The taste of beef

American cows are not usually feed corn or 'sweet meal' unless the animal's diet is being specifically tailored to produce a certain butchered result. What I mean is that it is not uncommon for a cow to be selected for butcher and then placed on a supplemental diet of sweet grain to add to the tenderness and flavor of the meat.

Most normal cows (not factory cows) are allowed to graze on grass during the months it is available to them, and then dried grass (ie: hay) during the months when normal grass is not available.

Hopefully that answers at least that part of your question. =)

I have an aunt that lived in America for a while (I'm from New Zealand) and she kept getting sick for no apparent reason.

They eventually worked out that she was allergic to american dairy products. Whether it's what the cows eat, or the processing or additives, I don't know, but she couldn't even eat american chocolate without getting sick.

Life without chocolate or dairy products... *shudder*

Sweetleaf said:

but she couldn't even eat american chocolate without getting sick.

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That's because there's no such thing as american chocolate.
What they pass off as "chocolate" has so little cocoa in it that it shouldn't ever be called chocolate. It more of a 'cocoa flavored' confection - she had every right to be sick.

Our cows don't have British accents.

mirandashell said:

Not such thing as 'a British accent'. We've got hundreds of them.

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And the cows don't have a single one.

Vince524 said:

Our cows don't have British accents.

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Mmmm, yes, moo. Quite.

There is a lot of regional variance. I raise my own beef and there is quite a bit of difference in grass fed vs grain fed.

Oh, and with my dairy goats, diet is huge. I can also taste subtle differences in flavor between the goats.

I wonder if your America colleague isn't just talking out of her ass.

If cows aren't English...


then why do thy eat all the sod off?

*ducks & runs*

Costa Rican beef was much better than American beef! Their cows look quite different, so I think that's more than diet.

The cows around here just graze pasture grass. They do, however, stand up much more frequently than Irish cows I'm not kidding. On my roadtrip through Ireland, the cows mostly lay down. Our local cows almost always stand Maybe a different species or hybrid or whatever? That would affect taste, I'd think.

Sorry if Irish cows are different than British cows. I saw more of the Irish ones, but they all looked the same to me

mirandashell said:

The lying down thing is actually an intelligent behaviour. They lie down to keep some grass dry when it rains. And it rains a lot in Ireland. That's why it's green.

Rains a lot here too so our cows also lie down.

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Ah! That makes so much sense. My area is not particularly rainy!

Keep in mind there are many, many different cow breeds, as well. Different countries favour different breeds for meat and milk, based on production, what level of resources they need and how well they are suited to local environment, so there will already be a baseline variation in taste and texture of meat before you get to differences in diet.

But since corn-fed chickens have bright yellow flesh and are favoured for buttery taste, I would not be at all surprised to learn that livestock consuming large amounts of supplemented feed tend to taste different to grass-fed and so on.