LITMIR.BIZ

      US beef farmers are great proponents of maize feed, and ‘park’ their cattle in ‘feedlots’ – sheds or grassless fields where they are literally stuffed with maize. If you have been fed beef with yellow fat, you will recognise this beef. In the UK there is often that depressing sensation as you drive through the countryside that the crops growing in fields are mostly there to feed animals and not you. Even the wheat in the field could be for the feed bin rather than the bread bin. Compare the amount of pasture you see to the quantity of grain crops. We also import great quantities of cereal across the Atlantic to feed livestock, especially soya – much of it GM – which is high in protein and used to fatten beef animals before slaughter.

      Feeding cattle grass slows down their growth. If it were the only feed available, there would be fewer beef animals on the market. We would be healthier, and so would the economy, unburdened by the cost of an obesity epidemic. However, the price of all beef would rise steeply towards the price now paid for organic and grass-fed beef. This is unavoidable, but using beef differently in the kitchen will help offset the cost. Learn to identify which are the cheap cuts to enjoy regularly and which are special. Pay more but make better use of the beef you buy. Use up leftovers, learn ways with cold beef, make stock and cook with the dripping (see here).

Buying beef

      For beef to cook well, it must be hung properly. Hanging beef on the bone in temperatures just above 2°C breaks down the tough fibres – the meat is slowly decomposing. Beef should be hung for at least three weeks but I have bought joints from sides that have hung for up to five weeks. This beef will be visibly darkened by oxidisation on the outside but don’t be put off – it will taste delicious. Always ask if the beef has been actually hung and not matured in plastic bags stacked in a freezer. This method never has the same effect but meat is increasingly matured this way, partly due to new regulations that insist that the cuts destined to be beef mince should not be hung for as long as the roasting joints. This means the sides have to be cut up and jointed early, and cannot physically hang.

      It is impossible to choose good beef by inspection alone, but joints of native beef tend to be small and the grain finer. The colour of beef flesh varies and does not always relate to a long period hanging on the bone. This is why it is better to buy beef and other meat from a place where you can ask questions about feed, breed and welfare. Ideally, you want to hear that the animal, a native breed, was slowly reared on grass or forage, at a local farm.

      Buying beef from local farms reduces carbon emissions, shortens journeys, reducing stress to the animals, and supports the local economy. To find locally reared beef, speak first to your nearest high-street butcher or visit a local farmers’ market. If no joy, look at www.bigbarn.co.uk, put in your postcode and check their area maps, which highlight local producers – but ask specific questions about feed and breed before buying from any of their suppliers.

      In London I buy beef from the butcher Jack O’Shea, at 11 Montpelier Street, London SW7 1EX (www.jackoshea.com; tel: 020 7581 7771). He hangs it for weeks and knows everything about cutting in both the Continental and the British way. He is an expert on cheap cuts that can be put on the grill, worth a visit for this alone (see recipes below).

      Buying beef via home delivery is another option. Below are producers that I have used regularly:

       Pipers Farm in the West Country rears handsome Devon Ruby cattle, then hangs and butchers them expertly: www.pipersfarm.co.uk; tel: 01392 881380.

       Donald Russell is another great butcher whose beef is carefully matured and cut: www.donaldrussell.com; tel: 01467 629666.

       Blackface.co.uk in Dumfries and Galloway rears Galloway beef on the hill for up to four years, well beyond the OTM limit: www.blackface.co.uk; tel: 01387 730326.

       Edwards of Conwy sells Welsh beef, including cuts from native Welsh Black cattle: www.edwardsofconwy.co.uk; tel: 01492 592443.

       Andrew and Sybille Wilkinson at Gilchester Organics rear cattle on their organic pasture in Northumberland: www.gilchesters.com; tel: 01661 886119.

      Beef – the cheap cuts

      With beef I need to solve a problem. It is not a meat I eat often because, much as I love it braised for hours until tender, the truth is that I cannot always plan ahead. The kind of beef that it is best to buy, the slow-reared native breeds fed on grass, is pricy stuff. The sirloin, forerib, rib eyes and rump steaks are the easiest meals to make but come at an extraordinary cost. So, to find pieces of the best beef that are affordable for routine meals yet quick to cook, what is needed is an exceptional butcher. Most butchers insist that all cheap cuts must be minced or cut into cubes and slow cooked, but butchers who understand Continental cutting know differently. If the side of beef has been well hung – and this is almost the single most important element in successful beef cookery – it is quite easy to fast cook some of the more extreme cuts.

      Cheap cuts on the grill

      The following is a new series of recipes, the basic ideas borrowed from European butchery and cooking but adapted to British ingredients. They rely on your willingness to eat the meat medium rare or rare. All are cooked as whole pieces of meat and then sliced. If they are brown all the way through – ‘well done’, as the oxymoron goes in this context – the effect is ruined.

Grilled Goose Skirt with Salad Leaves and Berkswell Cheese

      Goose skirt is a dark meat with a wide grain (it is a different cut from the plain flank or skirt in the recipe on here). It is essential that the beef has been well hung. If seared quickly, it will be very tender. Serving it with leaves and a hard, mature ewe’s milk cheese is a good antidote to the richness of gravies and butter sauces. You could substitute Lord of the Hundreds, Somerset Rambler or Italian pecorino for the Berkswell.

       Serves 4

       750g/1lb 10oz goose skirt steak, left in whole pieces

       4 large handfuls of young salad leaves

       4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

       115g/4oz mature Berkswell cheese. pared into thin slices

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