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Author Topic: Cooking older beef  (Read 4869 times)

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Cooking older beef
« on: May 27, 2016, 08:07:48 am »
This is more a cattle question than a cooking question.  Had one of my Jerseys slaughtered 4 weeks ago, long and sad story but she was only 3 years 6 months old.  My decision to let her go, couldn't get her in calf and she wasn't haltered trained, was stirring up my little herd as she was very bossy etc etc etc. 

Anyway, meat came back a few days ago, butcher very impressed with colour, joints etc etc.  Told me I had a good carcase for a non meat animal, (I hope he meant the cow not me).

My other half mentioned last night that his mate who is a chef has warned him that I will have to cook the meat differently as its an old animal!!  Old???  Big argument continued between me and OH.

Please someone tell me I am right and 3 1/2 is not old, surely I don't have to treat the beef like and old mutton sheep??  Got crates of steak from her that will go straight on the bbq, I am not slow cooking them!

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
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Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2016, 09:45:32 am »
Surely the 'proof is in the pudding' .... get BBQing and test it ..... am amazed you have waited long enough to put a thread on here before you tried some .... (and assuming you are correct .... and I'm pretty sure you are) then tell OH he is correct and eat it all yourself!
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

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farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2016, 10:00:01 am »
I know a little about this subject, but please don't take anything here as gospel.

Have you ever cooked beef cheeks before? or a leg of mutton for that matter? What you may have notice is that through most of the cooking process, then meat tenses up more and more. With older meat, this is more pronounce, but the effect is exactly the same as cooking your classic beef cheek. You have to cook the meat up until the point the meat "lets go", and releases the tension. With a braised beef cheek, this is around the 3 hour point normally. With mutton, we've had this happen around the 4 hours point.

right up until the "perfect moment", the meat will just be getting more and more tense, so there are no shortcuts I'm afraid.

Having said that, I think countryfile did a piece a few years ago on a farm that was using meat from ex-milking jersey/guernsey cows, and was getting rave reviews. So you're meat should taste fantastic with any luck!

The other thing is, how long was it hung for? 28 days should be a minimum really, but the yanks do have some methods for dry or wet aging pre-butchered carcasses.... It might be worth looking into that, as it will help shorten the cooking times.

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2016, 11:54:54 am »
It was hung for 28 and came back a couple of days ago, will be trying out some steaks tonight so will let you know the verdict!!

Backinwellies

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Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2016, 06:21:33 pm »
Yum ... lay me a place  :innocent:
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

http://nantygroes.blogspot.co.uk/
www.nantygroes.co.uk
Nantygroes  facebook page

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2016, 09:12:31 am »
Wow!!!!  Ribeye steaks on Saturday and Sirloin yesterday.  Honestly never tasted better steaks!! So pleased with them.  OH agreed!!  Woo Hoo!!

Cowgirl

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2016, 07:38:27 pm »
I have been told that Jersey beef is wonderful!
Just a question on the same subject. What is the oldest cow anyone on here has eaten, and what about bulls?

nutterly_uts

  • Joined Jul 2014
  • Jersey - for now :)
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2016, 08:07:49 pm »
Jersey beef is being heavily promoted here in Jersey - is a way to give value to any of the non useful milking lines - only pure Jersey can go into the milking herds and my understanding was previously they used to transfer embryos from the productive lines into the non productive heifers as well as cull anything from those poor lines to keep the yields up and the genetics strong, but now they are using AI to Aberdeen Angus and British blues as well so every calf has value.
Butchers can be suspicious of Jersey beef as the fat is usually marbelled through and very very yellow

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2016, 08:29:41 am »
yep the fat is very yellow.  The meat is incredible!!  Tried all the different steaks on the bbq over the last few weeks and never tasted anything as good!  I had to slaughter a younger jersey a few years ago who was 18 months, her meat had a slight tang to it, all very edible but something not quite right.  This one is amazing!!  My other girls are looking a bit nervous now, but they have nothing to worry about, I wouldn't dream of eating them.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2016, 09:39:50 am »
Glad it's so good :yum:

I wonder what the issue was with the younger one?  My 29-month old tasted fabulous, and the farm where I got Hillie rears and slaughters their Jersey bullocks at 18 months - and it's fabulous, too.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2016, 05:21:36 pm »
The younger cow we had slaughtered was edible, (freezer is empty!) but there was just a slight taint to the meat, nothing horrible, just a rather odd taste.  She was slaughtered due to dreadful warts growing on her udder, which were rapidly causing problems with flys in the summer.  I am sure that had nothing to do with the taste, and she was hung and dealt with the same as the last one we had done.  Really hard letting these girls go but this one tastes so good it was worth the tears!!

irenemcc

  • Joined Sep 2013
  • H
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2016, 09:59:15 am »
Pre BSE and the advent of the Over 30 Month rules, we used to take our Galloway bullocks to between 36 and 48 months (totally grass and silage reared) prior to slaughter and sold the beef in boxes. It was gorgeous. When those rules kicked in we tried to speed up growth rates to get them to decent weights under 30 months but feeding concentrates altered the flavour. Still good but not quite the same.
I think age wise with cattle anything up to 4.5 or even 5 years should be treated as beef rather than older beef unless it is a) an entire male or b) a bred cow as hormones will then have had an effect. Less fatty continental type beasts may not keep as long tho.

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Cooking older beef
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2016, 10:14:11 pm »
have lived off my totally delicious jersey beef all summer, made homemade burgers every week with the mince, never tasted anything better!!

 

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