Salt is a critical component of your food experience, and should not be taken for granted. There are a myriad of ways in which salt interacts with the food you make, and understanding how it functions will allow you to improve the output in the kitchen or on the grill.

Beef on its own has incredible flavor just waiting to be unlocked, however like all meat it is very low in naturally occurring sodium. Salt interacts with the protein in beef to release aroma compounds, meaning that without a good amount of salt, you will taste less of your beef.

In this post, we are going to dive in to some of the critical aspects of salting - what kinds of salt you would want to use (and critically, which ones to avoid), how much to use and when.

What kinds of salt should I use?

At first glance, salt seems pretty straight forward. Salt is salt, right? Not so fast.

Sodium chloride, the primary compound we know as salt primarily functions as a flavor enhancer and moisture regulator in beef. While it can help to break down proteins and release amino acids, its effects are generally more pronounced when used in combination with other minerals and compounds, which will be found in much greater quantities in harvested sea salt. These minerals can help to enhance the flavor and texture of beef by facilitating the breakdown of proteins and the release of amino acids which are then converted into flavorful compounds that our taste buds can detect, a process known as proteolysis.

However, there can be hidden dangers lurking in some of these salts, primary in the form of heavy metals and microplastics. While these certainly pose systemic risks to our health, it should be noted that our salt intake is going to usually remain low as a relative amount of total consumption each day. Even so, finding salts that can strike a balance between higher minerality with low heavy metals and microplastics is the optimal approach.

There’s also table, salt manufactured with consistency and “purity” in mind. Sadly these will often include all sorts of unwarranted additives:

• anti-caking agents like calcium silicate, sodium aluminosilicate to prevent clumping

• fluoride added to purportedly prevent tooth decay (the research on this appears far from conclusive, and recent research points at it lowering IQ)

Not only do salts have different compositions, they also take on a myriad of shapes. There’s fine grain and coarse grain which most people are already familiar with. Then there is kosher salt, which has a more irregular shape making it easier to pinch with your fingers and sprinkle more evenly on your food. Finally there is flake salt that can add incredible texture when sprinkled on just before serving.

For every day use, Diamond Crystal salt works great, however it’s owned by Cargill which is one of the more evil food conglomerates so there’s a tradeoff there. For unrefined mineral sea salt, I have been testing out Baja Gold which has amazing flavor. There are other mineral sea salts from further down the mexican coast near Colima that also seem promising. For flake salt Maldon is a mainstay, and although they have had some questionable lab tests that may indicate higher lead content, when used sparingly this issue is diminuitive.

How much salt should I use and when?

When it comes to the amount of salt, a general rule of thumb is to use 4-5 grams of per pound (10 grams per kilo) for beef. This can vary a bit depending on the type of cook you intend to do. A roast seemingly requires more salt, but that’s in part because there’s a good deal of braising liquid that will need to also be sufficiently salted.

The question on when to salt is dependent on what kind of cut you're salting. For larger roast cuts, a dry brine overnight will allow for greater penetration of the salt into the meat. For steak cuts you can either dry brine or just wait to salt before serving. The main difference here is that a roast will often be a thicker cut and needs more time for the salt to penetrate into the cut of meat. (In all honesty, you can often get away with only salting a steak after it has been cooked, this also allows you to use more flaky salt which adds a nice textural element).

If you have opted to dry brine, you should have at least 3-4 hours of time to let it absorb, and preferably 12-18 hours. Going longer than 24 can lead to a ham-like texture and flavor that may not be as desirable.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Many people will associate ground beef with being a more boring version of meat, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It does, however, highlight whatever flavors are inherent in the original animal, and as such, sourcing from a quality producer like a small family farmer makes a big difference.

Because of this under-appreciation of ground beef, many will simply put the slab of ground beef in a pan and then break it down as it cooks, often far beyond a reasonable level of done-ness. But sadly in most instances, cooking ground beef to well done is warranted as many retail packages of ground beef is made from dozens of different animals whose wellbeing prior to slaughter is unknown. Compare that to a reputable butcher that is processing one animal at a time, where you are able to validate and verify the health of the animal through the farmer prior to butchering. You can feel much more confident cooking that at a lower temperature (or not using heat at all).

The mission: develop flavor without overcooking

A well executed ground beef dish will accomplish two things: good amounts of browning without turning the beef into the protein-equivalent of sawdust. Using a hot pan is critical to achieving Maillard reaction, but breaking the meat down as it cooks will almost guarantee overcooking.

The solution to achieving both of these goals is to cook the ground beef as patties or even smash burgers, which allows you to that desired crust without overcooking the middle. Others have come to the same realization, including Case Bradford1.

Adding sodium chloride makes sense, but sodium bicarbonate?

Meat has inherently low levels of salt, but just a small amount can bring out an immense amount of flavor in your meat and make it much more enjoyable. Using 4-5 grams or 1 tsp per pound of meat. Additionally, I have recently been experimenting wtih the addition of baking soda to my ground beef. Below is a 90 second primer on why you should start adding baking soda to your beef:

Baking soda is an ingredient commonly used in Asian cooking, and it aids in creating a texture that retains more moisture and improves the overall quality. After numerous experiments, I have landed on 1.5-2g (or 1/3 tsp) per pound of ground beef being the right amount to improve the texture without affecting the flavor.

Cast iron vs. stainless - can’t we all just get along?

There has been extensive debate across the internet, particularly on Bitcoin Twitter, as to whether cast iron pans are superior to stainless steel pans. There is a misconception that cast iron offers an advantage with regards to their seasoning and the ability to function as a nonstick pan - a stainless steel pan can achieve as good, if not better, nonstick properties. As the steel surface heats up, it reaches a point where the moisture evaporates and creates a a very thin steam barrier on the surface, making it much harder for food to stick, known as the Leidenfrost effect2.

The real debate between stainless and cast iron is related to heat retention. Cast iron pans have greater mass resulting in better heat retention, meaning that when you put cold food into the hot pan, the surface temperature doesn’t drop as significantly. This is particularly useful when frying as once you lose the optimal frying temperature range it can be difficult to recover quickly.

The question then is, how do you know when the pan has reached the temperature necessary for this effect to kick in? Roughly speaking, the pan needs to reach around 350 degrees Fahrenheit and stay there for a few minutes before this effect takes hold. The way to figure out if the pan is ready is to pour a little bit of water into the pan. As the pan passes 212 degrees, water that hits the pan will immediately start to bubble and evaporate. This will become more energetic as the heat continues to rise until eventually it reaches a point where the water no longer evaporates immediately but instead beads up and flows around the surface of the pan, mimicking the way mercury appears. At this point, the pan is ready to be used.

Back to the beef - my method for preparing ground beef

For the preparation, I will take out a pound of ground beef, pat it dry to remove some of the excess moisture, and place it in a metal mixing bowl. From there, I will weigh out two grams of baking soda and four grams of salt, and incorporate it with my hands. The goal here is to get all of the salt and baking soda integrated without overworking the meat, which will otherwise result in a meatloaf-like texture. I'll then let it sit in the bowl for the next five to ten minutes while I get the pan heated up.

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For a pound of ground beef being cooked in a 12-inch stainless steel pan, I will break up the ground beef into four balls, roughly four ounces each. I will take two at a time, place them into the pan, then use a spatula to press them down to around an inch thick to get an even distribution of meat. Having already salted the meat, there is no need to add more salt at this point. Having established good contact with the bottom of the pan, there will be a great browning effect that will take place.

After about 60-90 seconds on that side, use the spatula to peel the patty off the bottom of the pan, flip it over, and depending on the thickness, you will only need a brief amount of time on the second side to complete the cooking process. Then move them out into a bowl, scrape out any remaining fond or bits from the pan, restore the desired temperature range, and then place the other two balls in and smash once more. Once all four are complete, you can use the spatula or another utensil to break apart the patties in the bowl until they have an even, coarse ground beef texture.

