A small company based in Ackley, Ia., claims it is producing quality beef that is lower in fat and cholesterol than chicken and about the same as fish. In fact, the company, called Lean and Free, claims its steaks are the leanest of any now being marketed. What`s more, they are not tough and not lacking in taste.
The beef, which comes frozen, is available in several area stores, including the Sunset Foods markets in the northern suburbs. It joins the other brand name low-fat beef from Larsens, Kohler, Coleman Natural and Limosine Supreme beef companies distributing in the Chicago area.
Of course, lean beef is not really new. The old longhorn cattle of western lore, raised on range grass and driven to market on the hoof, were pretty low in fat, too. And, naturally, the meat was about as tasty and easy to chew as a pair of well-worn cowboy boots.
Besides improving the breed, cattlemen soon learned that to make a piece of beefsteak tender, the steers had to be coddled, fed corn rather than grass and given a ride to market in boxcars. In a word, they needed fat, especially fat layered within the flesh and muscle, to make the meat tasty, juicy and easy on the diner`s jaw.
When the cattle were slaughtered, the lines of white fat in the red meat- called marbling-were a good indicator of how tender the beef would be. This led to classifications of meat based on the marbling: There was Prime Grade
(most tender, most marbled), Choice Grade (medium marbling) and Good Grade
(least marbled and usually the toughest).
All that worked fine for years as steakhouses flourished and America pursued a national love affair with beef. But in the last decade people have become increasingly conscious of dangers in red meat, namely that it contains a high percentage of saturated fat and cholesterol-two closely related entities that have been shown to contribute to cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.
In fact, so turned off about beef was the U.S. buying public last year that the per capita consumption of chicken (normally much lower in fat)
outstripped beef for the first time. Two years ago under public pressure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture changed its nomenclature for the lean graded beef from Good Grade to Select Grade to help erase the image that the lean meat was somehow inferior.
But no matter what you call it, Good or Select, the low-graded beef is not the succulent porterhouse or T-bone you get at a good chop house. And meat eaters, especially those in the Midwest, have not been eager to accept Select Grade beef. In fact, it is difficult even to find Select Grade in supermarket meat cases.
In the meantime, private label companies have stepped in to supply beef that is not only low in fat and cholesterol, but also tender and tasty. It has been difficult.
Three years ago there were almost 60 companies specializing in low-fat beef, including one that had imported European cattle so muscle-bound they looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger the cow. Now only about a half dozen are left. Among them are Larsens beef, which is sold in Dominick`s stores; Kohler beef, sold in the Treasure Island stores; Limosine Supremem, available in Walt`s Food Centers in the south suburbs and Frank`s Finer Foods in the western suburbs; and Coleman Natural beef, found in Foodworks stores and the Oak Street Market in Evanston. They vary in the amount of fat and cholesterol but all are lower than Choice Grade.
Lean and Free beef comes from young Holstein bulls bought at the age of two or three weeks from dairy farmers and raised in controlled feedlots on a specialized diet of extruded barley-a low-fat, high-fiber feed developed for them. The bulls, which are readily obtainable because they are virtually useless to dairy farmers, are slaughtered at 11 weeks, before they reach sexual maturity. The meat, still young and tender, is quickly frozen in vacuum packaging, which has a 13-month freezer life. It will last almost six weeks just in the refrigerator, says Corky Feuerbach, president of Lean and Free Inc.
The process is somewhat like cultivating veal, but the young bulls are raised in feedlots that provide them a minimum of 60 square feet of pen space and 100 square feet of grazing area, compared with much more cramped quarters for some veal, which is restricted to prevent too much exercise, says Feuerbach. Space is needed for exercise and to relieve stress, Feuerbach explains.
”Like veal, our beef is still tender. Unlike veal, the animals are not raised to be fat and high in cholesterol,” he says.
Lean and Free figures show that 3 1/2 ounces of its sirloin steak have 100 calories, compared to 140 in a regular choice sirloin, 110 in skinless chicken white meat and 90 in haddock white fish. The L&F sirloin has 1 percent fat (by weight) compared with 4 percent for regular sirloin, 2 percent for chicken and 1 percent for fish. Cholesterol figures are 50 mgs. for L&F sirloin, 60 mgs. for regular sirloin, 60 mgs. for chicken white meat and 55 mgs. for fish.
To compare his product with two area competitors, Feuerbach purchased Larsens and Kohler rib eye steaks from Dominick`s and Treasure Island and sent them to an independent laboratory for analysis. The results showed that Lean and Free has about 3.3 percent fat by weight,while Larsens was 16.9 percent and Kohler 17.1 percent. Regular supermarket choice ribeye was 34 percent, Feuerbach says.
Tribune food staff members sampled Lean and Free sirloin steak broiled and found it palatable, moist and flavorful, though probably not as good as what you might get at Gene and Georgettis.
Besides the Sunset stores, Lean and Free products are sold in the Lakeside Market in Winnetka, in the Safeway foods in Highland Park, in Sandburg Supermarket, in the Marketplace on Diversey Parkway and the Stop and Shop store on East Chestnut Street.
But don`t expect it to be cheap. All specialty low-fat beef is more expensive than what you may be used to paying. Lean and Free runs from 40 to 50 percent more than unbranded beef. Other branded low-fat beef is
significantly more expensive, too.
But there is less shrinkage from fat and moisture loss, Feuerbach says. Speaking of his products, Feuerbach says: ”We are not trying to be cheap. We want to be both the skim milk and the Mercedes Benz of the meat world.” –
