When you cook Happy Cow beef you have to be as gentle with the steaks as we are with the cows.  You will be eating meat that comes from an animal that walked around foraging, going to the creek for water, heading for high ground when it rains - you know, doing cow things.  More traditional beef comes from the cow version of a couch potato binge watching television and eating nothing but junk food.  That means the muscle structure of a Happy Cow is more well developed, and the fat is more evenly distributed.  It also means the meat is more delicious.  You just have to adjust cooking a little to get it to come out perfectly. 


The biggest mistake with grass fed beef is overcooking. 

In all meat, increasing the temperature quickly makes the protein structure toughen.  In grain fed beef, there is a lot more white fat.  Fat acts as an insulator, and makes the beef heat slower.  Since grass-fed beef lacks this fat, you need to heat the grass-fed meat a little slower, and be ready for it to be done faster than expected. 

The suggested internal cooking temperatures for grass fed beef are 120° - 140° Fahrenheit, much lower than the USDAs guidelines for beef (145° - 175°). 

Here's how the grass feed beef cooking guidelines break down:

  • Rare 120°F

  • Medium Rare 125°F

  • Medium 130°F

  • Medium Well 135°F

  • Well 140°F

These suggested cooking temperatures come from The Grass Fed Gourmet cookbook by Shannon Haye.


Remember to remove your steaks from the heat source a little shy of your perfect temperature - the temperature will continue to rise 5 - 10 degrees after it is removed from the cooking source. 

Quick Tips

  • Thaw in the fridge or in a bowl of water. Bring the temperature up a little before you start cooking by setting the meat on the counter. Don’t leave it out for more than 30 minutes.

  • Lower the temperature of your heat source by about 15% or 50 degrees below the temperature you would normally use.

  • Expect it to cook faster (30-50% faster)

  • Use a thermometer, and watch it closely. A thermometer that can stay in the meat while cooking is best. Multiple holes from the thermometer allow more juices to escape the meat.

  • Add a little olive oil if you find that it’s sticking.

  • Don’t turn the steaks with a fork - you’ll lose moisture. Use tongs instead.

  • Remove your meat from the heat when the internal temperature is 10 degrees below the desired temperature - it will continue to cook.

  • Let the meat rest at least 5 to 10 minutes before you cut the meat open in any way. Don’t hurry this step – it’s worth it. Resting allows the juices to draw in and distribute evenly.

  • Cook roasts in the oven at 225° F or in a crock pot

Happy Cow Cuts

Brisket - this is essentially the pectoral muscle of the animal.  Since cows don’t have collar bones, this muscle supports about 60% of the animal’s weight.  That means a serious amount of connective tissue.  It also means cooking low and slow is your friend.  If you don’t have a smoker, try the oven.  Another completely delicious option is braising (cooking slowly in liquid) in the crock pot or Dutch oven. 

Ribsteak (bone-in ribeye), NY Strip, Tenderloin, Sirloin - far be it from me to teach a bunch of Texans how to cook steak.  Here’s just a few things to keep in mind when cooking grass-fed beef.  

  • Start with room temperature meat so the heating process is gentler.

  • Think about the low and slow philosophy - try cooking on the cold side of the grill for a longer period of time, then searing for the delicious caramelization.

  • Get a good, reliable meat thermometer and use it - especially the kind that can sit in the meat and show you a continuous temperature. The instant read thermometers can encourage you to poke a bunch of drain holes in your steak as it cooks, which is an excellent way to dry out your meat.

  • The best steaks I’ve ever eaten were made with the Reverse Searing method. You can read all about it online, but it’s really simple. Get the full recipe on page 10 of this packet. It’s also on our website, www.happycowbeef.com.

Round Roast, Pike’s Peak Roast, Rump Roast - so good when they’re cooked correctly; so bad when they aren’t!  This is where cooking low and slow becomes really important. Here’s a really basic cooking method:

  • Put a still frozen roast into the slow-cooker with about 1 cup of water or broth

  • Sprinkle with some pepper and plenty of good salt,

  • Turn slow-cooker to its lowest setting, and let it go for about 12 hours.

