Author Shannon Hayes recently published a new cookbook, Free Range Farm Girl: Cooking Grassfed Beef. If you’re new to cooking grass-fed beef, you know that using your old methods of cooking may result in dry meat. And we all want our beef to be moist, flavorful, and tender.
I’ve been cooking grass-fed beef for a few years now with success. Mostly. I did learn, from reading Free Range Farm Girl: Cooking Grassfed Beef, why my steaks have been hit-and-miss. And I’ve sorta’ avoided roasting beef. Not any more!
In the introduction Hayes says:
. . . I’ve come to believe that the most essential ingredient when preparing a piece of meat is an understanding of how the animal lived, and how it died. If you are hoping for a book that politely separates the pretty cattle in the pasture from the food on your plate, you’d probably better find some glossy armchair cookbook to read. Life and death are forever in service to each other, and when we sit down to a meal, it tastes a whole lot better when we know that the life given up for our sustenance was a happy one, lived in harmony with the earth.
Yes, the techniques for cooking grass-fed beef are different than those used for animals raised on grain. Hayes starts with the basics and the terminology used to describe the beef you’re buying. You’ll learn which cuts require which cooking methods and how to ensure your grass-fed beef will be  juicy and tender.
In Free Range Farm Girl: Cooking Grassfed Beef you’ll learn how to:
- use the bones and fat
- pan fry, oven roast, and braise beef
- make soups and stews
- use ground beef
- grill and barbecue
“By the end” she says, “you should be able to cook everything from tongue to tail with ease and confidence.”
We grill a lot, and the chapter on grilling and barbecuing was especially helpful. As I’ve mentioned, it’s been hit and miss for us when grilling steaks but the advice on indirect grilling has been super helpful. The author and her family spent one winter in Argentina. The purpose of their trip? To learn to grill! Yep, this was my favorite chapter.
Do I recommend Free Range Farm Girl: Cooking Grassfed Beef? Yep, I sure do! I think you’ll like it, too. Let me know, ok?
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prada 2015 says
prada 2015
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