If you are sourcing good quality meat, the flavor of this end product—just beef, salt, a little baking soda, and some tallow in the pan—will be absolutely fantastic. However, for many, that can get to be boring or redundant, and there is a desire to make different kinds of bowls with that ground beef. Here are a couple of different ideas: You can do a taco bowl where you add rice, salsa, cilantro, avocado, taco seasoning, lime juice, a little fish sauce, and pickled onions. You can do a burger bowl where you add ketchup, mustard, and crispy fried onions. You can also do a Japanese-inspired bowl with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, scallions, honey, and sesame seeds.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Braising brisket is going to consist of a couple of different primary components. There's going to be the initial cutting, the dry brine, the building of your braising liquid, the browning of the meat, and the browning of the aromatics. And finally, the assembly and cook time.

For the initial cutting, you're working with a brisket which makes it a lot easier—you don't need to trim around the bones. However, you're going to want to break it down a little bit to make it easier to work with in whatever braising vessel you're using. I will usually opt for larger lobes, roughly four by eight inches and at least a few inches thick. Keeping them in this shape will prevent overcooking, at least to a degree. Once the cooking is complete, you can always break it down into smaller bite-sized pieces if you so choose.

Now, our full brisket is going to be comprised of two main muscles, the point, and the flat. They kind of lay over the top of one another—one is leaner, the other is fattier. When you're braising, you might want to trim a little bit more of the fat relative to what you would normally have in a brisket. Although a lot of that fat will just naturally render out into the braising liquid. Once you've broken down your meat, you can start the dry brining process. Four to five grams of salt per pound is going to be your target. I do find it easiest to just use a scale to measure the salt and then evenly coat all the pieces. Once dry brining, place them on a rack in the refrigerator and leave it overnight. No longer than 36 hours. If you're doing it longer than 12 hours, you should flip them over every 12 hours as the side facing up will start to dry out faster.

Now that you've got your meat dry brining, you can start to think about the braising liquid that you're going to be building. You want to ensure that the braising liquid is flavorful. My standard approach is a chicken and/or beef stock base amplified with herbs and other umami bombs. So I will often incorporate tomato paste, better than bouillon, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, miso, tomato paste. There are a lot of options that you can pursue there. You can also add red wine if you're looking to go in the direction of more of a classic French braise or kind of a pot roast. And then for herbs, if you're going to do red wine, thyme goes really well with that. But I would say for the sake of keeping it more usable in a lot of different directions, just simply grabbing a couple bay leaves, some salt, pepper, maybe a little bit of garlic powder or onion powder, and then building up flavor using better than bouillon, tomato paste, fish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. If you're working with a whole brisket, let's say that it's about 10 pounds of meat, you're probably going to want to have at least two quarts of stock. You can always add liquid by adding water if you get everything assembled and you realize that there's not enough liquid to complete the braising, but then that dilutes the flavor. So you want to make sure you compensate for that. So with a 10-pound brisket, two quarts of stock, maybe a couple tablespoons, three tablespoons of better than bouillon, a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, a tablespoon of fish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.

The meat is going to have excess liquid, excess water weight that will come out and into the braising liquid. So having your braising liquid be a little bit on the more intense side is going to be helpful to ensure that it continues to remain flavorful after the braise is complete. So now that you have a rough idea of the braising liquid that you plan on building, now you can think about if you want to use vegetables and/or aromatics. I will often just do onions and garlic. If you're going to go with a more kind of a classic pot roast, you would go with carrots and onions, maybe some potatoes. If you're doing a French braise, you would do what's referred to as a mirepoix, which is carrot, celery, and onion. But I think that onions and garlic with a flavorful braising liquid, it does a bang-up job.

You also need to consider what type of braising vessel you're going to be using. Are you going to be using a Dutch oven? Are you going to be using a slow cooker? So you now have your meat dry-brined. And you've got your game plan in place. Now is when you start the assembly and prep. So meat comes out. You're going to use either a cast-iron skillet if you're going to be using a slow cooker or you're going to use the Dutch oven that you'll eventually be using. Overall, you're going to get that over medium-high heat. You do not want it to get super hot. All you're looking to do is get some brown crust developed on the outside of each of these pieces. The other advantage of keeping these meat chunks on the larger side is that it is a little bit easier to work with during the browning process. You're going to use some kind of healthy fat whether it's tallow or clarified butter. A higher smoke point is going to be helpful but you want to be targeting about 350 to 360 as a surface temperature. Not only does it start to smoke and degrade the oils that you're using if you go higher than that temp range, but all of the beautiful brown flavor that builds up on the surface of the vessel you're cooking this in will start to black in and you won't want to use that in the assembly of the braise because, in part, a bitter flavor. So by keeping that temperature in the 350 to 360 range, you're going to get browning development without charring. So work your way through all of those cuts of meat.

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Once complete, you can just transfer them back onto the rack that you are dry-brining on. Don't worry about cooked meat coming into contact with the rack that held raw meat because all of this is going to be going into the braise for multiple hours. If you are going to be incorporating vegetables, whether it's onions or carrots or anything else, having those chopped and ready to put into the same vessel you use to brown the meat right away will allow you to then scrape up a lot of the brown stuff stuck to the edges and the bottom of the pan. If you're using onions, don't salt them right away. Give them some time to start to develop a little bit of a brown and again, manage the heat so that you aren't getting too many black, crusty pieces of onion. Once you start seeing some color on them, you can add salt to taste.

When it comes to the assembly of the braising liquid, I'm using frozen stock. So I'm gonna start filling those out before I start browning the meat. If your stock is already in the refrigerator, you can just add that to a separate pot, start to warm that up. Or you can wait and just pour that in after you've finished sorting any of the other ingredients you plan on having in the braise. For some of the ingredients like the better than bouillon, tomato paste, miso. All of those are thicker pastes. And it is best to first put those into a separate smaller bowl, add a little bit of stock, and start to break those down and get those into a runnier consistency before you add it to the bulk of the liquid, the braising liquid. Otherwise, you'll just have big clumps of tomato paste or better than bouillon that doesn't really come apart and dissolve. So, start building your braising liquid, get it to a point where you're satisfied with the flavor. Oftentimes, if it doesn't have enough of a standout flavor, using fish sauce is going to help to open that up. Worcestershire sauce also accomplishes the kind of amplification of flavor.

So now you should have your brown meat, your aromatics, your braising liquid. Make sure you add a couple bay leaves to that if you're using a Dutch oven. Once you have finished with all the browning, you can strain off some of the fat that was being used in there. But because you're using brisket, there's going to be plenty of other fat that renders out so you might just want to wait until the end to skim some of that off. If you're using a slow cooker, you don't have to worry about skimming or removing the fat initially because it's not in there. So you'll then start to assemble and the meat, liquid aromatics, bay leaf, herbs, whatever else needs to go in there. All gets assembled, the amount of liquid that you're using. You don't need it to completely cover all the meat. The meat is going to shrink down. Waterways inside of the meat is going to leach out and it's going to find a new equilibrium. Plus if you have some meat sticking out that will, if you're using a Dutch oven, that will continue to add to the browning development.

For a Dutch oven, if you can put it at the lowest setting that your oven will allow. I am a huge proponent of braising at around between 165 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit. This takes longer than what is normally recommended, raising it to 25 to 250 or even higher. But this prevents the muscle fibers from breaking down too much and subsequently not being able to reabsorb the liquid as easily. Oftentimes, this process can take upwards of 12 to 14 even 16 hours depending on the size of the cuts of meat. But the patience will be rewarded. Getting this all assembled in the morning, and then having it ready in the evening is a pretty solid move. You can also always assemble it in the evening, then have it run overnight and then throughout the morning, and towards lunchtime, you can kind of occasionally test the meat to see if it's tender enough if it's ready to be pulled.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

What will follow is my personal distillation of insights and techniques for cooking the perfect steak, cobbled together through years of research and testing. While there is no “one way” to cook a steak, knowing why you choose to do something (or not do something) is critical to the goal of elevating the centerpiece of your dinner.

