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Tender Grassfed Barbecue: Traditional, Primal and Paleo by Stanley A. Fishman
By Stanley A. Fishman
Link to Tender Grassfed Meat at Amazon
By Stanley A. Fishman

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DISCLOSURE AND DISCLAIMER

I am an attorney and an author, not a doctor. This website is intended to provide information about grassfed meat, what it is, its benefits, and how to cook it. I will also describe my own experiences from time to time. The information on this website is being provided for educational purposes. Any statements about the possible health benefits provided by any foods or diet have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

I do receive some compensation each time a copy of my book is purchased. I receive a very small amount of compensation each time somebody purchases a book from Amazon through the links on this site, as I am a member of the Amazon affiliate program.

—Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat

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No Soy Korean Short Rib Stew

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Tender, delicious Korean-style short ribs. With no soy!

Tender, delicious Korean-style short ribs. With no soy!

Some of the more affordable cuts of meat are also the most flavorful. They can be very tender if properly cooked. Beef short ribs are such a cut, with a deep beefy flavor, and a wonderful unique texture. Grassfed short ribs are particularly flavorful. Short ribs are highly valued in Korea, where they are often thinly cut, marinated, and grilled.

The marinades always include some soy sauce, which is a problem for those avoiding soy. This short rib stew uses some traditional Korean flavorings, and my favorite substitute for soy sauce, Red Boat fish sauce. I actually prefer to use Red Boat fish sauce to any soy sauce, as it gives a better flavor to the dish. The apples may seem unusual, but they give a wonderful flavor to the dish. It makes its own gravy as it cooks, and is so easy. Yet it is one of the most delicious recipes for beef short ribs I have ever eaten.

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds boneless grassfed short ribs

1 (2-inch) piece organic ginger, finely chopped

3 cloves organic garlic, finely chopped

3 tablespoons Red Boat fish sauce

2 tablespoons organic toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons dry white wine

1 tablespoon raw organic honey

1 teaspoon freshly ground organic black pepper

1 large organic onion, chopped

2 organic apples, preferably Fuji, peeled and chopped into small cubes

DIRECTIONS

  1. Trim the fat on the ribs to no more than one quarter inch thick. Cut the boneless ribs into one inch squares.
  2. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Place all ingredients in a sturdy casserole, preferably cast iron or enameled cast iron. Mix very well. Cover the pot and place in the oven.
  3. Cook for 3 hours at 250 degrees. This wonderful dish will be ready in 3 hours. Yes, it really is that easy.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

 

 

A Great Simple Grassfed Steak

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

U.S. Wellness Meats Delmonico steak. (Used with permission of U.S. Wellness Meats.)

U.S. Wellness Meats Delmonico steak. (Used with permission of U.S. Wellness Meats.)

Sometimes the very best food is simple, and easy to prepare. Complex, difficult recipes with dozens of ingredients, and difficult methods may be impressive, but the results are often disappointing, and hardly anyone will actually make them. When you have great meat, simple is best.

This old truth was brought home to me this Valentine’s Day, when two magnificent Delmonico steaks from U.S. Wellness Meats gave us an incredible meal, so good that no fancy recipe could even come close, in my opinion.

 

Good, Real Meat comes with Its Own Great Taste

There is an old saying, going back all the way to the Middle Ages:

“God gives us great meat, the devil gives us cooks.”

This saying referred to the fact that truly great meat has a wonderful flavor, texture and tenderness of its own, which is often ruined or diminished when cooks do too much to it. A few simple ingredients and the right technique, combined in a way that brings out, rather than overwhelms the natural flavor of great grassfed meat, is ideal. And it can be very simple and quick to cook.

