Smell.

It’s one of our more influential senses.

Something might look awesome, but if it smells weird, that trumps what our eyes tell us.

So when I first smelled the beef we got from Sand Creek Farm, I didn’t know what to make of it.

Let me back up.

All their cows are grass fed. Truly grass-fed. Not that they’re out in a pasture for a bit, then are brought into a feed lot for the last some months of their life to eat corn and grain and by-product and hay and whatever else to fatten them up. No no, these cows are truly grass-fed. Plus, we didn’t buy a cow, we bought a calf. From Sand Creek Farm’s website:

We prefer to process the fatted calf that is about 500-600 lbs, still nursing on the grass fed only Momma cow.  Instead of weaning them to grow them out for beef, we process them on weaning day.  This is what many call Rose Beef, others call it the fatted calf, it is simply “the best”!

I’ve never had calf. Alysha Godfrey (“the farmer’s wife”) told me that things are a little different, such as the flesh is more pink than red. Sure enough that is the case… it’s not that deep red you’re familiar with. And of course, cuts are smaller — no monster t-bone hanging off the ends of your plate.

But again, smell trumps. When we got home, we took a couple pounds of the ground — after a 2 hour drive and despite extensive use of coolers and such, some of the ground did defrost tho was still cool — and cooked it up. We wanted to see how it compared to typical store-bought beef. We did nothing to it: just portion it into 6 oz patties and cook them on the stove. No seasonings (tho I added a pinch of salt), no smoke, no nothing. Just taste the meat and see what it’s like.

As I was making the patties, it looked good. Again, slightly more pink than red, good fat content (they cooked down to about 4 oz… that’s some fat), but I stuck my nose in the raw meat to smell it.

It smelled weird.

Different.

And frankly… the thought that triggered in my head was, “is this rotten??”

Wife smelled it too, and had a similar thought. She said that it smelled like poo.

Keep reading. 🙂

She was right, but she was wrong. No, it doesn’t smell like shit. It wasn’t a rotten smell. But it was a smell similar to the “dairy air” we had just smelled while at the farm.  And when you think about it, it’s more a grassy smell.

We also bought some raw milk. I’ll write on that another time, but the raw milk had the same sort of overtones.

It’s simple.

It’s not rotten, it’s not bad. It’s just different (and unfamiliar). It’s the cow’s diet. They eat grass, they poop digested grass; if you are what you eat, then the grass gets into the meat, it gets into their milk, it’s just how it all goes. And so all of it makes sense.

It’s not a bad smell, but you just have to know what it is. And it’s not the dominant smell, but just a fair overtone to everything. Everything ultimately tastes as you’d expect (the beef tastes like beef, natch), but you might pick up the grassy overtones in your nose or on your tongue.

But do realize, it does not smell the same as your store-bought beef and milk.

So it was a little weird. It’s different. It’s a change. It’s unfamiliar.

But those simple patties? They were so juicy. It was quite delicious. Wife reported it went well with the cab-syrah she was drinking. I took the unkosher route and had some of the raw milk with my meat. Like I said, I’ll write more on the raw milk another time.

I’m looking forward to trying a steak. That will be simple too: maybe a little salt and pepper, grill over fire, done. Taste the meat.