Bringing Home the Beef

So I've spent a few days researching, thinking, evaluating what to do with this beef.

Okay, so here's the story. We went in with our neighbors on one of their aunt's cows. After the processing time, we brought home the meat. Added to our family's purchase was the liver, tongue, and heart. My neighbor jokingly says, " we figured if anyone knew what to do with it, it would be you." I razzed her back about how I don't eat organ meat, but I have to be honest. If any of you know me you know that I do not like to let a living thing have waste. I feel it's insulting to its energy and lowers the value of the sacrafice of life. Call it crazy, but for me part of good stewartship is keeping a high regard (as much as I can stand to taste, that is). But I digress.

Believe it or not, I think I've come across a few really insightful posts regarding these cuts of meat. You heard me neighbor, I'm planning on serving them up. I can't promise they won't be meals where we still may feel a bit hungry after we "try" them, but here's the plan.

I know these meats are supposed to be extremely good for you, and that is very important to me for my family. I do remember having these cuts on rare occasions at home, and they should be rare occasions. I mean there's only 1 heart in a cow. It truly SHOULDN'T be a common dish if you're consumming fairly. Maybe I should have, but I did not start with looking up my old family recipes. Okay, okay I'll go there next. (If you want to know more about these old time mountain recipes comment below and let me know. Maybe I'll share a few with you.) But I did start with some professional chefs who have studied this area. Michael Ruhlman at http://ruhlman.com/2011/08/how-to-cook-beef-heart/ did an excellent job directing me in preparing the beef heart. I had no idea though that I needed to get a good look at a video HOW TO BUTCHER A BEEF HEART by Chris Cosentino of offalgood.com that did such a great job explaining how to trim the heart to get good cuts of meat. An idea that I thought was great came from Kitchen Stewardship. From there, Katie writes about putting your organ meats into the food processor then putting small amounts into an ice tray and freezing it just like that. She says that when you're browning ground beef, etc. place a "cube" in with the other beef (approximately 1 cubes per 1 1/2 pound of beef). Then you're giving your family the health benefits of the organ meats without so much of the taste and texture.

In addition, here are a couple good references posted by the 2012 Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Download "Matching Cooking Methods" Guidelines

Download your own beef cuts chart (pdf).



~The Farmer's Wife