A delicacy you might not have tried
By Teri Clayton
What do Vaca Vieja, Stewing Hen and Mutton all have in common?
OK so we deliberately made this a bit trickier by throwing in the Spanish name – Vaca Vieja, but essentially, they are all meats sourced from more mature animals.
- Vaca Vieja is the name used in Spain for meat that comes from a female cow over 5 years old.
- Stewing hens are mature laying birds that are generally around 10 months old or over.
- Mutton is mature sheep meat, generally accepted to be 2 years plus.
Whilst people are likely to have heard of and hopefully tasted beautifully cooked mutton, many people will not have had the luxury of trying mature beef, sometimes referred to as ‘cull cow’, or a slow cooked stewing hen. People have generally turned away from mature meat, in the mistaken assumption that it will be chewy or dry, when in fact – if cooked properly – is the exact opposite.
Mature meats have a depth of flavour and density of muscle fibres that create delicious, rich and satisfying meals. The mature darker fat melts into the meat yielding a silky, buttery texture that simply cannot be rivalled. Once you have tasted properly cooked mature meats once, you won’t want to go back! Less mature meats just don’t have ‘it’. Mature meats have that moreish umami flavour that hits all the hunger spots you didn’t even know you had.
Do you remember a time when you sat back into the reassuring hug of a chair after just eating a meal and declaring…’that was the most delicious meal I have ever eaten’? Chances are it probably contained nutrients that your body had been secretly crying out for! This is the kind of experience you can expect with well cooked mature meat. The protein from denser muscle fibres, the diverse range of forage based phytonutrients stored in the meat and fat, along with plenty of digestion soothing gelatin, make mature meats a nutrient dense superfood!
In the ground breaking book ‘Nourishment’ by Fred Provenza the importance of returning to systems that feed ruminants a diverse 100% pasture diet is clear to see. Fred Provenza has also published scientific papers alongside Stephan van Vliet. The research not only points to the benefits of regenerative agriculture and 100% pastured diets (1), but also interesting observations when it comes to the meat of more mature animals. Older cows may have higher levels and greater diversity of health promoting phytonutrients than younger animals.
This fascinating research highlights the importance of feeding ruminants a species appropriate diet, but this is no ‘new’ development or advancement – it’s simply returning to the way nature does things!
When you think about our ancestors in the wild, would we have hunted 2-3 year old ruminants in their prime, pumped full of adrenaline and energy, or would we have hunted down the older, slower and weaker animals at the edges of the herd – that were easier and less risky to bring down? I am sure that our ancestors were probably streetwise enough to avoid a head on collision with a protective mother beast too, leaving the youngsters well alone, unless they were desperately hungry. It would make sense to theorise that we have an inbuilt ‘taste’ for and even nutritional requirement for mature meats from older animals.
Yet in today’s modern world of efficiency and cost effectiveness we eat ruminants as soon as they hit their optimal weight (because they won’t – generally – fetch any more money for farmers after this point). For cattle that are fed a 100% pasture diet, this tends to fall at around the 24-36 month mark.
It would make sense to theorise that we have an inbuilt ‘taste’ for and even nutritional requirement for mature meats from older animals.
Could a slower system help us create a better way forward?
What if we could recognise the much higher value of mature animals, due to their meat, fat and phytonutrient composition, as well as their capacity to induce that – all too elusive – satiety?
Farmers could benefit from higher returns and slower turn-over of animals. This would allow farming systems to benefit from a more natural pace, moving a little closer to the ancient cycles of nature. As herds begin to move closer to an older average age, maybe the worm burdens would be reduced, the herds nutritional wisdom would flourish and perhaps too the soil and the soil based metabolites that commune with our own gut microbiomes would help our systems to slow down and calm down.
One has to wonder about the effects of eating beef from castrated male animals that alter the functioning of our own digestion and nervous system in ways that are not yet 100% clear. We have a lot to learn. Could aggressive, angry, intolerant or ‘bull-ish’ behaviour be related to an intake of immature male animals a little too often?
What if we could create a food culture that favoured quality of meat, nutrient density and real depth of flavour? Would this better support our farming systems to make the shift into a truly regenerative model? Maybe.
Mature meats are a delicacy in other countries, with some cultures retiring dairy cows onto lush green pastures, where they age and develop muscle and fat with an exceptional flavour. Some of these cows are kept at pasture until they are in their late teens, to allow them as much time as possible for their meat to reach full maturity, as is the case with Basque beef.
We are very pleased to be offering our first mature beef box from a 10 year old pedigree Hereford cow from Organic and PLF certified – Boyd Farms. Order yours below – delivery May 8th 2024.
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