 

The Meat

The meat is the most important part of cooking a great steak. There are many cuts of meat that used to be popular in the United States that are almost unknown today, which is a shame. You never see a pin bone sirloin steak anymore, but they used to be very popular. A bone in New York steak, sometimes called Delmonico, after the first fancy restaurant to become famous in the United States, is also very hard to find. Fortunately, U.S. Wellness Meats, which sells great grassfed meat online, carries a grassfed version of this cut, with the wonderful, flavor-giving bone. The meat is grassfed, just like meat was fed in the nineteenth century, when Delmonico steak was created. I chose this for our Valentine’s meal.

Why did I choose a bone in steak? The bone in this cut gives incredible flavor, as substances from the bone are released into the meat during the cooking. No spice, condiment, or oil can provide flavor like this.

 

The Method

The steaks looked so good when they arrived, even frozen, that I decided to prepare them using the simplest of three recipes for Delmonico steak contained in my first cookbook, Tender Grassfed Meat, on page 85. (This recipe can be made with a bone in or boneless steak.) The recipe contains only four ingredients, besides the steak. I knew these ingredients and this method would bring out the natural flavor of the steaks, not overwhelm it.

I thawed the steaks, and let them marinate for a few hours in a single, traditional ingredient. I added the other simple ingredients, melted some butter in a pan, and cooked them.

Cooking time was exactly eight minutes. That was all.

We were rewarded with a steak so good, so flavorful, so tender, that I would not trade it for the most expensive Kobe beef on the planet, cooked at the world’s top steakhouse.

The bone and the fat in the nicely marbled meat created so much beefy flavor, it was so tender, and the simple traditional ingredients brought out the magnificent real taste of the grassfed meat, a taste all the spices and condiments in the world could never create, could never equal.

That simple, easily cooked steak, was one of the best I ever had.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

 

Why I Prefer Traditional Foods and Cooking

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

A traditional cast iron stove.

A traditional stove.

I was asked why I keep looking to the past for cooking inspiration. Modern technology and food science has developed faster and more efficient ways of raising and cooking food, innovations that are supposed to make everything better. Preserving food with chemicals prevents it from spoiling, and being wasted. Science has invented ways of extracting oil from plants that never were able to produce oil before, such as soy and corn. Scientific ways of raising cattle, with genetics, drugs, hormones, and feedlots, which cut the time it takes to bring a steer to market in half. And so many other new ways of doing things, that make the food traditions of the past obsolete.

I see it differently. Speed, efficiency, and innovation do not necessarily make food better. In fact, they often make it much worse, in my experience. These innovations are designed for profit, not for taste or nutrition.

And, to me, nutrition and taste are by far the most important aspects of food. Our ancestors also valued nutrition and taste above all. The food traditions of our ancestors have been passed down for hundreds and thousands of years, tested by every generation that used them. They became traditions because they enhanced nutrition and taste, and because they worked.

 

Traditional Foods vs. Modern Foods

Modern foods, grown and raised with a heavy dose of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, hormones, genetic modification, and feedlots, preserved through radiation and chemical preservatives, often flavored by chemicals, and designed for long shelf life and profit, are very different from the foods of our ancestors.

The traditional foods of humanity were developed over time, and eaten over many generations, so the ability to use and process these foods effectively was part of our ancestral heritage. These foods required rich soil, full of nutrients, to grow in; or rich pastures, also full of nutrients. Seafood was almost universally wild, with the nutrients of nature. Fertilizers and pest control methods were natural, using the products of nature, not a lab. These foods had a density and quality of nutrients that is rarely found today. And the wonderful natural taste of these foods, from nature, was much better than the taste of the factory foods used today.

Traditional foods were developed over many generations, raised in accordance with the laws of nature. They became traditional foods because they gave great nutrition to people, generation after generation.

Modern factory foods are a product of human technology, not nature. They have a very short history of use, and are developed for long shelf life and profit, not nutrition or taste.

I prefer to eat traditional foods, and am much healthier and happier when I do so.

