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The popularity of grass-fed meat is growing, and demand currently surpasses supply. More and more prominent chefs are serving grass-fed beef in their restaurants, and if more consumers jump on the bandwagon, meat producers may find it profitable to become grass growers rather than grain importers, in which case grass-fed meat could become as mainstream, and as quality driven, as organic produce.

Don’t confuse grass-fed meat with meat labeled “organic.” Some organic meats are grass-fed, but it’s not a requirement. Certified organic meat must only meet the USDA National Organic Program standards, ensuring that it is

• Fed on 100 percent organic feed (vitamin and mineral supplements are allowed).

• Given neither hormones to promote growth nor antibiotics.

• Given access to pasture if it is a ruminant, such as cattle (organic beef can be fed on grain in feed lots, but for no more than 200 days, and its feed must be organic).

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killed, deriving energy from any glycogen that is present. One of the by-products of the metabolism of available glycogen is lactic acid, which reduces the activities of enzymes in muscle tissue, slows the growth of microbes that cause spoilage, and causes some moisture to migrate from within the cells out to the surface of the meat, giving it a moist appearance. If the glycogen is depleted before slaughter by the animal becoming stressed or fearful, the accumulation of lactic acid never occurs, and the resulting meat will be dry, tough, dark colored, and easily spoiled. This phenomenon is known as “dark-cutting meat” and has been observed and avoided since the 1700s.

To keep from traumatizing an animal that is about to be slaughtered, it is surreptitiously stunned, usually with an electric charge to the head. Then it is hung by its legs, the major blood vessels in the neck are opened, and the animal is drained of about half its blood, which decreases the risk of spoilage. After bleeding, the hide is stripped, the carcass is opened, the organs are removed, and the carcass is chilled.

Within 2½ hours of slaughter for beef (1 hour or less for smaller animals), the muscles clench in rigor mortis. If cut and cooked before that time, the meat will be tender, but once rigor mortis starts the meat cannot be handled until the rigor passes, about 24 hours for beef.

Hanging the carcass by its hind legs during slaughtering stretches the muscles to their maximum length at the time rigor mortis occurs. If this was not done and the protein filaments were overlapping when rigor mortis began, the muscle filaments would bond to one another, and the meat would become exceptionally tough.

As the meat hangs, protein-digesting enzymes continue to soften the muscle structure, and the meat texture relaxes. At this point, the carcass can be sectioned and sold. It is also the beginning of the aging process, which can be encouraged for up to a month when producing ultra-high-quality aged beef (see “Aged Beef,” page 53).

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04. Cuts of Meat

Knowing what part of the animal a piece of meat comes from can be a shortcut in determining its quality. As we’ve already discussed, the amount of exercise a particular muscle gets has a lot to do with its flavor, and with how tough or tender it will be. Meat that is cut from a part of the body that moves a lot will have more flavor, and it will also be tougher. Meat from a relatively unused part of the body will be milder and more tender.

Regardless of whether you are buying beef, veal, pork, or lamb, the exercised sections of a four-legged animal are always the same—the shoulder, the hips, the chest, the groin, and the legs. Tender meat lies along the center of the back, in the ribs, and in the loin, the area that lies between the ribs and the hips. The charts in the following pages show the relative tenderness of cuts from various animals.

If you’re having a hard time imagining this, get down on your hands and knees and start crawling around. Pretend you’re a cow. What’s moving? Bend down and graze. Do you feel your abdomen contract? That