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COOKING What's Your Beef? by Tarla Fallgatter
Not too many years ago you could go to the meat counter, recipe in hand, and ask your friendly butcher, "What's the best cut to use for beef stew?" or "How long should I cook a five-rib prime rib?" and
he would know. In those days the butcher was a trusted friend, looked to for assistance in selecting a good steak, timing a roast of beef or just stretching a food dollar. Times have changed. In the past four decades the trend in
the meat industry has been toward pre-packaged meat sold in self-service cases. You need to know, as you approach today's meat counter, the best cut to use for beef stew. And if that's too expensive, you must already know the
alternatives. An understanding of basic animal anatomy can help you select just the right cut of meat for any meal. It can give you a pretty good indication of how to cook it, it can make carving a simple task and it can save you
much money for the rest of your meat-buying life. History The wild bulls that leap out from the painted walls of prehistoric caves in the South of France and Spain seem strangely familiar, with their widely curving
horns, strong shoulders, thin withers, and lean, rangy bodies. Do they remind you of Texas Longhorns—descendants of these ancient cattle that adapted and readapted to the wild to survive in burning heat and bitter cold and to
defend their young against predators? Cattle are the most powerful animals that humans have sought to exploit and dominate over the centuries. They have served as sources of meat, milk, hide, horn, labor and often religious awe
from before the beginnings of civilization to the present day. The wild ox is the ancestor of most of today's domestic cattle. Wild cattle were hunted and, as we can infer from cave paintings, venerated by humankind for many
thousands of years. They were one of the last of the major species to be domesticated, most likely in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and northern India sometime between 6000 and 4000 B.C. The herding and exploitation of cattle for meat and
milk and as work animals spread rapidly into Europe, the Far East and Africa, where breeding with native species resulted in the ancestors of modern cattle. The existence of wild cattle in Europe can be traced far back in history.
In the first century B.C., Julius Caesar compared them to elephants in power and ferocity in his De Bello Gallico. Wild bulls were hunted by Charlemagne in the ninth century and were still found in the forests of eastern
Poland as late as the seventeen century. Cattle, especially bulls, have been a source of religious awe from Cro-Magnon times. Lithe, young cattle dancers are depicted vaulting over the horns of bulls on the walls of Minoan
palaces, and Greek myth describes the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull, at the center of the labyrinth in Crete. And today's Spanish bullfight, with its elaborate rituals and costumes, and the running of the bulls in Pamplona, show
humanity's long-standing fascination with this animal and its powers. Cattle provided the draft animals for most of Europe from Roman times until relatively recently. Plows were pulled and wagons drawn by slow but powerful oxen,
or castrated bulls. Cattle were killed and eaten only when their work as milk cows or draft animals was over, which made for chewy and stringy beef. The English have always loved meat, especially the famous roast beef of Old
England still featured today in many London restaurants. Beef eating in England began to take on almost legendary status in Elizabethan times; it was credited with creating the ruddy health of the English yeoman and the unflappable
courage of the English soldier, or Beefeater. American Beef American colonists, like their English forebears, ate plenty of beef, although it was the pig, which thrived on American corn, which provided most of their
meat. Colonists along the eastern seaboard brought mixed-purposed cattle breeds from England and the continent: Durhams and other English Shorthorns and Holsteins suitable for milk and meat and for service as draft animals. Later,
eastern farmers imported pure meat breeds, such as the Scottish Black Angus and white-faced English Herefords, which have blocky bodies, thick and bulky loins, and a tendency to layer on intramuscular fat, making them rich and
tender. These breeds did much to improve the quality of meat from American herds, but it was the Texas Longhorn, derived from the Spanish cattle brought over by the conquistadors, whose abundance and availability fueled America's
love of beef. These half-wild cattle, whose precursors were the original wild cattle of the Iberian Peninsula seen on prehistoric cave walls, thrived in the sparse pastures and desert scrubland of Texas and the Southwest. By the
time of the Civil war, millions of the Longhorns roamed through The problem facing Texan and other western ranchers was how
to get this huge surplus of meat to markets in the East. The answer lay in the system of railroads that developed during the war to supply the nation's war machines. In the stockyards of Chicago and Kansas City, the cattle were
first fattened on corn and other agricultural products of the Midwest, then shipped to markets. With the advent of refrigerated freight cars, cattle could be slaughtered by meat packers at the railheads, and fresh and wholesome
meat shipped to butchers throughout the country. Getting the cattle to the railroads from Texas, however, was another story—one that created the myth of the Cattle barons, like the Scottish land shark The cattle barons also gave us what we now think of as American beef. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, they introduced Herefords, Durham, With the great surplus of beef reaching
the eastern markets, the hordes of immigrants that were flooding into America in the latter half of the nineteenth century had the opportunity to eat meat on a regular basis for the first time. In cities like New York and Chicago,
restaurants specializing in beef— Even more popular than
steak, however, is that great icon of American food, the hamburger. The simple patty of ground beef served on a bun has become the symbol of America, with critics taking aim at it whenever they want to show what's wrong with our
cooking (and our way of life). But hamburgers are famous for a good reason: they can be delicious if prepared with imagination, skillfully seasoned and carefully cooked. Lean and Mean
We are no longer eating quite the same As a result, depending on the grade, today's beef has considerably less intramuscular fat than in previous times. The widely available grade select has on average only about two thirds the fat of the highest prime grade. Some of
the leanest cuts of beef are among the tastiest and most tender. These are (beginning with the leanest) We all want fatless meat, but we also want our steaks to be butter-tender, juicy and delicious. Both are not possible. If you want to
lower the fat content of cooked meat, cut off most of the external fat. But for tender meat, look for and welcome marbling; just a little fat streaked throughout the meat keeps it juicy and tender. An Anatomy Lesson
Before you purchase any piece of beef, you have to know what you are going to do with it. You certainly wouldn't want to buy an expensive butter-tender beef fillet to make a pot roast. The place on the steer from which the meat
comes is the most important factor in determining how tender it will be and how it should be cooked. Tenderness depends on the amount of work a particular muscle does. The areas along the back of the steer (the loin, ribs and
rump) don't get as much exercise as the neck, shoulders, brisket and You don't have to become an expert in anatomy to understand the important cuts of beef. In fact, there are really only eight basic areas of the steer that you need to know about.
