Does Grass Finished Beef always taste “Gamey”?

A question from a reader:

I have a question about grass fed beef.  I have heard that cows who have been grass fed and finished have a “gamey” taste to them.  I recently had a steak from an Edmonton area farm who grass finishes their beef and the steak did have a gamey taste to it.  Does this happen with all grass finished beef?  I want to feed my family organic beef but just am curious whether it is all gamey tasting and if it is something my taste buds have to get used to! J

Thanks for your time.  I enjoy seeing the pictures on your blog and reading about family farm life in Alberta.

Thanks for the question.

How the animals are raised makes a difference in how they taste.  Sometimes there is a slightly stronger taste to the grass finished beef but most people cannot taste the difference.

Due to the types of grass the animal eats, the taste of grass finished beef can be different from farm to farm.  The reason beef in grocery stores has a fairly consistant taste is that the diet for those animals is all the same – lost of barley, some roughage (hay, silage and some places even just you straw).  The barley changes the fat, and this changes the taste.

In the same way, different grasses affects the fat.  An animal that was finished on prime alfalfa hay or pasture will be different from an animal that was finished on slough grass.

A bigger difference in grass finished beef is the leanness and tenderness.  Grass finished beef tends to be a little leaner which can change the tenderness of the meat, depending on how it is cooked.  Make sure you treat your grass finished beef with a little more love and care when cooking it to so that you do no overcook it.  The leaner beef if overcooked can get tough if you are not careful.