The secret to tender steaks and roasts is to marinate before cooking. This is true of all beef, but particularly for grassfed beef, where the animals haven't been eating corn and other additives to add excess and unhealthy fats into the muscles.
Here's a great and simple marinade idea we got from Ed Whitfield from Lake Pointe Church. We tried it ourselves on an arm roast, and the meat was tender and falling off the bone!
Just buy a couple of cans of Jumex Pineapple-Papaya juice in the ethnic foods section of the grocery store. It comes in regular cola cans, but isn't carbonated. I'm sure other varieties of pineapple juice would do fine as well. After thawing, put the roast or steaks into a gallon ziplock bag with the juice, and let it sit overnight. The next morning, pour off the marinade, and just fix your roast in a crockpot however you typically enjoy it. I just put plenty of water, carrots, potatoes, onions, a couple of bouillon cubes, salt and pepper. A packet of onion soup mix if you want it. Just throw it all in the pot and let it cook long and slow during the day.
It was some kind of delicious. Plus I had the leftover roast on a sandwich for lunch today. It doesn't get any better than that.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The bigger picture....
Our family founded Sabine Creek Ranch not just to raise cattle, but to help raise our next generation of children. A portion of our ranch is dedicated as a children's camp, and up to 350 kids per week in the summer will call Sabine Creek Ranch home. They go on hayrides, sing songs around a campfire, ride horses, swim, and get to know the God who created it all. Thousands of students from schools across the Metroplex attend outdoor education camps and field trips throughout the year. We believe this work is important, and every one of our awesome team members tries to set a good example for kids to follow. Your purchase of beef from Sabine Creek Ranch helps support us in this task.
Locally grown = Better for the Environment
It's better, whenever possible, to raise and purchase food close to its source. Feedlot operations require huge amounts of power and resource consumption. They produce enormous quantities of waste in concentrated areas which must be disposed of. Water quality is always an issue. All the food is harvested by tractors and processed by machines. In contrast, our cattle have plenty of room to roam, and natural recycling benefits, instead of harms, the environment. Our cows harvest most of their own grass. Sabine Creek Ranch is located on several hundred acres of beautiful pasture land naturally protected by a flood plain and just 30 minutes east of downtown Dallas. We only sell our beef locally, so it's not necessary to ship long distances. Your purchase of locally grown products supports a sustainable, positive model of agriculture.
Great cattle living well
Excellent beef comes from excellent cattle. We spent the extra money needed to raise quality, well-bred cattle that produce flavorful, healthy beef, and are well suited to life in Texas.
Our cattle enjoy wide-open spaces of our pastures, and are not confined for months in feedlots. In the winter they feed on a mix of winter grasses and hay that we harvest ourselves here on the ranch. This personal touch from start to finish and pride in our operation is something you just don't find in a factory feedlot, and we believe it matters.
Our cattle enjoy wide-open spaces of our pastures, and are not confined for months in feedlots. In the winter they feed on a mix of winter grasses and hay that we harvest ourselves here on the ranch. This personal touch from start to finish and pride in our operation is something you just don't find in a factory feedlot, and we believe it matters.
Buy direct and save
It really is economical to enjoy locally produced grassfed beef.
While visiting family away from home recently, I picked up a couple of pounds of ground beef from a local grocery store. We don't typically buy the cheapest ground beef available, because it's loaded with unhealthy fat, and there's no way to tell the condition of the animals that meat comes from. So I quickly grabbed a couple of packages of grassfed beef, the same kind of product we produce off the grocery store shelf. I was shocked when the cashier said, "That will be $13!" That's right, inspecting the label closer, I saw that they were charging $6.50 per pound for lean, natural, grassfed beef. I enjoyed that beef, but I sure like ours a lot better!
By buying direct from Sabine Creek Ranch, we'll bypass a lot of middlemen and split the savings with you. Sure you can find meat on sale or discounted as it approaches the end of its shelf life. Sometimes our beef is more than what you see on a shelf (though probably not for a comparable product), and often it's much less. But comparing apples to apples, you are going to get a great deal by buying direct from the ranch.
Beef prices are rising. If you watch the news, or fill up your gas tank, that's no surprise. It's because feed lot cattle eat corn. That corn has to be grown with large tractors and petroleum-based fertilizers, and shipped across the country. Feed lots are also now competing against ethanol plants who also need the corn, which is causing the price of all foods to increase. Cattle are shipped across the country to massive feedlots. They are later shipped to a processor. Then the beef is shipped across the country or around the world. All of this movement comes with a cost that is born by the consumer. And each middle-man has to get his cut. The traditional rancher receives only a fraction of the retail price for the animal he raises, so farms struggle against the price pressures of huge corporations.
There are some economies of scale that mass producers benefit from by packing cows into huge feed lots and not providing pastures for them to graze on, but for a price comparable to what you'll pay in a grocery store, you can buy your beef directly from Sabine Creek Ranch, and feel good about your purchase. Buy direct and save, and use your food budget to support the local agriculture at the same time.