A word on sourcing

In almost all the steak articles and recipes you’ll find online, what gets overlooked is the source of the meat itself. Sure, you can go to the fancy butcher in town and get a beautiful steak for $50-80, but when buying in bulk you can pay closer to $20 for that same cut. This approach guarantees you both variety and quality without breaking the bank.

Sourcing is discussed at length in previous articles on this website. I encourage anyone arriving here for the first time to go back through the archives, in particular this one on how to find a good producer:

Aside from cost, another often overlooked advantage of buying in bulk is the ability to provide custom specifications for the cutting of your steaks. While many steaks, particularly ribeyes, are typically cut to a standard 1-inch thickness, opting for a heftier 1.75 to 2-inch cut allows for a more controlled cooking process, ensuring a juicy, evenly cooked steak.

With a great cut of meat procured, the task at hand is to honor the animal by executing on the preparation. Before going through my primary strategies for getting great results every time, I want to briefly touch on some of the cooking methods I don’t recommend.

How not to cook a steak

Traditionally, cooking a steak has meant placing it on high heat, either in a pan or over a grill, to develop browning or a crust on the exterior. Then, it's moved to a lower temperature to allow the inside to cook until the desired doneness is reached. The problem with this method is that in order to cook the interior to the desired medium-rare, you will have a large portion of the steak that is overcooked. What’s missing from this method is temperature control.

Enter the "sous vide"method. A French term that translates to “under vacuum”, the steak is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and then cooked in a water bath at a precisely regulated temperature. However, there are two critical factors that make me uninterested in sous vide.

Cooking meat in a sealed plastic bag eliminates the ability for the steak to concentrate its flavors through the evaporation of moisture - the juices will remain in the bag and the steak submerged in liquid. When you subsequently sear the steak before serving, the moisture content will still be high and will lower the surface temperature while steaming off the liquid, lowering the potential for a great crust.

Another significant issue with sous vide is cooking food in a plastic environment. We're surrounded by plastic – it's in our food, water, and clothing - leading to an unprecedented saturation of microplastics in our bodies. While it is often argued that the plastic used in sous vide doesn't leach byproducts or chemicals into the food until it reaches a higher temperature, I'm not willing to take this risk. Frankly, there are better methods to achieve the same temperature control without using plastic.

The good news is that you can get the benefits of temperature control like you would from sous vide without the plastic, but more on that later.

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But enough with the preambles. What follows is my step-by-step guide to cooking an incredible steak, along with explanations as to why to take this approach.

Step #1 - dry brine

Brining is a term used to describe soaking a cut of meat in salty water. Dry brining simply removes the water from that equation by applying the salt directly to the cut of meat and letting it sit in the refrigerator. This method has gained significant interest in recent years due to being a far superior method, and here’s why:

Your average cut of beef is about 75% water with lots of water-soluble flavor compounds. When you submerge a steak in a briny liquid, there is an exchange of fluid that will unfold, resulting in some salt being imparted into the meat at the expense of flavor compounds getting flushed out into water bath.

In contrast, when salt is applied directly to the surface of the meat, it starts by drawing moisture to the surface and the salt is dissolved. After about an hour, the now salty moisture will be reabsorbed, drawing that salt deep into the steak. If left uncovered in the fridge, the steak will then start to evaporate any remaining moisture from the surface.

Method: To dry brine, use approximately 1 gram of salt per 100 grams of meat (or 4.5 grams per pound). Apply evenly to all sides of the cut, then place uncovered on a metal rack nested in a sheet pan or plate in the fridge.

How long? At least a few hours, ideally overnight. Most steaks can handle 2-3 days before the outside starts to toughen and the meat begins to effectively cure.

Step #2 - get a digital thermometer

I don’t understand the fascination with people wanting to cook meat without the use of a temperature probe. Sure, if you’re a line cook and are making the same dish hundreds of times a week, you start to build muscle memory on how long it should take. But it’s 2023 and humanity has created instant-read thermometers that allow you to literally look inside your food as it cooks. The gold standard is the Thermapen by Thermoworks, although there are upstart competitors that could also be worth trying. Either way, this is a tool you should absolutely have in your toolbelt. Another very useful thermometer is a leave-in probe, which allows you to keep tabs on your meat while it’s in the oven and ensure you don’t overshoot your desired temperature.

Step #3 - low and slow at first

It may seem counterintuitive to place a steak uncooked in a lukewarm oven, but that is exactly what I’m suggesting you do. By starting out in a low temperature environment, the steak is allowed to come up to your desired internal temperature with greater uniformity than slamming it in a hot pan. Using a temp probe to monitor the temperature is critical in a standard oven because the temperature fluctuations can be 30-60° above and below that setting.1 However, if you set the oven to its lowest temperature, it won’t rise much above 200°F and you can still avoid the worst of the grey banding.

For those looking to upgrade this part of the cooking process, I have used an Anova Precision Oven for the past three years and have been thoroughly impressed. It allows for the same temperature control as you would get from a sous vide bath, but without the plastic.

Another option for this step is to use a smoker, which can be appealing for those who love the wood flavor normally imparted by a grill. However, be aware that pellet smokers can fluctuate in ambient temperature more than a standard oven, requiring close monitoring to prevent overcooking.

A word on temperature carryover

Reaching your desired internal temperature is largely dependent upon the ambient temperature outside your cut of meat. For example, if you are cooking a steak in a pan where the surface is 400°F, you can expect there to be a significant amount of carryover meaning that the force being exerted on the cut of meat is so substantial that it continues to push that heat into the meat even after you've removed it from the heat source.

Conversely, when the ambient temperature is 130°F there will be almost no carryover as it reaches that desired temperature. It’s another reason I appreciate the steam oven so much - when it arrives at the temperature that I want it at, I can simply turn it off and know that I have achieved that temperature.2

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Step #4 - rest the steak

Once your steak has reached the optimal desired internal temperature, putting it directly into a hot pan to sear will continue moving the cooking forward and result in an overcooked steak. Instead, put it back on the rack inside the sheet pan and let it rest in the fridge. The goal here is to reduce the surface temperature. (Don’t worry, the interior temperature barely drops.) And in doing so, it means that once you are ready to sear, that sudden shock of intense heat is not overcook the steak.

A thicker steak can hang out in the fridge for up to an hour without losing internal temperature, but 20-30 minutes is plenty.

After resting, pat the meat dry to remove any excess moisture. Moisture will undermine the ability to quickly form a good crust because the steam emitted with lower the surface temperature.

Step #5 - the final sear

The Maillard reaction is defined in this Serious Eats article as: “many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavors, aromas, and colors.“ It’s where huge amounts of flavor development occurs, and a critical part of making a basic steak into a magical sensory experience.

There is a lot of contention as to whether a cook is better when grilled vs pan seared. Unless you have an Argentine grill that you intend to keep hot for the whole day, or you’re cooking a Beefsteak for 200 people, getting the final sear on a steak that has been reverse-seared is going to be impractical. For an average weeknight dinner, pan seared in cast iron is the way to go. And while I love the flavor developed by cooking over open fire, this is just as easily achieved by reverse searing on the smoker first.

Does a hotter pan create a better crust?

People will often believe that the only way to get a good crust is to get a pan absurdly hot. Yet hotter doesn’t mean better - in fact, quite the opposite. Once you go beyond 400°F, charring will begin to happen. And while a bit a of char flavor might be desirable, too much can mask the fantastic flavors that were created by the Maillard reaction. By cooling the surface prior to searing, you give yourself more time to build a crust without ending up with too much char. Plus, if you have any desire to make a pan sauce, you’ll want to avoid the burned flavor in your fat and fond. (Your spouse will also appreciate not having the whole place smell like smoke.)

To sear, get your pan heated to about 380-400°F3, then add a healthy fat with a high smoke point (tallow or ghee are my personal favorites for this task), enough fat to cover the bottom of your pan. Place the steak into the pan and leave undisturbed for 30 seconds, then flip every 30 seconds for 4-6 minutes. It may not seem like much is happening at first, but patience will be rewarded.