All of the roasts we sell can be cooked like this.  My favorite roast actually has a slightly different flavor profile, I’ve included the recipe on Page 13. It’s also on www.happycowbeef.com. If you aren’t a fan of roast, you can thaw the roast in the fridge and then cut it up into small pieces to use as stew meat - perfect for chili, carne guisada, beef stroganoff, beef stew, etc.  Cooking low and slow is still the best idea. 

If you are finding your roasts end up overcooked, take a look at your crock pot.  Many cook too hot.  You can try to cook on low for less time (start with 6 hours) if you have the feature that switches over to warm once you hit the time limit.  It’s not safe to cook on warm because it takes too long to come up to temperature.  You can cook on low and then allow the cooking to continue on warm.  Also remember that slow cookers are just modern Dutch ovens.  You can go low and slow in the oven (225° - 250°) with equally delicious results. 

Ground Beef - everyone’s favorite, seriously.  Thaws quickly and cooks easily. Cook just as you would with conventional beef, and get ready for the best burger you’ve ever had. 

Soup Bones – these meaty bones are perfect for any beef broth or beef flavored soup or stew. Not sure how to go about that? I’ve put together some good information on page 14!

Stock Bones – although not meaty like the soup bones, these make a beautiful bone broth. See instructions on page 14. 

Heart, Liver, Oxtail – were you lucky enough to get organ meat? If not this time, then ask for them next time. These are obviously limited to the first folks to request them as they are one offs. I’m not going to go into detail on how to fix them here – the internet would be so thrilled to give you a billion options. The simple fact is that more and more people are realizing the immense health benefits. 

As you might expect, grain fed organ meat, specifically liver, delivers a concentration of the toxins these animals ingest. Grass fed animals deliver a concentration of the nutrients produced in the pasture. 

Reverse Seared Steaks

    • Salt and pepper steak liberally

    • Put it on a rack (over a cookie sheet) in a 225° F oven until the internal temperature is about 10 degrees below your desired final temperature. This will take a while - like 30 min to an hour - so be patient.

    • Take it out of the oven, and rest it for a good 10-15 minutes.

    • Finish by searing in a hot cast iron skillet (with butter and herbs) or on a hot grill. When you are finishing you are only working on the external caramelization. No more than 1 min per side.

    • Serve immediately and immediately receive compliments. Seriously, it’s worth the time.

Why does Reverse Searing work so well?  Here’s the method behind the madness as explained on www.seriouseats.com: 

Why Should You Reverse Sear Your Steak?

It's called the reverse sear because it flips tradition on its head. Historically, almost every cookbook and chef have taught that when you're cooking a piece of meat, the first step should be searing. Most often, the explanation is that searing "locks in juices." These days, we know that this statement is definitively false. Searing does not actually lock in juices at all; it merely adds flavor. Flipping the formula so that the searing comes at the end produces better results. But what exactly are those better results?

More Even Cooking

The temperature gradient that builds up inside a piece of meat—that is, the difference in temperature as you work your way from the edges toward the center—is directly related to the rate at which energy is transferred to that piece of meat. The higher the temperature you use to cook, the faster energy is transferred, and the less evenly your meat cooks. Conversely, the more gently a steak is cooked, the more evenly it cooks.

By starting steaks in a low-temperature oven, you wind up with almost no overcooked meat whatsoever. Juicier results are your reward.

Better Browning

When searing a piece of meat, our goal is to create a crisp, darkly browned crust to contrast with the tender, pink meat underneath. To do this, we need to trigger the Maillard reaction, the cascade of chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars are exposed to high heat. 

Moisture is the biggest enemy of a good sear, so any process that can reduce the amount of surface moisture on a steak is going to improve how well it browns and crisps and, by extension, minimize the amount of time it spends in the pan, thus minimizing the amount of overcooked meat underneath. It's a strange irony that to get the moistest possible results, you should start with the driest possible steak.

