Questions Before You Buy Locker Beef
Outlined below are the seven most prominent questions to ask your butcher (according to united states of america at Thomas Joseph Slaughterhouse) before running abode to get that cast iron skillet on the heat!
- Where is it from?
- What breed of animal is it?
- How was information technology reared?
- How old was information technology?
- How has it been hung and aged?
- How do I store?
- How practise I cook?
1. Where is it from?
Probably the nigh important question, provenance. Yous desire to know and sympathise exactly where your meat is coming from as of paramount importance. If you don't desire to know, you're a lot safer going to the supermarkets where they really will have no idea. Your butcher should exist able to easily tell you the county or area, which farm it's from and ultimately, the farmer's name.
We live in the 21st century where through commercialisation this data has been neglected, warranted unimportant. Nonetheless, the opposite is undeniably true. The fact is that different breeds sense of taste different, different ways of rearing livestock taste different and different farms have different standards. If you are discerning about the food yous put on the tabular array, believe in ethically reared, sustainable meat of the highest quality and want to be engaged with the subcontract to fork process, y'all must know where your meat comes from.
2. What breed of animal is information technology?
Breed is some other hot topic, one that the commercial enterprises just cannot compete with. In the U.k., nosotros accept native breeds that are designed to live outside, withstand our climate and ultimately grow slowly with the right proportions of musculus and fatty. Unfortunately, due to the nations want for cheap meat, we have adopted bigger continental breeds that grow twice as big in half the fourth dimension (we exaggerate for event). Needless to say that if you are trying to make money, then this is where you will go. The drawback to these "race to the finish animals" is that y'all will most certainly notice – they accept no sense of taste.
The fact is that native breeds in the Britain grow slowly, lay down fat properly and when fed on grass sense of taste phenomenal. They are able to stay exterior and suffer tough climates due to many generations of evolution and are a superior production, by a land mile. That's why at Thomas Joseph Shambles we back up wearisome grown natives that are free range and grass fed. For a full list of native breeds, visit https://world wide web.rbst.org.uk/Pages/Category/cattle-watchlist
3. How was it reared?
In tandem with point ane, this is critical for two reasons. As an ethical standpoint start and from a quality perspective 2nd. Ethically speaking, animals similar cows should never exist kept inside unless poor weather conditions mean information technology is too dangerous to exist out or that at that place is so fiddling food that they require feeding and shelter. Grain fed and barn raised animals are unhealthier for a plethora of reasons only for now, we'll just outline a few:
- Grain fed, barn raised animals alive, eat and breathe in a confined space side by side to other animals and walk amid their own excrement and faeces for extended periods of time.
- All cows are ruminating animals designed to eat grass but fed grain to brand them abound faster in a shorter space of fourth dimension that transpires into lower quality fat with higher levels of toxins.
- Grain fed, befouled raised animals require far more hands on treatment from farmers. Due to their cramp living weather the animals will accept more take a chance of condign unwell and therefore may require antibiotics and medicinal handling.
When talking nearly quality, we aren't merely talking about gustation! Free range grass fed animals have been proven to carry higher levels of CLA (300-400% higher!) and omega iii EFA'southward compared to their grain fed, barn reared counterparts. They also avowal 4 times the amount of Vitamin E and increased levels of antioxidants such as beta-carotene found in the pigment of the grass.
As a annotation, these animals love to roam open pasture and at Coxtie Light-green Farm the cattle are given over 1 acre per beast to really explore. Gratuitous range, grass fed farming is far more sustainable. The animals eat off the land and don't incur any boosted carbon costs associated with buying in grain. At Thomas Joseph Slaughterhouse, we merely stock costless range and grass fed animals that are dull grown, manus picked for their quality and farmed to the highest ethical standards.
iv. How old was the animal?
Nosotros know that ageing beef is one way to ameliorate the flavour of a carcass but maturing on the bone is just as important. Nearly animals in the United kingdom will exist slaughtered before thirty months as after this fourth dimension it makes breaking down the carcass somewhat more difficult due to the spinal column being removed at the slaughterhouse. What is a true shame is that by ignoring this period of time over thirty months (OTM) we are missing out on some of the best beefiness that has quite literally matured for months and maybe years longer!
Always enquire your butcher how former the animal was, this information should be piece of cake to find and if nothing else is a good area for us meat lovers to beginning finding out almost own our personal preferences. We have institute that generally, the older the meliorate and are happy to have animals well over the thirty month menstruum. By selecting animals that take had the gamble to lay down fat inside the muscle over an extended period of time we feel that the taste is somewhat unique and why our OTM beefiness is a grade act.
v. How has it been hung and aged?