Meat packers call these areas the primal cuts, which are either sold wholesale or broken down into sub-primal cuts and sold to markets and, increasingly, consumers. The three primal areas that make up the back are called the rib,
short loin and sirloin. Steaks and roasts are cut from these areas. Meat from the sections along the back will have a fine, close-grained texture and usually a single eye of muscle. Not all steaks are equal. Flavor and tenderness
depend on the place on the animal from which the meat comes. In general, the best and most expensive steaks come from the short loin located in the middle of the back, which gets very little exercise. A characteristic T-shaped
bone separates the The chuck (shoulder), brisket/foreshank, flank, and plate areas from the shoulder and sides of
the steer yield tougher cuts, ideal for stews, pot roasts and other braises. They are also the main sources of ground beef. The texture of the meat is more coarsely grained and the cuts usually have several muscles interwoven with
connective tissue, which needs slow heat to become tenderized or dissolved. Although they start out tough, these flavorful cuts can become silky smooth and fork-tender when properly cooked. Meat that makes up the round (leg),
along with some areas of the chuck and flank, are in-between in terms of tenderness. While not as tender as the short loin and rib, they have a good, meaty flavor and can be cooked by dry-heat methods. The texture and flavor of
these slightly tougher cuts can be vastly improved by Portions Although most Aging Aging beef by keeping it unwrapped under refrigeration (below 36ºF but above freezing) for extended periods of time increases its tenderness because natural enzymes are released, which soften the connective tissue
in the muscles. Not only is dry-aged beef tender, but a great deal of moisture evaporates (there may be as much as a 20 percent weight loss), concentrating the flavor. The meat mellows, and the rich, beefy taste is accentuated.
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when all good butchers aged their beef, sometimes for as long as six weeks. Today most butchers no longer have the room or the wherewithal to provide dry-aged beef for their customers,
although some fine steak houses and Aging is suitable only for the highest grades of beef (prime or choice) that will be cooked by dry heat. Some butchers store their
beef at 36ºF in its original vacuum pack for two weeks. This form of aging will help to tenderize the meat by the same enzymatic processes involved in dry-aging. But because wet-aging involves no loss of moisture through
evaporation, the flavors do not become concentrated as they do with dry-aging. Most meat we purchase these days is not deliberately aged. It will most likely be four to ten days old, depending on how fast the shop turns over its
inventory. However, don't confuse old meat with aged meat. Old meat, sometimes marked down in supermarket cases, simply means meat that is getting near the end of its shelf life, which the butcher wants to get rid of. If you buy
this meat, be careful. Plan to use it the same day, and discard or return it if it is sticky and has any "off" odors. Kobe Beef A few ranchers are producing very heavily marbled beef from the Japanese Wagu
breed (also called Kobe beef). In Japan, some growers feed their pampered steers bottles of beer and massage them daily, something American ranchers don't do. This fabled beef is very expensive but exquisitely tender. If can be
found in some Japanese groceries and in super-premium butcher shops in Los Angeles and New York (Balducci's in Manhattan, for example). Argentine Beef One the food trends mentioned in the January 1999 Food & Wine
is Argentinean beef, loved by many "hot" restaurants, such as Ciudad in Los Angeles, Rattlesnake Club in Detroit and Chimichurri in New York City. Why Argentine beef? First, it has less cholesterol and fat than American beef; a four-ounce portion of USDA choice beef tenderloin has 10.8 grams of saturated fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol and 328 calories, compared with 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol and 140 calories for the same cut of Argentine beef. Second, Argentine cattle are fed on protein-rich grasses, rather than the high-carbohydrate grains given to American cattle; they are not penned up in feedlots their last weeks of life, as are American cattle, nor are they fed the growth hormones or antibiotics given to American cattle. Finally, Argentine beef is extremely tender and has a delicious beefy flavor.