 

Traditional Cooking vs. Modern Cooking

Modern cooking methods have been developed for speed, ease, and convenience. They have also been developed to enable people to cook factory foods, which are very different from traditional foods, and must often be cooked differently. Modern cooking equipment often uses methods that have never been used before in history, cookware from modern metals such as aluminum, non-stick cookware, and many other such innovations.

Traditional cooking methods consist of ways of preparing and combining foods that have been passed down from generation to generation, often going back thousands of years, often being slightly modified over time, yet essentially the same. They use the same cooking implements and techniques that humanity has used for thousands of years, many of which can easily be reproduced in an easier form by more modern methods. For example, an ordinary electric oven can bake and roast in much the same way as an ancient wood fire, especially when the temperatures are adjusted to mimic the temperature cycle of a fire burning down. Some techniques, such as frying meat in butter in a heavy cast iron pan, are essentially identical.

My books are devoted to recreating food traditions in a modern kitchen, especially the cooking of grassfed meat, and doing it the easy way.

I prefer traditional foods cooked in a traditional way, because it has been so much better for me in so many ways, and because it tastes so much better with an almost infinite number of time tested dishes to try and enjoy.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

 

When It Comes to Real Food, Simple and Traditional Tastes Best

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

A traditional stew of grass fed meat and organic vegetables tastes wonderful and is perfec for a winter day.

A traditional winter stew of grassfed meat and organic vegetables tastes wonderful.

Many people believe that good cooking is a mystery, one that can only be solved by celebrity chefs using arcane ingredients and complex methods. These TV chefs often use new methods and combinations that have been invented by the chefs, who gets praised for their innovation. High-tech modern products like meat glue are often used by such chefs.

I believe that simple recipes, using real food such as grassfed meat and organic traditional vegetables, using traditional food combinations, and traditional methods, prepared by ordinary people, taste the best.

I believe that cooking should be easy, not complex and difficult.

I am inspired by the quality and benefits of grassfed meat and real food, with their wonderful natural flavors. I am inspired by the ingenious simplicity of traditional cooking, which often uses just a few ingredients, simply combined and prepared, to produce outstanding, healthy food. These flavor combinations became traditional because they are really good. Many of these traditions are being lost, and I am honored to help preserve some of them in my cookbooks.

I contend that the best grassfed meat and real food is simple, using traditional methods, traditional ingredients, and easy recipes. When you have great ingredients, their wonderful natural taste should come out.

 

With Real Food — Simple Is Better

When I wrote my two cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue, I had several goals. One of the most important was to make them simple, and easy to use. Another goal was to provide recipes that were absolutely delicious. A third goal was to create recipes that people would actually make.

These three goals are not contradictory, if you are using grassfed meat and real food. The quality of these foods from nature is so high that the food itself provides most of the flavor. In fact, I contend that grassfed meat and real food are the best when prepared simply with traditional methods and ingredients. You can have a wonderful dish with just a few ingredients, if they are of the highest quality, and carefully combined. When you use only a few ingredients, all are important and changing even one of them can have a dramatic effect on the taste of the dish.

Real food ingredients have so much natural flavor and goodness that they are at their best when made simply, so that their wonderful natural flavor can come out.

Then, there is the simple fact that complex recipes, with dozens of ingredients, and difficult, complex techniques, are much harder and take much more effort and time to make. Often complex recipes fail, for any of a number of reasons. Usually, complex recipes are read, admired, and never made.

I want my cooking to be easy and simple, and delicious. I wrote these books for the ordinary person, because I wanted them to have ways to cook tender grassfed meat that were not only delicious, but easy. I wanted my recipes to be used, and enjoyed.

I did not write these books for critical acclaim, but to help people make delicious grassfed meat, the easy way.

In fact, I admit it, I prefer to make easy meals! It is not only easier, it is more fun!

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

 

A Magnificent Christmas Roast

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

A magnificent grassfed prime rib with a great fat cap and marbling.

A magnificent grassfed prime rib with a great fat cap and marbling.

