DVD!
Grassfed Beef Patties, Have you ever seen such red meat?
This is the third in a series of healthful cookout recipes on Hartke is Online! this week.
Seasonings for the Ground Beef
Overheard at the farmers market last Wednesday: “Now that I have tried this meat, I can never go back to the grocery store. It is so different!” The snatch of conversation was in front of the Angelic Beef booth (follow this link to see this beautiful local farm). The person was referring to the grassfed meat from Piedmontese Silver and Angus cross cows, which she purchased from Doug Linton of Angelic Beef in Remington, Virginia. Doug is found at many of the smartmarkets.org farmers markets.
Low Glycemic Bun-less Burger Served on Fresh Lettuce
Doug’s meat is exceptional. It is pasture-raised, grassfed and humanely grain finished (meaning the cows still are on pasture for the last 90 days while fed grain to add more fat marbling). I find it is so flavorful it needs very little seasoning.
Recipe
For this weekend’s cookout, I mixed:
1 chopped scallion
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of cracked pepper
2 lbs of ground beef
Knead the above together in a mixing bowl. Form into patties. This made 9 burgers.
Place the burger patties onto a charcoal grill, cover with the lid and cook slowly. My husband actually puts the burgers on the sides of the grill, not directly over the coals (which are in the center below the grill) so they don’t get charred. He closes the openings into the grill slightly, to lessen the air flow. The more air that gets in the grill the hotter the fire. Serve medium to medium rare.
Serve the burgers on a bed of lettuce with homemade mayo, Zukay’s lacto-fermented pickle relish with a glass of kombucha.
This low-glycemic cookout dish is a real winner!
By the way, many American’s shun red meat for health reasons. I just found this great blog which explains why grassfed meat is healthy for you, and should be a regular part of your diet. Here is some interesting nutritional information about beef found on the Utah Beef Council website.
See yesterday’s post, Pre-cookout Snacks for tasty morsels to whet your appetitite for these burgers.
As a service to their Reston, Virginia community, Kimberly and her husband Keith Hartke host the non-profit smartmarkets.org farmers market at their real estate office parking lot April-October, every Wednesday from 3:30pm-6:30pm. Come and see what all the local foods excitement is about!
To find grassfed meat, see the Hartke is Online.com Resources page.
"Eat lower from the food chain. Enjoy grass-fed meat, dairy, eggs and poultry."
12 Comments
These sound delicious! I eat grass-fed burgers quite a bit but haven’t tried adding a scallion in
What grains are they feeding during the last 90 days? Oats?
Here is a link to some more information on the health benefits of grassfed meat:
?Health Benefits of Grassfed Meat.
.-= Stanley Fishman´s last blog ..Organ Sausages Make Innards Delicious =-.
I’d like to know what grains are being fed to these cows for 90 days, too. I go out of my way to get 100 percent grass-fed beef from start to finish.
I will check with Doug and post his answer here in the comments. I usually buy 100% grassfed beef, but I found that Doug’s beef was so exceptional, I make an exception. When I first started buying local meat, I bought Piedmontese Silver beef, which is very high in omega 3′s and very lean. That farm is now out of business, and I met Doug and learned that he had bought many of his cattle from that farm. He crosses them with Angus. Doug likes to grain feed toward the end, because he likes the extra fat it puts on the cattle.
I also noticed that Sally Fallon in her book Nourishing Traditions does allow that grain feeding the last 90 days is acceptable.
This is what I read on the site I use, Us Wellness Meats, and I have also heard other farmers say the same thing: I love to see that we are thinking of these things now, talking to farmers, etc. Times are changing. But I am sticking with 100% grass fed. To me it tastes awesome!
“Forage-grazing animals have a healthy, highly-functioning pH of 7, which allows for an abundance of the essential fermentation bacteria that create high levels of CLA, omega-3s, branch-chain amino acids, vitamins and digestive enzymes. But even a small amount of grain can throw all this off: just 30 days on a grain diet can offset 200 days of grazing chemistry”
and the grains are probably soy and corn.
100% grassfed and grass finished meat is what humans have eaten for most of history.
100% grassfed and grass finished meat tastes much better to me than any other meat, when properly cooked.
None of the peoples studied by Dr. Price finished their meat animals with any kind of grain. Besides, grain finishing causes a dramatic reduction in the nutritional value of the meat.
I suggest you go to eatwild.com, click on the link entitled “health benefits”, and look at the chart entitled “Omega 3′s vanish in the feedlot”. This chart shows that more than 2/3 of the Omega 3′s are gone after 90 days of grain feeding. The chart was taken from a comprehensive study published in the Journal of Animal Sciences.
.-= Stanley Fishman´s last blog ..Organ Sausages Make Innards Delicious =-.
Wouldn’t sprouted grains be better than whole, unfermented grains? I’ve heard Sally refer to that. Presumably cows would be impaired by phytates just as we are?
Very interesting comment, Philip. I have been unable to find anything about feeding sprouted grains to cattle. Grain feeding in the US usually means using a feed mix made up of GMO corn and GMO soy, unsprouted. Don’t know what grain is used by Angelic Beef.
I do know that cattle, with their four stomachs, are very good at digesting grass and other meadow plants. They often get serious indigestion from grain. Maybe it is the phytates?
.-= Stanley Fishman´s last blog ..Organ Sausages Make Innards Delicious =-.
I checked with Doug at the market this Saturday. The grain is corn and soy, and he buys local feed, as much as possible. His cows are still on pasture, though and not in a feedlot. He places a feeding trough in the pasture, where the cows can snack on the grain. But it is not an exclusive grain diet, it is a supplement.
I too, buy and consume mostly 100% grassfed meat, for health reasons. But, I do love this breed of cattle, and I have visited Doug’s farm. He is a conscientious farmer and sells beef year round. He uses this method to get a consistently good product 12 months a year.
Keep in mind, Doug is turning lots of people on to buying fresh and local meat, many of whom are not yet even aware of all these nutritional aspects. On the spectrum from CAFO to 100% grassfed, he is a lot closer to the latter. And for that, I applaud him.
And, by the way, Stanley, I gave Doug your cookbook for Christmas!!!
Kimberly, I agree with you that what Doug is doing is far better than a CAFO or a feedlot. And I do like the fact that the cows are still in the field, and have grass available.
.-= Stanley Fishman´s last blog ..Organ Sausages Make Innards Delicious =-.
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