Cooks Corner

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Cooks Corner

Welcome to the Cook’s Corner. This handy guide is here to help you get more success in your cooking of Pasture Raised Meats. You can check out the Introduction Guide below, or jump right to techniques for the different kind of meats.

Many of the methods found in this guide come from years as a home cook and never any professional kitchen experience. Many techniques and methods are adopted from years of watching cooking shows on PBS, YouTube, and the work of more contemporary chefs like Samin Nosrat. Her book Salt, Fat, Acid & Heat is highly recommended by the CSA Staff as a much more detailed companion on your cooking adventure.

Brandon - CSA Customer Support

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Tips for Grass fed Beef

Tips for Pasture Raised Pork

Tips for Pasture Raised Chicken

How to Use This Guide:

Many of the tips in the upcoming sections are not specific to any cut or type of meat, but shine best in the examples used. Don’t be afraid to try different techniques around the kitchen. Posted recipes will include a list of any special kitchen tools needed to make them.

RECOMMENDED KITCHEN TOOLS

• MEAT THERMOMETER

This can be anything as sophisticated as you like, but a heat proof probe you can insert into a roast is amazingly affordable and will really up your game at hitting exact temperatures.

• OVEN SAFE POT WITH LID

It can be as fancy as a Le Creuset Dutch Oven or a simple stainless steel pot with a good lid. An oven safe pot is versatile for stove top cooking, or braising in the oven.

• OVEN SAFE FRYING PAN

An oven-safe frying pan is essential for thicker steaks and using methods such as The Reverse Sear, but you can also finish off breakfast scrambles or sausages in the oven with ease.

• SHARP CHEF’S KNIFE

It is easier to hurt yourself with a dull knife than a short one. Having a good sharp chefs knife is key to quality cooking. Whether it is breaking down a chicken, or simply dicing onions, a sharp knife can make the task less of a chore. Get a basic sharpener as well, as a knife can get dull faster than you may expect, depending on the kinds of cuts you make.

PANTRY ESSENTIALS

• COARSE KOSHER or SEA SALT

• COOKING OIL

• CHICKEN OR VEGETABLE STOCK

STOCK BASICS

Hold the Salt: Salt to taste when you are done with the stock. Over salting a big pot of stock can be a heartache and be a big obstacle to overcome to rescue that batch.

Vinegar: Just a splash of apple cider vinegar can really add to a large pot of stock. When used in bone based stock, it can help break down bones and extract nutrients and minerals.

Storage: Instead of filling your freezer with jars of stock, you can use ice cube trays or even a cupcake pan to freeze more manageable portions of stock.

Vegetable Stock - Simmer Time 3 Hours

This is a great way to reuse your veggie scraps you thought were too ugly, or were not the “edible part” like the scraps from your dinner veggies. You can save these scraps in a freezer safe container until you have enough for a batch of stock.

Add your vegetables, typically carrots, onion, celery, plus garlic, herbs and olive oil to a large pot and add water. Simmer for 3 hours.

Chicken Stock - Simmer Time 5 Hours

You can use Vegetable Stock as a base for a Chicken Stock by adding a leftover chicken carcass from your chicken donner. Just strip all the usable meat from the chicken and add the bones to a pot of Vegetable Stock. Finish by straining through a mesh strainer to get all the bones.

Beef Stock - Simmer Time 7 Hours+

Set your bones out on a baking sheet and cover with neutral oil to aid in the browning process. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 mins. Removed from the oven and put in a large pot with any vegetables or herbs you want and cover with either water or a previously prepared Chicken Stock.

Our Grass Fed Beef, Pasture Raised Heritage Pigs, and Pasture Raised Chickens may require a slight change in how you may have cooked on the past, or perhaps you are a new home cook looking for the basics. Their lifestyle can lead to a more flavorful cut of meat, and a bit more density to their muscles.

Oils & Fats

Oils and Fats are essential to flavorful recipes. If you are watching your cholesterol, you can use fats like olive oil to add flavor, while keeping the cholesterol levels down. Sadly Olive Oil can get an acrid flavor and smoke at too low of a temp for some recipes. That is when you need something like avocado oil (520 degrees) or Flaxseed Oil (450 degrees).