Our favorite holiday roast is a grassfed prime rib, with a nice thick fat cap, plenty of nice marbling in the meat, resting solidly on its own bones. It is not easy to find such a roast, but we hit the jackpot this year.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the above picture says it all.

This prime rib is one the best I have ever seen.

Perfectly balanced on a strong rack of bones. Covered with a thick layer of its own flavor-giving fat.

Nicely marbled with small flecks of grassfed fat.

A beautiful color.

And there are even more reasons that I know this roast will be something special. Late last week, we had a grassfed shoulder roast picked up from a local market. The meat was beautiful, full of perfect marbling. It was incredibly tender and flavorful. I knew that the butcher had happened upon a truly remarkable steer.

The next day, I called the butcher up and asked if he could sell me a prime rib from the same animal. Turns out that he could. I showed up at the market, and politely called out my preferences as he cut the roast. He left all the fat on, which was my biggest concern. Due to the demonization of fat, most butchers will trim all the fat off a roast without even thinking of it. A very bad decision, because the fat contains most of the flavor, and all of the fat soluble vitamins and nutrients. And the fat itself, crisp and brown when the roast is done, is absolutely delicious and warming.

Not to worry, this butcher knew his stuff and happily complied with my request.

This is the old way of buying a special roast, where you know and trust the seller, know where the meat comes from, and carefully select the roast, even specifying the animal it comes from, and the way it is cut and trimmed. This is the way most humans have done it for most of time. Not at all like picking up a foam package in the supermarket.

Now that we have our roast, the planning for our Christmas dinner is complete. Here is the menu:

Roast Prime Rib of Beef: Lightly seasoned with herbs, pepper, garlic, and just a little salt, added at the last minute.

Roast Potatoes and Carrots: These will be roasted in the same pan as the roast. There will be no rack, as the bones make a perfect rack, and this allows us to place these vegetables in the pan, where they will become brown, crusty, sweet, flavored with the unique flavor of prime rib fat.

Sautéed Mushrooms: Cooked with plenty of butter and a bit of truffle oil, until browned and caramelized, with amazing flavor.

Yorkshire Pudding: Baked in the old style, made with pan drippings, the same magnificent beef fat

European Cabbage: From page 206 of Tender Grassfed Meat, onion, cabbage, and apple slices, cooked to perfection with bacon, in bacon fat.

Dessert? I doubt anyone will have room.

I want to wish all a very happy holiday season.

And, if you celebrate it, a very Merry Christmas!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

My Irish Stew—How a Traditional Recipe Finally Worked

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Simple spices like parsley, thyme, salt and pepper flavor a traditional Irish stew.

Simple spices like parsley, thyme, salt and pepper flavor a traditional Irish stew.

Being very interested in traditional recipes, I decided to cook a traditional Irish stew many years ago. This was a famous dish, and the ingredients were few, and the method simple. What could go wrong?

Quite a bit, in fact. There were many different versions, making it difficult to pick one. But whichever one I tried, the result was mediocre, at best. After many failed attempts, over a period of years, I gave up. Maybe this old recipe was not so good, after all.

Three days ago, now being a much better and more experienced cook, I decided to try Irish stew again.

 

Irish Stew

This is an old dish, and one that was quite famous at times. Of course, there is far more than one stew in Irish cuisine, but this one got a lot of press. The ingredients are quite simple:

  • A cheap cut of lamb, preferably with bones
  • Onions
  • Lots of potatoes
  • Some fresh parsley and fresh thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  • Water

This seems to be the simplest, most authentic version, though many would disagree, especially in Ireland, where carrots are traditionally added in some areas. Chefs who make a version of Irish stew tend to pretty it up, adding more ingredients and steps. But I decided to stick with the old version, based on a very old cookbook. This old recipe did not give amounts, or cooking times, but did specify the ingredients and the method.

