# Butchered Beef? Taste?



## MikeParks (Apr 2, 2006)

This question may make me sound silly but here it goes...

We had a jersey/holstien bull (about 2 years old).
After he serviced our cows we shipped him off to the butcher.
The butcher only quartered it and hung it for a week. We picked it up today and started butchering.

After a day of this (not very fast) some decided to taste it. It was not very pleasant. It is rather a hard flavor to describe. I guess I can only describe it as having the same flavor as the odor at the butcher's place. Not pleasant. Also it smells like it. (I assume this smell is that of a lot of fresh raw meat). The butcher is licensed so he has to have the place inspected.

I'm guessing the meat needs to age a while longer (I hope) and that after it has been in the freezer a month it will have mellowed out and taste more like "store" beef?

Any answers/ideas/suggestions?

Thanks
Mike


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Mike, my guess is that your eating just what you had killed - a bull! You could have hung him for months and he would have still had that strong taste of a bull. How long after working did you have him slaughtered? Any male animal that has been used for servicing should be left for at least 2-3 months before slaughter.

I personally don't like bull meat even if the bull has never worked and because I can eat better, I do. I keep steers for the house and the bull goes off to the works where I get very good money for him.

Sorry, but my opinion is that this meat is never going to taste any better and is no fault of the butcher or the length of time it hung.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## langoley (Jan 26, 2006)

I too agree,this meat will always be"strong" tasting compared to other beef.


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## glenn amolenaar (Mar 3, 2007)

I'm sure it is the "bull" smell, taint, you say jersey/holstien if there is alot lot of the yellow jersey fat try trimming it off it will help improve the taste. Why would you want the store bought taste?

Glenn


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Several factors. People have mentioned that you are getting some Bull taste. 

Was this bull on grain for 6-8 weeks before slaughter? Most meat your are used to eating has been grain fed. Grass (or hay) fed beef has a distinct different flavor.

Some people get used to that grass fed taste. Some people get used to eating venison or bear meat. It takes awhile to accept meat with a "different" taste.


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## MikeParks (Apr 2, 2006)

stoe bought taste -  because "store bought" taste (imo) is better than the taste of slaughter house flavor.

The bull hadn't serviced a cow in about 4 to 5 months (he seems to have taken care of them the first month and we kept him for the other 5 just in case, but from all appearances the first month took).

I haven't seen any yellow fat. As part of butchering we have been cleaning it up pretty good.

The bull pretty much always had access to some grain.



I guess it isn't bad meat since those who did eat some last night are still up and feeling ok 

I know it may sound strange to those who eat deer/moose/etc. but we don't and expected the meat to be good. (honestly I personally have had deer before and I think this flavor is even stronger than deer).

I was thinking if the meat was packaged with the spices we usually flavor with anyway then maybe after being frozen away with them it would absorb enough to help cover some of it?

I don't know but this was a very expensive mistake.
Mike


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

I would suggest letting the meat hang, if you have a place to hang it, for another week or so. I think probably you just aren't familiar with the strong beef flavor of fresh meat, it is different. I can't stand the taste of store bought meat, but I like the flavor of grass fed. If the flavor is just too strong, you can soak the meat in milk or a little vinager/water mix and that will take the edge off of it.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

This thread has got me curious about bull slaughtering. I've got a yearling bull now that is on some heifers and I planned on letting do the servicing before he goes to the freezer. While I've slaughtered a bull in the past, I don't think he'd ever done any service. Is there a noticeable difference in the taste if a bull has been used?


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

A yearling bull should not taste any different than a steer the same age. After about 18 months the flavor will shift with the bull.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Mike, on the way to town this morning I remembered something you might like to think about.

Some 8 years ago my Simmental/Friesian bull contracted MCF. As a result of the disease he went blind in three days so sending him to the works was not an option. Rather than just dig a big hole in the paddock we decided to experiment, keeping in mind that neither of us like bull meat. We had the whole beast turned into processed meat - corned beef, sausages, BBQ patties and that type of thing. The curing and spices masked any bull taste and I will go so far as to say it was some of the best corned beef I have ever eaten. I can't remember what the cost of processing was now but it was still cheaper than the waste of burying him - and the digger hire to dig the hole

Perhaps you could try this too. Sure it will cost to have the butcher process it but it might not be the expensive mistake it is now. 

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

I see a lot of low cost slaughter beef. Those cheap cows are mostly old, worn out holstein cows. Mixed in with these "canner/cutters" there are a few beef bulls. The market has little use for bulls as far as slaughter goes.


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## MikeParks (Apr 2, 2006)

Ronney said:


> .......
> .....whole beast turned into processed meat - corned beef, sausages, BBQ patties and that type of thing. The curing and spices masked any bull taste and I will go so far as to say it was some of the best corned beef I have ever eaten. I can't remember what the cost of processing was now but it was still cheaper than the waste of burying him - and the digger hire to dig the hole
> ......