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Another advantage of the reverse sear: upon finishing the final sear you can carve and serve right away. Resting your steak is normally required to ensure better moisture retention, but this is largely a result of the heat continuing to increase and constricting the muscle fibers. Because the final sear doesn’t have a massive impact on the internal temperature, this step is no longer necessary.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

When buying beef in bulk, you will hopefully have requested to have as much of the yield as possible (refer back to the article “Working with the Butcher” for more on that topic). We also already talked about how to convert all of that beef fat by “Rendering Tallow”, the next important task is learning how to make the most of your stock bones.

The stock you can purchase at a grocery store will largely fall into two categories: inferior product made from the trimmings off of feedlot beef, or egregiously expensive. While the bones themselves are not edible (despite best attempts by my kids), there are a ton of nutrients that will be wasted unless those bones spend some time bathing in some hot water. When done right, stock is chocked full of minerals, protein, branched-chain amino acids.1 And when buying your beef share in bulk you pay by hanging weight which includes all of the bones, so you can consider it as free byproduct.

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Breaking down the process

Step 1: Soak and rinse your bones before turning on the heat

Your stock parts will likely still have some residual blood in them, which if left in the stock will add an undesirable bitter flavor. Soak the bones in cold water for 30-45 minutes, then drain and add fresh water.

Step 2: Add water and salt, then gradually bring to a boil

Keep count as you add quarts of water until you have covered the bones completely in water. For every quart of water, add 1-2 grams of salt.

Extraction will be optimal between 185-195F. Going above 200F is where the proteins will start to denature and the remaining coagulated blood and impurities will dissolve into the liquid and not be easily strained out.

Step 3: Keep in that temperature range for 4-6 hours

Simmering your bone stock for 12-24 hours is not necessary to achieve a fantastic extraction. In fact, studies have show that simmering beyond 4-6 hours can lead to a substantial increase in the histamine levels in your stock.2

Step 4: Strain (and optionally reduce)

Use a pair of tongs to pull out the large bones first before attempting to pour the liquid off into another metal or glass vessel with a fine mesh strainer.3 Try to pour slowly such that the refuse that accumulates at the bottom of the pot.

At this point you can transfer the strained liquid into storage containers and freeze. However, I will often rinse out the pot and return the stock, bringing it back to a simmer to reduce for another 1-2 hours, resulting in less space taken up in the freezer.

The process is a bit time consuming, but by doing large batches at a time you will end up with a bounty of stock in your freezer, ready for your next meal.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

“What happens if my freezer breaks or the power goes out?”

This is a very common question that comes up in conversations about buying beef in bulk, and is absolutely a consideration that needs to be taken into account. After all, cold storage only works if you keep it cold.

Here are a few key strategies to prevent your meat from prematurely thawing out:

1. Freezer thermometers w/ alarm

Many will assume things are fine as long as the power to the house is working, but I have heard countless horror stories about a freezer door left ajar or a circuit breaker being tripped without being noticed. The temperature inside your freezer is the best data point to monitor and can be done quite easily with a purpose-built thermometer.

You’ll find plenty of basic freezer alarms on Amazon like this one, but their accuracy and build quality are likely questionable. For an upgraded option, look at Thermoworks (makers of the renown Thermapen) who have a whole section of their site dedicated to Fridge/Freezer Thermometers.

A wifi-enabled unit can be extremely useful for receiving alerts while away from home, but be cautious about the options available on Amazon as the companion apps may require giving up all sorts of unwarranted permissions on your device before allowing you to use it. If you do want to take advantage of a smart-thermometer I would recommend using Home Assistant, however be prepared to put a bit more effort into sourcing and setup.

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2. Redundant power sources

When you’re storing large quantities of frozen food at home, you don’t want to wait until the power goes out to figure out how to keep the compressor running. One option is to purchase a solar panel and battery combo, which you can plug into the freezer overnight and recharge during the day. I have had a GoalZero combo for a few years, but there are other options out there including one from Anker. This type of solution is intended to be temporary and doesn’t solve for a lack of power in the rest of the home.

For a more robust solution to power outages, a fuel-based generator is a wise investment. Generac is a well-known brand and offers whole-house generators, but a more budget-friendly portable generator like this one from Firman offers flexibility with the fuels you can use.

For all of the above options, you can also work with an electrician to install a transfer panel which allows you to switch some of your home’s circuit breakers over to an alternate power source while the main line to the house is out.

3. Backup freezer space

If the compressor on your freezer stops working, no amount of backup power will help your cause. And while you may end up hiring an appliance repair service to come resolve the issue, the contents of your freezer will likely be ruined by then. An extra chest freezer may seem excessive, but it can also be useful for storing the contents of your freezer while removing the frost that has built up.

After all, the correct number of chest freezers to own is one more than you currently have.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Subscribe now

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

The insights shared below were gained in my experimentation and have yielded my current recipe. Even that is by no means definitive, however, and is likely to be amended as I continue to discover new approaches.

Brisket, always a popular cut of beef, has become even more so in recent decades with the increasing use of pellet smokers. These devices have made what was once a somewhat challenging subprimal cut much more accessible. High in both fat and connective tissue, brisket requires a long cooking process in order to properly render that fat and convert all the collagen into gelatin.

As the brisket is the largest single cut you’ll receive when buying a half or whole cow in bulk, it’s well worth learning how to approach cooking it without resorting to trial and error. Here are a few optimizations I have started to employ based on experiments over the past couple of years.

Tip #1: Learn how to trim from the pros

Trimming is a critical step that can have a huge impact on your final result. Leave too much fat on the outside and it won’t be fully rendered out. Leave pointy edges and they’ll burn. Carve into the meat too much and you’ll create heat pockets that will overcook some of the best parts of the brisket.

As I’m not really a brisket expert, I refer you to some other great resources online, such as this video by Jirby at Goldee’s BBQ:

I also recommend this mini-seminar that Aaron Franklin gave at Texas A&M:

If you don’t want to take on this process yourself, when filling out your cut sheet, ask your butcher to pre-trim the brisket to be ready for smoking.

Once the meat is trimmed, you can go in a couple of different directions. Most cooks will apply a dry rub just before putting the meat on the smoker, but I’ve started adopting a new method:

Tip #2: Consider dry brining the whole brisket

Dry-brining a brisket is no different than dry-brining a steak. When you add salt to the surface of the meat, it initially draws moisture out. This moisture then dissolves the salt, creating a brine that is reabsorbed into the meat, allowing the salt to penetrate deeper into the cut.

For the dry brine, use roughly 3 grams of salt per pound of meat, and make sure you use a good salt that doesn’t have anti-caking agents or other additives (my favorites are Redmond, Celtic Sea Salt and Diamond). Spread the salt evenly over the surface of the brisket.

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Tip #3: Don’t rush the final stages of the cook

The crux of my latest experimentation was determining the ideal final cook temp and how to get it. The common thinking in cooking briskets is that you should achieve an internal temperature of around 203-04°F. You will then have rendered out most of the fat and broken down the collagen. However, as you approach that high internal temperature, muscle fibers begin to constrict and their ability to retain moisture is degraded.

"Short ribs and other tough cuts of meat contain lots of tough collagen. To make such cuts tender and succulent, you must convert the collagen to gelatin through chemical reactions that occur only at temperatures of 55°C/122°F and higher. The hotter the meat, the faster the conversion happens. But there is a trade-off: high heat also squeezes more juices out of muscle fibers and accelerates the unraveling of proteins." ~Modernist Cuisine at Home p.227

Have you ever had a braised beef dish where the meat was literally submerged in liquid for the duration of the cook, only to find that it still tasted dry and chalky? That's precisely what's being described above. If you want to dive deeper into the technical details of what is happening at various temperature stages, the Science of Cooking has a great breakdown.

