What does grass fed cattle taste like as compared to what you get in a store? I don't think I have ever had free range anything so I am geniunely curious.
I don't have grass only beef in my freezer for the same reason you can't buy it at a supermarket, trying to nail down the taste from year to year or animal to animal is impossible. What I get is something that's been on grass about 6 months longer than the average factory animal and is fed a mix of grains, including some corn, in addition to plenty of roughage that largely eliminates the need for antibiotics.
The longer an animal is on grass the less grain it needs to get to slaughter weight and grain doesn't add much flavorful lean. So I'll have a higher lean to fat ratio in my beef, but despite that and the animal being older it will be as tender if not more than beef from a store because it will be dry aged for 2-3 weeks.
Oh, and when I say "What I get" I mean what the rancher I'm buying the steer from does to finish the animal. I'm just paying a slight premium over market to dictate the diet. In return for that I know that I'm actually getting a steer, its breed, age, lineage and general care.
And by premium, I'm talking if a March feeder is $124/100 pounds today I'd be paying $130/pound for the animal. So if I had a 1,000 pound steer butchered it would cost $1,300 for the steer, $75 to have it slaughtered and maybe another $250 to have it aged, processed and packaged for about 500-530 pounds of meat.