While visiting family away from home recently, I picked up a couple of pounds of ground beef from a local grocery store. We don't typically buy the cheapest ground beef available, because it's loaded with unhealthy fat, and there's no way to tell the condition of the animals that meat comes from. So I quickly grabbed a couple of packages of grassfed beef, the same kind of product we produce off the grocery store shelf. I was shocked when the cashier said, "That will be $13!" That's right, inspecting the label closer, I saw that they were charging $6.50 per pound for lean, natural, grassfed beef. I enjoyed that beef, but I sure like ours a lot better!
By buying direct from Sabine Creek Ranch, we'll bypass a lot of middlemen and split the savings with you. Sure you can find meat on sale or discounted as it approaches the end of its shelf life. Sometimes our beef is more than what you see on a shelf (though probably not for a comparable product), and often it's much less. But comparing apples to apples, you are going to get a great deal by buying direct from the ranch.
Beef prices are rising. If you watch the news, or fill up your gas tank, that's no surprise. It's because feed lot cattle eat corn. That corn has to be grown with large tractors and petroleum-based fertilizers, and shipped across the country. Feed lots are also now competing against ethanol plants who also need the corn, which is causing the price of all foods to increase. Cattle are shipped across the country to massive feedlots. They are later shipped to a processor. Then the beef is shipped across the country or around the world. All of this movement comes with a cost that is born by the consumer. And each middle-man has to get his cut. The traditional rancher receives only a fraction of the retail price for the animal he raises, so farms struggle against the price pressures of huge corporations.
There are some economies of scale that mass producers benefit from by packing cows into huge feed lots and not providing pastures for them to graze on, but for a price comparable to what you'll pay in a grocery store, you can buy your beef directly from Sabine Creek Ranch, and feel good about your purchase. Buy direct and save, and use your food budget to support the local agriculture at the same time.
Grassfed is Healthier
The science proves that grassfed beef is healthier than meat from factory feedlots. Our cows eat grass. That's what cows are designed to do. It seems obvious, but that's not what happens at a traditional feed lot. Almost all the beef you buy at a grocery store has been fed corn, other grains and nutritional supplements so they will gain weight more rapidly. Because their stomachs are not designed to handle this diet, they are then given antibiotics and other medication to prevent health problems. They are also treated with hormones designed to make them grow faster and larger. The fat from these animals might be tasty, but it's certainly not good for you, so drain it off.
The fat in pastured beef, in contrast, contains the natural nutrition that cattle gain from a diet of grass. It is higher in antioxidents, Omega-3 fatty acids, carotene, CLA (a cancer-fighting fat), important vitamins and nutrients (up to 4 times more vitamin E in grass-fed beef than feed lot beef), and lower in harmful saturated fat. Lean beef can lower "bad" LDL cholesterol levels. In short, nutritionists agree that pastured beef provides nutrients that are crucial for mind and body. Plus, our beef is all USDA inspected and approved. Click here to see more about the health benefits of grass-fed beef.
The fat in pastured beef, in contrast, contains the natural nutrition that cattle gain from a diet of grass. It is higher in antioxidents, Omega-3 fatty acids, carotene, CLA (a cancer-fighting fat), important vitamins and nutrients (up to 4 times more vitamin E in grass-fed beef than feed lot beef), and lower in harmful saturated fat. Lean beef can lower "bad" LDL cholesterol levels. In short, nutritionists agree that pastured beef provides nutrients that are crucial for mind and body. Plus, our beef is all USDA inspected and approved. Click here to see more about the health benefits of grass-fed beef.
Grassfed tastes great!
Aside from the health benefits and other great reasons to purchase locally grown grassfed beef, there's one very important reason to enjoy it...it's delicious! Slate magazine and many others have hosted independent tests to compare the taste of grass-fed beef to the feed lot beef of the mass producers, and found grass fed to be the most delicious. Check out one article here.
10% Solution?
I was at a large retailer recently and looked through their steaks. They were beautiful and red, because they are vacuum packed in carbon dioxide to retain their color and give a longer shelf life. Reading the small print, you'll see, "This product may contain up to 10% solution." What is this solution? Processors inject steaks with a saline solution to keep their moisture content high. That means you're paying steak prices for salt water. Or their steak prices are a little lower because 10% of the weight is not steak at all. Where was this beef from, and under what conditions was it produced? There's no way to know.
The ingredient label on one package of steaks listed this: Beef, Beef Broth, Potassium and Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Potassium Lactate, and Natural Flavors. There was 370mg of sodium for a 4oz serving. The beef you get from Sabine Creek Ranch contains one ingredient: natural, delicious beef.
The ingredient label on one package of steaks listed this: Beef, Beef Broth, Potassium and Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Potassium Lactate, and Natural Flavors. There was 370mg of sodium for a 4oz serving. The beef you get from Sabine Creek Ranch contains one ingredient: natural, delicious beef.
Frozen versus "Fresh"
Frozen beef is every bit as delicious and healthy as so-called "fresh" beef. As with any meat, preparation is the key to a tender and delicious meal. It's also more convenient to plan your meals in advance when you have a variety of cuts of beef readily available in the freezer. Once you've kept a good supply of beef on hand, you'll never want to go back to standing in a grocery store wondering what to pick. By order a mixed quarter of beef either for yourself, or to divide between family and friends, you'll have a good supply of lean ground beef, roasts, steaks, and even stew meat and chili meat right at your fingertips.
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