Homestead mailing list

[lurine AT com-pair.net]

Breeds make a difference and the pasture will also make a difference.
If you have breed, such as dairy, you are going to have less marbling
simply because that is the way those animals muscle up.  You could
stick a buck or a doe in a shed and feed them corn till the cows come
home and you wouldn't get enough marbling to grade anything but
utility.

Scottish Highlanders are extremely "thrifty" and will pack on a good
ratio of marbling and back fat on a lot less feed than say a
Holstein.  Highlanders pack on the fat and marbeling equally
throughout their bodies.  Holsteins will put it on piecemeal.  So, on
less feed you'll get a better grade out of a Highlander.

Dry aging is optimum.  This new business of "wet" aging (sticking it
in kryovac bags and sitting it on a shelf) is, well, IMNSHO,
disgusting!  The amount of time you age your beef for depends on a
lot of things including just how much fat there is on the quarters. 
A hind can hang longer than a front.

For our butcher shop we would hang the sides we sold in the shop
about two weeks.  Then we would break the hind down and for some
customers leave the loin to hang another week.

We had a lot of dairies bring in older cows.  These old girls hung
about a week to 10 days.  Very little cover fat but because they came
from old-fashioned dairies (irrigated pasture, little stress) they
produced some real nice meat.

Feed, breed, how they are raised all have input in what the output is.

Lynda

---- Original Message ----
From: woodmanrussell AT gmail.com

>Grass or Corn makes no difference, the animal has to start
>depositing intramuscular fat in order for it to become more tender&
>higher
>grade. I have told my beef customers, since the 80's that a young
>beef is
>like a teenager, they build body first then start to put on the fat
>that
>the meat inspector/grader looks for.After raising at least 5
>different
>breeds & finishing some on grain & some on grass, they can all be
>tender if
>finished properly . My last breed has been the Scot Hilander breed &
>they
>have been the best. They were raised totally on 10 year old Alfalfa
>fields,
>intensive rotational grazed, which I believe  is the only way to
>raise
>cattle that will preform at their best. Those cattle finished out at
>1000#
>live weight & about 1/2'" of back fat. Also I have my meat hung for
>12 days
>in the cooler at the slaughter house before finishing, which has been
>shown
>to be the optimum time for enzyme breakdown of tissue. My customers &
>my
>wife have raved about how good this meat is & that it really turns
>out
>(fork tender)!!