First Taste: Organic Grass Fed Beef

I love steak. Hanger steak and Tri-Tip are probably my two favorite cuts; I love their slightly gamey flavor and their versatility: marinade or cook straight up, outside on the grill, in the broiler, or with hanger steak, fried in a cast iron skillet. I'm a fan of the skirt steak too (especially in soft tacos), and the bone-in Ribeye, and at times the NY strip. Filet though, I can do without - it just ain't got character.

I've been seeing a lot in magazines about grass-fed beef recently and my favorite local grocery - Your Dekalb Farmer's Market - has an extensive case of organic grass-fed beef now, in many cuts, right alongside the buffalo and ostrich meat. Raw, the grass-fed steaks are a darker, deeper red than their pinky grain-fed counterparts at the other end of the display case. And they seem somehow more finely grained, with tight, thread-like rows of sinew, and with less marbling. They look healthier, and more meat-like.

We took home a regular sirloin, about an inch and a quarter thick, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and grilled it on the top rack of our broiler at 550 degrees; 6 minutes on the first side and 4 mins on the other, going for a true medium rare finish. I've read that grass-fed beef cooks faster than regular beef due to its lower fat and moisture content, and this turned out to be true. I resisted the urge to go another 2 minutes on the flip side (this is what it usually takes in my oven) and pulled the steak out, and let it rest while I whisked together a simple vinaigrette for the salad.

I'm glad I pulled the steak when I did - the first cut revealed a perfect medium rare finish, slightly charred on the outside, pink a quarter inch in, with a warm, but not hot, red center. Beautiful. This grass-fed steak was plenty juicy, with a hint of the gamey, beefy flavor that reminded me of the hanger steak. Really delicious, and a great texture. Too bad I just got one. Don't know why I waited so long to go grass-fed; I'm definitely exploring these steaks more.