Your Meat Mate

By Phil Strasser

 It is Your Meat Mate 101. It is everything you need to know about meat before you hit the recipe books. Once you hit the recipe books you will follow them with a new level of confidence

This book will show you that you don't necessarily need the expensive tender cuts to create delicious meat dishes. The more affordable cuts are just

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philby Fine Foods Pty Ltd
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9780648340027

Book preview

prologue

Introduction: Meet Phil Strasser

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The adage, ‘timing is everything’, can be applied across all facets of life and, when it comes to cooking meat, this is no exception.

Understanding where meat comes from and what cuts to choose for different cookery methods is vital. Knowing how to prepare and cook meat is crucial to producing a successful dish.

I love the science of cooking and understanding outcomes—working out why the cooked meat was too tough, for example. Maybe it was the wrong cut to pan fry—and if so, why?

This book explores the processes behind making meat marvellous and shares the joy in understanding why meat behaves the way it does.

What makes a signature dish lies in the application, not just the recipe. Exciting recipes never sit in isolation. Execution is as important as the quality of the ingredients.

This commitment to perfect execution is essentially the heart of my book. Regardless of the type of meat, or whether you’re roasting, grilling, pan frying or braising, the home cook has the capacity to produce restaurant quality in a domestic kitchen. Extracting value without compromising on quality is achievable if you have the know-how.

Instead of paying a premium at a restaurant for a beautifully cooked meal, home cooks can produce the same meal for considerably less cost.

This book is the culmination of my years of teaching and sharing my knowledge from my own journey with cooking meat. I am passionate about the home cook having this knowledge so you, too, can produce something just as satisfying as a commercially trained chef.

Ultimately, no matter what we cook or our level of cooking expertise, it’s always about respecting food. So much energy goes into just getting the meat from the farm into the shop. Being mindful about choosing the right cut, and cooking it the right way, is a continuation of this value chain.

I hope you enjoy learning and applying the art of cooking meat to perfection. You can then share the fruits of your cooking efforts with your family and friends.

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Phil ‘Philby’ Strasser

section one

Meat Production & Providores

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A good chef knows that every great dish begins with quality produce. Knowing where our meat comes from helps us to make informed choices about the types of red meat available. It also helps us to understand how livestock lives and dies which impacts the overall flavour and texture of red meat. In Australia we have two main types of livestock farms—large scale farming enterprises and smaller, boutique farms.

Cooking food full of flavour starts with great ingredients. Later in the book I will show you how to make the most of all kinds of cuts, but first I want to help you understand where your meat comes from.

The following is a general summary. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Large Scale Farming Enterprises

The bulk of our meat comes from animals raised on commercial farms. Most animals are grain-fed.

Some animals are fed synthetic nutrients and growth hormones to help them mature sooner and fatten faster.

To help animals withstand conditions of living on large-scale farms, they are regularly given antibiotics to reduce the potential of disease.

Movement is very restricted as limiting the animal’s exercise will ensure that its meat remains as tender as possible.

The process of mass rearing typically takes about 18 months before they are slaughtered.

It is easy to understand why meat producers invest in large scale production methods. It is commercially more competitive, reliable and quicker to move the product from farm to table. There is currently a huge demand for Australian meat both locally and abroad and this approach is a logical fit to meet strong market demand.

Boutique Farms

Smaller scale farms are usually run by farmers who have a particular philosophical position on how animals are reared and fed.

It may be fair to assume that herds on smaller scale farms generally have much more freedom of movement outside and eat the grass and other natural fodder. Most animals from boutique farms are grass fed. There is evidence to suggest that animals are more relaxed in non-confined environments.

Boutique farmers generally advocate that the ‘natural’ rearing of livestock results in a tastier end product. This process of rearing takes much longer — up to three years before their lives are terminated.

Fodder

There are some subtle differences between grain-fed meat (from animals that are reared in confined environments) and grass-fed meat (from animals that roam free and live off the natural environment).

Grass-fed meat provides a more natural meatier taste while grain-fed meat is more juicy and tender. Your local butcher is the best person to advise what suits you.