However, Argentine cattle tend to be somewhat smaller than American cattle, and the cuts from the animals are a bit smaller and less uniform. Cuts of Argentine beef sold in the United States are boneless, designed primarily for
steaks, such as rib-eye (the most popular cut in Argentina), sirloin, New York strip and filet mignon. Argentineans generally prefer their steaks smaller and more well done than do Americans, so to keep them tender the new chefs
suggest cooking Argentine steaks at lower temperatures. Beefalo Several years back, some ranchers began raising a cross between beef cattle and buffalo that they called beefalo. This meat is leaner than beef and has some
of the wonderful qualities of buffalo. Unfortunately, it's not broadly distributed, but it is worth a try if you can find some. Farm-raised buffalo is also available in many markets. It has a dense texture and a delicious, slightly
gamy flavor. Cook it as you would lean beef. Cooking Dry or Moist Heat? Heat affects tenderness in two opposing ways, depending on whether it is dry or moist. Moist heat, in the form of heated liquid or steam,
converts the tough collagen in the meat to gelatin over a period of time. This is what makes your tough pot roast tender when it is braised or stewed. The softening process starts to occur at 160ºF. Even though it is softened,
however, the meat will become dry if cooked above this temperature unless it has sufficient intramuscular fat (marbling) to replace the lost moisture. That is why a fattier cut like chuck makes a more juicy pot roast than the
leaner bottom round. In dry-heat cooking, the exterior is browned by the caramelization of the inherent sugars in the meat and by a series of complex chemical reactions. As the moisture on the meat's surface begins to evaporate,
the juices concentrate and mix with any seasonings to form an appetizing brown crust. This provides the luscious and intense "meaty" flavor we find so irresistible in a grilled steak. When meat is cooked by moist heat,
however, it develops a different flavor profile than it does when cooked by dry heat. You can combine the two methods and brown the meat first to contribute some of the flavors to the broth. As the meat cooks slowly in the broth,
it absorbs the flavors from the liquid so that it becomes tender and delicious, with a robust sauce. There is one indispensable tool for the modern meat cook: the digital instant-ready thermometer. It is difficult to be a
successful meat cook without one. Here is a delicious way to cook steaks by the dry heat method: Filet Steaks with Green Peppercorn Sauce 6 six-ounce filet steaks 2 Tbsp. cracked peppercorns 1-2 Tbsp. oil
1/4C port wine 1/2C beef stock 1C heavy cream or manufacturer's cream 1 Tbsp. green peppercorns, rinsed and dried 1 Tbsp. fresh oregano, finely chopped salt to taste Press the cracked peppercorns into both sides of the
steaks and set aside. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Heat one or two sauté pans (large enough to hold the steaks) until hot, add the oil and heat until hot. Sear the steaks 1-2 minutes on each side until golden, transfer to a metal pan
and place in the hot oven for 7-8 minutes or until the desired temperature is reached (see above). Meanwhile, add the wine to the sauté pan and reduce to 2 Tbsp., add the stock and reduce the mixture to 1/3C. Add the cream and
bring to a boil. Reduce until 2/3C remains. Stir in the peppercorns, fresh oregano and salt to taste. Transfer the steaks to heated plates and pour any accumulated juices from the pan into the prepared sauce. Return to a simmer.
Spoon the sauce over the steaks and serve immediately. Makes: 6 servings. Storing Fresh beef can be stored for three to four days in the refrigerator; ground beef should be used within two days. Well-wrapped beef will
keep frozen for three to six months. Cooked beef should be kept whole, if possible, loosely wrapped in plastic wrap. Meat cooked in liquid can be left in the Note If you would like to order or find out more
about Argentine beef, contact Silvina DiBella of the Argentine Meat Company Ltd., located at 3345 Newport Blvd., Suite #214, Newport Beach, CA 92663, telephone number (949) 675-8593. If you can't wait to taste this awesome beef,
visit Ciudad at 445 S. Figueroa Street in Los Angeles (telephone: [213] 486-5171) and order their terrific Argentine rib-eye stuffed with jalapeños and whole garlic cloves, which is all the rage! Tarla Fallgatter is a
well-known Orange County caterer, chef, teacher, restaurant consultant and kitchen tool manufacturer. She trained at Paris' Cordon Bleu, La Varenne, and Ecole Lenotre cooking schools, and was the first foreign woman to cook in the
kitchens of Maxim's. She has traveled to over 60 countries throughout the world, "sampling" the local cuisine. She markets her "Tarla" all-copper rolling pin in fine cookware shops. |
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