Don’t be surprised if you see a different kind of steak appearing more on Illawarra restaurant menus – cuts from retired dairy cows.

A Kangaroo Valley farmer has taken to specialising in the product, which may be unfamiliar to some people but perhaps will not be for long.

When former Bondi Icebergs head chef Alex Prichard’s new Berry restaurant Sara Dining opens next month, proudly on the menu is a rib eye steak – and a burger – from a Kangaroo Valley dairy.

It comes from farmer Greg Mumm, who has taken over the Cleaver & Co Quality Meats in Port Kembla and Gwynneville.

His product is something of a throwback – it tastes “like beef used to taste”, he said.

Retired dairy meat was nothing new in Spain and Portugal – the Basque region’s steak Txuleta is a prized dish from older dairy cows – but it is less established in Australia.

Mr Mumm told the Mercury with so many top dairy farms in this region it made perfect sense to find ways to better use the cows.

Environmentally, instead of having different cows – each with a large carbon footprint – for meat and for milk, the two functions are raised in one.

“People used to have dual-purpose animals when you needed one animal to do two things,” Mr Mumm said.

“But as commercial conventional agriculture tried to specialise and have beef cows that were putting on lots of muscle for beef, and dairy cows that were making lots of milk, the two animals kind of split paths.”

His foray started when an award-winning caterer approached him saying they had heard retired dairy cow made great burgers.

“That was the first time I really looked into it, and looking at some of the stuff overseas I realised it was a thing, and it made sense to us for a whole range of reasons,” he said.

“Part of the interest for us is the animal ethics – allowing the animal to have the best chance to live a good life.

“And looking at the way carbon emissions are calculated, the general acceptance with dairy beef is that it has emissions that are 50-60 per cent lower than beef that’s finished in a feedlot system.

“That’s purely because you’re splitting it in two really, it’s no different to carpooling – two people driving in one car instead of taking two cars.

“In a basket of groceries’ emissions, when you pencil it out, it’s kind of enough to offset a number of your larger household appliances, just by buying 1kg of dairy beef instead of 1kg of traditionally finished feedlot beef (per week).”

Mr Mumm sources retired cows – usually a mix of Holsteins and Friesians – from four dairies in the valley and finishes them for a few months at his Rosewood Farm before they are sent to be killed, then butchered at Cleaver & Co.

“The difference is resting them for three to four months when they finish milking – that means all the energy that was going into the milk comes back into the meat,” Mr Mumm said.

“What you end up with, which is what Alex and other chefs are after, is an animal that’s a little bit older.

“Because it’s a bit older and it’s been fed very well through its whole life, it’s got more flavour than perhaps an animal that is killed at a younger age.

“We’re looking for animals that are four to seven years old – it means the anomalss have long enough to live, and to develop flavour in the meat.”

He said about 80 per cent of Australian dairy cows are processed for mince which is shipped to the US for use in major chain hamburgers.

But with Cleaver & Co – and now also selling through the Port Kembla IGA – he’s able to offer the meat in a way that is upfront about its source.

Taking over Cleaver & Co has also meant Mr Mumm has been able to employ the butcher’s founder, Lachy Kerr, who had sold the business seeking more family time.

“I’m maybe old enough and wise enough to realise there’s no chance of me becoming a good butcher,” Mr Mumm said.

“The butchers know not to give me a knife because I need my fingers to sign the paycheques.”

He’s looking to re-open the Port Kembla butcher before long but for now it’s the wholesale butchery site, allowing the skilled workers to ply their trade without having to worry about “dressing the window”.

“We’re a regenerative farm here ourselves, but most of our supplies for the butcher are small regenerative organic or biodynamic suppliers,” Mr Mumm said.

“It’s becoming harder for those farms, particularly the smaller farms, to access markets because a lot of the abattoirs are increasing the minimum size of consignments.

“So hopefully we can provide that conduit between customers who are looking for traceability with their food and strong animal ethics, and a strong story for children and their own health.”

Other places you may encounter Rosewood dairy cows include the highly rated Moon Acres farm and restaurant in Robertson, which has done a brisket breakfast dish, and the famous Robertson Pie Shop.

Top chef Prichard was effusive about why Sara Dining’s opening menu will feature not just dairy cow burgers but also a proud rib eye.

“We’re in one of the premier dairy dairy regions of Australia and certainly of NSW, and I think a lot of people aren’t honest with the fact that there is a byproduct from that industry, and it is retired dairy cow,” he said.

“For years it’s been seen as of only good for mincing and for burgers and stuff, but I don’t necessarily agree with that.

“I think it makes a phenomenal burger, and we’re we’re going to have a burger that’s made with dairy cow as well, but I think if it’s treated right and handled right and treated the way the meat lends itself to be treated, it can be so delicious.

“Essentially you’ve got an older animal that’s lived its entire life on pasture, hasn’t done a terrible amount of work, and naturally gorges on that amazing grass flavour we’ve got down here.

“In most restaurants in in recent years in particular, the average customers really love Wagyu, they love Angus ’cause of the name and it sounds well-known, Wagyu ’cause it’s kind of soft and it melts in your mouth.

“What I find with the dairy cow is you have to chew a little bit, and you do need to kind of work for it, but the flavour you get from it is just phenomenal.

“These dairy cow rib eyes, we dry age them on site [for] between 30 and 60 days, we’ve found just the right zone.

“And instead of just whacking them over the fire, we almost do what you do at home where you pan fry a steak in a cast iron pan.

“We’re doing that in the wood-fired oven there, so it gets a nice caramelisation but the outside of the flesh doesn’t go too crisp and chewy – and then it’s just a beautiful long rest time and and letting the flavor speak for itself.

“This is what I’d eat at home nine times out of ten.”

Source: Farmonline.com.au / Ben Langford

Cowsmo

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