Is Grass Fed Steak better? This is a common question heard in meat eating circles and there is a lot of confusion about grass fed steak so hopefully I can clear that up.
First off, you have to figure out what “better” is. When it comes to food there are two primary categories I would want to compare when talking about “better”: Taste and nutrition. Yeah, you can get into price (grass fed steak is more expensive), environmental impact (grass fed steak is easier on the environment), and health of the cattle (grass fed steak is better for the cattle) but those are secondary issues.
Also you have to figure out what you are comparing against. Nearly all of the beef sold in the US can be categorized as “feedlot” beef where the cattle graze for the first part of their life and then are finished in a feedlot with hundreds of thousands of other cattle eating corn and other grains. The feedlot is there to fatten up the cattle and get them ready for slaughter quickly. This is the steak we buy at the grocery store or eat in a restaurant. This is the steak we all know and love.
So is grass fed steak (cattle that graze and eat grass their whole life instead of being finished in a feedlot) better than regular steak?
Taste:
When it comes to taste I am including things like juiciness, texture, fat content, and everything else that goes into the taste of the steak.
Grass fed steak in general is going to taste more like grass than a regular steak. That isn’t rocket science. Of course what the cow eats is going to effect the final product. The overall taste does taste a bit like a hay bale smells and the degree it tastes like that can greatly vary depending on what type of grass the cow ate, climate, water content of the grass, etc. but pretty much all grass fed steak will have at least a bit of a pasture-y taste.
This taste can really be off-putting to some people but I kind of like it. I wouldn’t want to necessarily eat grass fed steak all the time since I really, really like the flavor of a regular steak but it is a nice change from time to time. There is no way I would say a grass fed steak taste better but it does taste different than most steaks you have probably eaten.
Nutrition:
Think about it for a minute. What are cows supposed to eat? What are all range animals designed to eat? Genetically enhanced corn? Of course not. They are meant to eat grass. They are designed to eat grass. And they are designed to turn that grass into meat.
Is grass fed steak healthier than regular steak? Yes, it is. Take a look at these 4 health benefits of grass fed steak:
1. Beta-Carotene – Grass fed beef contains 10 times the beta-carotene than feedlot beef. Beta-carotene is important for the immune system and it also helps maintain healthy vision, skin and bones.
2. Vitamin E – Grass fed beef also contains 3 times more vitamin E than beef not raised on grass and vitamin E has been shown to prevent cancer and cardiovascular disease.
3. Omega-3 Fatty Acids – Grass fed steak has three times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids as regular beef which has been shown to reduce blood pressure, prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent and slow the growth of many cancers, and more. Omega-3 fatty acid is usually found in fish or seafood and very few other foods have this level of Omega-3s.
4. Conjugated Linoleic Acid -Grass fed steak contains three times more CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which helps lower LD cholesterol (bad cholesterol), lower the risk of heart disease, and lower the risk of cancer.
Also you can look at the fat content of grass fed steak. In a 6 oz serving of grass fed beef you will get about 4 grams of fat which is less than you would get in a 6 oz chicken thigh (about 7 grams) and much less than the 17 grams of fat in a 6 0z piece of grain fed beef. If you eat a typical amount of beef in a year (66.5 pounds) and you figure you are saving around 18,000 calories vs eating the same amount of grain fed beef.
So all in all grass fed beef is much better for you than grain fed beef. Talking nutrition grass fed steak is “better” than regular steak but I personally don’t think the health benefits are enough to make me eat grass fed steak all the time.
My Steaks
OK, now that we are done with generalities let’s talk about the steaks I had. I bought them from a local Fresh Market which is a chain similar to Whole Foods that has locations in 27 states. Whole Foods carries grass fed steak and you can usually find a local supplier at a farmer’s market or an organic food store or something along those lines.
In the case these steaks were labeled “Grass Fed Ribeye” but I am pretty sure they were mislabeled. These were NY Strips. I thought about correcting the butcher but I was in a hurry and didn’t really want to get into a big thing with him. They cost $15 per pound which is more than the $10-12 you will usually pay for a good NY Strip but not crazy expensive and I thought it was a good price for a grass fed NY Strip.
These steaks were a much darker red than a regular steak and you could tell by looking at them they had less fat. The external fat on them was also a bit firmer than you would find on a regular steak. Here is what they looked like:
As far as taste these were some of the more mild grass fed steaks I have had. They don’t compare to the 18 ozs of dry aged grass fed rib eye heaven I ate at Jean-Georges Steakhouse in Vegas a couple years back but they were good. You could taste some of the grassy notes and there was a nice sweetness to the meat as well. The texture was a bit tough but nothing that was unbearable.
I cooked these with the reverse sear method and kept them a bit more rare than I would normally cook a steak because I wanted to assure they stayed nice and juicy. I pulled them out of the oven at 121 degrees and the carryover heat took them up to 126 while they were resting. I seared them and this is what I ended up with:
Did I prefer these to a regular steak? Probably not but I would definitely buy them again just to change things up a bit. I don’t think I would ever say they are “better” than a regular steak but they are surely a steak I will eat again and one I will be including in my steak rotation.
