Occasionally we hear from people who say they really like the idea of eating pasture-raised meat, but they don’t like pork, or they don’t like lamb, or they don’t like chicken. This is a mistake. If you have only had meat from a supermarket, then it is not surprising to us if you didn’t enjoy it. Even if it was from an expensive supermarket and the meat had a fancy label. There is no substitute for pasture-raised meat, and we have never seen similar products available outside specialty shops. Unless you have tried the real thing, purchased from a responsible local farmer whom you trust, then you haven’t tried it.

Pasture-raised meat is tender and flavorful. However, some of the most common methods used to cook meat from confinement-raised animals will not work.

When you toss a steak from a corn-fed feed lot steer on the grill, it renders out the rancid-tasting intramuscular fat and the fatty char helps add flavor to what is otherwise a pretty bland piece of meat. If you do the same to a nice grass-fed steak, you’ll just dry it out. Unfortunately the United States has been producing meat unnaturally for over 50 years, so a lot of us have treasured, traditional family recipes, even ones handed down from our grandparents, that are going to have to be tweaked if we want to use them to cook naturally pasture-raised meat. But do so, and the flavor will be outstanding! When we grill our thick-cut pork chops they turn out tender and juicy — it just takes a little bit of extra care and preparation.

If you’ve ever had something labeled pasture-raised meat from a U.S. grocery store, you probably haven’t really had what we consider real pasture-raised meat. That chicken with the “free range” label is not actually required to have spent any time ranging in a field. The “grass fed beef” was probably from an old milk cow. Not bad for flavor but meat from older animals can be tougher. Actually even the conventional meat at the big box supermarket is often not all that great. Steakhouses don’t often serve pasture-raised meat, but chances are the juicy steak at a high end steak house didn’t come from the discount pack at a supermarket. And of course, the steakhouse doesn’t grill their steaks, either. If you’re not going to buy direct from a local farmer, your next best option is to get meat from a local butcher shop (or a local grocery market with an in-house butcher who will do custom orders.)

By using cooking methods that favor pasture-raised meat and, most important, by not overcooking it, we can best bring out the wonderful flavor of the naturally-raised meat.

Traditional methods, modern tools

To get the best flavor out of pasture-raised meat, incorporate traditional cooking methods from back when all meat was “pasture-raised”. This isn’t wild game, but recipes you use for cooking wild game would also work for pasture-raised meat. There is a smorgasbord of traditional cooking options to choose from.

Larger cuts of meat need to be cooked “low and slow”. Try barbecue (not grilling). Or smoking. Or roasting. Or try a braise or a stew. Any method in which the meat is cooked on low heat and comes up to temperature slowly over several hours. For extra flavor on a roast or in a stew, sear the outside of the meat on high heat until it is browned (the Maillard reaction), but then turn the heat down. Soaking the meat in a brine solution overnight helps, and brining is not just for chicken, other cuts of meat benefit as well. (Wine-brined pot roast is amazing.) If you are not going to use a brine of some sort, generously salt the meat on all sides several hours before you are going to cook it. If you are concerned about your salt consumption for some reason, cut out processed foods. Unless you are allergic to salt, it is likely impossible for you to cook with enough salt for it to matter. If you used as much salt at home as is in most normal processed foods, without all the extra chemicals food companies add, you would likely find it too salty to eat.

Pasture-raised meat can be grilled, or fried, or pan-fried, or sauteed, or stir-fried over high heat, with proper preparation or if the pieces are small enough to cook through quickly before they begin to dry out and get tough. You can use an acidic marinade to quick-start the cooking process before adding heat. (Cooking meat is a matter of denaturing the protein chains to make them more digestible, which is the same thing acid does. It’s why we have stomach acid.) The meat quality and the cut also matter. To make things easier, we recommend double-thickness chops and steaks with a thick band of fat left on the outside. The thickness of the cut of meat plus the extra fat all help to keep the meat juicy and tender even when grilling or broiling. It is entirely possible to cook thinner chops so they stay tender, but it takes some extra skill and attention. And then, certain cuts, like flank steak, are always going to be flavorful but “tough”. These can be served thinly-sliced with a flavorful sauce so as to make chewing them a pleasurable eating experience.

Chicken, especially, but also any other meat, gets tough if you overcook it. Here is a link to recommended minimum safe food temperatures. You don’t ever need to take meat above these temperatures for safety, and most of these are considered far too high by a lot of cooks. In fact, most experienced cooks know that it is not at all necessary to cook meats to these extreme temperatures. Pasteurization (which is what “safe cooking temperature” means) is a function of temperature and time, and the commonly-recommended “safe temperatures” are those that pasteurize meat instantly. Keeping meat at a lower temperature for a longer time works just as well. (This is the difference between regular pasteurized milk and ultra-pasteurized; regular pasteurization holds the milk at a lower temperature but for more than twice as long, thus preserving flavors that are destroyed at the higher temperatures. We think pasteurizing milk at all is foolish, and people should just not drink milk from sick cows kept confined in nasty factory farms, but that’s just our preference. Our kids have almost never had anything except raw milk from local farms, and they’ve never had any problems with it.) You can look up various recommended temperature/time combinations depending on what you are cooking. Of course, doing this requires you to pay attention and make sure the meat stays in the desired temperature range for the required time; if you’re busy making a quick meal while juggling other distractions please be safe — you can always add a nice pan sauce afterwards.

Keep in mind that meat will continue to cook internally and will increase in temperature for quite some time after you remove it from the heat, so in order to avoid overcooking, it ought to be removed from the heat before reaching the desired temperature. An electronic probe meat thermometer can be very helpful.

Recipes

The following are links to our various Farm Blog posts discussing cooking methods or recipes. If you have any that you’d like to share, please let us know!

Kimchi Jigae

Jiaozi with leftover Duck

Whole Duck on the Pit Barrel Cooker

Grilled Lamb Tails and Testicles

Chicken and Dumplings

Modified Mutton “Biryani”

You Can Make Your Own Sausage (Swedish Potato Sausage)

Easy Not Made-from-Scratch Meat Buns

Grilled Sweet-Glazed Pork Belly

Roasted Fresh Pork Hocks

“Red Braised” Pork Belly

How I pan sear lamb loin chops