I was certainly pleased to have my order from La Cense show up Wednesday, perfectly intact, still frozen solid.
Dinner Preparations
I proceeded to thaw out three of the New York strips for Bea, myself, and our friend Julie whose hubby is out of town. All in all, a pretty simple deal. Steaks on the grill, a beef stock reduction with a couple of cloves of garlic, a bit of red wine, and a pinch of fresh chopped rosemary. Strained it before serving, and also added the juices from the steaks resting a couple of minutes.
On the side, french cut green beans, boiled then simmered covered for an hour or so with chopped onion and wild boar bacon. Sauté the bacon (any will do) with some lard, then put the whole thing, drippings and all, in the pot). Let it boil down pretty well and serve using a slotted spoon, i.e., don't drain it, and, store leftovers in the juice.
Again, I had no problems cooking the meat. I don't know whether it's my fairly new infrared grill, or what, but cooking grassfed meats has so far been very forgiving. It came out perfectly medium rare, very tasty, and fork tender. In fact, the tenderness was on the order of ground beef. I couldn't believe it. As always, images can be clicked to enlarge and get better resolution.
Grilled New York Strip
In the end, I'm definitely sold on the grassfed experience and will be researching the best sources locally, trying them out, then deciding how to proceed.
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Please spread the word
Richard,
I had a feeling you were really going to enjoy them
Like I said, LaCense is really some of the best I've had.
I still want to hear from you after you try the “Hangar steak”.
Wishing you a wonderful Labor Day weekend.
Marc
Hi Richard,
My name is Jason and I am a part of an upcoming grass fed beef business. We sell our vaccuum sealed beef cuts at local Farmer’s Markets. I was wondering if you ever get over to the foothills in Springville California. We operate out of The Springville Ranch. You can check out the ranch on the internet.
Hi Jason:
My dad is actually going to purchase from you guys. He has the brochure. If he likes it then we’ll probably go in together on the next order.
Thanks, Mark.
I'll be hooking up the trailer and heading to north of SF shortly. You
enjoy yourself as well.
–
Richard Nikoley
http://www.freetheanimal.com
- Sent from my iPhone
http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html has a state by state listing of grass fed beef and other grass fed products.
Hi Richard,
I had some New Yorks and a brisket from Open Space Meats, which I believe is not all that far from you. I thought they were quite good, you might want to check them out- they've got a web site.
There's one place (forgot the name) that has a butcher shop outlet at
Pt Reyes Station that I'll be checking out this weekend.
–
Richard Nikoley
http://www.freetheanimal.com
- Sent from my iPhone
Marin Sun Farms perhaps? I have been very satisfied with them, and get their meat at the farmers market every Saturday in San Francisco. Also visited their pt reyes shop once.
US Wellness beef is great also and much cheaper than LaCense. I use their pet food ( beef and liver ) and my dogs are thriving on it
Avoid Slanker- he's a ripoff artist
La Cense is good but I think they are too expensive lb for lb. Slanker's seem to be a better deal.
We've bought from La Cense, Slankers, US Wellness, Appleton Farms (in MA) and our local CSA. By far, the best tastiing is the local CSA. My wife claims all but the CSA meat has a “smell” to it. She said “gamey” once, though I don't smell anything.
Yep, that's it. I'll be heading over later today.
How do you think they compare to Prather? I can get Prather at the
Campbell FM every Sunday.
–
Richard Nikoley
http://www.freetheanimal.com
- Sent from my iPhone
I've gotten meat from Prather as well. They are good too, but my preference is for marin sun farms. I got some ground beef from Rrather this weekend because I was too late at getting some from MSF at the SF farmer's market. When I asked about the meat they said it was finished with barley and something else (but no corn/soy). I haven't had too many of their cuts to give you an extensive comparison (the only other thing I have had of theirs was some sirloin and organ meats a few months ago)
This morning I cooked some of the Prather ranch ground beef and one thing I noticed was the fat was very thin and liquid in the pan. Maybe it was a fluke, or some difference in the fat, but it wasn't quite the same texture and viscosity I am used to.
Agreed about Slanker. The biggest problem with them is that they don't vacuum seal, which makes it a mess to unpack and store etc.
Wellness hamburger is great, the steaks are too thin for my tastes.
Richard – Don't want to sound critical, but did you boil those green beans for an hour, or was that a mistype?
I would have thought that an hour of boiling/simmering would have resulted in green mush!
Cheers – Mark
Actually, probably more than an hour. Best to use fresh, and you can
simmer them for many hours, no prob.
Richard:
Which make of infrared grill do you have?
This one:
http://www.charbroil.com/Consumer/product_detai...
I've yet to have anything but a great turnout. Best grill I've ever
owned.