Introduction

Almost nothing tastes as good as food cooked outdoors over an open fire. It is even better when you are cooking with meat that comes from animals raised the way nature intended. Outdoor cooking, whether it is grilling, barbecuing, or smoking, is both an art and a science and it is easily mastered by following a few basic pointers.

There was a time when grilling was the primary means of food preparation. Today, we have the luxury of revisiting the cooking techniques of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents with the benefit of years of refinement and a lot more information. If they only knew what we know now! How did they get by without a digital instant-read thermometer? How did they fare without the ease and consistency of a gas grill or even a small charcoal-burning grill that you can roll around the backyard?  

One of the great joys of cooking is that it can send us along a path to discovery. As chefs, home cooks, and food enthusiasts, we take the knowledge of others and find what works for us. With grassfed and pasture-raised foods, the path to discovery is especially gratifying as we marry the ways in which animals used to be raised (before feedlots) with modern-day cooking techniques.

What does it mean for meats, poultry, and dairy products to be grassfed or pasture-raised? While there are ongoing discussions about the precise definition of those terms, quite simply, animals that eat what they find in the wild are referred to as grassfed or pasture-raised. Depending on the animal, this may mean grass, worms, insects, and other nutritionally rich food sources.

A new culinary approach to cooking—and especially to grilling—is necessary with grassfed and pasture-raised meats. The number one rule for cooking pastured meat is to not overcook it. Grassfed beef needs about 30 percent less cooking time than conventionally raised beef, and it works best when cooked medium-rare to medium. Otherwise, the meat can become tough. Pastured poultry also requires reduced cooking time. We recommend making a good meat thermometer your new best friend.

Let’s reinforce that rule: grassfed meats require lower cooking temperatures and shorter cooking times. We believe all forms of cooking should be done mindfully. For instance, when cooked on the grill, some cuts of meat require close observation to achieve a golden caramelized crust on the outside and a moist, juicy interior. Other cuts benefit from longer cooking times at low temperatures with a bit of liquid, which can be accomplished on the grill as long as one understands the technique.

In the bigger picture, grassfed is about more than just cooking. It is rapidly becoming a lifestyle that acknowledges the impact of our food choices. Some people come by those choices naturally; others discover the need for change for specific reasons, such as because they are dealing with health issues and reevaluating their diets, because they are concerned about the environment, or because they saw something on television or on the Internet about the horrors of factory farming.

Moving toward a system of agriculture that favors pasture-based farming has multiple advantages. In addition to providing foods that are more nutritious, pasture-based farming benefits the animals, the farm workers, wildlife, and the environment. When cooked correctly, grassfed meat is healthier and more delicious than meats from animals subjected to feedlots and raised on factory farms. Food from cows, goats, lambs, pigs, and poultry that are raised on pastures is entirely different from what we get from animals raised on factory farms or in feedlots.

What makes it different? Animals raised on lush yet carefully managed fields move freely, exercise, interact with their companions, and eat only what nature intended. The foods they eat suit their unique digestive systems. The ability to move freely prevents unhealthy fat from forming as it does in sedentary animals. Eating the right foods yields leaner, healthier animals than those fed grains, corn, and even leftover bagels and potato chips, which are common practices in some feedlots. And while health experts have long been telling us to avoid or limit our intake of fats, the fats from properly raised animals are healthy fats. You don’t need to fear them the way you do the fats from present-day, conventionally raised animals.

It may surprise you that cattle raised on pasture are not fed corn and grains. Those types of feed, which became standard in American agriculture after World War II, are toxic to a cow’s digestive system; they are used to fatten cows as well as to produce consistent flavors. Industrial meat production may have made meat less expensive and more accessible, but it harms the animals; it is so detrimental, in fact, that animals contained in feedlots must be pumped with antibiotics to keep them from contracting diseases. Not all grain-fed animals are raised in the industrial model; however, unless you know where your meat comes from, you can be almost certain that the animals were raised in large, industrialized confinement operations.

We believe clean best describes grass-based farming: clean and simple. The animals are clean, their flavors are clean, and the environment in which they are raised is clean and self-sustaining. We all have the power to create a better food system and a cleaner environment, and we can’t think of a better way to do it.

As we describe the benefits of grassfed meats in this book, we want to stay real. Some claims made about the benefits of grassfed meats are difficult to substantiate, so we believe it best to stick with what we know because what we know still makes a compelling and exciting case for choosing grassfed. For many people, the taste alone is reason enough. Farmers raising grassfed animals use many adjectives to describe the distinct flavors of their grassfed meats: sweet, earthy, rich, and nutty, to name a few. We often hear the textures of these meats described as having integrity, as opposed to the bland softness that producers of industrial-raised conventional meats intend. When it comes to health benefits, most grassfed and pasture-raised meats are clearly lower in saturated fats, and yield a healthy balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. In short, eating grassfed meat is like eating fish, but with an appeal distinctly its own.

Whether you have already discovered the pleasures of grassfed or you are just beginning to explore pasture-raised foods, you probably have questions. Here is a list of some of the most interesting questions that we hear most.

• What does it mean to raise animals solely on pasture, and why are so many farmers choosing that route?

• What are the health benefits of pasture-raised meats?

• Are there differences in the benefits between pasture-raised ruminants (beef, bison, lamb, and goat) and pasture-raised nonruminants (chicken, turkey, pork)? (Yes, there are!)

• How has the human diet changed since our early evolution? And how does grass-fed meat relate to this?

• How does choosing pasture-raised meats benefit our environment?

• Why would a grilling cookbook advocate eating less meat?

The answers to these questions and so many more are available in these pages. For home cooks, we explore how to prepare various cuts of grassfed meats for maximum flavor, but we also take this opportunity to step back and examine how our actions connect us to the environment and to each other. As the authors of The Grassfed Gourmet Fires It Up!, we have learned that we are not just a farmer and a chef; we are consumers. So, welcome to our world. We encourage you to get out to a nearby farm or a local farm market, or spend an hour or two in the country, buy what looks good, and dust off that grill. Let’s start cooking.

Rita Calvert Michael Heller

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