On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:34:09 +1000, Old Mother Ashby >
wrote:

>Vegetarians (and Steve Wertz) avert your eyes!
>
>It's a long story involving people owing favours to people, but the
>butcher has got hold of a side of wagyu beef. This is the grain fed,
>kept indoors massaged animal producing highly marbled meat for the
>Japanese market. It's not really to Australian taste, but because it's
>very expensive it sometimes appears at upmarket restaurants (Oz and
>Japanese).
>
>Anyway, if you can find it at all it retails for about $180 a kilo.
>Colin is selling his to selected customers at cost, which is $60. I am
>now in possession of two 100g steaks cut from the top of the rump. Not
>very big, but Colin says very rich, that's all you want - and this is a
>butcher speaking!
>
>I will give it a few minutes on each side in the ridged grill pan. No
>need for oil, there's enough fat already. I think we'll have it with
>balsamic caramelised onions, steamed broccolini and mashed potato. And,
>what else, a bottle of Rockford's Basket Press shiraz.
>
>I'm prepared for the possibility that I might not actually like it all
>that much, but at least I can say I've tasted it. I know, the same could
>be said about sheep's eyes...
>
>Christine

Speaking of tenderness in meat...

Our overseer attended an info session about genetic testing in cattle a
fortnight ago. He reports there is a gene in cattle (and probably most meat
animals) that they can test for. The test results in a tenderness score which is
displayed a a series of stars (I think the process is called genestar). The
more stars (max of 8), the more tender the meat will be from the animal.
Every breed of cattle can have 8-star rating cattle (individual beasts), but
certain breeds have a higher proportion of them with higher stars.

The immediate implications are in selecting bulls for our herd. Obviously, the
more tender the bull, the better saleability the progeny should have.
However, the longer-term implication is that buyers of the meat could have an
idea as to how tender the meat will be. The animal can be tested at birth, and
this info can follow it through it's whole life. It might also remove some of
the snake-oil about producing quality beef...

Personally, I'd love to know how tender the meat is when I buy it, and I'd like
the option to choose more tender meat for a special occasion.

Just my thoughts...


Cheers,

Rod.....Out Back