 I thought of that 
If the flavor doesn't improve I plan to "adjust" the flavor  (smoking, jerky, corned beef, etc.)

We tested some ribeye and while it still had the initial flavor, the flavor just didn't keep growning in your mouth until you couldn't take it. It was a quick hit and then faded lol.

Anyway if we can help we won't be butchering bulls anymore.
I kind of thought it would have been better seeing he was just barely hitting 2 years old. But I guess you learn lol.

Thanks all,
Mike


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

haypoint said:


> I see a lot of low cost slaughter beef. Those cheap cows are mostly old, worn out holstein cows. Mixed in with these "canner/cutters" there are a few beef bulls. The market has little use for bulls as far as slaughter goes.


Then why do slaughter bulls bring a higher price then slaughter cows?


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## nathan104 (Nov 16, 2007)

Allen W said:


> Then why do slaughter bulls bring a higher price then slaughter cows?


Sure your not thinking of slaughter steer?


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Interestingly enough, most of our slaughter bulls go to - wait for it - the States! There are farms here that do nothing other than rear bulls and at 18 months off they go on a truck for their big OE and end up as a meat pattie from some fast food outlet on the other side of the world. 

So why are they so prized? For the simple expedient that bull meat will absorb it's own weight in water thereby doubling it's weight. Not hard to work out the economics in that.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Allen, let me detail what I said.
There are lots of old, broken down, worn out dairy cows that almost no one wants. They don't bring much money. Some look like they wouldn't survive the trip to the slaughter plant. You can plainly see you wouldn't want to bring these dogs home.

There are buyers that look for just such cheap cows. They will go into processed, canned or bottled products, like chili, spaghetti sauce, etc.

These buyers often bid on beef bulls that don't look too bad. They appear to be healthy, fairly young and have lots of meat on them. These bulls sell in the same range as those miserable old dairy Holsteins. Maybe they sell a bit higher one week or a bit lower the next. 

My point is that no one around here is taking them home. They go to the same last resort, bottom of the bin, undesirable place as the old, bag on the ground, huge pelvis, worn out dairy cows.

Nathan is correct. Slaughter steers sell for more than slaughter heifers. That is because a steer grows faster and has a higher hanging weight compared to live weight.

If you take two bovine, weighing the same 1200 pounds and one is a steer and the other is a bull, the market knows what MikeParks is finding out and the bull will sell for half the price of the one without testicles.


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## MikeParks (Apr 2, 2006)

I thought I would come back and update...
After the first encounter we were not very happy as you can imagine.
Being new to butchering we were going very slow so it took a few days to get through the whole thing (thankfully it was very cold outside so not much chance of the meat that was waiting going bad), admittedly though we were taking a lot of time to also clean up the cuts so there wouldn't be any work when it came to cooking. So after the first day we started keeping buckets of ice water near us and as be cleaned up meat we would drop them in the buckets. (buckets had salt, onion powder, cumin, a little worster, and a little vinegar, not enough to overpower the meat). We would then cover the buckets and let them sit outside over night, in the morning we would pack them.

Tested a few peices last night and it is turning out a lot better. The pieces fried still had an initial flavor but not overpowering. I took the same type of peice and made it as a little potroast and it had no objectionable flavor. So it seems like if nothing else we got a lot of potroast lol.

Mike


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Haypoint interesting post. If your looking for me at the sale barn I will be setting with the cow traders taking notes and watching for an opportunity to take advantage of.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Allen, if you sit among the two biggest buyers of "low end" cows in Michigan, you'll be sitting with an employee of a large packing plant in Wisconsin and a guy that buys the ones the other guy doesn't think will make the trip. 35 cents a pound is about what the first guy pays and the other guy gives 25 cents. The second guy hauls his purchases to the same place and gets 35 cents a pound for the ones that survive the trip. With a 10 cent margin, he does all right, except when more than a few die in transit.

A few years ago, I arrived early for a Draft Horse Auction in northern Indiana. The cattle auction was still going on. The parking lot had a few dozen beat up pickup trucks hooked to rusty, manure covered trailers. Up by the door there were parking spaces reserved for buyers. There was a Cadillac, a Lincoln and a Mercedes parked there.
It was late and many farmers had left. There were a few scattered around the bleachers, scruffy looking, elbows poking thru frayed plaid flannel shirts.
Up front and center, three gentlemen sat, dress pants and dress shirts. These were the buyers. It was plain to me that instead of competing for each cow, they had discussed how many each needed and were politely taking turns on each cow up for bids.
It was clear to me where the profit was in the beef business.
If you go to a sale expecting to see an opportunity, you might end up buying a lesson instead. Enjoy the ride.


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## CissyVaughn (Dec 9, 2008)

Reading a post about the strong flavor of bull meat...
If it were possible to castrate a full grown bull, then feed him for another 4 months, would the strong flavor of his meat fade away with his machismo and taste like a steer again?


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