BYC Team Beef

[azurbanclucker]

Second guess. Still, the seam looks hanger. In any case, you have steak.

Not any more!

(Well, I have a bunch in the freezer at least)

 

[casportpony]

They're called ugly steaks. They're an aged bottom sirloin or sandwich steak that melts in your mouth like butter. You can only get them at a butcher in Tucson. We've been out for a while and I haven't had anyone going through there recently to replenish my stash, so I drove down and got 15 pounds today.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

A couple of months ago I butchered an 8-year-old mini-zebu bull. I tried a piece of him that same day and it wasn’t great (not drained of blood at that point).

I gorged the meat with water and froze it for 2 months, which is how I treat venison. When it thaws, all the blood comes out with the water from the water-logging and it makes the meat clean and mild. Last night I thawed out a bag of random cuts otherwise destined for the burger grinder. Today I fried some and threw the rest on the smoker for jerky.

Simplest way to put it is that its the best venison I’ve ever had. Got to think of it that way instead of as beef. Its an old, grass fed, bull that’s of a genetically different family of cattle than what one is used to from the store shelf. The flavor is mild after the blood is drained out but the meat it tough, about like the meat of an old whitetail buck. But without the gamey taste.

I think it will make great burger. Also good cube steak once I get a tenderizer attachment.

 

[Sally PB]

I gorged the meat with water

I've never heard this term. How is it done?

 

[SmiYa0126]

And also I wanna know who picks toungue

Tongue is really good!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I've never heard this term. How is it done?

After quartering the cow (or deer), put the quarters in a cooler and cover the meat in ice (you can debone the meat first if you want, but usually the bones are left in for the soaking). Leave the cooler outside and let the ice melt for a couple of days. Check the meat once a day and whenever the water is filled to the top, drain the cooler and refresh the ice. You can do this for as little as 2 days or as long as a week.

Then debone or otherwise process the meat and pack it into freezer bags and freeze it. The water will have gorged the meat all the way down to the cellular level. When the meat freezes, the ice crystals will burst the cells. When you thaw it out for eating, the water inside the meat will drain out with the blood. There’s no better way to remove the taste of iron or gaminess from meat.

The gallon freezer bag I thawed last night produced 2 half-bags of blood in this manner. The resultant meat was very clean.

 

[Sally PB]

@Florida Bullfrog, thank you for the explanation. I have never heard of anyone doing this, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

@Florida Bullfrog, thank you for the explanation. I have never heard of anyone doing this, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.

Its how Florida backwoodsmen have been processing whitetail deer for as long as coolers and ice have been available. The daytime temps can be in the 90°Fs during hunting season. Can’t hang a deer to cure it like you can on a cold night up north.

I had not heard of anyone processing a cow this way. Usually a person can wait and process livestock on the coldest days possible. But I had need to process this bull ASAP so I couldn’t pick my weather. Seems to work well, I’ll process the next one this way.

 

[azurbanclucker]

I have sinned. There's leftover steak on my plate.

I will now commit ritual suicide in shame.