New Zealand Grass-Fed Beef Review

Recently, I had the pleasure of taste testing two “New Zealand Grass-Fed Strip Steaks” from Marxfoods.com of Seattle, Washington. Marxfoods is a large boutique high-end restaurant distributor and they maintain a retail store front with over 400 specialty items within plus a thousand more items available online They have been reaching out to home chefs and providing the finest and freshest foods available including the Grass-fed steaks they sent me to review here on Cooking-Outdoors.com. They contacted me via Allrecipce.com to be part of their Grass-Fed Review Challenge that several food bloggers will be apart of this November. I of course, readily accepted the challenge!

I honestly didn't know what I was getting my self into when I agreed to the challenge and to be perfectly clear – it isn't a challenge to eat Grass-Fed beef! The challenge is who can write the best article about Grass-feed beef. Reading my articles you would probably suggest I might have a better chance entering the Beef Council beauty contest and I do thank you for your votes in advance. Writing has never been one of my best skills but I am egotistical enough to self qualify myself as a beef challenge contestant, really, who wouldn't volunteer for this assignment? Two New Zealand Grass-Fed Beef Strip Steaks delivered to my doorstep via Federal Express screaming for me to grill them, taste them, devour them and then gloat to all of you about it! Oh yea! I am in!

This I might add, before I get into the meat of the matter (no pun left unturned) was a three beer event. One to steady my nerves as I gazed upon these steaks, one to grill with and one to eat them with (in case you were wondering).

Grass-fed beef according to Wikipedia:

Grass fed or pasture-fed cattle, grass and other forage compose most all or at least the great majority of the grass fed diet. The debate is whether cattle should be raised on diets primarily composed of pasture (grass) or a concentrated diet of grain, soy and other supplements. The issue is often complicated by the political interests and confusion between labels such as “free range,” “organic” or “natural.” Cattle raised on a primarily forage diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. However, the term “pasture-raised” can lead to confusion with the term “free range” which does not describe exactly what the animals eat. Another term is “grass-finished.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_feeding#Grass-fed

Clearing up any misconceptions that someone mowed their front lawn and fed the cows…

The vast majority of beef we consume is “Corn-fed,” “Grain-fed” or “Corn-finished” and I will not travel down the roads of merit or disfavor on these feeding methods. They populate the shelves of our supermarkets with various labeling and cuts that confuse the heck out of me and these corn and grain fed beef are the subject of many of heated debates concerning health, safety, and humane treatment of beef. None of this will I address today but I do encourage you to do your own research to understand these issues better.

I decided early on that I would rate these steaks on three merits: Overall look, tenderness and taste.

Marxfoods  New Zealand Grass-Fed Strip Steaks

Overall look

My grass-fed strip steaks were … red. OK, not a very good descriptive verb (actually it is not a verb at all) like wow, but it was what I noticed first, these steaks had a real nice color that would have stood out in the supermarket meat section as I walked down it looking for my next carnivore moment. The fat trim was nicely cut at just under a 1/4″, saving me the trouble of trimming the excess off and the marbling was just beautiful, not overly marbled from “Corn-finishing” but a more natural look about it.

Grilling over a non flavored, generic charcoal briquets was also a requirement as I did not want to heavily influence the taste of the steaks. I certainly would have chosen a nice mesquite lump charcoal for my grilling otherwise. One advantage I did capitalize during my review was to film the grilling process for a new Cooking Everything Outdoors Tips, Tricks and Techniques video on “6 Steps to Grilling Amazing Steak”. Seasoning was simply coarse sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper and I used a two zone charcoal grill to cook my steaks to 135°F for a medium rare consistency before resting. After a full 10 minute rest my steaks were cooked to just under medium.

Tenderness

The hardest part of this challenge is the waiting… waiting for the steaks to finish grilling. Dang-it the smells could kill an innocent bystander let alone cripple the chef into a blubber maniac with a spatula in hand! That first sizzle from the steaks hitting the pre-heated grill grate is enough to skip a heart beat or two, the smoke rising from the grill painfully attacks your senses rendering you into a zombie state … oh, wait! This is about the tenderness… sorry.

Tenderness starts with the first knife cut and these steaks cut beautifully, to steal a cliche, “Like butter”. Cutting a piece of meat is not on my list of requirements for food judging but I could have easily forgone knife and just chewed my way through this steak without any jaw fatigue, OK… TMI

I was certainly impressed when I took my first bite of these grass-feed strip steaks, soft texture, moist, mouthwatering moist and tender when chewing, not a hint of grizzle or unsavory fat in any bite. There was a undefinable earthiness to the tenderness of each bite that I can only define as “fresh”.

Taste

New Zealand Grass-fed beef has an pre-influenced expectation of being some of the best available. Perhaps that is just good marketing by the fine folks downunder but my expectations were nothing less than amazingly spectacular. I have never eaten a Kobe steak before so I had no top of the scale comparisons to challenge my steak with, so I relied on memory from many great steaks I have had in the past and this was one fine tasting steak! I can't say enough about how tender this steak was as I was eating it, totally enhancing the clean earthy fresh taste I was receiving on my taste buds enhanced by the salt and pepper crust I grilled into the surface. It was juicy, soft and delicious, compelling me to devourer yet another bite before I finished the first.

There is a delicious savoriness about a properly grilled steak that is divine in it's tasting experience, making you pause during each bite and experience each rich, fresh and juicy piece. This is what I experienced in my MarxFoods New Zealand Grass-Fed Strip Steaks, a truly divine steak experience. New Zealand, I don't know what you do down there but keep doing it! I just loved these steaks and look forward to comparing them to other steaks from around the world.

Full disclosure – MarxFoods provided two New Zealand Grass-Fed Beef Strip Steaks at no charge and provided no compensation for this review.