It is interesting to note that some farmers who grass-feed their animals will also grain-feed in the last 100 days of the animal’s life. This is done to provide a more complex and interesting flavour profile. An additional benefit to the farmer is that this process accelerates the maturation process.

Grain-fed Meat

Grain-fed meat is very tender and juicy because of the grains’ high kilojoule content and the restricted movement of the animal.

Grain-fed meat is higher in the Omega-6 essential fatty acids because of its overall higher fat content compared with grass-fed meat.

It is interesting to note that according to Meat Standards Australia (MSA), meat from a stressed animal will have a combination of dark meat colour and/or high pH.

While meat colour has no real impact on eating quality, consumer feedback suggests that darker meat is less desirable than brighter coloured meat.

Grass-fed Meat

Grass-fed meat is leaner and meatier in flavour and less juicy because the animal has had more exercise and lived off the natural environment eating grass and other localised fodder.

Grass-fed meat is high in Omega-3 essential fatty acids because it is a leaner meat as the animal has been raised more naturally.

Eating foods that are high in Omega-3 is a truly healthy option. Grass-fed meat is not alone in providing this vital fat as it is also found in oily fish such as salmon and trout.

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Ageing Meat

All meat after slaughter goes through an ageing process to tenderise the meat. There are two types of ageing methods—wet ageing and dry ageing.

Wet Ageing

Most supermarket meat and most butchers’ meat is likely to be wet aged because it is the fastest and most economical way of ageing meat.

Wet ageing is the vacuum packing of all the small, family orientated cuts such as steaks, cutlets and chops. During the wet ageing process, the enzymes in the meat break down the muscle fibres to tenderise the meat.

The advantage of wet ageing is that it is very safe because the process of vacuum packing blocks out all air and moisture which reduces the risk of bacterial growth on the meat.

Plastic vacuum packaging also prevents moisture loss, so for commercial reasons this is a very viable means to age meat because there is no loss in weight. It does mean, however, that the meat is sitting in its own blood. Because of this, as soon as the vacuum seal is broken, the meat must be pat dried and cooked as soon as possible.

There is nothing wrong with wet ageing the meat; however, it does not enhance the quality of the meat flavour or texture. Interestingly, while wet aged meat maintains the weight of the meat, it loses more moisture in the cooking process than dry aged meat.

Dry Ageing

If you find a butcher who dry ages red meat, then you have found a very passionate and caring provedore. My suggestion is to reward him or her with your loyal patronage!

Dry aged meat is of higher quality so it will be more expensive and more delicious. Once you buy dry aged meat, you may find it difficult to settle for anything less.

Beef is the most suitable for this method of ageing because it is an older animal when slaughtered (compared to veal, lamb and pork). It has a greater fat layer to prevent the meat from drying out during the dry ageing process. Younger animals lack the fat content of older ones so dry ageing meat from young animals may not be suitable.

During the dry aging process the naturally occurring enzymes are breaking down the muscle fibres, which makes the meat tender (as with the wet ageing process).

In addition, there is some moisture loss to the meat exterior, which concentrates and enhances the meat flavour.

The dry ageing process involves hanging the meat totally unwrapped in a very controlled environment.

The temperature has to be between 0°C–2°C (32°F–35°F). If the temperature is any lower, then the enzymes will not break down the muscle fibres. If the temperature is any higher, bacteria will grow on the meat.

The humidity must be around 85-90%. Any lower than this and the meat will be too dry. Any higher than this, the meat will not achieve desired taste and texture.

Dry ageing is an expensive process (compared with wet ageing) because:

It takes time;

It requires a larger working space/more refrigeration;

There is weight loss—which means the butcher must factor this loss into the overall cost of the meat.

So there you have it—the animal’s diet (grass-fed and grain-fed) and the aging process. These are two important factors to take into consideration when you visit your local butcher.

Make sure you ask whether the meat comes from grass-fed or grain-fed animals and if it is wet aged or dry aged. Then use this knowledge to make an informed decision when buying your meat.

Butchers

Passionate butchers rely on passionate farmers (and also passionate customers!). A butcher dedicated to providing the best quality meat