As a result, I decided to incorporate some advice from CJ Wilson, who suggests finishing the brisket at a temperature of around 193°F, 10 degrees lower than the standard recommendation. CJ then allows for a longer resting phase in a cooler. As the meat cools down, it starts to re-absorb the moisture that was squeezed out at higher temperatures.

I don’t like wrapping my brisket. I find it cumbersome and annoying.

In looking for an alternative, I decided to leverage my Anova Precision Oven. It’s the perfect size for a full-sized brisket1, but has the added benefit of being able to maintain 100% humidity, ensuring that there is plenty of moisture available to be re-absorbed into the meat. And by avoiding going beyond 193°F, I have been able to drastically reduce the amount of muscle fibers that are ruptured.

Other nice things about the Anova steam oven are its built-in probe and its configurability. I can plug it in, set it to an oven temperature of 200°F and tell the oven to monitor the temperature probe. Once a probe temp of 193°F is reached, it will switch to a new stage of the cooking process and drop the oven temperature to 155°F. This is all done automatically.

In summary, an optimal brisket cooking method that is reliable and user-friendly:

1. Trim and dry-brine the brisket 12-24 hours before you start cooking.

2. Coat the brisket in pepper, then place it on the smoker at 200°F until it reaches 160°F internal temp.

3. Transfer it to a steam oven at 200°F and set the temp probe for 193°F.

4. Once the target internal temp is reached, drop the oven temp to 155°F (or just shut it off and leave it closed).

5. Can be sliced and served at any point after 1-2 hours of rest time.

   

   Primal Cut Sheet is a reader-supported publication featuring ideas, resources and insights on sourcing and cooking animal protein.

   

   The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

   This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

   If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

   60 minute consultation

   

   By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

One of the best reasons to buy a side of beef is the bounty of fat you can render into tallow, possibly the best cooking fat in the world. The effort is worthwhile when you run the numbers: fancy grass-fed tallow in 12-16 ounce retail containers will cost between $1.50-$2 per ounce. Compare that with the fat on a share of beef - you’ve already paid for that fat whether you take it or not, so you could easily consider it to be free.1

If you haven’t purchased a side of beef (which you absolutely should), you’ll need another way to source your beef fat. You could befriend a local butcher and ask if they have any extra fat they would otherwise be throwing away. The best fat to use is the leaf fat (also know as suet) which surrounds the kidneys, but any of the fat will be useful for rendering down.

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1. Prepare the fat for rendering

Once thawed, beef fat will be quite slippery so keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to start this process. Depending on current state of your beef fat, you’ll likely need to break it down into smaller pieces to improve the efficiency of heat transfer and subsequent rendering.

My advice: you should ask the butcher to run the tallow through their grinder - this will instantly make the whole process way easier. That said, if you can’t get the butcher to do it for you, it’s a great excuse to acquire a meat grinder!2

2. Transfer to heat and render

The best method for rendering fat is with a slow cooker, otherwise a pot on the stove over low heat will also work. If using the stove, just be mindful of temperature - above 284F will start to break down the fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins, which you want to preserve until cooking. The ideal temperature range is at or under 200F.

After coming up to temperature, stir occasionally to ensure fat hasn’t clumped together, as it will slow down the rendering process. The length of time required to render out the fat ultimately depends on the size of each chunk of fat, but usually 3-5 hours will be sufficient for ground fat or small chopped pieces.

You can optionally add water and salt for the rendering phase. While this is a bit more time consuming, it can result in a more neutral flavor which is great for cooking without tons of beefy flavor. As you begin rendering, cover the fat with water and add about 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of fat.

3. Strain and store

If you opted for the dry method, you can use a strainer with cheesecloth to pour the rendered fat right into your storage vessel. I prefer 16 oz wide-mouth mason jars, but any glass container will work.

If you opted for the wet method, strain into a metal bowl and place in the fridge overnight. The next day, separate the solid chunk of tallow from the water and scrape the bottom to remove any remaining sediment. You can store the chunk of rendered tallow in the freezer wrapped in butcher paper, or melt it down and transfer it to jars right away, the choice is yours.

Congratulations, you now have incredible high-heat cooking fat at a fraction of the retail price.

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Author’s note: While I could easily write an extensive article about saturated fats and how wrong modern medicine has been about the purported dangers, I’m more keen to get my guide on rendering/using tallow out the door first. For now, this 30 minute video titled “The $100 Billion Dollar Ingredient making your Food Toxic” is a great introduction to the topic.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Below are some examples of cut sheets you might receive from your butcher:

If you’re overwhelmed by what you see, that’s perfectly understandable. Cut sheets can often feel like a foreign language, and as should be evident there is no uniform approach. That said, they are all working with the same muscle groups found on a steer, so let’s first talk through some of the questions that will be asked almost every time.

The Most Common Cut Sheet Questions

1. Do you want bone-in or boneless steaks?

The most well-known steaks you’ll end up with from a half beef are from the rib and the loin section. If you select bone-in, you’ll get porterhouse, t-bone and rib steaks. If you select boneless, you’ll get new york strip, tenderloin and ribeye steaks. (Fun fact: the porterhouse steak is basically a new york strip and tenderloin combined by a t-shaped bone, more on this in the loin section of this chapter.) And as should be expected, your total take-home weight will be lower if you choose boneless.

2. How thick do you want your steaks cut?

Most butchers will offer choices between ¾” and 1½”, but you can specify larger ones if you want. Thinner steaks can be challenging to get a good sear without undermining the desired doneness of the interior. Just know that thicker steaks will result in less individual steaks. 

3. How many steaks do you want per package?

The default is 2 steaks per package, but the choice here should be based on how many you normally will look to thaw out at once.

4. What size roasts would you like?

A standard 6-7 quart slow cooker will easily accommodate a 4-5 lbs. roast cut. Also, bear in mind that it is important to provide a weight range - if you ask for an explicit roast size, they may trim down to meet your request and the excess gets added to your ground meat trimmings.

5. How would you like your ground beef packaged?

In most instances, you’ll be looking at 1 lb. individually packaged in a plastic sleeve (a.k.a the chub), however you may have options to do 2 lbs. or larger. Some butchers might charge per unit, so if you often will use 2 lbs. or more at a time that could be a great spot to save on cost. 

6. Do you want stew meat?

Stew meat refers to smaller lean cuts that were left over after trimming out other cuts from the side of beef. These will either be frozen together in batches to be used for stewing/braising, or you can forego this and the meat will just be added to what is used for your ground beef.

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With those primary questions sorted, each butcher sheet will specify a cut of the animal and ask you how you would like to have it processed. In many instances, the choice will be between keeping a given cut in roast form, slicing into steaks or sending it to be included in the ground beef.

What follows is a summary of primal sections of beef and some of the cuts to request from each:1

Chuck

The chuck section offers some of the best flavor in the entire side of beef. Most often butchers will ask if you want the section cut into 3-5 pound roasts because it’s the easiest option for them to do. There is also a nice amount of short ribs that come from the chuck primal. Other options you can ask for:

• Flat iron steak - pulled from the top blade muscle of the chuck, it has become popular in recent years.

• Denver steaks - cut from a long, flat muscle that runs along the underside of the chuck, these are very tender.

• Teres major - this muscle comes from the side of the shoulder and is used to extend the arm.

• Neck roasts - technically this is not part of the chuck, but is adjacent. The neck has incredibly tender meat and is great for slow braises.

Brisket

Brisket is the breast muscle and there's basically two major muscle muscles as part of the brisket. One is the fattier piece (the point), the other is the leaner section (the flat). A whole brisket is going to be usually in the range of 10 to 16 pounds, and so oftentimes people will split that. I recommend keeping it whole but that choice is up to you. If you do plan to smoke it, consider asking for “untrimmed” or “packer style”, this will allow you to have more control over keeping the right amount of fat coverage.

Alternatively, you could ask to save the point, and then send the lean section to the pile of meat that will be used to make your ground beef. That way you have a smaller section that you could smoke on its own, and being the fattier it will hold up even better to the smoker.

