As of Saturday, we are the proud owners of 2 freezers full of beef, courtesy of a ranching neighbor and the butcher back in my hometown. Our half of the steer weighed 250 lbs prior to butchering. I have no idea how much poundage we now have cut and wrapped, but it is a helluva lot.
I still need to do an inventory of what we actually have, but I’ve seen a few things that I know I will be clueless about cooking. I’ve never cooked with soup bones, but it is highly likely that they’ll all just go to our dogs, unless I find a soup recipe or two that I can’t pass up. I’ve also never cooked with short ribs or flank steak, so any suggestions there are greatly appreciated as well.
It seems just batshit crazy to think that we may get tired of grilling steaks in our little Weber, but I suppose it is possible, so some good steak preparations will also come in handy.
I’m not a huge pot-roast fan, but I have had some that were heavenly. I tend to like roasts that are heavily seasoned. Can you brine beef?
Another thing I should probably mention is that the meat will likely be lean, as their stock is fed free-range on grass up in the NorCal mountains.
Beef stew, chicken fried steak, fajitas (for the flank steak,) roast the soup bones for your own stock, grilled kebabs, pepper steak, a myriad of ground beef recipes, stir-fry, pot roast, roast beast…
Here’s a summary of the Carbonnade (sp?) recipe from The New York Times Cookbook. (The classic edition by Craig Clairborne.)
Slice 6 onions, cook in oil until softened. Remove from the pot. (Large pot or large iron skillet–chicken fryer size, preferably.)
Dredge 2 pounds of stew beef (cubed) in seasoned (with salt & pepper) flour.
Brown beef in the pot. (More oil may be needed.)
When brown, add onions. Then, a bottle of beer. (I find a can of Guinness is just the thing. The rest of the 4-pack will not go to waste.) Add herbs–bay leaf? Thyme?
Cover & cook at low temp until, well, cooked. Serve with potatoes, noodles or rice.
I find this more tasty than beef “stew.” If you must have peas & carrots, cook & serve them separately.
I am so jealous. I wish I had a ranching neighbor that would let me buy a half a cow.
Flank steak is often used for fajitas, or you can marinate it and cook it on the grill. High heat, short cooking time.
Short ribs need to be cooked slow and at a low heat for a long time, think crock pot, or set up your Weber for long slow smoking.
BTW Weber publishes several cookbooks out. This is their most recent. As a friend of mine said, there is not a bad recipe in the bunch.
The Carbonnade sounds delish. I’m certainly putting that recipe in line with my mom’s enchiladas for use of the stew meat.
The whole situation with buying all of this from our neighbor has been a comedy of errors. I knew that some of our other neighbors bought 1/2 or 1/4 carcasses from the ranching neighbor. I knew that it was very economically attractive, assuming that you have enough freezer space for it.
I had heard that there was a butcher in Los Gatos who would rent cold storage to the public. Assuming that was true, I had mentioned (in an off-handed fashion) to Val (the wife-half of the “ranching neighbors”) that we might be interested in buying half a steer whenever they happened to be taking some cattle to market.
Fast-forward about a month, and my Mom and Val are on a 3 week road-trip together up in Alaska. I get a call from my Mom that I need to call the Meat Company back home as soon as possible and give them instructions for how we want our 1/2 steer cut. I had not yet followed-up on the cold storage, I had not yet budgeted for the cost ($500 for the 1/2 carcass ($2/lb), $175 to have it cut and wrapped), and had not planned on driving the 12 hours round-trip to my hometown to go pick it up this past weekend.
Thankfully, between our freezer and our land-lord’s extra freezer in their garage, we had enough room for everything. I managed to drive up to my hometown and fit most of meat into 3 big coolers, and wrap what was left in an old sleeping bag. Only minor thawing occured on the drive back to our house.
All that being said, I still think it is a good idea. I will just try and plan better next year.
You know what the problem is buying half a cow for butchering? You have a year’s supply of beef that can taste fine or be too dry or have a strong taste. We used to get about 4 tasty to 1 bad.
Roast the tougher cuts of meat until they cook up tender. Make some jerky.
