Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I founded The Artisan Beef Institute and host tastings to demonstrate that flavor, texture, and quality is not about the marbling but instead, beef (and other fresh meats) is like wine, varying by farm, breed, growing region, specific diet, husbandry practices, aging time & technique. This looks like a interesting read!

As someone who loves a medium rare burger but will no longer eat one unless I know the exact origins of the ground beef, I wonder whether the sous vide method would do anything to help the texture of a well-done burger? I wouldn't expect it to change the flavor of the beef but the texture? Thanks!

I'd buy a skirt steak or two and fajita fixings and use a cast iron pan for cooking the steak. I also love the pizza suggestion using pre-made dough and pizza sauce, since you're tired from the move. You could ask the kids to grate the cheeses and then let everyone build their own mini-pizza. Have some pepperoni (pre-sliced) available and then maybe arugula and prosciutto or if in season, figs and prosciutto. Super easy and tasty.

Sadly, there are no farmers markets anywhere near my home (shocking given the size of this market) and the local fruits are picked unripe. Tomatoes, peaches, you name it, local are no better than those flown in from wherever. Total dis-service to the hard working people who raise and deliver that food.

Now, I can say who some of my favorite farmers/ranchers are. The Elliott & Ferris families in Colorado raise some of the best tasting beef I've ever had - they raise Charolais and Charolais-cross grain-finished beef that is best when dry-aged 14-21 days. They are also starting to raise grass-finished beef.

Tracey & Ted Baker from Gleason Ranch in Washington raise some of the best pasture raised and finished beef I've ever had. Tender, succulent, very adventurous yet balanced flavors with a nice long impression (earthy, vegetal). I call it Outdoor Adventure beef. They haven't been able to sell before but now there is a USDA mobile slaughterhouse and local butcher (dry-ages on rails!) up and running so next year they'll finally be able to sell their beef.

In general, you'll want to grill grass-finished steaks at a lower temperature (typically 50 F lower than what a recipe calls for) and for less time than a commodity-quality grain-finished steak. A lot of folks suggest that you also not cook your grass-finished steaks past medium rare because such beef tends to have less intramuscular fat in it. This fat can provide a sensation of juiciness in a steak. If you have a copy of Harold McGee's book on Food & Cooking, you'll see that most meat cooked past medium (140 F) begins to exude juice so this would be true for most commodity steaks, too, even those with a high degree of intramuscular fat (marbling).

Another thing that could impact how you cook the steaks (or roast) is whether and how the beef has been aged. If it was dry-aged (which I doubt), the flavor will likely be more adventurous and the meat more tender but the beef would have already lost some moisture.

Net: Without seeing the meat, I'd probably grill it up rare and then have a nice compound butter to melt over the top to give that juicy sensation! With the roast, I'd make a Wellington, yum.

ps On an anecdotal basis, beef raised without the use of growth hormones - whether grass-finished or grain-finished - seems to cook a bit faster than commodity beef. Up to 20% faster.

pps What surprises me is the price of your tenderloins. The price today of whole untrimmed tenderloins, grain-finished commodity beef, Choice grade, is $5.87 (which FWIW is actually already quite low compared to the price I've seen at other times of year).

@CanadianFoodieGirl - I totally sympathize. We also live in Toronto and have suffered both ant (sugar craving) and moth (starch craving) invasions.

For the moths, the first time we tried throwing away the goods and scrubbing down the cabinet. It wasn't enough, the moths came back the next year. That time we did what several above have suggested - first we used up or threw out everything in the cupboard not in a can. Then, we scrubbed and put all replacement items in the refrigerator for storage. And then we kept all starchy items out of the cupboard for a year.

For the ants, who were attracted to anything with refined sugar or alcohol, we did the same thing: toss, clean, refrigerate. We also used diatomaceous earth at ingress points; this is a chemical free way to get rid of some pests.

To be honest, because the refrigerator has only so much room, this was a great way to get out of the habit of eating highly processed foods such as cereals, cookies, mac & cheese, white sugar and flour, etc. This was a fringe benefit for both our waistlines and our pocket books!

Adam, I agree completely re: cliche, nice mini rant.

I think I just died and went to heaven, what a great post and fabulous photos.

Looks kinda like a heart and liver there. Maybe someone trying to communicate how much we waste by not eating whole beef, pork, etc.?

Odd, I commented before and it's gone. I'd like to make the stuffing that @everydayfooddeb mentions on today's "cover."

I liked Ed's summary on how to read a turkey label. It's maddening to try to sort through all the different claims.

If just those two choices, skirt , esp. inside skirt. Love the grainier texture and funky, adventurous flavor.

As for the article, it's a little ironic to suggest the skirt or hanger steak as a way to keep costs down as they're not exactly available in mass quantities. You typically get less than 10 lbs. of inside and outside skirts from a 1,150lb steer (10 one lb. steaks), less than that for hangers, plus they're nearly impossible to find at the supermarket. I also suspect a lot of people would be turned off by the very strongly flavored (often described as livery tasting) hanger, esp. if they're used to eating no-age supermarket grain-fed Angus.