How Do You Say Beef?

By Mimi Sheraton

"Where's the beef?" was America's favorite question a few years ago, but "What's the beef?" seems more appropriate now. The troubled meat industry, which has watched its market shrink as consumers turn toward lighter meals of fish and chicken, is experimenting with new breeds of beef-producing cattle that are considerably lower in fat and calories than the conventional product. These leaner beefs are beginning to find their way to market with names barely recognizable to most consumers. Nonetheless, Brae, zebu, beefalo and Chianina Lite will soon be tempting steak- and hamburger-loving Americans who want to get back to their old favorites. These meats have anywhere from 25% to 85% less fat and 32% to 79% fewer calories than standard beef, but the most important question to beef lovers is, How do they taste?

Three of the new beefs are from crossbred animals. Brae comes from a conventional breed (Black Angus), but the herds are fed differently than most cattle. Developed by Fred Grant, a former banker, and named for his farm Windabrae (Scottish for windy slope), these cattle graze on grass for the first two years of life and are then fed a diet of high-quality silage and beer. Grant uses no growth hormones or other chemicals, and the meat contains 84% less fat and 43% fewer calories than regular beef. Cuts ordered by TIME from the Brae Beef Shop in Stamford, Conn., proved to be by far the best of the four varieties; the various bright ruby red cuts were extraordinarily juicy and flavorful. That juiciness was unique among the low-fat beefs, and the technique for achieving it is a secret that Grant guards closely.

Brae was slightly firmer in texture than corn-fed beef but exuded a quintessential beefy flavor that was a more than adequate reward for a little extra chewing. The porterhouse and sirloin steaks pan-grilled in an iron skillet would have done credit to any first-class steak house. A rib roast was succulent and tender, but ground sirloin and chuck were too lean to make properly moist hamburgers. Pot roast and stew cuts, though acceptable, cooked so quickly that they did not absorb the flavors of seasonings, one of the advantages of the usually fatty, long-cooking cuts. As with all lean beefs, cooking is accomplished more rapidly because there is less fat to be cooked along with the meat; lower temperatures and one-half to two-thirds of standard cooking times are the rule.

It is easy to understand why Grant has had so much success with this beef, which is available in his shop and by mail, but if the quality is breathtaking, so is the price. Shell steak retails for $18.50 per lb., prime rib is $15.45, and ground sirloin is $5.95.

Beefalo is a relatively new, man-bred cross between a bison (chosen for leanness) and one of the conventional cattle strains, such as Angus, Hereford and Simmental, which are prized for tenderness and flavor. A full-blooded beefalo is three-eighths bison and five-eighths bovine, according to standards set by the American Beefalo World Registry. Beefalo averages 80% less fat and 55% fewer calories than comparable cuts of ordinary beef. Two samples from animals that were fed differently were tested, with somewhat different results. Beefalo from Healey's Market in Manchester, Vt., was slightly richer, more flavorful and moister than comparable cuts from Chenango Beefalo in Greene, N.Y. Although neither example of beefalo matched Brae, both were certainly adequate. Steaks cooked rare were the most successful cuts, even though they were paler in color, milder in flavor and a bit tougher than Brae. Stews were barely acceptable. Roasts, however, were much too dry because the meat lacked the fat to keep them supple.

Joe Miles, whose product is sold at Healey's Market, has been raising beefalo for four years. His animals are given no hormones and are fed whole- grain corn because consumers did not like the tougher, grass-fed variety. His beefalo was indeed juicier and more tender than the Chenango meat, which comes from cattle that graze on grass and are given spring water and supplements of mineral blocks and hay. A small roast purchased from Healey's was slightly dry, even though it was cooked at 300 degrees F, as suggested; stew meat needed much more seasoning than conventional beef would have. Chenango beefalo was a shade less satisfactory in all categories. Beefalo prices match those of prime beef.

The lean Chianina was developed at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and is expected to be in Texas supermarkets in late summer. It has 25% less fat and 36% fewer calories than ordinary beef, although the cholesterol content is not significantly lower. Chianina is a descendant of a breed raised in the Chiana Valley of Italy since Roman times. Cooked as directed, the rather pale meat with slightly yellowish fat was virtually tasteless except for slight acidic overtones. Most successful was the steak, pan-grilled and served very rare. What little fat there was in Chianina cuts had an unpleasant waxy aftertaste that marred roasts and stews. In addition, the braised cuts were extremely dense when cooked because they were too lean.

The most exotic of the new beefs is zebu, an unfortunate name that suggests the animal is at least part zebra and might summon images of black-and-white- striped steaks. Instead, this haughty-looking animal is a variety of humpbacked cattle native to India and Brazil that is crossbred with fatter and more flavorful bovine strains. Zebu breeding stock is raised by Liborio Hinojosa of H&H Meat Products in Mercedes, Texas, and is sold to ranchers from Florida and California. Zebu, which is now being tested for fat and calorie count at Texas A&M University, was the least acceptable of the beefs tasted. Both the meat and fat had an even sharper acidic flavor and aftertaste than the Chianina.

Despite the few disappointments in these early samples, the future looks bright for beef lovers. Before long it will be the animals who do the dieting so that the ultimate consumer does not have to.