Tasters delve into beef flavors at local farm
By Shannon Sollinger
Different kinds of apples taste different. Why, then, are diners surprised when one kind of beef doesn't taste exactly like another?
That was Sandy Lerner's question to a happy crew of beef tasters June 20 at her Ayrshire Farm near Upperville during "What's the beef? An historic and culinary fest."
The point was to taste roast beef (no seasoning) from 10 heritage breeds -- those that have disappeared from factory farms and supermarket shelves. The tasting was "blind," with samples identified only by number.
The flavors and textures varied, sometimes subtly, from one sample to the next. One was gamy with a hint of venison, another almost sweet.
All offered what Lerner calls "a little tooth." Beef, she had explained at an earlier seminar, is not supposed to have the consistency of custard. You're supposed to chew it.
The tasting introduced chefs, restaurant owners, food writers, and sustainable farming fans and practitioners to new options to help expand the market.
"We have done a good job developing a list [of animals], finding owners and breeders," said Don Schrider, director of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. "Now we need to find an economic home for these animals."
In plain-speak, that means someone has to want to eat them. To pay to eat them.
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Slow Food USA and Humane Farm Animal Care joined Lerner to sponsor the event.
The day started with a tour of Ayrshire's fields, where the cattle and pigs and turkeys actually do roam, to the 3-acre composting field, to the USDA-certified chicken slaughterhouse and the commercial kitchen.
The animals at Ayrshire, and the meat that comes from them -- and ends up on plates at Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville and the Home Farm Store in Middleburg -- are all certified both humanely raised and organic. No steroids here, and no 10-acre hog slop ponds to overflow in the next rain.
At the tasting, the people's choice was the Randall Lineback (an American breed from a single herd in Vermont). The Galloway (18th century Scotland) was a close second, and the diminutive Irish Dexter was third.
Lerner has almost single-handedly brought the Ancient White Park – tops on my tasting card -- which originated in pre-Roman England, back from a brush with extinction. Many of the breeds on the tasting menu are close to extinction, Schrider pointed out. The way to save them is to get more people asking for them on the menu.
Contract the ALBC at www.albc-USA.org to find a heritage farmer. Contact Ayrshire at www.ayrshirefarm.com.