Rose Prince - The New English Table - 200 Recipes from the Queen of Thrifty, Inventive Cooking

Cold Salt Beef and Green Sauce

The valuable cuts

Roast Rare Aged Beef Sirloin with a Mustard and Watercress Sauce

Raw Beef with Horseradish, Sorrel and Rye Bread

Leftovers

Beef with Horseradish Sauce on Crisp Bread

Beef with Pumpkin Seeds and Carrot

Sauce for Pasta

Braised Beef and Fungi

Beef Stock

Dripping

My attitude to beef has recently moved into a new phase. It is easy to pinpoint when my original decision to eat less but better beef was made, because it was at the same time that I had the urge to write about food. My first piece 15 years ago was about a butcher. At the time I was motivated by the plight of the closing high-street butcher’s shops. They were – on the whole – the best place to source delicious beef, but they were closing down due to the arrival of the larger ‘superstores’. I was equally motivated by the matter of welfare: free-ranging animals, travelling only a short distance to the slaughterhouse, produce beef with a low PH and so more tenderness. When livestock are stressed, the acidity in their muscles is raised, affecting the finished result when cooked. But then, a year later, the BSE scandal exploded, when the link was made between the cattle disease bovine spongiform encephalitis and the human form, vCJD, and the whole subject of beef once more needed some examination. Two significant events had come to light. The first was that, revoltingly, beef animals had been fed the remains of their own species. This had been done purely in the name of profit – give an animal high-protein feed and it will grow at an alarming rate, becoming ready for slaughter, with lots of meat on its bones, nice and quick. The full, disgraceful disclosure of the participation of the livestock feed industry and the attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture (now Defra) and many (but not all) farmers was mind-blowing. The second significant event was the remedy introduced by the authorities to wipe out the disease in the British herd.

Meat changed by a scandal

The remedy dreamt up by the Ministry and its scientific advisers became known as the Over-Thirty-Month Scheme (OTMS), and simply meant that no cow – dairy or beef – was allowed to live longer than 30 months, because scientists said that the disease only developed in animals over this age. This had the peculiar effect of shortening the time farmers had to fatten up their beef steers, putting them under pressure in a way that has damaged the quality of beef and the national herd itself. Every farmer had to comply with it, including the substantial number who had never fed their beef animals meat and bone meal. It is not known whether the OTMS was actually responsible for reducing the number of cases; it was rumoured to be the idea of the supermarket chains, which wanted a clear-cut strategy that would boost consumer confidence.

It is nearly impossible for farmers to get their beef animals up to a saleable weight in just two and a half years. So what can they do? They can’t feed meat and bone meal protein, because that is now banned – so in comes the cereal diet: soya, maize and other grains that are high in proteins and speed up growth. They then cross breeds with large, fast-growing Continental-type cattle and take the animals off that windy hill where they burn up far too many calories, instead making sure they spend more time in the shelter of a barn, getting pig-fat. Out of this the consumer gets flavourless, loose-grained meat, unsuitable for British butchers’ cuts (the only exception is when butchers take the trouble to hang the meat on the bone for as long as possible). Consumers are further compromised because such beef, even though cross bred with non-native cattle, is still called by its British breed name – Aberdeen Angus, for example.

This news has altered my view of beef again. I now choose beef guided by three principles:

Pure native breed

Naturally slow grown

Grass fed

Slow grown means that, where possible, I buy ‘aged’ beef that is over 30 months old – the OTMS was lifted in November 2005. The farmers who rear such beef must jump through hoops to do this: completing extra paperwork, moving livestock in separate transportation from others, and using abattoirs specially dedicated to the slaughter of older animals. Farmers who produce ‘aged’ beef complain that it is hard to profit from the extra effort, but the resulting meat is well worth it in terms of flavour. What really matters now, however, is the third principle: grass fed. Feeding beef animals grass ticks all the boxes in terms of healthy environment and healthy consumers.

Grass-fed beef is good food. The fat that is marbled through it contains higher levels of essential omega-3 fatty acids, including the nutritionally important EPA and DHA. Beef animals fattened on a high-protein (from grain such as soya and maize), high-energy diet, rather than on grass, will have a low ratio of omega-3 in their fat compared to other fats. To be healthy, humans need to eat fats in the correct proportion or the risk of disease, specifically heart disease, is increased. It is now thought that it is not so much burger culture that made one in four Americans fat and unhealthy but the way in which beef steers were reared. Eating meat containing the right balance of the right fats raises dietary levels of conjugated lineolic acid (CLA), protecting against cancer and – essentially – discouraging weight gain because our bodies know exactly how to process such fat: burning it and not storing it as body fat.

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.