In today's increasingly food-conscious world, consumers expect a label to mean what it says—including the…
Savvy shoppers Take Note: Place Your Bets on Grassfed Beef. You’ll Come Away a Winner.
Not that we like to gloat, but….
Grassfed beef from two Animal Welfare Approved farmers has gone head-to-head with conventional beef in separate taste tests. The results are in and, well, to be modest, SMACKDOWN!
This past summer, AWA supporter Chef Bill Telepan issued a challenge to Mark and Dr. Patricia Whisnant of American Grass Fed Beef—bring him some grassfed beef that he deemed worthy of using in his famous burger and he would make the switch from the beef his customers had come to love. And so, on a muggy New York City afternoon, a small crowd gathered to see the gloves come off as 100% grassfed took on heavyweight conventional grain-fed. In a stunning upset, Chef Bill declared the 100% grassfed beef the winner, bestowing the crown of onion rings and French fries that top the famous Telepan burger on the Whisnant’s American Grass Fed Beef.
Kinderhook Farm, by way of Marlow and Daughters butcher shop, was the next to step in the ring, going up against a supermarket cut in the Village Voice’s Battle of the Dishes: Grass-fed Local Steak versus Supermarket Steak. The purpose of the taste-off was simple: while the animal welfare and environmental benefits of grassfed are clear, does it really taste better than conventional?
It was barely a contest as grassfed leveled a knock-out on its opponent. From the beginning, the Kinderhook steak was a stand-out: “It [conventional] had a grayish cast, while the steak from Marlow and Daughters was a rich brownish red, with a firm texture and cream-colored fat.” Kinderhook then went on to a swift and decisive finish, notably for practically cooking itself and developing a gorgeous brown sear, knocking the supermarket steak out of competition.
Chef Bill raves about 100% grassfed beef’s “great, deep beef flavor.”
The Village Voice’s Sarah DeGregorio enthuses, “This is probably how beef used to taste, before we all got used to flaccid, fatty, vaguely-tasty-but-characterless industrial meat.”
Don’t we all want a winner on our dinner plate?
Read the Village Voice’s Battle of the Dishes: Grass-fed Local Steak versus Supermarket Steak
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