Thank you for supporting the Green-Fed revolution by joining our CSA, or by purchasing one of our Packages. We sincerely appreciate your business and work hard to provide the highest quality beef through sustainable and humane farming practices. Most of our customers have told us that the steaks, chops and burgers are the best they have ever tasted. However, as with any fine fresh product, Green-Fed beef, needs to be prepared with care. Towards this end, we have included the following chart (cooking tips are bellow):

Click on chart to enlarge.Green-fed Sage Mountain Beef has less saturated fat and more healthful poly-unsaturates and mono-unsaturates, plus it contains more "conjugated linoleic acid" or CLA, another so-called good fat, than is present in grain-fed beef.

The different fatty acids change the cooking environment. The unsaturated fats have a lower boiling point which heats the meat more quickly. It is easy to overcook unless you pay close attention, and should be cooked to a lower internal temperature because it will keep cooking even off the heat. A steak, chop or burger can go from perfectly cooked to over-cooked in less than a minute. Even 4 full minutes of cooking is a long time on a hot fire.

Defrost your Sage Mountain Beef in your refrigerator and bring it to room temperature before cooking. Or for quick thawing, place your vacuum sealed package in cold water for a few minutes.

Use your favorite marinade for 24 hours before cooking, especially for lean cuts like Chuck and Top Round Steak. Tendorize your steak if you do not have time to marinate. The pounding of a rub will infuse your meats with the flavors.

Since Sage Mountain Green-Fed Beef steaks are extremely low in fat, start off by searing the steaks on their fatty sides, standing them on edge in a cast-iron skillet. This method renders some of the fat into the pan and flavors the meat. Sear the meat in the fat. Turn down the heat and flip the steaks every minute or so. You want to flip them often so the juices don't rise to the top and subsequently evaporate when they hit the pan. Carmelization will continue to occur at medium heat, which is why you don't need to blast them for the entire duration. Continue to cook the steaks in this manner until they are done to your liking. Place them on a cooling rack after they are removed from the pan with a plate underneath to catch the drippings. (Optinal: Brush the steak with organic garlic butter to add sheen and flavor without adding a lot of extra fat.) If the steak is placed directly on a plate, the bottom surface that you've just so carefully caramelized, steams from the residual heat and softens up. By putting the steak on a cooling rack, both sides cool evenly and stay crisp.

You can also coat your steaks with organic extra virgin olive oil or truffle oil for a light flavor enhancement and easy browning. (The oil will also prevent sticking.)

When grilling your Sage Mountain Beef steak, sear the meat quickly over a high heat on each side to seal in natural juices and then reduce the heat to continue cooking.

When eating the steak, keep in mind the type of cut and the way the muscle runs. For a t-bone, cut away the entire muscle from the bone, and then thinly slice it across the grain. Thinner slices make for a tenderer mouth-feel. Cutting random chunks from the steak will only yield big uneven pieces that will be obviously harder to chew. A really sharp steak knife will prevent any shredding, caused by a back and forth sawing motion. One long continuous slice will yield the tenderest eating experience.

When cooking Sage Mountain Beef burgers, mix your lean Green-Fed ground beef with caramelized onions, olives, mushrooms, celery, or roasted peppers to add low fat moisture to the meat while its cooking. Sage Mountain Beef does not add fat you our ground beef (and it is 95% lean), so some moisture is needed to compensate for the lack of fat.

A note about "residual heat": Don't forget that meat continues to cook after it has been removed from the heat, therefore you want to stop cooking the meat just before it reaches desired doneness. (It will finish cooking on its own from the residual heat.)

A roast's temperature will rise as much as 10 degrees in the 15 minutes it rests before you carve it. If cooked past medium-rare, it dries out and can become tough, unless, as with a low-temperature braise, it's cooked long enough to tenderize the meat. Because it comes from cows not raised in feedlots, the likelihood of bacteria contamination is extremely low. It is much safer to eat it rare than it is conventional beef.

These are just a few cooking tips to ensure that you have a wonderful dining experience with your Sage Mountain Beef (the Green-Fed beef).