There is a breed of cattle that have natural marbling, and I think it occures even when grass fed, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the breed.

I think marbling is more related to genetics than diet. A corn fed razor back hog will still not have marbled meat.

That is why I like chuck steak. Like the fat in the meat. Of course too tough to just grill or bake. I put mine in the crockpot and cook it that way. It ends up really tender. Love the flavor.

Both the person carving the beef, and the person with a slice on her plate, can do considerable tenderizing if they slice very thin "against the grain".

It's not a cure-all, but if no muscle fiber or bit of connective tissue is longer than a few millimeters, your jaws will ache much less at the end of the meal.

Carried to an extreme, this would be like making hamburger after the cooking is over.

Spoken like a real chef, Rick! That's why flank steak is cut in thin strips, cross grain when served. Otherwise you couldn't chew it.

I agree, Rita -- love a pot roast made from a piece of chuck.

tveguy3 said:Spoken like a real chef, Rick!

chortle giggle guffaw

Cooking is not one of my skills ... but fiddling with knives is.

I've, debated whether or not to take and post a pictures of the various knife blocks in my kitchen ... yes, "blocks" plural. I wouldn't want my friends here in ATP to see how deranged I am about my hobbies.

Rick - You're not the only one. I have 3 sets of knife blocks on my kitchen counter, plus various knives here & there. Just part of the tool set needed in the kitchen! I have a Revere set, a Wusthof set, & a no-name steak set, plus a very sharp & dangerous & bloodthirsty bread knife (it loves slicing the tip of my fingers off) & an old, very long filet/deboning knife that's my favorite.

Thank you Toni!

I don't have a need for 80% of my kitchen knives, but they would get lonely and feel under-appreciated if I never used them (only sharpened them and cleaned up their handles).

So I look for tasks for which one or another idle knife might be slightly better than my usual favorites.

I've never found a good way around this problem: the most frequent convenient cutting surface is a dinner plate. Mine are Corelware (melamine?) It's around as hard as china, hence knives' edges tend to dent or bend if used freely on them.

I don't mind re-sharpening a knife every few uses, but I hate to abuse a GOOD edge. Hence I keep the crummiest knives (with handles that I I like) handiest, and use those as long as they will do the job effortlessly. Those knives get sharpened almost continuously.

If a task actually calls for a good edge, I get out a cutting board and pick the knife that seems "best" for the job and most suited to my hand. Those only get touched up every 3rd or 4th use.

Snort. I use my fillet knife in the garden. Cuts through stuff real good.

Corelware is actually glass.. at least the stuff my mom has is glass. Trust me, it shatters into a gazillion pieces if broken. My favorite knife is one I picked up at a garage sale for like $1... it's my long deboning/filet knife. It's over 12" long from tip to tip and the blade itself is probably 10" long at least. It's steel all the way & it doesn't keep an edge for long on my glass cutting board. But it sharpens quickly, so I don't mind. What I don't like about the Revere knives are that they're serrated, so never figured out how to sharpen them. I bought them when I moved to CO in 2001, so they've gotten quite a bit of use & abuse. And I'm not overly impressed with the Wusthof knives.. very thin blades that don't hold an edge.

flaflwrgrl said:Snort. I use my fillet knife in the garden. Cuts through stuff real good.

flaflwrgrl said:Snort. I use my fillet knife in the garden. Cuts through stuff real good.

I'm guessing that you re-sharpen it before peeling tomatoes or fileting trout?

I keep "demoting" knives to garden use - 99% weeding. That's almost the only place I use serrated knives.

I've seen gadgety kits supposed to be useful for sharpening serrate edges, but seldom been tempted to try. The stones have a "Vee" shape that can be used to sharpen one serration at a time.

I have used regular bench stones to sharpen a serrated edge as if it weren't serrated. The very tip of each individual serration can be made thinner, even brought to a tiny edge, but that isn't really how the knife was designed to cut. I think the "scoop" part of each serration is supposed to do the slicing, and the tips (if anything) to pierce.

I have one very old wooden-handled steak knife that really suited me, but it was serrated. Pretty hard steel, for stainless (as I said, it was very old). Finally I went to work on it and ground away the whole serrated edge until it was a somewhat narrower UN-serrated knife!

Dave - What did you use to do the major part of the harvesting of the cow? I know that professional butchers use like a bandsaw & stuff... I've seen a little hand-held portable bandsaw & was thinking that would be an awesome toy to use in something like this. http://www.amazon.com/Milwauke... I know that you used knives, but any particular kind of knife would be better than others? When I helped my father, all I did was just hold the legs so that the body wouldn't sway around and he used his Kabar military knife that he brought back with him from 'Nam. You know, maybe I'll go steal that knife from him one of these days... it's older than I am and has some major sentimental value.

I don't use power tools on meat. Just very sharp high carbon steel (not stainless) knives. I have about 5 knives that I use ranging from my skinner up to my cleaver.

Several mornings a week I drive someone to work and my dog comes along for the ride. We stop near Savannah's Bethesda Academy where part of the teaching program involves raising animals for food. They have chickens, pigs and goats and cattle including Polled Herefords.
Each week we can see the animals growing larger.

Beautiful animals and they enjoy 'talking' to my dog at the fence most mornings.

RickCorey said:

I'm guessing that you re-sharpen it before peeling tomatoes or fileting trout?

No Rick, I have other knives I use for veggies & peeling. I don't fillet any fish anymore so the fillet knife has become my full time garden knife. I grew up eating fish as we lived on the river & fish were "groceries" so I've had my lifetime fill of fish and I've had the freshest & the best so nothing else compares.

flaflwrgrl said:
... I've had the freshest & the best so nothing else compares.

I think I understand. Having had shellfish on Cape Cod and Nantucket, I mostly don't bother trying them elsewhere.

Now that I live in the coastal PNW, I'll order salmon here.

I am not a fish eater but DH loves it, so we had wild sockeye for dinner that a friend gave us, DH thought it was great, I thought it was at least tolerable!