Yes, we have a crock pot. A big one, even. I’m going to try and inject my first attempted roast with a metric assload of marinade and garlic and see how that goes. Probably next week when my Mother-in-unlawful-lesbian-sin will be visiting.
If you want to try my crustless (crock) pot pie, you will need:
potatos, cut into quarters (we like Red or Yukon Gold, skins on)
peas & carrots (frozen peas & carrots in the same bag is fine, saves on prep time)
2 cans condensed French onion soup
2 cans condensed golden mushroom soup
2 cans cream of mushroom (with or without roasted garlic) soup
Mix all cans of soup in crock pot then add your roast, cook on low for at least 12 hours. About two hours before you’re ready to serve, add the potatos, peas & carrots and continue cooking on low. Last time I did this, I was up at 4 in the morning preparing for dinner at 6:30 that night.
A surprisingly great marinade for flank steak is plain ol’ french (or western style or catalina) salad dressing. You can dress it up with extra garlic or vinegar or lemon juice, but I swear no one will believe it’s just french dressing if they don’t see you with the bottle in hand.
When I was a kid, the parents had a similar half a cow deal and it was the only way Mom discovered to use the flank steak that everyone in the family raved over.
Take a steak, tenderize it a bit with a fork or meat mallet, throw in ziploc bag with 1/2 to 3/4 bottle of dressing, marinate overnight, squishing/turning a few times. Good on the grill and divine cooked quickly in a cast-iron skillet on the stove. Make sure to slop a good amount of the marinade in the pan as you’re taking the steak out of the bag, it’s the yum.
Also, any recipes calling for London Broil can safely be used with Flank steak. Here’s a great Beefy recipe site, and lots of good info about different cuts and such.
I grilled up the first steak today, a big fat London Broil. I weber-grilled it over chunk hardwood charcoal, marinated in Emiril’s Original Essence seasoning and olive oil. Ok, I admit I threw in a little extra garlic powder. The rarer chunks that I cut off to snack upon (prior to killing the poor thing dead enough to please my better-half’s well-done tastes) were pure heaven. So it looks like I lucked out with a non-gamey steer.
Every spring some of my husbands relatives get a few cows butchered … (There is a weird sentence) … and they always give some of the meat to us. I actually like the flavor of the steaks and the roasts, and I have a reputation for avoiding anything new and different. We usually turn down a lot of the other cuts because we simply won’t use them and have a very small freezer. My husband loves steak rubs and the best one we have found is Paula Deen’s brand. I have been working on pot roast and it usually ends up okay, but I need to continue working on it. The best thing I have actually changed with it so far is using small red potatoes in the crock pot instead of cut-up white ones. I tried plain roast beef for the first time this week. It was deceptively easy to prepare but only tasted okay…more work necessary. I just rubbed it with some oil and spices and put it in the oven in a shallow pan at 350 F for about 2 hours. I thinks tenderloin may be better for that in future.
Roast 'em off in the oven until they’re nice and brown, toss in the biggest pot you’ve got and cover with cold water. Chuck in a few flavour veg (carrots, onion, celery, garlic) and your herbs of choice and simmer for hours until you’ve got a deep, dark brown liquid. Allow to cool, skim the fat off the top then decant into bags/icecube trays/small containers and freeze.
Voila - beef stock. And by freezing it in ice cube trays or small containers of about a half-cup to a cup each, you’ve got enough for a dish at a time without having to defrost it all.
Here’s something I picked up years ago from “Hints from Heloise,” believe it or not: when oven roasting pot roasts, use brewed coffee instead of water. I know, it sounds bizarre, but I’ve tried it and it makes a really tasty gravy plus it will tenderize the meat quite nicely. Usually what I do is to saute some onions and maybe mushrooms, then brown the meat on all sides, adding a bit of flour. Then when it’s ready to go into the oven, I just pour about a cup of brewed coffee over the meat. I’ve also tried this in the crock pot and it works there as well.
This is the easiest way I’ve found to make pot roast…throw it all in when you wake up in the morning, and when you come home from work, it’s ready to go.