 

The Meat

The traditional cut is grassfed lamb neck, a cut full of bones and fat. The problem was that I had no source of grassfed lamb neck. The lamb I had access to was lean, with the fat trimmed off by the processor. I decided to add a lamb bone from a roast, and some butter to make up for the leanness of the meat.

 

The Technique

The recipe called for putting down a layer of sliced potatoes, then a layer of fresh herbs, then a layer of meat, then a layer of sliced onions. This was to be repeated, and topped with a layer of potatoes. Each layer was to be salted and peppered. I decided not to salt the very thin herb layers.

The recipe also suggested adding “just enough” water. After consulting many other recipes, I decided on an amount.

I prepared the pot. Each layer went in, was seasoned as decided, the estimated amount of water was added, the pot brought to a simmer, covered, and into the oven. I had decided that a “low oven” was 250 degrees. The cooking time given was quite common in older recipes — “cook until done.” I decided to test it after a couple of hours.

After about an hour and forty-five minutes, a wonderful smell filled the kitchen, and I got the feeling it was ready. I eagerly removed it from the oven, opened the pot, and was rewarded by a gravy that looked like — water. It seemed that I had failed again. But I decided to add a good amount of organic cornstarch mixed with water, and to simmer it until the gravy reached the “creamy” thickness spoken of by the recipe. This was done, and it was time to taste it.

 

The Result

It was wonderful. The ingredients had kind of melted into each other, though the pieces of meat were still distinct. Everything was permeated with a nice grassfed lamb flavor, not at all strong, but delightful, set off perfectly by the onions and herbs. The texture was creamy, and a joy to eat, very comforting to the mouth and stomach. It was so much more than the sum of its parts. I finally got it right, though I made a lot of adjustments. This is an example of how I am developing traditional recipes for modern kitchens in my upcoming book.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

Eating the Whole Animal — Grassfed Beef Cheeks

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Beef Cheek Stew—melt in your mouth goodness.

Beef Cheek Stew—melt in your mouth goodness.

Every known hunting people, and most of our ancestors, would eat the entire animal, including all the organs, with the only exception being the parts that had other, more important uses. Like using sinew to make bows and bowstrings. This provided a huge variety of foodstuffs from a single animal, with the various parts containing different nutrients, textures, tastes, and great variety.

In modern times, we are told to eat only lean meat, from a limited selection of cuts. Most of the cuts served in restaurants and homes consist of lean meat, with all the visible fat trimmed off. For some people, the only meat they eat is boneless, skinless, factory chicken breasts, the most boring of meats—because it is “nutritionally correct.”

Our ancestors would have been surprised by this, as lean meat was their least valued cut, with some peoples actually reserving it for dog food. Cuts with lots of fat, and gelatin, such as organ meats and other areas of the animal, were preferred. These cuts had a much denser nutrient profile, full of the benefits of grassfed fat. And the gelatin contained in some cuts was highly prized, as it was known to help digestion and make strong bones.

This brings us to one of the traditional beef cuts, once highly prized, but now so neglected that most people have never tasted it—beef cheeks. Yes, they are cut from the facial area of the animal. And they look unusual, and fatty. And they are full of fat and gelatin. When properly cooked, they are tender, soft, easy to chew, and utterly delicious. They can literally melt in your mouth.

In the old days, when wise doctors used food to heal, beef cheek stews were prescribed to help with digestive problems. Some even recommended beef cheeks for those who were having problems with their face, such as recovering from an injury, or a skin problem. That is consistent with the line of traditional medicine that recommended eating the part of the animal that corresponded to the afflicted part of the human body, such as those doctors who prescribed beef heart for those suffering from heart problems.

But I must confess that the best part of beef cheeks are they wonderful texture and rich taste, when properly braised.

Cooking beef cheeks is easy. They can be slowly braised in a huge number of ways, with all kinds of flavorings and vegetables. Slowly cooked until easily pierced with a fork, they are wonderful. And the flavorful sauce you get is good beyond words. And cooking them can be as easy as placing ingredients in single pot and setting it to braise in a slow oven.

