The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

My Daughter, Grassfed Steak Fanatic

August 25th, 2010 · 12 Comments · Posted in dinner, kids

The book my daughter takes to school

The book my daughter takes to school

Like every family, we’ve had our food battles with our 10-year-old daughter. With great dismay, we watched a pre-schooler who amazed us with the range of her palate (she couldn’t get enough Altoids or wasabe peas) morph into a bratty pre-teen who turned dinner into a slugfest with a littany of foods she refused to eat.

“What’s for dinner?” was no longer an innocent question, but the opening savlo of our a nightly culinary Donnybrook.

So I can’t really complain that daughter has found a food she is absolutely wild for, and something her parents also love. Turns out she’s got Tiffany taste. Her new favorite food is steak.

We’ve been trying to teach our daughter to lay off the sugar and also the refined carbohydrates. She would eat pasta three times a day if she could. In our house, we try to focus more on proteins and green vegetables. Now daughter wants steak for dinner every night.

She’s become a real pest about it. “I want steak,” she announces nightly. “Steak, steak, steak, steak, steak.” On our Sunday walks home from the farmers market, we usually stop by the local Whole Foods. These days daughter stands in front of the meat counter and stares longingly. In the condensation on the glass she writes “Leila was here” where a stack of thick ribeyes is displayed. She loves ribeye, the fattier the better.

Coincidentally, I ran across a newly published book called, aptly enough, “Steak: One Man’s Search for the Tastiest Piece of Beef.” I ordered a copy from Amazon thinking we could make a bedtime reading project out it. But when the book arrived, daughter grabbed it out of my hand. She put it in her backpack and took it to school. (“Oh, you mean you are reading a book that literally is called ‘Steak,’ ” her fifth-grade teacher reportedly remarked.)

We get most of our meat delivered from our local dairy, where a herd of beef cattle grazes on pasture. This week I promised daughter a steak and ordered a sirloin that was on sale. She pitched a fit because it wasn’t ribeye. According to her new book, she said, sirloin was listed last for flavor, way behind ribeye. How could I be so stupid as to order sirloin?

I cooked the sirloin anyway–but of course I can’t prepare daughter’s steak any old way. She insists I grill it over live coals. When I brought the finished steak to the kitchen–a thing of beauty, perfectly browned–she gave it a good, long looking over and declared it didn’t have enough fat. I cut a slice. It was rare, just the way we like it, and obviously grassfed with its deep hue.

Daughter tasted. Daughter chewed. Daughter smiled.

She liked it. And who wouldn’t? The flavor was intense, even from this humble sirloin. If only there were more fat, daughter moaned, as she bit into another slice.

Things could be worse. I think of all the other things a daughter could be addicted to: drugs, sex, texting. Steak doesn’t seem so bad. But this could be a very expensive habit. If daughter wants ribeye for dinner every night, she’s going to have to start saving her allowance.

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  • Mrs. Q

    Great story! Got me laughing!

  • Joanna

    It’s just the same here: if you ask any of the young what they’d like for dinner, the answer’s always steak. I’m permanently broke, and the butcher is always happy to see me 😉

    Joanna

  • The Table of Promise

    That hilarious. I can only hope to have the same problem in a few years when my boys get older.

    My folks loved to grill steak when I was growing up and I always remember having it that way, but I really do prefer steak cooked on a cast iron pan. The crust is crunchier and less charred. I keep one special Lodge pan around just to cook beef (by now anything else that was cooked in that pan would just taste like beef anyhow). I also preferred indoor cooked hamburgers over grilled.

    You gotta love a girl who knows what she wants.

  • k8

    Hey. It’s ALWAYS better than those stringy gaggy pole beans.

  • Viki

    I can’t get my 16 yr old daughter to eat beef. Even good grass fed beef, the only kind I buy now. Oh well, more for me, right?

  • Mendy Heaps

    At least it’s not chicken nuggets…

  • Christine

    Okay, now I don’t feel so alone.
    I too have a ten year old who is obsessed with steak. She too stares longingly at the meat counter drooling,dreaming and often begging for a nice piece of steak for dinner.
    I too only serve grass feed and so a “nice steak” dinner is often served as a reward or celebration.
    I myself am a vegetarian and have been for 6 1/2 years…and no matter how I try to educate or inform her she is a commited and proud carnivore.
    Well, I have no one to blame but myself, when I was pregnant with her I CRAVED beef…
    Thanks for sharing such a great story.

  • Tori

    Great story! I am so happy your daughter has started to eat healthier. Another great place to get your Grass fed Beef is from La Cense Beef. I work with La Cense but they are great because they deliver your order to your home and I love that you can order meat in bulk. That might be a good option for you considering how much beef your family is eating.

  • John

    My parents believed that the only time you ask a child what he wants for dinner is when he’s paying.

  • Sylvie in Rappahannock

    Be careful what you ask for….

    time to switch to (or at least alternate with) to pastured heritage pork chops maybe? more fat, and – I think – probably cheaper… just a thought….

  • mary

    This is hilarious. I too like steak, but I’m happy with sirloin. Where do you order your beef from?

  • Ed Bruske

    We order our meats from South Mountain Creamery.