Artisan Beef Institute

[PPRM]

I dropped off some steaks to Carrie Oliver of the Artisan Beef Institute.

http://artisanbeefinstitute.com/

SHe has basically come up with a formal Beef Tasting format to evaluate steaks. She is a huge beef fan and intrinsically curious as to what makes it have different flavors. On her site, it says "Psst! It's not all about the Marbling!"

I had a great conversation with her. She cited a 30 year study that showed marbling only had about a 5% effect on flavor. What cattle eat, how they are handled and dry aging all have bigger effects. I told her I thought the extreme Fat movement was in part of the commodity way it is processed. No Dry aging, so fat is used to cover that.

Now, don't misquote that she is saying it has no effect. Her point is it may be overblown and she has the documantation to back that thought up.

Anyways, she is going to evaluate our steaks. Her grades aren't really good or bad. They more like "Classify Beef".Almost like taking unmarked Beer or wine and saying, "This is a Porter" or "This is a Sirat".

She is a freind to our industry in that if she can start a Beef Tasting Movement, it is good for all of us. She does itas a fan of beef, especially high end Beef. Artisan Level.

Needless to say, I am excited about this,

PPRM

[PPRM]

Oops, I had the wrong link. Trying to do too many things at once! I changed it

[Dylan Biggs]

RPPM

Thanks for the link. Thats very interesting. Like you say a beef tasting movement would be a great thing. Could you describe for me the steaks you gave her to taste?

[Blkbuckaroo]

Interested in the outcome,is she in Oregon?Sounds like a great way for a direct market operation to get some usable information on outside product evaluation and exposure for your beef by a clientel of folks willing to pay for that production model,i.e. Grass finished Beef.

[PPRM]

I gave her Rib Steaks. That was my choice. In my breif talk with her, I got the Impression she likes Rib Steaks for these, but also Tenderloin and Top Sirloin.

She is actually located in the San Fransisco area I think. She travels though. She was setting up Tasting events inSeattle and Portland this week.

[Dylan Biggs]

[PPRM]

Dylan,

Grass Finished... FOr me it is a wide open topic. Grass Fed vs Grass Finished. How many people understand the difference?

My cattle are never Grain Fed. It is a change I made about 4 years ago to reflect my customer wants. I do get Frozen Vegetable Screenings that are mied with hay in A Supreme Mixer and fed into bunks in the pastures. LOL, you tell me; Am I Grass Finished or Grass Fed? All I know is I am looking to do about 72 head this year in our Direct Sales Program.

The cuts she took were te cuts she likes to do tastings on. I think maybe Hamburger as well. She was telling me how she likes to take just the burger patties from different fast food chains to taste and figure out what all they are doing.

Like I said, what she does is basically classify your textures and Flavors into a profile. It is like classifying Wine, Beer or Cheese. SHe isn't Good, bad or indifferent. Just Classifying them.

I believe the next step is for her to get with me on my profile. I belive she is willing to work with me to tell me options if I want to change it. It is all new to me and some of this is mjust the impression from our breif Conversation,

Thanks,

PPRM