Dry-aged beef from 12-year-old cows a tender hit with high-end chefs | Landline | ABC Australia

[Music] the Evergreen hills of guns plains in northern Tasmania are ideal for growing beef Donald bonny runs an anger stud and fattening operation with his son Nelson person let's just love the cattle and life breeding good Carol and they well in recent years have been good money spirits anyway most of the cattle are processed after a couple of years but the breeders are kept on farm for eight to twelve years while their genetics are good the farmers didn't think much of their meat until processor Greenham noticed the carcasses were grading surprisingly well we tend to think of our cows as burger me for something like that it's interesting that old cows you know taste good and I've got this beautiful meeting them with ample grass and hay they are well-fed and retain intramuscular fat or marbling even over winter the standout animals now go into a branded product for high-end restaurants in Australia and abroad yeah I'm rather surprised to learn that I'm anxious to try a bit myself to see really how good it is hobart chef massimo Malay is happy to help out with the taste test Brazilian style put a lot of salt at the start and that looks seems quite excessive but it actually helps draw out a lot of moisture and give it a nice crispy this steak has a marbled score of 5 few old cows perform like this but consistency can be an issue when it comes to size and flavor from a chef's point of view from a restaurant point of view does the variability in this product pose a challenge it does but what I'm trying to do is it's a specialty product push it coming in today and for Nia who is produced to why is the way it is as well as chefs we kind of tend to think everything needs to be really consistent to to create efficiencies but I think sometimes it's really good to get back to the product while that cooks let's head a few hours south where another farmer is adding value to mature cattle in the early hours it's business as usual at then gives farm near Hobart we're a new dairy is making light work of milking [Music] look at the knives you just made life so much easier the cows are a lot happier when we get up at 4:00 a.m. to be honest and come on Milton with sturdy legs large frames and big utters Holstein Friesian czar prolific milk producers but been geared hadn't considered what else they had to offer until he spoke to Hobart based chef Annalise Gregory have you cooked any of it yet she encouraged him to dry aged meat from retired dairy cows a delicacy in Spain dry aging reduces the moisture in beef and cuts are stored in climate-controlled rooms for 60 to 150 days the meat from the old cows is sent to restaurants across Hobart chefs like analyst Gregory are getting creative with how they serve it often plating it up raw the flavor is described as robust and intense with hints of cheese the product is good but you do have to treat it differently that's why you know Ben's doing the dry-aging because I'm like they are working animals and they've been working like for ten years being milks and so like you know the meat is tougher there's a lot of connective tissue and it doesn't need that time for like the enzymatic breakdown to like make it tender [Music] a mixed diet of pasture lucerne hay silage and spent grain from the local brewery adds to the flavor of the meat when their working life ends at around nine years of age the cows destined for the beef market graze freely on pasture for six months to put on extra weight the family is now taking things one step further and branding their beef Ben's wife Natalie has a marketing background and is confident they can turn around poor perceptions of old cows the response is pretty amazing like we haven't tasted it yeah this is pretty intense it tastes pretty good but we're not any culinary Kunis's are we so to hear the feedback from those chefs that were tasting it going this is pretty insane flavor was something that we yeah we thought we'd try and give it a bit of a go meat from mature cows is normally used in hamburgers and pet food for been turning his old girls into a higher value product is a more meaningful end to their lives so Ben's you know sees them every day from when they're born right through to sort of when they retire don't you say yeah there's a long connection in association with a cow and you know them all pretty well individually don't you so yeah and I think that's where old cow was really flowed from Ben's love of fashion you know the love of these cows and these animals [Music] hey everyone how are you back at the bunnies farm processor Peter Greenham is just in time for lunch we can definitely get some fat ones he supports the growing appetite for vintage beef but he says it can only be produced in high rainfall areas and requires some special handling we hang the animal a different way so we hang it from the hip instead of by hanging by the hop and what that does is it actually stretches the loins out and what happens in is it makes that meat a lot softer as opposed to the general way which is actually pushing the fibers together and it actually makes the loin cuts a lot more tough old animals in the vintage beef program are fetching between 80 and 150 dollars more per head than they would without the brand suppliers across Tasmania and Gippsland in Victoria hope they'll retain a strong premium even if market conditions change Peter Greenham says there's also export opportunities for this niche product we've just got it into one of the highest priced steak houses in Chicago and it's also on the menu of quite a few big places in LA we're smart getting it to Singapore China and it's sitting up against some really high-end brands and and it's pulling its weight this will be the first time these farmers get to taste their own vintage beef so what's the verdict like how do you feel knowing that that's your yes awesome mark I don't know how to describe it it was pretty special good out dully I'm glad I chased I ran and fed her up so well for a few years [Laughter] you [Music]

Channel: ABC Australia

Views: 8,636

Keywords: ABC, Australia, landline abc, dry-aged beef, dry-aged steak, vintage beef, vintage steak, Old Cow, Australian beef, Australian farming, farming in australia, dry-aging

Id: j35SomN75oQ

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 04 2019