Have You ever heard of this? (CHB story)

[greenwillowhereford II]

October '07 issue of HW, an article entitled "A Chef's Perspective," featured three chefs who feature Certified Hereford Beef. Paul Lynch graduated from New England Culinary Institute, and has worked at restaurants in London, Texas, Hawaii, and the Caribbean, and has been the executive chef for FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar of Minneapolis for more than 8 years. An interesting quote that I want your opinion on: "The # 1 complaint in prime rib is the big fat eye in the center of it. Genetically, Hereford has a very small, nearly non-existent, fat eye in the center of the prime rib. So that's what drew me to Hereford." He also says that CHB has a richer, meatier and all-around better flavor than other meats, but of course while I agree with him, that is what he is expected to say for a HW interview. It is the fat eye comment that I am curious as to whether this is well-known or not.

 

[dun]

Of all the prime rib I've eaten I've only seen one that had a large fat "eye" though it. It was one heifer that we raised, Red Angus, and the fat eye was over 50% of the total ribeye. She was also tough as wang leather. We're eationg her half brother, same dam, this year and he's tender and no big glob of fat through the ribeye. The heifer was strange in that she went from pasture with no appreciable fat to way over conditioned in 6 weeks. The others in the pen finifshed normally in a couple of months longer and no strange fat deposit.

 

[KNERSIE]

I think the degree of finish will be the major roleplayer and not really the breed. That being said I would expect leaner breeds like the traditional limousin to have less of a problem with seam fat.

I have finished many herefords, both on grain and grass and although that amount of fat isn't the norm, I have seen it in overconditioned animals of my own breeding. Generally we don't finish to the same extent you guys do in the USA as our market seems to be more health conscious and demand leaner beef.