Highland Cattle Beef: Sirloin

Yesterday we made a 240 round trip journey to Zephyrhills Florida for one purpose. To visit a very special cattle rancher. His name is Peter, and runs the Running River Ranch in Virginia, with his wife Patty, raising these beautiful animals.

I'll be using his hides for use in my leatherwork. I have a separate post over on my art blog if you're interested in hearing me yammering on about that.

But of course, the hides isn't what keeps his business booming. It is the beef. And being the food nerd I am, I had to try his Highland Cattle beef.

You may or may not remember my adventure a few years back acquiring a quarter of a whole free range, grass fed motherload. This wasn't quite the epic haul. But the beef was equally astounding.

The Highland Beef Haul, left ot right:

kidneys, tongue, heart, another kidney, another heart, 4 ground beef patties, 2 massive sirloin steaks, and a beef eye round.

Running River Ranch's beef is fantastically flavorful. Tender despite its lower fat content. Rich and beautiful, everything you would expect from cattle raised in an environment they're meant to be. Outside, eating grass, rolling around, and just being cows.

Now grass fed beef is naturally much leaner than mass produced, corn fed, never get to walk around, beef you buy in the supermarket. The general rule I hear is "slow and low".

But I don't particularly live by this rule. Depending on the cut of meat... if you know what you're doing... you can get an excellent seared medium-rare steak (the way I like it).

I have the stove and oven method of cooking grass fed cuts in the post I linked above, but today, I wanted to try it on the grill.

Obviously, I wanted to TASTE the meat... so absolutely no marinades, just kosher salt and freshly ground pepper pressed into the flesh.

Method:

Most importantly, make sure your meat is at room temperature before cooking. Otherwise you will end up with a piece of meat that is dry and overcooked on the outside, and raw in the center. This is a VERY important step. Don't skip it and then come back complaining it didnt work right.

Crank that grill up as high as it will go. We had it at 500 degrees. Just before plopping it onto the grill, drizzle some olive oil on the side you will be putting on the grill.

You're going to be working fast here, 3-4 minutes on each side should about do it if you like it medium rare like we do.

Once you've flipped the steak once, put a nice nob of butter on top (dont be shy) and let it finish cooking, watch for flare ups as the butter drips down into the flames. Do not be afraid. Fear makes bad cooks!

Once its cooked to your liking, take it off the grill and let it rest for about 5 minutes. This is also important, you need to let the juices that have been rapidly moving inside from the intense heat slow down and re-settle. This is essential to a juicy tender steak.

After you've had your moment with your inner Highland caveman with all that fire and flaming meat. ENJOY!