2 weeks ago, I caught my brain feeding me images of beef meat, roasts to be exact. Not pretty little standing rib roasts or the lean ball-tip roast. But the big and mean looking chuck roast, the caveman type. I know you’re thinking, “yeah, so?” Well, I’ve never been a huge beef eater. Yes, I eat more beef than most beef eaters do. But my meat passion steers towards the piggy and most anything with feathers. Plus I’m a cheap bastard and good beef costs money. In this case though, I am obliged to follow the voices in my head, “Must Get Beef Roast”.

And I did, right after I got a load of pork sausage from the Fatted Calf’s stall. I was feeling kinda giddy with my sack full of pork, who wouldn’t?
I found Ted at his Highland Hills Farm stall, ready. He was ready and I was ready, my hands were shaking as I read through the menu for today. There it was, Chuck Steak. I smiled and said, “Chuck Steak Please”. A chill ran up my spine, I was going to buy Heritage Beef, grass fed.
Relax for a moment, explanation comin’:
Most, but probably not everyone knows what Heritage meat products are. They’re “primative breeds”, older breeds that have been around for a long time. They fell out of use by larger and even smaller producers due to the fact they could get other breeds to grow faster, breed easier and basically be able to live by just standing around getting fat. Probably a few other reasons, I’m certainly no expert. Well, a few ranchers world-wide have decided that they might be able to bring these breeds back and make a go of it. This means, if we don’t eat them, the ranchers won’t … ranch them and the breed will be completely gone from the planet. And I get to eat meat to save the animals !!! Now if that don’t just kill me. As far as the grass fed angle? It delivers a leaner piece of meat that’s higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, these are good things and I’m all for it. But what do it taste like? Interested?
Okay, so Ted set me up with a wonderful 4 pound load of 2 chuck steaks. Ya know, no matter how good anything you buy is, it sure makes me cringe when it’s frozen solid. I know many things freeze exceptionally well, but I have a hard time with frozen meat. I didn’t ask, but I’m sure there’d be some health code problems with him slicing up raw meat out in the open there. So, frozen it is. I took my booty home and left it to defrost in the fridge for a few days. Since it was so well wrapped, it took every bit of 2 days and I was ready to try 1 steak on Monday evening. Which was fine, because it took me those days to mull over how I wanted to prepare the beef. I decided to make it all about the meat and grill it simple. No overpowering rubs, no steak sauce, no bbq sauce, just plain salt & pepper. Although, I have to admit I used some of Salt Trader’s White Creamy Peppercorns and some Hawaiian Red Salt (salt & mud). This was used liberally on both sides and grilled over an extremely hot mesquite fire. I added a few Fatted Calf pork sausages with Lemon & Herbs, just cause I say so.
Grass fed beef doesn’t have the sweetness that grain fed beef does. It’s a very pure meat experience, quite wonderful. Maybe leans a little over to some lamby flavors. Maybe the grass adds some alkalinity to the meat taste? The meat had some teeth pull to it, yes I know the chuck roast is chewy to begin with. But this wasn’t a bad chewyness, it’s different. It’ll give under tooth quickly, good for your choppers! I say, 2 thumbs up here.
Okay, that’s one steak down and one to go. I had two reasons for choosing a traditional pot roast route. 1st reason is that a friend gave me a really cool 50 year old Guardian Service roaster a few weeks ago and I wanted to use it. 2nd reason is that it’s downright easy and perfect for the chilly October evenings when it drops to 70 degrees.

Isn’t that the coolest roaster ever? Check out the image of the armored knight there on the glass lid. I’ve got a handful of other pieces as well, this isn’t my first and hopefully will not be the last.
First off let’s flour and then brown the meat. What does browned meat look like?

Just like that, see? Once browned on both side, pull and let rest. Put a sliced up onion, some carrots, celery and garlic if you like. Brown these up in the fond.

That right there is some absolutely stunning fond. After your veggies have done their thing, toss in about 4 handfuls of sliced mushrooms, a bay leaf and some fresh rosemary. While you were doing that, you should have been putting together 1 part good dark red wine (no pinot, no chianti) to 1 part beef broth to 1 part water. If you need more liquid just add more beef broth. Deglaze hot pan with a splash of your liquid and get that fond dispersed. Install meat in to roaster and pour liquid in until it looks kinda like this:

You want the meat’s surface just out of the liquid. This way your meat will have some texture to it, not just boiled meat. Which in pot roast isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even so, this is nice.
Install on bottom rack at 325 degrees F for at least 2 hours or so, probably 2.5. Remember! This is a STEAK, not a roast. So you don’t need to go the full 4 or 5 hours.
Which, turned out to be not such a good thing. The liquid didn’t cook down enough. The meat? Oh man, I would have been happy with just the meat. And that’s saying something considering what I think about gravy. Mama and I looked at each other and she said, “Reduce it”. And I said, “Reduce it”. So, I reduced it pronto. Perfection and I served it over brown basmati rice cooked in butter.
While this meal was excellent, especially for a Wednesday evening. I think I will reserve it for larger cuts, just not enough to go around. It was fun though. And I believe next time I’ll use a strong Ale, something on the sweeter side. You see, since this is grass fed meat, the hearty red wine really took over in the sauce. I think if I’d added a little sugar it would have rounded it out fine. To sum it all up, 2 thumbs up. I’m ready for more, unless the voices tell me otherwise. Biggles says, “always do what the voices tell you to.”
fin