# Tough Beef



## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

We - no, honestly, I - bought an 18 month old Jersey bull very cheaply. Probably because the prior owner couldn't get him to look any better than a scarecrow either. Fed him for 6 months, and he finally had something between his ribs, and we butchered him. Hung him for 10 days in the cooler and he is the toughest thing on record! Even the hamburger is tough. He tastes good, but man, he's tough.

Made osso buco today, cooked for 5+ hours, and it actually is pretty darn good. Now I have to figure out how to package all this meat that needs to be cooked that long.

I've heard people can hamburger. When it pressure cooks for 90 minutes, does it come out more tender? Again, the hamburger tastes good, but it's like eating small rocks.

I'm also thinking of canning cubes of meat, but wondered if I use a tomato based broth if it will "tenderize" the meat the entire time it's in the jar, and if it would come out mush in a year.

Anyone work through this kind of problem? I'd certainly appreciate any comments or wisdom. I honestly don't have any friends that can, or really even cook much, to talk with.


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## TerriLynn (Oct 10, 2009)

KIT.S said:


> We - no, honestly, I - bought an 18 month old Jersey bull very cheaply. Probably because the prior owner couldn't get him to look any better than a scarecrow either. Fed him for 6 months, and he finally had something between his ribs, and we butchered him. Hung him for 10 days in the cooler and he is the toughest thing on record! Even the hamburger is tough. He tastes good, but man, he's tough.
> 
> Made osso buco today, cooked for 5+ hours, and it actually is pretty darn good. Now I have to figure out how to package all this meat that needs to be cooked that long.
> 
> ...


I can meat. We raise our own beef and more often than not when it comes time to put a cow in the freezer for us it is an older cull cow who isn't having calves anymore. I have had some pretty tough old girls processed before!

I do can hamburger and it does make it way more tender. I precook it in an electric turkey roaster, then drain and pack into quart jars with no added liquid (I do reseason the burger before I process the jars). I have canned the cooked burger in tomato sauce but that did not affect the tenderness of the meat.

I also can the beef in chunks and that also helps immensely. Make sure when cutting the meat up you cut it against the grain as that will help make it more tender. I only add salt to my beef chunks before processing.....no added liquid. Something else I do is pack a quart jar with beef chunks approx 1/4 full then stuff the rest of the jar with peeled potatoes, carrots and onions, this is a great busy day, no time to cook, pop open a jar and eat things.

Cooking tough meat long, slow, and on low with a vinegar based sauce also does wonders to tenderize the meat. I did have some steaks once that I had to cut the meat up in tiny cubes in order to be able to eat it, it was really tough stuff.

ETA.....also one more thought.....the length of time the meat sits in jars does not affect the tenderness of it. If the jar sits on the shelf for a year its not going to be any more "mushy" or tender than if you open it up and eat it right after processing it.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

Thanks! I was concerned if I canned it with a tomato or other acidic broth, it would continue to soften. I think I'll try canning hamburger and see if the family will eat it. 

I did end up roasting several meals of meat in tomato based broth and am freezing it. The family liked it and it's tender enough to be actually good!

Thanks for the input.
Kit


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

> Probably because the prior owner couldn't get him to look any better than a scarecrow either.


Sorry, this part is sticking out at me. It doesn't sound like he was healthy. Did you get a vet to look him over?


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

He was a Jersey bull and finally put on enough weight to not show his ribs. We'd never had a Jersey before, and while I knew he wouldn't become a Hereford, I was still disappointed in his lack of flesh. And it was a particularly cold wet winter here. He didn't really gain weight until after it warmed up some, although he certainly ate well. I have to remember that the actual calculations show the meat was pretty inexpensive in the end, after all. It was more perception that he wasn't profitable. We're still not raising any more Jerseys.


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

you did say he was a bull--not castrated/, steers fatten better, in my estimation


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## rileycows (Sep 14, 2016)

Jersey also look skinny compared to a beef breed and when cut up they have a higher bone ratio


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## Maria (Apr 24, 2003)

My daughter is a food scientist, and as she puts it: if you don't let the meat go through rigor mortis while hanging, it will do it in the cooking pan. 

So we built a cooler room and now we hang meat until rigor mortis is completely finished. For lambs that's a couple of days. For deer, about a week. For cattle, it's not so easy to tell because you can't wiggle their legs to see if the muscles are lax yet. There are, however, tables online that show the data about such things.

In our experience, one week is completely inadequate. Two weeks is better as far as tenderness goes. Three weeks is significantly better than two weeks. Four weeks... well, the tenderness was about the same as three weeks, but the flavor was different. There's a gourmet niche market for dry aged beef 4 weeks old and older, but I guess that's an acquired taste. It's more trouble than I'm willing to go to again to cut off all the moldy bits.

We've got this year's beef hanging right now, and we'll be aiming for 3 weeks this time. As long as the cool room temperature stays stable, there shouldn't be a problem going that long. We aim for 35 to 40 degrees F, and check it a couple of times per day while hanging. If the window AC starts to have problems, though, then we might have to start butchering sooner.

As far as your meat goes, you could try aging it in the fridge as each package thaws out. It won't be as good as dry aging it, but better than nothing. Those muscles won't release their tension until the enzymes have broken down with age a bit. Or unless you use meat tenderizer on it.


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

Have you tried making beef jerkey yet? It's already tough eating, why not give it a shot?


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Hanging time is a factor. Age is a factor. Lack of marbling in the meat might be both a factor and a hint.
Fat in the meat adds both flavor and reduces toughness.
You didn't mention the bull's diet, did you attempt to raise him without plenty of grain? Was this your first attempt at raising your own beef? Was this a grass fed only project?
Jersey bulls are cheap because they don't provide much of a return on your efforts.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

I always found Jerseys to gain really good once you get them straightened out. Up to about 250 pounds. Veal is good stuff. Buy them cheap and kill them young, and you will have gourmet food. Helps if you have extra milk on hand. If you are like a lot of homesteaders, you might find that to have an uninterrupted milk supply, you need to milk more animals than you really need the milk from on any given day. Today we might go with a batch of cheese, tomorrow might make a grab for fresh milk, the next couple days might be stockpiled for feeding bottle calves. A lot of people find that a cheap jersey calf to be a good way to dispose of excess milk. Trying to go past the 250 to 300 pound threshold with jerseys has proven less than ideal for me, both in terms of efficiency and meat quality. They go through a big slump when you wean them. Wean them straight into the freezer and a jersey will have more marbling than at any other time in it's life. Good way to make use of jersey bull calves if you have jerseys and some extra milk. Once they get a little older, you can skim cream for butter and give them the skim, or give them whey with a little replacer added, but you have to be careful not to scour them.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Sorry for not addressing your original question, but in my opinion, the meat from that animal needs to be aged more. You could thaw it out and leave it in the fridge, just until it is starting to worry you a little. You might find it much more tender.


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