I am currently experiencing the joy of creating new beef cheek recipes, based on traditional food combinations. I love my work!

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

Diversity Matters — Especially in Food

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Farmers' markets are great places to find heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Farmers’ markets are great places to find heirloom fruits and vegetables.

We are taught to think of our modern, high-tech civilization as being much more advanced, wiser, and richer than anything that existed in the past.

When it come to machines, weapons, travel, and other mechanical areas, this is true (at least to the extent of our culture’s knowledge). We are much richer in these things than our ancestors were.

But when it comes to food—the real food that our bodies need to thrive—we are paupers. Our ancestors were the rich ones. They regularly ate hundreds of varieties of meats, vegetables, nuts, fruits, grains, milk products, and other foods, but we have far fewer to choose from. And where our ancestors’ food was chosen for taste and nutrition, our food is usually chosen for profit, cheapness, appearance, and shelf life.

 

Traditional Food

I have studied the traditional cooking of our ancestors from all over the world. I have read hundreds of books and many articles, and I am still learning.

And one of the most important things I learned was how much our ancestors valued diversity in the foods they ate, whenever they had a choice. People did not limit themselves to factory beef and chicken breasts, but ate many different kinds of meat, heritage varieties of pigs, chickens, duck, geese, squab, cattle, sheep, lambs, calves, water buffalo, bison, rabbits, a vast variety of fish and seafood, and a huge variety of wild game. Produce was only eaten in season. There were dozens if not hundreds of varieties of almost every fruit and vegetable, that were regularly eaten. During the winter, people relied on certain root vegetables, such as cabbage.

Traditional meals included a huge variety of ingredients. For example, the traditional English breakfast included a number of different kinds of meat and fish, often fermented (such as sausage) or salted, along with eggs, breads, and a variety of condiments. The Russian custom of serving appetizers before a meal could include dozens of different items, all kinds of meat and fish and vegetables and small dishes, as did the Scandinavian Smorgasbord. And this was not just the custom of the rich, but also the practice of middle class families and prosperous farmers. Even ordinary working folks enjoyed a great variety of seasonal foods.

The different varieties of food were prized for their taste and nutritional qualities. Food that looked good tasted good, and tasty food was widely believed to be healthier.

 

Modern Food

Modern food was developed for profit. This meant focusing on the foods that had a long shelf life, and foods that looked good so people could buy them. The replacement of small farmers by huge factory farms meant concentrating on only the most profitable foods, that had the longest shelf life.

The chemical industry became a crucial part of this change, as chemicals could preserve the appearance of food, and chemicals could make even mediocre quality food taste good. The number of varieties of food available to us is now but a tiny fraction of the bounty available to our ancestors. These factory varieties are available all year long, but their taste and nutrition leave much to be desired.

My father grew up in Canada, before its food system was industrialized. He enjoyed a huge variety of the wonderful natural foods raised on the Canadian Prairie—wonderful meats, an endless variety of berries, fish, and vegetables—all grown and served in season.

After he immigrated to the U.S., he was delighted to see beautiful tomatoes available all year round in the supermarkets. Until he tasted them. He could never understand how something that looked so good could be so tasteless and have such a horrible texture—like soggy cardboard.

I could go on for a thousand pages, or more, but I will simply say that our ancestors were much richer in real, life-sustaining food than we are, in endless varieties that we no longer have.

What we can do is support small farmers raising traditional foods like grassfed beef, heirloom vegetables, real milk, and by buying as much as we can from them. As much as possible, avoid purchasing factory food.

This may be more trouble, but the taste of heirloom vegetables and fruits and pastured meat is superior. And the wonderful benefits I and my family have enjoyed in improved health and nutrition—are more than worth it.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

I Confess—I Am a Grassfed Beefophile

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Great grass fed hamburger like the one shown here can be like a fine wine to a grass fed beefophile like me.

