It is lovely to dwell in the happy land of winter feasting, the braising and stew season, fixing pot roasts for Sunday dinner, or stirring up a bunch of chili for weeknight suppers. But as farmers, we need to be looking forward to the spring and summer market season to make sure that we have an inventory of meats that will satisfy upcoming customer demands. Too often, when we take animals in to the butcher, we have standard cutting instructions – either by our own choice, or by the butcher’s. However, each season requires that we have our animals prepared a little differently.
In my experience, I’ve found that there are often two types of cooks who visit our booth in the warm months: Summer Bunnies and Flame Throwers.
Considering these two personality types, let’s look at some different grassfed and pastured meat cuts will be most helpful.
Summer Bunnies
Remember your caveats for the Summer Bunnies: Little effort, no heat in the kitchen.
Minute Steaks
These are super-thin slices of beef cut from the bottom round and occasionally the eye round, and Summer Bunnies love them for obvious reasons. They make great Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches to pack hot and take to a baseball game, they’re fabulous marinated for bulgogi (see the Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook for that recipe), and they are tasty when simply seasoned with salt and fresh herbs and fried up in less than…you guessed it – a minute.
Kebabs
Sausages
Sausages can be your best friend in the summer. When Summer Bunnies are hesitant to cook, sausages do most of the work for them. They needn’t worry about seasoning or sophisticated grilling techniques. If you are able to offer different varieties, Summer Bunnies can choose a few different types and throw on a mixed grill for a crowd (they even pair well with kebabs).
Family Steaks
A few other important Summer Bunny cuts:
Keep a good supply of ground beef on hand. Whenever I have new customers, I urge them to let their first piece of grassfed beef be a burger – it is hard to mess up, inexpensive, and the flavor is amazing. Once they’re hooked on that, it’s much easier to get them to experiment with my other meats. In addition, try to have your legs of lamb butterflied for easy grilling, get plenty of ground lamb made up, and keep lots of pork and lamb chops in stock. All of these are easy, quick-grill cuts that require minimal prep and fuss.
Flame Throwers
As I mentioned before, these folks are serious about their meat. They pretty much exclusively want to cook outdoors, and while they like their standard fare, they’re also into experimentation.
Single Serving Steaks:
Smoking Meats:
Flame Throwers are serious about their smoking. I find they pass judgment on our booth based on our inventory of good smoking cuts. If I’ve got what they’re craving on the first visit, them I get credit for being a girl who knows her meat, and my booth will be the first place they visit when they arrive at the market. Flame Throwers who want to spend all day nursing a beer and loafing beside the smoker will be looking for pork shoulder roasts and flat cut briskets of beef. If they only have an hour or two to run their smoker, they’ll need country ribs, pork chops, spare ribs or beef short ribs.
Specialty Cuts
Whoever your spring-summer clientele may be, take the time to communicate clearly with your butcher about your upcoming customer demands. Make sure your steaks and chops are appropriately thick, that your sausages are in good supply, and that your kebabs are cut from the sirloin muscles, lest they be too chewy. When customers approach your booth, be attentive to their needs, and be ready to suggest an appropriate cut.
Above all, don’t forget those two handy books that will help your customers cook every piece of meat you lay before them: The Farmer and the Grilland The Grassfed Gourmet. Both have been proven time and time again to guarantee that customers have a quality experience with pastured meats, resulting in loyal patronage. Happily, these books are available to farmers and organizations in quantity for very steep discounts. Also, don’t forget that I am always available to answer your questions. Feel free to write and ask for help, or check out grassfedcooking.com’s Q&A to see if your question has already been answered.
* The tri-tip is the small triangular muscle cut from the bottom of the sirloin. The flat iron is a relatively tender, full-flavored steak cut from the chuck…At the meat stand, it is not a tool used for straightening hair.
Since you’re here …
We need your help to meet the $15,000 annual match for our Conservation Innovation Grant. The grant keeps On Pasture going for the next 3 years, but only if we can meet the cash match. If we meet our goal this Spring, we won’t ask again in the fall. (And it’s our fourth birthday, so when you give we’ll send you a party favor as a thank you!)
We’ve made it to $1,000 in our first 2 weeks of the fund drive. Your help will mean so much!
Please help!
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