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Been noticing grocers don't carry many cuts of grass fed beef.

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

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I'm in California in the Bay Area. I've been to numerous Safeways and Fresh and Easy's and I'm a bit confused.

Safeway sells grass fed beef, but only in the expensive steak cuts like ribeye, t-bone, etc, and they're always $12+ / lb.

I can't find any grass fed chuck, blade steaks, or similarly cheap cuts of beef. I asked the butchers and they say they just never carry any cuts like that.

So I usually just go for a big chunk of a leg of lamb for $7-8 / lb and I'm pretty sure that lamb is grass fed (but grain finished).

Where did those other cuts of beef go? I mean, they're all part of the cow... you can't *not* have chuck when the cow gets butchered...

I would love to get some cheaper grass fed chuck or blade steak cuts and make pot roasts with them. Or stews. Hell, even steaks because I like gristle.
 
You don't want cheaper beef. People want stuff cheaper is why we don't have grass-fed beef. What we have now is bef, a genetically designed piece of meat, full of antibiotic and growth hormone, that is "cheap enough".
 
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Pocatello said:
You don't want cheaper beef. People want stuff cheaper is why we don't have grass-fed beef. What we have now is bef, a genetically designed piece of meat, full of antibiotic and growth hormone, that is "cheap enough".
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Huh? All I'm asking is where do you find the different *cuts* of the same beef...

It's like if you were at the grocery store and you were only seeing breasts for the free range chicken you buy. You'd wonder where the legs, thighs, and wings went.
 
Perhaps it's all the stuff that goes to the restaurants or used for commercial companies?

Obviously someone is buying it and paying more for it than safeway can. So they get it first.
 
How do you make a pot roast in your car?

Did you try Whole Foods? What part of the bay area, there is a really good German Butcher in Los Altos.
 
quikah said:
How do you make a pot roast in your car?

Did you try Whole Foods? What part of the bay area, there is a really good German Butcher in Los Altos.
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Pressure cooker and backpacking stove. In an hour or less I have a great pot roast.

I'm not going to Whole Paycheck. Something tells me their chuck is going to be $10+ / lb anyway. And their steak cuts $20 / lb.

Yup, I know of Dittmer's and their new location after their old one caught on fire. They're generally not that high in value though. I'll check them out though.
 
the mysteries of the market.
Those cuts were created but they may not be for sale in those shops.
 
Also, I'm pretty sure all beef is grass fed for most of its life. They just finish it on corn or grain most of the time.
 
fuzzybabybunny said:
Yup, I know of Dittmer's and their new location after their old one caught on fire. They're generally not that high in value though. I'll check them out though.
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Milk Pail market just down the road from Dittmer's always advertises Grass Fed ground beef. You can check them also, but I am not sure they carry more than ground beef.
 
quikah said:
Milk Pail market just down the road from Dittmer's always advertises Grass Fed ground beef. You can check them also, but I am not sure they carry more than ground beef.
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Right. Milk Pail is amazing for anything that isn't meat. All it really has is ground beef and maybe some duck legs vacuum sealed in plastic. That's about it. No actual meat section unless something has drastically changed in a couple months.
 
fuzzybabybunny said:
Huh? All I'm asking is where do you find the different *cuts* of the same beef...

It's like if you were at the grocery store and you were only seeing breasts for the free range chicken you buy. You'd wonder where the legs, thighs, and wings went.
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Russia. A lot of the dark meat gets exported, since buyers here mostly want wings and boneless skinless chicken breasts.
 
The lesser cuts of grass fed beef will be chewier so you'll find more of them processed into stew meat or ground meat so that they'll be easier to consume and more palatable for American tastes. They're less likely to be sold whole.

If you're in the Bay Area, go find a farmer's market.
 
For the most part, a butcher (or supermarket) can really only sell the middle of the cow as individual cuts. The rest gets ground. Americans more or less want ribeye, tenderloin, strip, chuck and to some degree the flank and brisket. That's not a whole lot of cow and leaves a lot to get ground up. Anyhow, for grass fed, it dries up and gets chewy easily, so people are going to stick with what they can flash on the grill.

I'm surprised you even have the option of grass fed beef at the supermarket, too. Whole Foods or a butcher are the only options here in Maine, and we have a fairly strong eat local/sustainable culture.

FWIW, I get it at Whole Foods. But I'll be honest, I prefer grain-finished beef. Better marbling and just more of that beefy flavor. I don't mind grass-fed, but I do tend to stick to steaks there since it can dry out easily.
 
Fuck, if you're going to use a pressure cooker anyway, just go to a farmers market and order the good stuff. Shanks, oxtail, etc. Basically show up one week, chat up the farmer, ask him if he can bring the cuts you want next week.

It won't be ridiculously cheap or anything. It actually does cost money to raise cattle in a low density environment, and grass fed cows are going to take longer to get to market weight - a lower market weight, too. I support the idea of buying real food, but keep in mind it will cost money. Factory farming creates a lower price point that a smaller, lower density farmer/rancher isn't going to match.

Even Whole Foods isn't too bad if you stick to the perimeter. It's priced well for the quality and availability, and at least at mine, they source a lot of meat locally. I paid $3.99 a pound for half a pork butt (skin on!) from a nearby farm - not bad for a free-roaming, pastured pig.
 
silverpig said:
Also, I'm pretty sure all beef is grass fed for most of its life. They just finish it on corn or grain most of the time.
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You'd be wrong. Most beef (unless marketed as grass-fed, free range, etc.) is lot fed beef, crammed into tight quarters with thousands of it's siblings devouring corn/grain 95% of its short life.

I would guess that you can't find those lesser cuts because the farms sell the higher demand whole cuts to butchers/grocers and the lesser cuts get ground up for restaurants to sell grass fed burgers.

We can order grass fed beef at work, but only middle meats and cubed steaks.
 
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