Organic beef tastes nothing like the Styrofoam tray grocery store beef. Humanely cared for, naturally fed animals give you beef that is healthier than Salmon! Today, I’ll tour the Maui Cattle Company where they do it right.
An old pineapple processing plant now houses the operations of the Maui Cattle Company where they have a respect and passion for every element that goes into supplying the best grass fed beef to the state of Hawaii.
My tour guide is Tweety, the production manager. As we enter the first large aging room, there are bulky sides of beef hanging from ceiling hooks. It’s one entire cow, in 4 pieces, Tweety explains to me. However, they don’t look like other primal cuts I’ve seen before.
The animals that come to Maui Cattle Company average about 500 pounds. That’s quite small compared to the mainland feed-lots. Cattle that are fed heavy carbohydrates and corn can grow to 800 pounds faster than a grass-fed animal can reach 500 pounds.
However, organic beef and grass fed beef cannot be compared to feed lot beef strictly on size. It’s a matter of quality versus quantity. I’d rather have six ounces of the most flavorful, healthy beef than a pound of bland mooing corn.
The carcasses I’m inspecting with Tweety have been aged 12 days to this point, kept at a constant temperature to tenderize the meat. As a matter of fact, this company grades every carcass individually and performs a tension test on the meat to assure it’s the most tender. If it doesn’t meet their standards, it doesn’t sell.
The processing room at Maui Cattle Company looks like many kitchens I’ve seen in the past, but not a meat cutting plant. Here, there are no huge pieces of equipment. There are just four skilled craftsmen and their knives, hand cutting each and every steak to be vacuum packed and shipped for sale.
Tweety explains how proud he is of the cleanliness of this operation. They are fanatical about assuring the quality of the product they so lovingly provide. The vacuum packaging helps with this cause as well. Because, if there ever were any bacterial contaminants, the gasses they give off will slightly inflate the packaging. This is an immediate sign that something is wrong. Luckily, it rarely happens here.
Just before shaking hands and bidding good bye to Tweety, he feels he must explain to me how well they treat their animals. The local cattle are lovingly raised and live a stress free life full of nutritious grasses and natural feed. Being raised naturally, they are not subjected to the loads of steroids and antibiotics fed to animals that are not eating a native diet. Corn-fed animals can lead a sickly, stressful life. As Tweety says about his animals, “There’s only one bad day, they live very well otherwise.”
Organic beef at the Maui Cattle Company is raised naturally, treated humanely, and results in a beef product that has a better Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio than salmon. I’m so glad to have spent the afternoon here, witnessing the pinnacle of wholesome and natural beef production.
If you’d like to know even more about organic beef, I speak with a nationally renowned expert, John Wood of US Wellness meats. I’ll ask him why grass fed beef makes the best steaks for grilling.
“Burn Your Recipes” and Cook Like a Chef at Home with my cooking DVDs!
The Complete cooking DVDcollection for cooking without recipes.