Great grassfed hamburger can be like a fine wine to a grassfed beefophile like me.

I think it is time to admit to something. My name is Stanley, and I am a grassfed beefophile.

Many people are familiar with oenophiles, who are people who deeply appreciate wines and have great knowledge and appreciation of them.

With respect, I could care less about wine. But grassfed beef is something else entirely. I love it, in many of its endless variations. I love the endless variety of flavors, caused by the different configurations of meadow plants from pastures all over the world. I love the way it makes me feel—renewed and strong after eating it. I love the wonderful aromas that delight my nose as it cooks. There is no use denying it. I am a grassfed beefophile.

 

How I Discovered my Obsession

I came to realize this yesterday, after I picked up a package of grassfed ground beef from Uruguay. I noted the deep red color, rich with promise. Even the way the meat was ground caught my attention. I was excited about knowing that this beef had come from cattle who ate grass all year round, as there is no winter there. I wondered what wonderful taste would come from the rich grass eaten by these cattle, on some of the most nutrient-dense soil on earth. I could not wait to get home and cook it!

Seriously, folks. Who gets excited about hamburger?

All the way home, I kept thinking about how I would cook it. I know dozens of ways of making hamburger, and I am not exaggerating. I was torn between my desire to add some spices to enhance the flavor, and my fear of masking the wonderful natural taste. Should the burger be thick, thin, or in between? Should I fry it, or barbecue it, or broil it?

Should I cook it until grey, as the government advises for safety, or should I make it less done, to make it more nutritious and enjoy more of the natural flavor?

So many decisions, so many thoughts. So hard to decide.

Again, I ask you—who torments themselves over the best way to cook a hamburger?

I finally decided to use some flavors from the region, trusting that the traditional flavors would not ruin the meat, or mask the flavors. I added a touch of oregano, a mere hint of garlic, a dollop of olive oil. I sautéed it gently in a pan rubbed with a small amount of olive oil. I cooked it rare, at my own risk, trusting that good grassfed beef would be alright, and knowing that I personally have never had a problem after eating it.

O my gosh, it was WONDERFUL! The meat had a unique, beefy, slightly sweet flavor. There were hints of something I did not recognize, but it was pleasant. It made me feel better with every bite. I enjoyed the lovely aroma, the very mouth feel of the burger, and the sensation of strength and renewal as I swallowed it. I was torn by the desire to wolf it down and the desire to appreciate the eating experience, to savor it, to pay careful attention to it, which could only be done by chewing slowly, and pausing from time to time.

It was a struggle, but the art of tasting won out over ravenous hunger, and I savored this wonderful meat.

Seriously, who gets this kind of deep experience and joy from eating a hamburger?

A grassfed beefophile, that is who.

 

The Benefits of Being a Grassfed Beefophile

Now that I have admitted to what I am, I must discuss the benefits. Unlike factory meat, which tastes about the same, bland, blah, and boring, has horrible mouth feel, mushy texture, and never makes me feel good—grassfed beef has endless variations in taste.

Most of these variations are good, and many great, if the meat is properly cooked. I always get a different taste by eating grassfed meat from different ranches. Even grassfed meat from the same ranch will taste different at various times of the year, because the forage changes with the seasons. I enjoy grassfed meat in the form of hamburgers, steaks, roasts, stir-fries, pot roasts, pan roasts, stews, and soups. My cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat has many delicious variations of all these forms of grassfed beef, bison, and lamb. I fry it, broil it, barbecue it, stew it, sauté it, simmer it, and often combine these techniques. I use traditional flavor combinations from all over the world, and create my own. My newest cookbook Tender Grassfed Barbecue also has many different flavor combinations for grassfed ground meat.

I eat almost every variety of cut, from nearly every part of the animal. The variety is endless, the taste wonderful, and the nutrition fantastic.