Rib

The king of the primal cuts, this is where the your earlier decision on whether to have your steaks bone-in or boneless really starts to come into play. If you opt for boneless ribeye steaks, you can opt to have the back ribs kept whole, a really fun cut to smoke. I personally find tomahawk steaks to be extremely overrated, but some people enjoy the novelty of a massive bone coming off their bone-in rib steak.

Plate

The plate section is usually fabricated into short ribs, either english-style square cut or korean-style flanken ribs. This is also where the hanger steak, and the inside/outside skirt steaks are pulled from. Ask specifically for them, otherwise they’ll end up in the ground beef.

Short Loin

Everyone knows the t-shaped bone, what they might not know is that one side is the NY strip steak, and the other side is the tenderloin. So if you go boneless, those would be your two options. Tenderloin starts thick and tapers off, the thicker part is where you get Porterhouse steaks. Once the tenderloin is below 1.25” wide, it can no longer be called a porterhouse and instead becomes a t-bone steak.

Sirloin

Some fun cuts come out of the sirloin primal, notably the sirloin steak, tri-tip, the flap steak and the picanha (a.k.a. the top sirloin cap). I will often send the remainder of sirloin to the grind

Round

Round is mostly quite tough and lean, making it great for jerky or beef tartare. While you can pull Santa Fe steaks and Sirloin Tip steaks from this primal, I opt to spare the butcher some effort on this section and send it all to the grinder, leaving them more willing to do a bit more work pulling out custom cuts from the other primals.

Shanks

Cross-cut shanks (a.k.a osso bucco) are incredible for braising, letting that marrow seep out into the broth. The other option would be to strip the meat off and have the bone sliced length-wise to end up with marrow boats. The downside for that is all that incredible shank meat will likely end up going to the grinder pile, but the texture of that meat when slow-cooked is some of the best on the entire side of beef.

The above breakdown is by no means exhaustive, it’s mostly intended to provide a brief introduction to all of the various sections of a side of beef. And just as there is no hard and fast rule on how butchers are supposed to structure their cut sheets, there is no one-size-fits-all for what each customer will want in terms of the processing of their meat purchase.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

In previous articles, we discussed the reason why you would want to buy in bulk, as well as how to connect with farmers in your area. Once you have decided on a farmer to work with and have reserved a share of their beef, it is time to connect with the butcher.

Unlike the farmer that is competing for your business with a range of other farmers in your area, there is most often a lack of small butcher operations. After decades of being squeezed out by large-scale meat packers, the independent butcher is in high demand amongst small farmers and ranchers who want to sell their beef directly to consumers, as it offers them a much higher profit margin.

And while you have a lot of flexibility in deciding what farmer to source your meat with, most farmers have already reserved a slaughter slot at a specific butcher for the animal they are planning to sell your beef from, and those slots are usually booked months in advance. If you like the farmer and plan to buy from them again but were disappointed in the quality of the butchering work, be sure to provide that feedback to the farmer so they can potentially seek out an alternative partner.

Here's a rough outline of how the bulk buying process plays out:

1. You make a down payment to the farmer to reserve your share of beef

2. Once the animal is slaughtered, the butcher will share the hanging weight of the carcass with the farmer, who will use that number to calculate the cost of the meat

3. Either the farmer or butcher will share cut sheet with you and ask you to fill it out

4. Once you provide instructions, the butcher will inform you when they plan to cut and when you can pick up

5. At pickup, you pay butcher for their cutting services and take delivery of meat

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Cut sheets vary from butcher to butcher, but most of the main themes remain. We won’t get into the details of the actual cut sheet today, that will be in next month’s issue (suffice to say, there is a lot to cover).

If you have a butcher that seems approachable and willing to accommodate requests, here are a few things you can ask about to improve the final product you take home.

Ask for everything (or ye shall not receive)

If you don't explicitly ask for organs, fat and soup bones, you probably won't get them - in fact, many cut sheets don't even mention these options.

• Organs - includes the heart, liver, tongue, kidney. It’s also worth asking if anyone else included in that beef wants organ meat - if they don’t you might be able to get it all at no additional cost.

• Fat - if you ask to keep the fat, they will just break it down into large chunks and put it in a box. Some butchers will run the fat through their meat grinder, making the rendering process far easier. I recommend 5 lbs. packages for ground fat.

• Other cuts - soup bones and oxtail are wonderful ingredients for stews and making your own stock. Beef cheeks are an incredibly tender cut, although some butchers aren’t allowed to salvage them (depends on the process they utilize to stun/kill the animal).

The wrap vs. the vacuum seal

Wrapping in butcher paper is the standard option offered by most butchers, however some will offer to vacuum seal your cuts for an additional fee. While this will cost extra, there are a number of upsides to vacuum sealing:

1. Much better at staving off freezer burn, extending the life of your frozen cuts

2. Easier to see what kind of cut you are working with before deciding to thaw it out

3. Allows you to thaw the cut of meat in water, which can speed up the process

One note however is that vacuum sealing makes the cuts of meat susceptible to light exposure, but if you’re only opening your chest freezer 1-2x per week to replenish your kitchen freezer, then this won’t be an issue.

The long hang

Dry aging is a critical part of the processing of an animal. This process involves storing the carcass in a refrigerated environment with controlled humidity, ventilation and UV lighting. For the natural enzymes that occur in beef to break down the muscle tissue and improve the texture of the meat, dry-aging needs to last at least 14 days. However, between 14-21 days is where the flavors really start to mature and intensify, resulting in a much tastier end product.

Most butchers will plan to hang sides of beef in their aging cooler for 14 days. You can try to ask if they will hang it for longer, but this request needs to be made prior to the animal arriving at the butcher. The reason being that once the side of beef is on the rail, moving it around can be a nuisance for the butcher.

Next month’s issue will be a more detailed breakdown of the cut sheet, including examples of different templates and my personal recommendations for how to approach them. Enter your email below if you’d like to be notified when each new article goes live.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

In previous articles we covered the primary questions to be answered before setting off on your quest to connect with a local farmer or rancher:

1. How much beef do I want to buy?

2. How much freezer space do I need?

3. Do I want to buy grass-finished or grain-finished beef?

You’re now ready to search for a producer who can supply you with top-quality beef. A lot will depend on how near you live to farmers and ranchers. Urban environments may seem far removed from pasture land, but most major US cities have at least one farmers market. These are well worth visiting – not just to meet beef producers but also because of the other fresh seasonal items you’ll find, such as eggs, honey, fruit and herbs. Here’s a useful directory of farmers markets across the country: www.farmersmarketplaces.com (LPT: Before you go to a market, be sure to look through its list of vendors, so you can avoid ones that just sell soap bars, trinkets and the like.)

The advantage of finding a beef producer at a farmers market is that you can start the conversation there and sample products before taking the bigger step of visiting their farm or investing in a bulk purchase.

Unfortunately, not all farmers markets will have a good beef producer on hand, so you’ll need to take your search online. You could begin at eatwild.com, which has state-by-state listings of ranchers and farmers. But be aware that these are almost exclusively producers of grass-finished beef.

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Another good resource is your local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which focuses on the sourcing good quality animal protein and other foods: www.westonaprice.org/find-nutrient-dense-foods - many local WAPF chapters have Facebook groups where you can ask other members for recommendations.

The USDA has a national portal for searching farms and markets, though this listing doesn’t seem complete. Still, there might be some options listed for your area that you wouldn’t otherwise find: www.usdalocalfoodportal.com

Some states have a website with a directory of small farm operations. Here’s an example of one for the state of Minnesota: https://minnesotagrown.com/member/

Finally, web searches using keywords like “regenerative” or “organic” beef along with your location should bring some useful results.

What questions should I be asking?

Many farmers have their own website where you can learn about their practices. This will allow you to vet the producers before you get to the market, as well as answering some questions you were going to ask them. When meeting them in person, you can get a sense of how much care they put into their work by their willingness to talk about the specifics of their operation. 

