of fat. This dish is so good that there is nothing “leftover†about it. In fact, when my family eats this dish, nothing is left over.
Serves 4
1 to 2 cups of leftover grassfed meat (beef, bison, or lamb, or any mixture of the three), cut into small cubes, approximately ½ inch
1 large or 2 medium organic onions, sliced
4 medium organic potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes.
6 slices natural uncured fat bacon
1 teaspoon paprika, organic or imported from Europe, preferably Hungary
4 eggs, preferably pastured
- Place the slices of bacon next to each other in a cold 12 inch frying pan, preferably cast iron. Put the pan on the stove, turn the heat to medium, and cook the bacon, turning as necessary, until most of the fat has been rendered from the bacon. The bacon should be fairly crisp at this point. Remove the bacon from the pan and reserve, leaving the rendered fat in the pan.
- Add the sliced onions, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. Add the paprika and stir it into the onions. Continue cooking for another 4 minutes.
- Add the potatoes, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring and turning the potato cubes.
- Turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the meat, and stir until the meat is browned, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Crumble the reserved bacon and stir into the dish.
- Carefully break the eggs over the hash, and cook just until the yolks set.
Serve and enjoy this very nutritious meal.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
This post is part of Pennywise Platter at the Nourishing Gourmet.
Frugal and Delicious: Traditional Ways to Stretch Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Ingredients for Traditional Burger Mix: ground grassfed beef from U.S. Wellness Meats; pastured eggs; and chemical-free sourdough spelt bread.
Many people who eat grassfed meat have trouble affording the higher cost. Grassfed meat is more expensive than factory meat, in a per pound cost. However, there are many ways to reduce the cost of grassfed meat, such as buying a whole, half, or quarter animal, joining a CSA, searching the websites of trusted providers for specials, making a good deal with a local farmer, and other similar methods. But there is another way to make grassfed meat feed more people and provide more meals, which was developed over the centuries in Europe and elsewhere. Add wholesome and less expensive ingredients that literally enable you to stretch the meat, while adding a delicious taste and texture. Done right, these dishes can actually taste better than a dish made up only of meat.
The ordinary European had a hard time getting meat, so they made the most of it. Meat scraps were made into stews combined with many different vegetables. Chopped or cubed meat was often added to grains such as wheat, rye, oatmeal, rice, kasha, and barley. Sausages often contained a large number of non-meat ingredients such as grains, fat, sometimes blood, and sometimes all three. Onions, chopped, or sliced, or pureed, were added to almost every meat dish other than roasts or steaks, and often to those dishes as well. Herbs, fresh and dried, were added for flavor, as were spices such as pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and others. Spices were usually added in very small amounts, because spices were expensive. The use of small amounts meant that the spices did not overwhelm the meat, but blended with the other ingredients to create a wonderful taste.
Ground meat is usually the lowest priced form of grassfed meat available, especially in bulk. Traditional European cuisines had many recipes for ground meat, almost always stretched by the addition of other ingredients, both for economy and taste. The added ingredients often included eggs, onions, milk, cream, stale bread or bread crumbs, small amounts of various spices, and always some of the fat of the animal. Ground meat was cooked in the form of meatballs, meatloaves, as part of the filling for pies, in sausages, as part of a filling for all kinds of pastries, and in dumplings. These methods and flavors work very well with modern grassfed beef. Adding traditional ingredients to ground meat can result in a hamburger, for example, that is much tastier than an all meat burger.
I want to make a distinction between the traditional use of stretching meat with other ingredients, and the modern factory food method of making more money by adding ingredients such as soy protein, water, and all kinds of other filler materials to ground meat before the meat is sold. The traditional practice of adding other ingredients to ground meat occurred only when the meat was actually cooked, not when it was bought. Any ground meat I buy is 100% grassfed and grass finished, with no ingredients except meat and meat fat.
The following is my version of a typical European meat mixture for hamburgers. There are hundreds of different versions. This one contains many of the typical ingredients used to stretch ground meat in Europe and is delicious. It is intended for grassfed hamburgers. The mixture can be grilled, sautéed in a frying pan, or cooked under a broiler. It should be cooked thoroughly, with medium rather than high heat. Stale bread does not appeal to me, so I have substituted fresh bread crumbs.
Traditional Burger Mix
1 pound grassfed ground beef
2 slices chemical free sprouted or sourdough bread of your choice
1 small organic onion, very finely chopped
2 pastured or free range organic eggs
1 teaspoon coarse unrefined sea salt, crushed
1/2 teaspoon organic freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground organic cloves
- Chop the bread into cubes, and crumb in a blender.
- Break the eggs into a small bowl, and beat lightly with a fork until well combined.
- Add the crumbs, eggs, and all other ingredients to a large bowl, and mix until well combined. Traditionally, this would be done with your clean hands, but it is a sticky experience, and it can be hard to wash the mixture off your hands. A large spoon is a very practical alternative.
- Form into hamburgers and cook, or refrigerate until just before cooking. This delicious mixture should be used within 24 hours of being made.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Read more frugal real food blogs at Pennywise Platter Thursday at the Nourishing Gourmet.
Mushroom Cream Sauce Makes Luxurious Leftovers
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed meat is so filling and satisfying that we often have leftovers. I have just discovered a new favorite way to enjoy leftovers. In fact, this is so delicious that you may find yourself eating less just so you can have more leftovers to reheat.
The secret to luxurious leftovers is this traditional recipe for mushroom cream sauce. Forget about the stuff that comes out of a can, this is the real deal, made from scratch in this simple, but absolutely delicious recipe. This sauce is perfect for leftover beef, lamb, and bison. It is also excellent with any kind of ham, and could be used to reheat any meat. This is the tastiest way I know to reheat previously cooked meat. Just make sure the meat is sliced very thin. This sauce is so good that we make sure that every bit of it is served and enjoyed.
Traditional Mushroom Cream Sauce for Leftovers
2 tablespoons pastured butter
1/4 pound fresh mushrooms of your choice, sliced, (I prefer crimini, but any good fresh mushroom will do)
2 more tablespoons pastured butter
2 tablespoons organic sprouted flour, either spelt or wheat, (you could substitute your favorite unbleached healthy flour)
1 cup whole organic full fat unhomogenized milk, (you could substitute your favorite full fat unhomogenized healthy cows milk)
1/3 cup full fat organic cream, (you could substitute your favorite full fat healthy cream)
1/4 teaspoon coarse unrefined sea salt, crushed
Thinly sliced leftover meat of your choice
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium-size, heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. When the butter is hot and bubbly, turn the heat to medium high, add the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms are nicely browned, but not scorched. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and reserve.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter to the pan. When the butter is hot and bubbly, add the flour. Stir the flour and butter with a wire whisk, until well combined. Slowly pour in the milk, a little at a time, whisking well to incorporate the milk as you add it. When all the milk has been added, add the cream and whisk well. Continue to cook, stirring, until the mixture starts to thicken. Add the salt, and the reserved mushrooms. Stir well.
- Add the thinly sliced meat, and cover with the sauce. Turn the heat down to low, and simmer for a minute or two, until the meat has been reheated.
Serve with the sauce and enjoy.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Also check out Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.