For the fullest flavor, there is no substitute for natural animal fats. You can render your own Tallow (beef fat) or Lard (pig fat) and it will store for up to 6 months on a shelf, or longer if properly canned or vacuum sealed and frozen.

The best way to accomplish this is to take your still frozen fat and break it up into small pieces (a cheese grater can make easy work of this task, giving you nice small pellets of fat that will render easily.

The next step is to add a small amount of water in a crock pot on low and slowly add your fat, a little at a time. This process is best done OUTSIDE (Your house will smell like hamburger/pork grease for days if you do this inside. You have been warned).

Overtime, your fat will render down into Tallow/Lard. As it melts, you can skim off any blood vessels or impurities that float on the surface. Once all of your fat is melted, you can pour though a strainer and cheese cloth to catch any chunks of un-rendered fat and bits of meat you may have missed.

The final step is to transfer to a preferred containment. If you are planning on canning/jarring, it is recommended you transfer the fat to a sanitized pot and reheat to 165 degrees before pouring into sterilized canning jars for storage.

Tips for Grass Fed Beef

Prep Tips for Grass Fed Steak

Add Fat

Our Regenerative Beef is raised without hay, or very minimal amounts of hay. That means it may have reduced fat content compared to what you may be used to, with a more intense flavor similar to Bison. This is because hay has to be grown and shipped to where the cows are. Feeding livestock with fodder like hay greatly increases the amount of greenhouse gasses and water needed to get that animal to market weight. Rather than bring the hay to the cows, we bring the cows to the grass, helping manage the grasslands we and our partners steward.

Because of these farming methods, it can be good idea to add fats to the beef you are cooking. Fats help hold flavor. You can reserve pork fat to add to your cooking, but olive oil is also a great fat you can use in your cooking to help your beef dishes be more flavorful, while taking it easier on your cholesterol.

Plan ahead

You just spent $35 on a rib eye. We want you to get the most out of it because our farmers put a great deal of effort into that steak. There is nothing more satisfying that getting an amazing result from a home cooked meal.

Step 1: Take your steaks out of the freezer 48 hours before you want to cook it. Thaw in the refrigerator on a plate in case the plastic seal has failed in the thawing process.

Step 2: Now that it is thawed, its time to start the real prep work. Pat the steak dry. Rub the steak down with a good oil. The oil is to help the salt stick to the steak. Give the steak a liberal dusting of coarse kosher salt or sea salt (your preference). Now cover and allow the steak to rest in the refrigerator up to 24 hours. You can get away with doing it in the early morning, so long as the steak is fully thawed. If you forget to salt your meat 24 hours ahead of time, don’t fret: salt it as soon as you get home from work. Any salting ahead will help to make your grass-fed meat come out great!

Tempering Meat

Allowing meat to come to room temperature before you begin the cooking process. This is vital to ensuring the internal temperature comes up faster, giving a better browning on the outside and a more even doneness.

Searing

Add some oil or fat to your pan. Get the pan nice and hot, until your oil is slightly shimmering. As soon as you place the steak in the pan, you should hear a good sizzle. Cook a steak at this heat for 3-5 minutes for a Medium Rare steak.

Reverse Sear

The reverse sear is ideal for thicker cuts of meat, such as a RIb Eye. This is accomplished by bringing the steak up to 130 (medium rare) in the oven set to 250-275 (depending on your oven). Followed by a short stint in a very hot pan to brown. The best fat to use is going to be butter, rendered lard, or tallow. You can also throw in a crushed garlic clove and some fresh herbs.

Butter basting helps add fat back to a steak and helps in the browning process.

The Reverse Sear is a great way to ensure your nice premium steak is cooked just right with the least worry of over or undercooking.

Scoring

Scoring is making a series of shallow cuts in a roast, or certain kinds of steaks with lots of connective tissues. You may have attempted to brown or sear a roast or skirt steak, and have it curl up, making it difficult to get it to cook evenly. That curling is from tendons and other connective tissues tensing up as they cook. By severing these connective tissues, you can help make sure your piece stays flatter.