Below is a list of questions I often have for a farmer as well as some of the answers I look for.

• What do your animals eat?

• If grain-finished, what is the supplemental feed? How quickly is it introduced?

  • Soy is to be completely avoided, if possible.

  • Corn is not as bad as soy, but still preferably avoided.

  • Barley, alfalfa, peas and other cover crops are ideal.

• Do you use any chemicals/hormones/antibiotics?

  • While many argue that these won’t show up in the meat itself in high enough concentrations to be a concern, the use of these substances can mask underlying health issues that may impact the animal’s quality of life and the final output.

• Are the cows bred on your farm or elsewhere?

  • The more an animal is transported, the more stress it experiences. It is also much easier for a farmer to know everything about a given animal if it has been in his care since day one.

• How long does the butcher allow a side of beef to dry-age?

  • 14 days should be the minimum; 21 days is ideal if they are willing to accommodate

Key Takeaways

Establishing a relationship with the farmer is crucial. People raising the animals will be delighted to meet a prospective customer as interested in the quality of their products as they are.

• Search for farmers at markets, through local food groups or on the web.

• Find out how they are raising the animals. Don’t trust, verify.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, and a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Subscribe now

When it comes to sourcing beef, no debate has been fiercer than choosing between grain or grass. The difference seems obvious enough on paper: grass-finished steers subsist on a strict diet of fresh pasture or dry hay, whereas grain-finished steers receive other nutritional inputs than just grass. The choice has been painted as binary but is actually more nuanced.

You may have noticed that I referred to these two options as grass- or grain-"finished." That’s because in all instances the steers will have been raised on pasture, eating grass for most of their lives. The divergence usually begins only in the last six months.

During those final months, the producer has two basic choices:

• Move the steers to a feedlot where antibiotics and growth hormones are pervasive and the feed (often including chicken feces)1 has to be trucked in

• Continue to raise the animals on pasture, with or without additional feed.

Many feedlot operators will give their cattle a preventive ration of tylosin to mitigate liver acidosis. This ailment occurs when the diet of a ruminant animal is switched too drastically from grass to grains, as is usually the case when moving from pasture to a patch of dirt. And even with the blanket use of tylosin, almost 10% of feedlot cattle end up with livers that are deemed unfit to sell by USDA inspectors.2

Cattle are very social creatures and have lower levels of aggression when established hierarchies are in place.3 Each time they are sold and transported to a new location, the move can increase their anxiety and stress levels.

The answer to which option is preferable should be intuitive enough: allowing the steer to remain on pasture until it goes to the abattoir4 results in a better end of life for the animal and a better product on your table.

Buying directly from a farmer or rancher allows you to verify the animal husbandry practices first hand and avoid sourcing commodity meat that was raised inhumanely.

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So how does grain feed play into this debate?

The binary presentation of “grain vs. grass” has led people to associate grain feed with commodity beef, however this is definitely incorrect - many small producers slowly introduce supplemental feed while allowing the cattle to remain on pasture, and avoid the use of growth hormones and antibiotics. So, with husbandry practices out of the way, let's focus on health and nutrition.

One of the concerns often mentioned in connection with grain-finished beef consumption pertains to fatty acids. While it is true that there will be a difference in the fatty-acid profile, the absolute amount is actually not significant. As a Sacred Cow article on a related topic explains:

This means that if you are otherwise consuming nutrient-dense foods and using high-quality cooking fats, the marginal increase in undesirable fatty acids from grain-finished beef can be easily offset.

It is also important to note that most comparative studies use USDA commodity beef as the reference for a “typical grain-fed beef”, ignoring the fact that grain-finished cattle remaining on pasture will have a nutrient composition that is much closer to that of grass-only beef.5

There is also a distinction to be made between different kinds of grains that are fed to cattle. Most commodity grains like corn and soy will be loaded with glyphosate and other chemicals, all of which can be avoided by sourcing organic grains (or by growing them without chemicals on the same land where the animals graze). Additionally, the digestibility of a more diverse diet from barley, peas and other cover crops can be much better for the cattle compared to just corn and soy.

In other words, grass-finished beef is not necessarily the superior option for health. High-quality grain-finished beef is healthy, tastes great and won’t dry out as easily in cooking as grass-finished. Cattle raised strictly on grass will generally have a gamier flavor, although that factor can vary with the time of year when the animal is slaughtered.

So what’s the takeaway?

My research clearly indicates that one should aim to avoid commodity producers, instead connecting with a farmer who provides his livestock with healthy living conditions, a proper diet – either pasture-only or grain-finished – without unnecessary medications.

In my opinion, the time and energy invested in the “grass- vs. grain-finish” debate should be redirected to acknowledging an overriding issue: the superiority of “pasture-finished” beef. Let’s all spend more time shaking hands with people who raise our food responsibly.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, and a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Buying beef in bulk for the first time can be daunting because there are a number of variables that play into this decision. Am I buying too much meat? Do I even have the space for it? In the interest of demystifying this process, I have put together a simple Venn diagram that identifies the three primary questions you’ll need to answer before beginning your search for the right farmer:

How much meat will I eat?

First, you’ll want to estimate how much meat your household will consume. Make a rough guess at how many pounds of meat your household eats in an average week and multiply that by the number of weeks in 9-12 months. Well-packaged, vacuum sealed meat can easily last 12 months in the freezer without significant loss of quality, so staying within that timeframe ensures you’ll consume the meat at its best.

Here’s an example: two people eating meat 4-5 times per week might consume around 3 lbs. in that time. Multiply that number by 50 weeks to arrive at an annual estimate of 150 lbs. 

We’ll come back to some more concrete examples and guidance, but first let’s create some context for the other parts of this discussion.

How much freezer space do I need?

Next, you’ll want to figure out how much meat you can actually store. It’s likely that you’ll need more freezer space than you currently have and should consider acquiring a chest freezer. Even if you already own one, you’ll find that having spare freezer space is useful for defrosting. A good rule of thumb is that you need 1 cubic foot (cu. ft.) of freezer space for roughly 35-40 lbs. of meat. This number can vary depending on how many oddly shaped cuts you have,1 but the formula works well enough to get a ballpark estimate.2 This number can also drop down if using boxes to compartmentalize (which I highly recommend, more on chest freezer organization strategies coming in a future article.

So even if you have room in your standard kitchen freezer for a quarter cow, it’s still probably worth considering a chest freezer. They are a great investment that expands your capacity for buying in bulk. And not just for your beef: you’ll also have more room to store prepared meals, unlocking the capacity to make large quantities without being obliged to eat the same things all week. If you live in an apartment where the only spot for it would be the living room, you’ll be faced with that personal decision (“honey, what do you mean this large white box doesn’t fit the decor?”). But if space isn’t an issue, the freezer’s cost can easily be justified by the money you’ll save by buying in bulk.

Chest freezers come in two main styles: top-loaders and upright. The top-loaders are usually cheaper and can allow for maximal space utilization, whereas upright freezers are superior from an organizational standpoint, as you won’t need to dig for buried items at the far reaches of the unit.3

As of early 2023, new chest freezers were selling for around $40-50 per cu. ft., but you can often find excellent deals on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. If you look for freezers that are only a few years old, you can find a great price for a unit with plenty of life left in it. For example, I recently acquired a like-new 17.5 cu. ft. Frigidaire top-loader for $22 per cu. ft.

Should I buy a “frost-free” freezer or is that just a marketing gimmick?

Many newer models will have a “frost-free” feature, but honestly you want to avoid them. In order to deal with moisture building up on the sidewalls of the freezer, these “frost-free” models will shut off long enough to let the moisture drip down the sidewalls and pool at the bottom. While a seemingly handy solution, it results in considerable temperature fluctuation and could compromise the long-term quality of the food you are storing. It’s really not that hard to defrost manually a couple times a year.

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How much meat will I get in a share?

