The Golden Rules of Cooking Grassfed Beef (And Mistakes to Avoid)
- May 26
- 3 min read
If you cook a local grass fed beef the exact same way as grain fed supermarket beef, it’s easy to end up with something tough and dry. But with a few simple adjustments, it’s incredibly juicy and flavorful, and in our bias opinion, way better.
Quality
It matters where you get your beef from. Not only does it make a difference in flavor, nutrition, and the ecology, but in the quality of your final beef you put on the plate. We take great care in raising the animals so they are fat and do right by the land. But we also take great care in choosing local butchers who dry age our grass-fed beef from Sonoma County for our specified time and handle the meat through to the packaging and freezing exactly how we want.
Technique
To get a perfect grass-fed steak every time you cook it - is less about the appliance you use (grill, pan, crock pot or dutch oven) and more about the techniques you use in the cooking. Here are the golden rules for cooking your grass fed beef share:
Thaw
Never thaw your frozen beef in the microwave. Please. It steams the beef, gives it that weird coloring and begins to dry out your beef. Just don't do it. Ever. Instead, pull your beef out of the freezer and into the refrigerator 1-2 days before you intend to eat it. If you are in a pinch and forgot to pull something out (our family literally every week), you can speed the thaw up by putting the beef in a bowl of cold water and thawing for several hours.
Room Temperature
Bring your beef to room temperature before cooking. This is true for steaks as well as roasts. Do not pull your beef cold straight from the fridge and into the pan.
Salt
There are whole chapters in books written about when and how to salt your meat. The basic of it is this: Salt Fast or Slow. But not in the middle. This means we typically salt our beef right before it goes on the grill. Or we marinade overnight. Salt pulls moisture OUT of the meat, and when given ample time, returns it to the meat. But if you salt for say 2 hours, it can actually dry the beef. We typically only season the steaks with salt and pepper. We want to taste the incredible flavor and not distract from it.
Sear
For both steaks and roasts, it's important to get a sear first. This means a hot hot pan or grill. This gives the meat that desirable golden crust and seals in the moisture. Sear each side. We typically put beef fat or butter in the pan before a sear, or turn the roast on it's fat side to pull some of that into the pan.
Cook
Turn your heat down or move the steak to a cooler spot on the grill. Grassfed beef can cook faster than a grainfed beef so keep a keen eye on temperature. There is no shame in using a thermometer as you learn. You can also use your face to get a feel for what the beef will feel like: cheek is rare, chin is medium, forehead is well done. We pull our steaks off the grill 5 degrees before our desired final temp. For roasts, after the sear we place the roast in a dutch oven (or crock pot) add bone broth and herbs, and cook on low for many hours. Typically between 250-300 degrees F. Do not rush your roasts.
Rest and Serve
When your beef is done, remove it from the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes. For roasts, you can tent it with foil. Slice against the grain, serve and enjoy!
Few Shares Remain!
We are sold out of whole and half beef shares, but we do have a 1/4 and a 1/8 cow share available still at the time of this post. Head over to the website to snag yours, and cook your Sonoma County beef share with a bit more confidence!
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