Bright blue skies, long steamy days, and sizzling burgers, steaks, and bell peppers: what's summer without outdoor grilling?

If you're looking to impress family and friends with the best grilled flank steak or the juiciest burger, the next time you go shopping for meat opt for sustainably raised, grass-fed beef. Despite the mystique surrounding the cooking of grass-fed beef, it only takes a little extra care to dish up amazingly tender and succulent steaks.

But why go through the trouble of seeking out grass-fed while supermarket aisles all over the country are rife with all sorts of cuts of grain-fed beef?

Personal health is one reason. Grass-fed meat is low in both overall fat and artery-clogging saturated fat, and it provides a considerably higher amount of healthy Omega-3 fats than corn-fed meat. The meat from grain-fed feedlot animals typically contains only 15 to 50 percent of the Omega-3's of grass-fed livestock. And even though grain-fed cows develop highly marbled flesh that most consumers are accustomed to, this is unhealthy saturated fat that can't be trimmed off.

And there's more. Meat from pastured cattle has up to four times the amount of vitamin E than meat from feedlots, and is much higher in Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), a nutrient associated with lowering cancer risk.

Another reason to prefer a pastured, grass-fed cow is that it's had a dramatically better life than its feedlot cousin. Grass-fed animals remain on pasture from birth to market, roaming around in fresh air and sunshine. Grain-fed cows, on the other hand, are raised on pasture only for the first months of their lives. The vast majority of them are then transported to distant feedlots where they are raised in confinement.

The diet of grass-fed cows is what it was always meant to be: fresh pasture, hay, or grass silage. Cows are ruminants. They are endowed with the uncanny ability to convert grass into food that they can digest. (This is done by virtue of a rumen , a 45-gallon “fermentation tank” in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.) In feedlots, cows are switched to a diet based on grains – at times with a dash of poultry litter and a sprinkle of restaurant waste, as we've learned from the news of the first U.S. case of mad cow. To speed their growth and reduce the health problems that come from being fed this unnatural diet and from their stressful living, these animals are treated with hormones, feed additives, and daily doses of antibiotics.

Compare this with the happy life of pastured animals, who don't partake in the daily stress of modern life. They don't need drugs and antibiotics to keep healthy, and their growth is determined by genetics, not by genetically modified, growth-promoting hormones.

Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed. But what you're likely to find in grocery stores around the country today is almost all grain-fed, feedlot beef. The reason? Economics. Cows grow faster in feedlots and they are more profitable.

Photo by Jason Houston

So this summer, make an extra effort to look for grass-fed beef at your local farmers market or health food store. Or log onto www.eatwellguide.org to find a farm or store near you that offers sustainably raised, pastured beef. Follow the simple guidelines below to cook it to perfection. Yes, grass-fed beef tastes different because the cows are raised on a different diet. For decades, our palates have developed a taste for grain-fed beef, and anything else tastes “off.” But if you open your mind to new flavors, you won't be disappointed.

• Do not overcook
  Because grass-fed beef is leaner than grain-fed, it doesn't have a lot of spare fat to keep it moist when cooked too long or at temperatures that are too high. Beef with lots of fat is more forgiving of sloppy cooking, but grass-fed cuts need a little extra attention and care.
  So, rule number one: don't overcook. Grass-fed beef needs about 30 percent less cooking time than most common beef and is best if cooked medium-rare to medium, or it will be too tough. Keep an eye on the internal temperature. Just stick a meat thermometer where the steak is thickest. (You can find a thermometer in most kitchen supply stores for a few dollars.) If the thermometer registers around 135°F, it means the meat is still rare. You want a temperature between 145°F and 155°F for medium-rare to medium. Anything above that is too much, and your steak will lose its moisture and tenderness.
• If you don't have a thermometer and don't particularly care about a picture-perfect piece of meat, you can always cut a slit in a bottom corner of your steak and check for doneness.
• And if you just can't bring yourself to eat medium-rare meat and like your steak well-done, when using grass-fed beef you may want to opt for a cooking method that utilizes a lot of moisture to keep the meat tender (see Cooking Methods below).
• Do not microwave
  Do not cook when frozen or partially frozen
  Thaw the meat in the refrigerator or under cold running water, but don't de-frost it in a microwave oven.
• Let rest after cooking
  As a rule, always let any type of meat rest for 8 to 10 minutes after taking it out of the heat. This will help redistribute the juices inside the meat before serving. In particular, when you're planning to serve the meat in pieces, don't cut into it right away because the juices will immediately spill out, resulting in a drier texture. For the same reason, always turn your meat with tongs rather than a fork when cooking it. Deliciously precious juices will be lost if you poke the meat.

Tip: if you're preparing hamburgers with grass-fed beef, add caramelized onions or other moisturizing ingredients to compensate for the leaner meat. (Grass-fed hamburgers are generally 80% to 90% lean.)

Cooking methods
There are two main ways of cooking meat: dry heat and moist heat methods.

Dry heat cooking methods include sautéing, grilling, and roasting. Grass-fed beef can be cooked with any kind of dry heat method as long as you are extra careful not to overcook it.

When cooking grass-fed beef with dry-heat methods, make sure to always sear the beef over high heat, then continue cooking it at a lower temperature either in a pan, on the grill or in the oven, depending on the method you're using and the recipe.

Moist heat cooking methods include braising, stewing, and poaching. While you're not likely to poach a piece of beef, braising and stewing are wonderful ways of slow-cooking meat in a lot of juices, including stocks and wine, making it exquisitely tender and full of flavor. Ever wondered why people refer to “meat that falls off the bone”? Try braising and you'll experience it first hand. Any kind of grass-fed beef can be easily braised or stewed without any risk of moisture loss and dried out meat.

Dry-aged or wet-aged beef?
Gourmands and meat lovers hail the miraculous powers of dry-aging to make beef soft as butter with a wonderfully rich, “beefy” taste.

Indeed, flavor and tenderness are two of the biggest upshots of dry-aging, a technique used by butchers that calls for big cuts of meat to be stored in refrigerators at a temperature ranging from 34°F to 38°F for 3 to 4 weeks. During this period, the meat loses a great deal of moisture and up to 20 percent of its weight, translating into a deeper concentration of flavors.

Through dry-aging, the beef's own enzymes break down the muscle tissue, rendering the meat considerably more tender. After a whole strip loin has undergone the dry-aging process, the outside will be tough and a deep brown color, but once this crusty surface is trimmed the inside emerges in all its red and juicy splendor.

Twenty years ago, dry-aging was the most common way to age meat. Currently, agribusiness favors wet-aging because it's more economical. When wet-aged beef is vacuum sealed in plastic bags it sits in them at a temperature ranging from 34°F to 38°F for 7 to 28 days, at most. The meat ages in its own juices and becomes more tender, but there is no real taste enhancement because of the lack of any flavor concentration due to moisture loss. With wet-aging there is no significant weight loss and, because the meat remains “wet,” there is also no need to trim the dried parts. So it's not surprising that wet-aging accounts for about 90 percent of the beef sold today.

Try a perfectly cooked grass-fed, dry aged steak and you'll be an instant convert!

-by Laura Giannatempo