Cooking Tips

Grass-fed Beef Cooking Tips

  1. Thawing – It’s best not to use a microwave to thaw your beef as it will cook the edges of the beef before the center is fully thawed). You can either thaw the beef in the refrigerator, or for quick thawing place it in water for a few minutes.
  1. Bring To Room Temperature – Bring your grassfed meat to room temperature before cooking.
    Pre-Heat Your Pan/Grill –     Always pre-heat your oven, pan or grill before cooking grassfed beef.
    Oil It –     Since grassfed beef is extremely low in fat, coat with virgin olive oil or a favorite light oil for flavor enhancement and easy browning. The oil will also prevent drying and sticking.
    Use Tongs –     Never use a fork to turn your beef . . . precious juices will be lost. Always use tongs.
    Don’t Overcook! Use a Meat Thermometer     – The main reason for tough grassfed beef is overcooking. This beef is made for rare to medium rare cooking! If you like well done beef, then cook your grass fed beef at very low temperatures in a sauce to add moisture.Avoid overcooking, watch your pot carefully since grass fed beef cooks quickly, your beef can go from perfectly cooked to overcooked in a minute.Grass-fed beef has high protein and low fat levels. The beef usually will require less cooking time and will continue to cook when removed from heat. For this reason, remove the beef from your heat source when it reaches the desired temperature.

For various degrees of cooked meat, the following provides a guide

  • Rare – 120
  • Medium rare – 125 degrees
  • Medium – 130 degrees
  • Medium well – 135 degrees
  • Well – 140 degrees

Premium Steaks – We do not recommend marinating premium steaks like Tenderloin, T-bone. Marinating these steaks tends to make them mushy. Sirloin, Sirloin-Tip and Flank Steaks can be marinated, but usually for no more than 1 hour. These steaks are best grilled or pan-seared in a hot skillet with only salt & pepper, or a rub of Steak Seasoning. Get grill HOT, add a little olive oil to the skillet just before adding the steaks. Sear both sides, then turn the heat down to cook the steak only until rare (120 degrees at center of steak). Remove steak from pan and let rest 10 minutes. Obviously, if you like your steak cooked to medium or medium well, use the temperature chart.

Marinating “Economy” Steaks  – We recommend marinating steaks that are less tender. To tenderize these cuts, allow at least 6 hours, but no more than 24 hours (longer makes it mushy). Any favorite marinade will do. Once you’ve marinated the steaks, – get a grill HOT and just before adding the steaks, coat the skillet with olive oil, sear the outside of the steaks, then turn the heat down to cook the steak only until rare (120 degrees at center of steak). Remove steak from pan and let rest 10 minutes.

If you do not have time to marinate just coat your thawed steak with your favorite rub, place on a solid surface, cover with plastic and pound your steak a few times to break down the connective tissue. As an added benefit your favorite rub will be pushed into your grass fed beef.  Don’t go overboard and flatten your beef unless your recipe calls for it. If you don’t have a meat mallet, use a rolling pin or whatever you feel is safe and convenient.

Stovetop cooking is great for any type of steak… including grassfed steak! You have more control over the temperature than on the grill. You can use butter in the final minutes when the heat is low to carry the taste of fresh garlic through the meat as steak chefs do. Generally speaking, grassfed steaks do not like the broiler.

Rare Roasts – For premium roasts like Top Round, Sirloin, Sirloin-Tip and Prime Rib roasts… When roasting, sear the beef first to lock in the juices. Alternately, rub the roast with olive oil and put it in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then REDUCE the temperature to 350 degrees and cook until the meat registers 120 degrees in the center of the roast. Remove the roast from the oven and let it rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Use the pan juices to make a yorkshire pudding, or a sauce. Again . . . watch your meat thermometer and don’t overcook your meat.

Cooking Temperatures For Grassfed beef

Cook grassfed beef to an internal temperature of 120°-140° fahrenheit.  Cook any grassfed ground beef (including hamburgers) to an internal temperature of 160° fahrenheit.

Grilling Steaks

Grilling steaks should always be done over a slow, hot fire, meaning hot but not searingly hot. Spices should be added while the meat is on the fire, or immediately before and while the surface of the meat is moist.

We recommend three basic seasonings: salt, pepper and granulated or fresh garlic. Salt should never be added before cooking as it dries out the meat; however, adding it while cooking enhances the outside texture a great deal.

Rub the hot grill vigorously with an onion cut in half with the skin on, immediately before putting meat on the grill. This helps keep the meat from sticking and enhances the flavor.

Remember, steaks continue cooking after they are taken off the fire, so they should be removed a little before reaching the desired level of cooking.

Time Table (one inch steaks)

Thawed

Doneness           First Side (in minutes)   Second Side (in minutes)

Rare                                     3-5                                          6-8

Medium                              4-6                                         7-9

Well                                      5-8                                         10-12

Frozen

First and second turns should be left for 7-9 minutes on each side for thawing.

Third and fourth turns should follow the above table.