Can cut the fat off a bunch of steaks and sell them like Omaha steaks?

[Dewey_Finn]

So is there anything distinctive to Omaha Steaks’ claim that they sell “grain-fed” beef? It doesn’t sound like there is to me.

And actually, two of their other “points of distinction” are that their beef is inspected by the USDA (I should hope so) and that it’s vacuum-wrapped (also not unusual, especially for mail-order meat). It sounds like their marketing department had to stretch to make up that list.

[Rick]

@Dewey Finn

So is there anything distinctive to Omaha Steaks’ claim that they sell “grain-fed” beef? It doesn’t sound like there is to me.

And actually, two of their other “points of distinction” are that their beef is inspected by the USDA (I should hope so) and that it’s vacuum-wrapped (also not unusual, especially for mail-order meat). It sounds like their marketing department had to stretch to make up that list.

They did.
If you have access to a Whole Foods (AKA Whole Paycheck ) or other high end supermarket you can get beef that is at least as good for a lot less money. Hell you can probably get better beef for less money.
OS is expensive, very expensive.

[DudleyGarrett]

I did the Omaha Steaks once. I remember paying like $150 for 8 burgers, a couple steaks, some bacon and some sausages. Very pricey. Then I decided that I wouldn’t buy stuff from them anymore.

They called and called and called and called afterward. Their number doesn’t show up on Caller-ID and they wouldn’t leave messages. At least 4 or 5 times a week, they’d call. I ended up having to threaten legal action if they didn’t stop calling.

Anyway, the meat was great tasting. But I just couldn’t get over the prices…

[DSeid]

I personally like Horizon Foods and the personal low key service that I get from my local salesman. Not a bad deal. Meat’s very good, seafood about as good as you get when you’re not at the shore. And the convience products (chicken strips, buffalo wings, individual serving pizzas, etc.) are, well, convienent. I stock up once every several months. Anyone else use them?

[Frank]

@Phlosphr

Thanks Frank - So uhhh, do you like Omaha Steaks…?

I’ve never eaten them. I’ve seen them a couple times when someone sent them to my boss, and I must admit they sure looked good! But I’ve been waiting for someone to send them to me as a gift, which, sadly, hasn’t happened.

[sinjin]

Dewey, here’s what Wiki has to say on the matter:

Grass-fed beef has a much different flavor and texture than grain-fed beef. A high-grain diet is responsible for intramuscular fat in beef, called marbling. As a consequence, grass-fed beef produces less “juicy” steaks than conventionally raised beef.

It is indeed possible to produce well marbled, juicy and tender beef with a 100% grass diet but it requires more resources and it can be difficult to produce consistent results. Specifically, grass-fed cattle need to be slaughtered at 24-30 months, as opposed to 18 months for typical feedlot beef. Also, after slaughter, the carcass ought to be “dry-aged” for 21 days, which was the common practice back when hanging beef was shipped via refrigerated rail car from, say, Kansas City to New York. Presently, feedlot cattle are taken to slaughter at 18 months and cut, boxed and shipped in a matter of minutes.[citation needed]

A 2003 Colorado State University study found that 80% of consumers in the Denver-Colorado area preferred the taste of United States corn-fed beef to Australian grass-fed beef, and negligible difference in taste preference compared to Canadian barley-fed beef.

(from here under the Taste heading.)

So grain fed does taste better than grass fed, according to some people.

[Dewey_Finn]

I think the consumers in the survey preferred the taste of corn-fed beef because that’s what they’re used to eating. I’ll bet that those who grew up on grass-fed beef would prefer it.

I’m influenced by some of Michael Pollan’s essays I’ve read recently, such as this excerpt of one.

@Michael Pollan

Although the modern cattle industry all but ignores it, the reciprocal relationship between cows and grass is one of nature’s underappreciated wonders. For the grasses, the cow maintains their habitat by preventing trees and shrubs from gaining a foothold; the animal also spreads grass seed, planting it with its hoofs and fertilizing it. In exchange for these services, the grasses offer the ruminants a plentiful, exclusive meal. For cows, sheep and other grazers have the unique ability to convert grass—which single-stomached creatures like us can’t digest—into high-quality protein. They can do this because they possess a rumen, a 45-gallon fermentation tank in which a resident population of bacteria turns grass into metabolically useful organic acids and protein.

This is an excellent system for all concerned: for the grasses, for the animals and for us. What’s more, growing meat on grass can make superb ecological sense: so long as the rancher practices rotational grazing, it is a sustainable, solar-powered system for producing food on land too arid or hilly to grow anything else.

[sinjin]

That excerpt says nothing about the tastiness of the grass fed cow. Corn or grain feed results in more fat. Fat tastes good. Say it with me now: Mmm… fat. That’s the deal with Kobe beef, too. Pamper the cow and feed it lots of food and give it massages, then eat the fat bastard.

Its possible that feeding the cows grass has other benefits, but that essay doesn’t address them.

[Cerowyn]

@Muffin

I grew up in Toronto. I never had any idea what good beef was until I visited Denver.

Okay, now you have to tell me where you went. I’ve spent some time in Denver, and I never had anything that could compare to House of Chan. How were the prices?

[Malacandra]

@kanicbird

aging serves to undo the rigormortus <sp>

rigor mortis - “stiffness of death”. mors, “death”, becomes mortis when indicating possession; Latin generally changes word-endings rather than use prepositions, though it has a few of the latter.

Steak. Yum.

[StuffLikeThatThere]

It’s my understanding that feeding cows grain is mostly practiced not because it makes them fatter, but because it makes them fatter faster. They reach an appropriate butchering weight more quickly and the investment turns itself around more quickly. Also, the meat will be more tender because the cow is younger.

You want real, honest-to-God flavor? Get a roast off an older cow and bake it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 8 hours. Mmmmmmm.

[BaneSidhe]

@sinjin

Say it with me now: Mmm… fat. That’s the deal with Kobe beef, too. Pamper the cow and feed it lots of food and give it massages, then eat the fat bastard.

I’d like you to know your comment had me rolling on the floor of my office laughing till I nearly cried. And aren’t those cattle massaged with sake, or am I thinking of the James Bond novel “You Only Live Twice”?

But yes, grass-fed beef is better. My grandparents raised beef and milch cattle (as a side business, they were mainly Thoroughbred horse breeders/trainers) and let me tell you, grass-fed beef is much better. Their cattle would get a bit of grain in the mornings but for the most part they grazed and had unlimited hay in their pastures.

I’m thankful I live in an area that you can still go to a couple of good meat markets and get locally raised beef that’s grass-fed and the meat doesn’t have to travel 1000 miles to get to market.

[Robot_Arm]

@BaneSidhe

I’d like you to know your comment had me rolling on the floor of my office laughing till I nearly cried. And aren’t those cattle massaged with sake, or am I thinking of the James Bond novel “You Only Live Twice”?

I suspect access to free sake was the only way they could convince people to be cow masseurs.

[BaneSidhe]

@Robot Arm

I suspect access to free sake was the only way they could convince people to be cow masseurs.

[dies laughing again]

Can you imagine putting THAT on your resume?