The reverse sear is aces at removing surface moisture. As the steak slowly comes up to temperature in the oven, its surface dries out, forming a thin, dry pellicle that browns extremely rapidly. Want to get your steak to brown even better? Set it on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet, and leave it in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. The cool circulating air of the refrigerator will get it nice and dry. The next day, when you're ready to cook, just pop that whole rack and baking sheet in the oven.

More Tender Meat

This one is not quite as obvious, but it can still make a detectable difference: enzymatic tenderization. Meat naturally contains enzymes called cathepsins, which will break down tough muscle protein. Their activity is responsible for the tenderness of dry-aged.

At fridge temperatures, cathespins operate very, very slowly but, as the meat heats up, their activity increases more and more rapidly, until it drops off sharply at around 122°F. By slowly heating your steak, you are, in effect, rapidly "aging" it, so that it comes out more deliciously tender. Steaks cooked via traditional means pass quickly through that window, reaching the 122°F cutoff point too rapidly for this activity to have any real effect.

More Flexibility

When you're cooking steak at a high temperature, you have a very narrow window of time in which the center of that steak is a perfect medium-rare. A minute too short, and your steak is raw; a minute too long, and it's overcooked. With slow cooking, that window of time is greatly expanded, making it much easier to nail the right temperature time after time. Meathead Goldwyn, author of Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue, likens it to shooting an arrow at a tortoise versus shooting at a rabbit: The slower it moves, the easier it is to hit.

My Favorite Roast

(also called Mississippi Roast or Keto Roast. You can find variations of this all over Pinterest)

Throw the following into the Crock Pot:

    • Roast

    • Stick of Butter

    • ½ jar pepperoncini (whole or sliced, I prefer sliced)

    • 1 chopped onion (big pieces or small, I prefer small)

    • 1 packet brown gravy or au jus mix

    • 1 packet ranch dressing mix

Turn it on lowest cooking temperature. Come back when it’s done. The timing will depend on your crock pot, and whether you started with a frozen or thawed roast. I don’t watch the clock too closely, but it’s usually around 8 hours. I don’t ever have a completely thawed roast when I start because I am simply not that organized.  

If you’d like to skip the processed flavor packets, you can easily find a homemade ranch spice mix online. Instead of the gravy / au jus, just season and flour the roast, and sear on all sides for that browned meat taste. 



Beef Broth & Bone Broth

The main difference here is that in beef broth, you are starting with more meat and less bones. With bone broth, there will be little or no meat on the bones.  The process is the same, although if you are making the meatier beef broth, you can skip the first step and reduce the overall cooking time. 

    • Start by blanching your bones. Place them in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes. This step helps to produce a clean, clear broth. If any foam is on the water as you are boiling, skim it off. Drain. Skip this step when using the meaty soup bones.

    • Roast the soup / stock bones. Simply toss them on a cookie sheet or roasting pan and pop them in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. Brown and crispy is the goal.

    • Now you’re finally ready to start simmering. You have a few choices – stove top, crock pot or pressure cooker are the methods I’m familiar with.

  • Stove top – you’re going to be simmering for a long time, so make sure you’ll be around to watch the pot and liquid levels.

  • Crock Pot – Easy peasy – you can keep it going for up to 24 hours, but you want to go for at least 8 on high.

  • Pressure Cooker – set it for high pressure for at least 2 hours. Let it release pressure naturally. It’ll take a while to come up to pressure and a while to release pressure, so don’t be in a hurry.

    • Put all your bones into your cooking pot of choice. Scrape any brown bits off your roasting pan into the water. Add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Add some salt and pepper and any aromatics you prefer – onion, garlic, herbs. Fill with water and get it going.

    • Once you’re done, strain your broth into a clean shallow dish so it can cool. A few cake pans work well. This will allow it to cool quickly. Once it’s cooled to room temp or a little warmer, transfer to glass jars and refrigerate. If you won’t use it within a week or two, pop the jars in the freezer. If you are going straight from room temp to freeze, start with the lids off the jars so the liquid can expand. Once frozen, pop the lids on.