Beef steak flavor

my best guess would be to try grass finished beef.

as for chicken and pork you'll get no relief there. chickens have become monsters and they made the pork too lean so it tastes more like chicken

I have pondered this issue and did some research. Your taste buds go away with age, it sucks getting old! Google "taste buds and aging"

https://www.comfortkeepers.com/info...-changes-in-the-taste-buds-and-sense-of-smell

A hot cast iron skillet , salt n pepper , maybe some bacon grease . hard to beat simple. growing up in the 60's and early 70's I never remember eating much off of a grill besides blackened hot dogs or dried out hamburgers, a uncle made a stainless steak grill and give it to mom early 80's , had a lot of steaks off of it but lighter fluid taste is a sad reminder lol.

MountainMan said:

I’ve posted before looking for the old time beef flavor, but never found a satisfactory solution.

I want what I remember as a steak tasted like in the 60’s to 70’s.

I’ve tried EVERY cooking method and none of them have helped to get me close.

Before trying ageing at home I’ve tried expensive dry aged beef from famous butchers but only to find it more tender and with a funkier taster (not beefier).

Any suggestions as to where to I should go from here?

Grass fed?

Grass fed grain finished?

Or just accept it and move on to chicken and pork?

TNX,
MM

Click to expand...

The industrial beef world has changed, it's so much of a profit game the producers know almost to the day when they will send herds to the feed lots, how long they will stay there, and when they will be slaughtered. Craft beef (for lack of a better word) can be just the opposite.... a rancher might choose a particular breed, select better feed, finish them for 120 days and age the carcass for 14 to 21 days before butchering. A healthy steer with a low stress life, fed on quality pasture and finished on quality grain produces great tasting beef. Grass fed and grass finished often produces a slightly stronger flavor, but it's less marbled. Or the finish feed can be a blend. But all grain and grass are not the same, so that is a big variable.

I'm trying to recall when Angus began to replace Hereford beef, but my family raised Hereford cattle, so most of the beef we ate came from those herds. I do remember markets advertising Angus and I didn't think it was noticeably better. Now, some stores only carry Angus and it's rare to see any other breeds mentioned. "Certified Angus" (branded CAB) is a different story, and there is also "Certified Hereford" but that is less common.

Dry aging the primals will add flavor, but it reduces weight and has more waste when trimming... driving the price up. So that option is a give and take.

I enjoy a good grilled steak, but will cook less flavorful steaks like a fillet in a cast iron skillet or griddle.

Everything was better in the 60's and 70's!

Raise your own is the only way.

I think that a flatiron steak is tender and has a beefier flavor .... to me .. not a thick piece of meat though. we now prefer it to a lot of other cuts.

I'm sure you have a specific cut in mind but just in case....hanger is my favorite cut, I find it to be the beefiest of all the cuts I've tried. My friends wife says it is too "cowy" for her, which jives with what I believe about the cut. I buy untrimmed hanger from restaurant depot for around $5/lb, butcher it and vacuum/deep freeze. It is my goto cut when I have guests. Wegmans is the only place around me that carries it at around $20/lb for pretty tiny cuts.

I would suggest finding a local rancher that you could buy a half from. I believe in gass fed, grain finished. Black baldy type which is black with some white, usually head and chest. These are usually Angus, Hereford crossed.