Braising

Braising the process of cooking down a piece of meat over a long period of time in an oven, semi submerged in a liquid. This process is perfect for any roast, while guaranteeing a moist, yet flavorful dinner.

Give the roast a good pat dry, then rub down with a neutral oil. Give it a good salting, then rest the roast for 24 hours in the fridge. As always temper your meat by removing from the fridge and allowing to come to room temperature prior to beginning the cooking process.

In your Oven Safe Pot, add a bit of neutral oil to the bottom. Let this come to temp (the oil will shimmer), add your tempered roast to the pan. Brown each side as needed.

At this point, you can add your aromatics such as carrots, garlic, onion, celery, and any favored herbs to the pot. Add enough stock to 1/4-1/2 the height of the roast.

Place the roast in the oven on 300 with the lid slightly ajar. Cook for 2.5 hours or longer.

Tips for Pasture Raised Pork

PREP TIPS FOR PASTURED PORK

Ice Water Bath

Best used for delicate pieces. If you have the time, this is a great way to prep your pork. Place the cut at the bottom of a bowl (one with a sealing lid is best). Add some ice and sprinkle some salt on top. Then cover with cold water. Cover with the lid and allow to soak until the ice is melted. The will help draw albumin and other impurities still in the vessels of the meat out, giving you a better, cleaner flavor. You will see a film of dead cells form on the surface of the water. Simply remove the meat, rinse under cold water and pat dry before applying seasonings or browning.

Quick Pre Cook Boil

Best used with tougher pieces. One of the best first steps with cuts like pork ribs can seem counterintuitive is a short salt water boil. After just 15 mins, you will see a film on the surface of the water. This is albumin and other fluids from inside the vessels of the meat. Remove the meat from the water, and rinse under cold water. This extra step will ensure a good clean flavor to the meat.

KITCHEN TOOLS GLYPHS OFF SET HEAT-03.jpg

Offset Grilling

Low and slow is the secret to perfect pork on the grill. Having the meat on one side of the grill and the heat source on the other side, you can ensure a nice slow cook, helping render fat and breakdown connective tissues.

Tips for Pasture Raised Chicken

Cooking By Temperatures

Many of us are in a habit of checking visual signals that our chicken is done. Signs such as “clear juices” are something many of us have had ingrained by years of caution. This tried and true method is not often accurate with a pasture raised bird due to much more robust muscle mass than the barn raised birds you are used to.

A pasture raised chicken can pink at joints, while still reaching food safe temperatures of 165 degrees. This can be a major turn off to anyone that has gotten sick from undercooked chicken. Trust your thermometer. Unfortunately, an over cooked chicken can become tougher than you may be used to. Inserting the probe of your thermometer into multiple points is always a good idea.

Salt Rubs

Rubbing a whole chicken down with coarse kosher salt the night before is a great way to ensure you dry the skin of the chicken out, so you will get nice crispy skin with a shorter cooking time.

Brines & Marinades

A Pasture Raised Chicken has much more defined muscle mass and can be a little tougher than a conventional chicken. Using a Marinade or Brine is a great way to give yourself some extra cooking time to break down connective tissue, while ensuring it does not dry out. Our chicken is not kept in salt water, so you can control how much salt you use.

Spatchcock a Whole Chicken

KITCHEN TOOLS GLYPHS SPATCHCOCK CHICKEN-05.jpg

This method of splitting open a whole chicken can cut the cooking time in half for a whole chicken. Using a pair of kitchen scissors or a very sharp knife with practice, cut out the spine of the chicken. You can set that aside simmering to make some chicken stock. If you do this the night before you cook the chicken, you can take the time to apply a favorite herb rub or just a basic salt rub, cure, or marinade. Cook time for a Spatchcock Chicken is approx. 45 mins at 425 degrees. This is a reduced cooking time by about 1/3rd compared to cooking the chicken whole, because the body cavity is open, and heat is reaching everything more uniformly.