Tough beef...what to do?

[jayfarmlaw]

We had a 2+ year old heifer break her back leg last week (turns out she was finaly bred...dang!!!). We had her butchered and she is now on the rail at our local processing shop. The carcass has hing for a week now and we had a few ribeyes cut taste them.

The flavor is wonderful, especially considering she was not grain finished....but it is tough. Will aging it for more time make the meat more tender? I have heard that 21 days is the magic number but would like to know what y'all think.

Cooking wise...I cook a better steak than most restaurants. Garlic salt and black pepper then on to a really hot grill to sear and then slow finish to a perfect medium. Baste with butter to keep them moist.

These ribeyes were cut 3/4 inch thick for a test run but I will get them sliced almost 2" thick unless the general consensus is that thicker will make them tougher.

SOOO....will aging and thicker cuts increase tenderness. Any other suggestions on making a tough steak tender would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Jay

 

[dun]

Grind her and be done with it. If it's more burger then you want, donate the gound meat toi a local charity that dispenses food the familys etc.

 

[novatech]

Yes hanging longer will help. Some even have electroshock treatments.
Dun probably has the best solution.
You have just done a very good carcass evaluation test. You may want to adjust your genetics accordingly. ;-)

 

[KenB]

Would the stress of a broken leg have something to do with the toughness?

 

[dun]

Would the stress of a broken leg have something to do with the toughness?

That's why I figured grinding her would be best.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Would the stress of a broken leg have something to do with the toughness?

Yup

 

[backhoeboogie]

The problem with an animal like this is that she has not been finished for the freezer. As I understand, she was being kept for calving.

Fajitas, or hamburger as Dun said.

Two weeks hanging will be much better than one week but you like won't be satisfied if you don't have the desire for that kind of beef. It will likely be much more healthy for you.

 

[Susie David]

Hang her for another week. Fourteen days is what we hang. All our steaks are cut 1"...thinner and it is easy to over cook, thicker then folks have a tendancy to charr the outside with a underdone interior. The stress the animal was under would affect the falvor not sure about the tenderness.
Could have her ground.
DMc

 

[grannysoo]

Cooking wise...I cook a better steak than most restaurants. Garlic salt and black pepper then on to a really hot grill to sear and then slow finish to a perfect medium.

Jay

Cooking wise.... me too. We never buy a steak at a restaurant because it's always a disappointment.

The only other thing you need to try is letting the meat soak/marinate for 24 hours in soy sauce before you cook it. You will be surprised at what it does for the meat.

 

[T-Bro]

SOY SAUCE????
Oh Granny, no.
My Granny would skin me alive if I soaked a beef steak in soy sauce.


j/k, I might try it once and not tell Granny.

I agree w/ Dun. Grind it, donate what you don't want to a church food locker, get an offering receipt, bingo... tax write-off.

 

[Swiss Cowboy]

We had a 2+ year old heifer break her back leg last week (turns out she was finaly bred...dang!!!). We had her butchered and she is now on the rail at our local processing shop. The carcass has hing for a week now and we had a few ribeyes cut taste them.

The flavor is wonderful, especially considering she was not grain finished....but it is tough. Will aging it for more time make the meat more tender? I have heard that 21 days is the magic number but would like to know what y'all think.

Cooking wise...I cook a better steak than most restaurants. Garlic salt and black pepper then on to a really hot grill to sear and then slow finish to a perfect medium. Baste with butter to keep them moist.

These ribeyes were cut 3/4 inch thick for a test run but I will get them sliced almost 2" thick unless the general consensus is that thicker will make them tougher.

SOOO....will aging and thicker cuts increase tenderness. Any other suggestions on making a tough steak tender would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Jay

Sorry for your loss. Since the heifer has broken a leg she suffered pain and stress releasing huge amounts of adrenalin into the body. No amount of time aging such meat will make it tender. Grind it all up and make sausages or cut some up as stew meat. That is the best you can do. Sorry!

 

[3fifty7]

Another +1 for the grinder.
Ageing the beef will not help with the toughness, beef is aged in order to concentrate the flavors.

 

[dun]

Another +1 for the grinder.
Ageing the beef will not help with the toughness, beef is aged in order to concentrate the flavors.

Aging also increases tenderness. It has been shown that during the aging process certain changes take place in portions of the structure of collagen and muscle fibers. Currently, it is thought that enzymatic-caused changes in the structure of muscle fibers are largely responsible for the increase in tenderness. It is known that tenderness decreases immediately after slaughter while rigor mortis takes place (taking 6 to 12 hours to complete); then tenderness increases gradually. Tenderness continues to increase up to 11 days, after which there is no increase in tenderness.

One study showed that maximum tenderness and progress of tenderization during aging varies among muscles and is associated with the color of the carcass lean. (See Animal Science folder F0-0688 for a discussion of "Dark-Cutting Beef.") In general, aging dark-cutting beef beyond seven days did little to increase tenderness. However, in carcasses where lean was lighter in color, tenderness continued to improve during up to 16 days of aging.

The tenderness effects of aging are more evident in carcasses from older animals than in the usually more tender lean from younger animals' carcasses.

ref the following: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distributi ... J5968.html

 

[3fifty7]

Thats why I came here, the sharing of knowledge and factual information is second to none.
Thanks dun

 

[row4wsu]

If you don't want to send her to the grider I would age her atleast one more week. This helps with both tenderness and taste. The other thing to try is a lower temp for every form of cooking -- grilling, roasts, on the stove top, etc. Cook your roasts at 275 or 300 instead of 325. Also crock pots are a great thing. Tenderizer is another thing to consider as it breaks up tissue or great marinades with vinegar base.

We only finish our cattle on 60 days of grain and far less than most --- so they are mostly grass fed -- and this works for us.

 

[tytower]

Most People will not really tell you the truth because you become a compettetive buyer for the good stuff

Cause you are on this board (and the other side of the world) I will share what I know with you

Tenderness comes from quick growth of the meat
A 12 mths heifer or bull fed a lot and consistently will give the best steak.

The bulls start to go rank at about 14 months
Don't frighten or stress them before killing -it releases adrenalin which toughens the meat
Hanging for 10 days improves bad meat cosiderably
Different breeds give less tough meat -Dairy cows surprisingly are like this.
Droughtmasters,Brahmans etc-zebu derivatives taste tough and lousy -I think thats really why the Indians don't eat them