There are a few principal weight measurements you’ll want to know when making a bulk beef purchase. Live weight refers to the weight of the animal at the time of slaughtering. After the slaughter, the hide and hooves are removed and the animal is gutted, reducing the weight by around 35-40%. The reduced weight is called the dressing percentage.

With the dressed carcass now at its hanging weight, it is placed in a dry-aging cooler where it will hang for 12-21 days on average. During this time enzymes in the carcass begin to break down the connective tissue, resulting in a more tender final product. There is also a loss of around 8-10% of carcass weight to moisture evaporation.

Finally, the butcher will process the animal according to your cut sheet, and those choices will  determine your final take-home weight. For example, if you choose bone-in steaks, you’ll end up with more weight than if you opt for boneless. 

Here’s a rough example:

• A grain-finished steer is slaughtered with a live weight of 1200 lbs.

• After skinning, gutting and prepping for dry-aging, the hanging weight is 750 lbs.

• The beef is dry-aged, resulting in moisture loss. The butcher cuts it to your specifications, yielding a take-home weight of 500-550 lbs.

Below is a detailed breakdown of how this scenario might play out from the University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture:4

A note about buying quarters
If you buy a quarter, you will be sharing one side of the animal and will not end up with all of the cuts. And because you are sharing the side with another customer, you will likely be asked to default to a standard-cut approach, allowing the butcher to divide the side evenly – this is also known as a “split side”. In rare instances, you might be able to request a front quarter (chuck and rib sections) or a hind quarter (loin and round sections). The only way to ensure you’re getting all of the muscle groups is by ordering a half.

OK, so what’s the takeaway here?

This baseline information should make it easier for you to determine which share size to purchase. Just understanding the various terms used when referring to weights will make it easier to help you navigate this process. As for gauging freezer space, here’s some useful advice: always overestimate how much you’ll need. Having failed to do so once, I urge you not to make that mistake. Use the breakdown below as your reference guide:5

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

This is part of an ongoing monthly series that aims to provide you with all of the information you will need to start buying high-quality beef in bulk directly from a local producer. Future topics will include how to connect with your local producers, deciding between grain and grass-finished beef, and, finally, a full breakdown of a butcher’s cut sheet to help you get the most value from your purchase.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and would like some personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate cut sheets or answer any other questions you might have:

60 minute consultation

By being a paid subscriber, you help support my efforts to bring most of this content to the public free of charge and free of advertisements. Thank you.

Most people in the US and beyond no longer make the effort to produce food for themselves. Instead they outsource their nourishment to the massive agricultural industry, which is driven by profit rather than quality1. And when quality is not the highest priority in the production of food, consumers can no longer expect to get the nutrients their bodies need – not just to survive but to thrive. 

We are overfed and undernourished.2

There are numerous reasons for our increasing dependence on corporate agriculture, but a major driving force has been the gradual detachment of consumers from the sources of their food (this topic could be a book unto itself, but we’ll save that for another day). Quite simply, the further removed you are from the sources of your food, the greater the risks you face: over-processed foods laced with harmful ingredients and additives, price-gouging middlemen, supply chain disruptions, and dubious handling of ingredients throughout the chain of custody.

Reducing the number of links in the chain between you and your food sources is an important step in the right direction.

Growing or raising your own food obviously makes for the shortest chain, but for many that is a steep hurdle to tackle right away3. The next best option, in my opinion, is to establish direct connections with farmers in your surrounding area, in particular with farmers who are excited to share their practices openly with their customers. A good example is Farmer Joel of Abraham’s Table Farm, who published weekly update videos about the various activities on his farm during the 2022 CSA season. In one of them, he outlined his farm’s grazing practices and the role of ruminant animals as a integral element in its operation:

For most people, beef is a commodity that is taken for granted – it sits at the ready in supermarkets, packaged in plastic wrap or styrofoam (who knows for how long?). If you’re lucky, you’ll be given the name of a farm associated with the meat, but that usually happens only at upscale grocery stores or co-ops. And even when purchasing a seemingly better option like “organic, grass-fed ground beef'“, the inputs will often be from hundreds of different animals flown in from far reaches of the planet.

At the end of the day, there is much more to know when buying meat than what meets your eye at the store.

• What is the breed of the animal?

• Have the animals been given supplements, hormones or antibiotics?

• How long were they pastured? Were they ever confined in pens or warehouses?

• How far is the butcher from the farm? What steps are taken to keep the animal relaxed and stress-free up until they are slaughtered?

It is unlikely that you will get answers to these questions from the person behind the butcher or deli counter at your local grocery store. Moreover, many of the farms and meat packers that supply the bulk orders for those stores would prefer that you not visit their operations, as they typically follow less than ideal business practices. Put simply, if a farmer doesn’t want you to see their farm, you probably don’t want to be buying meat from them. You need to be able to go to the source and create a connection with the people who actually care for the animals.

This approach does require more effort, as well as a better understanding of what to look for and what questions to ask. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, please subscribe and follow along as I share my learnings from pursuing this.

The Purpose of the Primal Cut Sheet

In the coming months, I will be sharing what I consider one of the best ways to improve your food sourcing and sovereignty - bulk purchasing beef directly from a local farmer. Some of the common questions that I will be addressing include:

1. What amount of beef should I purchase? How much freezer space do I need?

2. How do I find the right farmer? What questions should I be asking them?

3. What’s the difference between grain-fed or grass-fed?4

4. How do I make the right choices when selecting my cuts of beef from the butcher?

5. Ok, I have all this meat - what are the best recipes for each cut?

If you’re looking to buy in bulk right away and looking for personalized assistance, I also offer 1:1 consultations to help you navigate your cut sheet or any other questions you might have:

60 min consultation - $95

10% discount if paying in BTC

This site will serve as a repository of ideas, resources and insights on sourcing and cooking animal protein. Topics covered will include:

• grain-fed vs. grass-fed: the critical difference that no one is talking about

• chest freezers: because it’s better to have extra freezer space than not enough

• connecting with a farmer: where to look and what questions to ask

• pricing for bulk beef: differentiate between live, hanging and retail measurements

• cooking all that meat: nose-to-tail recipes to maximize the food you purchase

• kitchen confidencal1: strategies and tips for maximizing your time in the kitchen

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Having just launched in January of 2023, there will be series of monthly articles discussing the various aspects of purchasing beef in bulk. However, my intention for this site is to not only act as a companion as you navigate your first purchase of bulk beef, but to remain useful reference material in the years to come as you continue to keep your freezers well-stocked.

In addition, whether you want to discuss the details of your butcher’s cut sheet or just have general questions you want to discuss, I am happy to connect on a call with you. Details can be found via the link below:

60 minute consultation (500,000 sats)

And remember: the correct number of chest freezers to own is one more than you currently have.

About the Author

I grew up in a household that appreciated good quality ingredients and homemade meals. Little did I realize at the time my good fortune. It wasn’t until after college that I began to recognize the importance of cooking your own food - not just because you can better account for the nutrition that goes into your body, but because of the pleasure you get nourishing family, friends and the other people in your life.

About a decade ago, I reconnected with my high school friend Nate who was much further down the cooking rabbit hole than I was at the time. We ended up collaborating for a few years on a two-man cooking show called Hot Date with Nate. His mentorship opened a new world of understanding, building foundational techniques that would allow for my own explorations to flourish more quickly.

I continued further down this path because of the insight and knowledge shared by my wife, a long-time appreciator of ancestral nutrition and giving your body what it needs to thrive. Our partnership in the home means we often spend our time cooking together in the kitchen, stocking our freezers such that we almost never go out to eat anymore.

Over the past few years in particular, my focus related to food has shifted specifically towards beef, and the importance of sourcing. We leave too much in the hands of our grocery stores and the large-scale corporations who intentionally omit many details related to provenance. As I began my search for the right farmer(s) to source from, I built a deep understanding of the process, and how to ensure you get the best quality product at the best possible price.

My goal: to share what I have learned so that others can experience the joy of cooking delicious meals with the best ingredients.

Jevi - December 25th, 2022