Grassfed beef is far more nutritious than factory beef. See Health Benefits of Grass-fed Products.

If I were to make an analogy to a wine connoisseur, my personal opinion is that factory beef is like the cheap, sweet wine favored by people who just want to get drunk, while grassfed beef is like a variety of fine wines, that are drunk to be savored and enjoyed.

There is some grassfed beef I would not recommend, just as there are some fancy wines a true oenophile would not recommend. But properly cooked grassfed beef, from a good ranch, is a true joy. And since the beef from each ranch is different, I never get tired of it.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

Cooking—The Most Important Skill

By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Click on this photo to see photos of home-cooked recipes from Tender Grassfed Meat.

Click on this photo to see photos of home-cooked recipes from Tender Grassfed Meat.

Your first reaction to the title of this post might be, “What!? Cooking is important?”

That is typical of a culture that no longer values cooking, one of the oldest and most vital human skills. In fact, two-thirds of American adults know almost nothing about cooking, and never cook. To these folks, cooking means heating up an already prepared product in the microwave, or warming up takeout that has gotten cold.

Suppose you had the power to create an almost magical medicine that had no side effects, yet gave you strong bones, powerful muscles, strength, stamina, great vision and hearing, a happy optimistic viewpoint, a clear mind that can focus on anything, a great memory, an immune system so strong that you almost never get sick?

Suppose this power and this medicine brought great happiness and pleasure to all who used it?

Would you want this power?

Well, you can learn this power, and make that medicine.

The power is cooking, and the “medicine” is real food.

 

The Power of Real Food

Nothing affects the health of our bodies as much as the food we eat. Our bodies are made of the food we eat. Our bodies use the food we eat to repair themselves, to run the natural functions of the body, and to get energy. We need the right kinds of food, and enough of it. If people do not have enough food, they die. If people do not get enough good real food, their health deteriorates and they become vulnerable to all kinds of diseases.

Doctors and hospitals can be very good for traumatic injuries, and some very serious conditions, yet their drugs and surgeries and radiation cannot keep our bodies healthy.

Only food can do that.

Hippocrates, the most famous of doctors, said it best:

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

In ancient times, and actually until the twentieth century, most food was real, and grown and produced in accordance with the laws of nature. Countless generations of humans had eaten this kind of food, and our bodies adapted to using it. The main problem was getting enough of it, and obtaining certain foods that could be hard to get.

In modern America today, most of the food has been raised with chemicals, and has been altered. Fruits and vegetables are grown in poor soil with the use of chemical fertilizers. Produce has been altered to have a longer shelf life and better appearance, at the cost of taste and nutrition. Meat animals are fed substances unnatural to them, that cause the very composition of their fat and meat to change. Antibiotics, growth hormones, and other drugs are used to cause meat animals to grow faster.

Humans have never eaten this kind of modified food before the twentieth century.

Real food is the unmodified food of our ancestors, grown in good soil, or grazed on good grass, without the use of chemicals. It is what our bodies know how to process, and we thrive on it. But it is not enough to just buy real food. You have to know how to cook it.

 

The Magic of Cooking

The art of cooking transforms produce and meat into almost magical creations that give our bodies the nutrition they so desperately need, and create great pleasure for the people who eat a well cooked meal. You cannot get this kind of food in a can or microwavable container. You can almost never get it in a restaurant. But you can learn how to cook it. You can create the magical “medicine” advocated by Hippocrates, which can keep your body healthy and functioning perfectly.

Our ancestors knew this, and knew what foods to eat, and how to combine foods to sustain life and health. Much of this knowledge has been lost, yet much has been preserved. My major motive in writing my cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue, has been to rediscover and preserve some knowledge of how to cook grassfed meat, perhaps the oldest and most valued food of humanity. Learning how to cook and eat this meat and other real foods healed all the problems that modern medicine could not help me with.

I am an attorney, yet cooking real food is my most valuable skill, without a doubt.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.

 

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