Another hot topic at the counter – hanging and ageing. There are some golden rules when it comes to meat preparation and preservation. More often than not speaking, beef should be aged for a minimum of 3-4 weeks. This allows time for the carcass to take on depth of flavour and tenderise. Meat should e'er exist dry out aged in a cold shop and non wet aged in a vacuum pack purse. Dry ageing and hanging allows the meat to get more than tender and flavoursome over time whilst preserving the meat as the bacteria in the surrounding air (that are harmless) attempt to penetrate the carcass.
There is a stark difference between the 2 methods; wet ageing isn't losing any of the moisture and blood while dry ageing is assuasive the moisture within the meat to be fatigued out into the atmosphere. This is one of the reasons (alongside the taste and quality) why dry aged meat is more expensive. All the same, when you compare information technology to a wet aged steak, y'all will notice that minimal liquid is present in the bag. This is because the additional liquid has gone and what you are left with is prime number steak compared to opening the wet anile parcel and being met with a bag total of blood you lot cannot utilize. Vacuum packing is fine subsequently ageing but the issue crops upward when the steak is aged solely in the parcel.
Lastly, dry ageing should take place in specific conditions to create the right temperature, humidity level and air menses to permit meat to age at the required rate and for any length of time. Although farther dry out-ageing isn't necessarily required, it is fascinating to allow the ageing process to take the meat to a completely new level of meat deliciousness!
E'er ask your butcher how long specific cuts take been aged so that you tin can get a feel for what different lengths of time taste like and which is your preference. At Thomas Joseph we aged for a minimum of 28 days dependant on fat covering and outside temperature and accept plant that the optimum length of fourth dimension to be around l to 60 days, although nosotros exercise take some thing far longer! We encourage you to explore the historic period curve and get hold of some old beefiness when you tin can!
six. How Practice I Store?
Ownership a good quality steak is one matter, keeping it fresh is another! The all-time matter you tin can practice (if you are going to apply your steak inside two-3 days) is identify your steak on a wire baking rack in the fridge, allowing air to travel all around information technology. A large plate and committing to turning it over every day will suffice! Vacuum packing is fine but we would suggest taking information technology out a day or 2 earlier to allow the moisture around it to disappear. The exterior airflow will slowly dry the exterior, allowing you to take the perfect canvass for that glorious chaff.
At all costs, don't leave your steak in a handbag with air. The air surrounding the steak will make it sweat and it will go off rapidly compared to the other ii methods. As a bonus, you are actually dry ageing your steak that little flake farther when you exit information technology in the air and every bit an FYI – that'southward how nosotros started our journeying into this game! If you cant use it, try and vac pack it before freezing to freeze optimally and when thawing out, put information technology into the fridge and permit it to come up up to temperature slowly.
7. How Exercise I Cook?
The final inaugural, we're nearly there! How do I cook is something that could be debated for centuries so instead of covering all the methods like sou-vide, reverse sear etc, nosotros are going to encompass what we do which has time and time again produced rima oris watering steaks of whatsoever size.
An extremely hot pan is essential, make sure it is smoking! While your pan is warming up, salt your steak on either side. Leave the pepper until after as information technology has a tendency to burn during cooking. Before you lot put your steak in, put a generous dollop of grass fed butter in the pan. Exist quick, it will fire within 5 seconds and then become that steak in ASAP to the beautiful aureate patch of bubbles.
Now turning, the all-time advice we can give for a 10oz steak is to cook it on each side for one infinitesimal twice and let to balance for a medium rare. For larger steaks above 600g, use the aforementioned procedure and then put into a 200 degree oven for 3 minutes initially and cheque with a thermometer. You want to hit 45 degrees for rare, 52 degrees for medium rare and 55-60 degrees for medium. Anything more than this is sacrilege! Afterward the initial 3 minutes, put the steak dorsum in 3 minute intervals until the desired temperature is constitute within the middle.
So there yous take it, the 7 Questions you should inquire your butcher, asked and answered! Nosotros promise information technology was informative, a picayune fun and gave you some ideas on what you should be looking for in your steak!
As a cheers for getting to the bottom of this novel on all things beef, here's ten% off your next purchase, just enter: QUESTION10 at checkout to redeem :)
Much Love,
Thomas Joseph Butchery and the CGF Squad
wilkinsoptale1948.blogspot.com
Source: https://thomasjosephbutchery.co.uk/blogs/blog/the-7-questions-you-must-ask-your-butcher-before-buying-steak