Beef more tender than Wagyu?
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On a recent trip to Lincoln, NE I discovered a breed of beef that I had not heard of before, Piedmontese. I discovered this breed as I was looking for meat markets to check out while I was in town and found The Mercato which carries only Certified Piedmontese Beef (CP). It is also attached to a swanky reservation only restaurant Casa Bovina.
After doing some research I found that this breed of cattle originates in Italy, and is prized for it’s tenderness and leanness compared to conventional commercial breeds of beef. Some even consider it “The Italian Wagyu.” According to one source I found, in a study by the University of Nebraska, when cuts of filet mignon, ribeye, and sirloins were compared for tenderness CP cattle beat the USDA Prime in two of the categories. The tenderness comes from a gentic mutation that allows the animal to put on more more muscle with less fat. The graphic below also shows a significant difference in the calorie count between CP and conventional USDA Prime in 4oz portions.
The beef was not overly expensive when compared to conventional beef such as Angus or Herford, and was at a discount compared to Wagyu. One of the reason I found stated for the rarity of CP being in the main stream consumer market is that, it does not grade well on the USDA grading scale due to it’s leanness, so it is mainly sold direct and through niche markets. The Mercato had a wide a selection of cuts to choose from.
While there I bought a flank steak and picanha to try out. They wrapped the beef in nice paper, and were nice enough to vac seal the meat when I asked them to, since I was traveling and wouldn’t be cooking it until I got home from my trip.
The first piece I cooked was the flank steak with a carne asada seasoning on it, which came out excellent and was extremely tender, living up to its hype of being a tender but lean breed of beef.
The next cut I cooked was the CP picanha(right side), which I cooked beside a commercial cut of picanha (left side) with its cap removed, which was purchased from Doc’s Prime Cuts which is West Texas A&M’s meat lab store.
A nice touch I didn’t notice until I was seasoning was that the Mercato had scored the fat cap on their picanha.
I cooked both cuts on my PK 360 over high heat flipping every minute or so until they were medium rare.
Conventional Left, CP Right
In my opinion the CP cut was more tender than the conventional cut, and had just as much flavor. If I come across more CP beef I will certainly buy more, and I would encourage anyone out there who comes across some to give it a try and see what you think. Austin Jonathon I think a great experiment for you guys to do on a Podcast would be to do a direct comparison of CP beef with Wagyu. I’d even volunteer to come be on that Podcast. Joe Hell Chef JoeBIsaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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That meat market looks like its a awesome place, I love stopping randomly at meat markets. I am glad we are starting to see some higher end ones that carry “new” cuts, but I still love the old ones.
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Tex_77 Great write up.
HerbcoFood I agree, it makes me happy to see the trend moving back to mom-n-pop and boutique style establishments. -
On a recent trip to Lincoln, NE I discovered a breed of beef that I had not heard of before, Piedmontese. I discovered this breed as I was looking for meat markets to check out while I was in town and found The Mercato which carries only Certified Piedmontese Beef (CP). It is also attached to a swanky reservation only restaurant Casa Bovina.
After doing some research I found that this breed of cattle originates in Italy, and is prized for it’s tenderness and leanness compared to conventional commercial breeds of beef. Some even consider it “The Italian Wagyu.” According to one source I found, in a study by the University of Nebraska, when cuts of filet mignon, ribeye, and sirloins were compared for tenderness CP cattle beat the USDA Prime in two of the categories. The tenderness comes from a gentic mutation that allows the animal to put on more more muscle with less fat. The graphic below also shows a significant difference in the calorie count between CP and conventional USDA Prime in 4oz portions.
The beef was not overly expensive when compared to conventional beef such as Angus or Herford, and was at a discount compared to Wagyu. One of the reason I found stated for the rarity of CP being in the main stream consumer market is that, it does not grade well on the USDA grading scale due to it’s leanness, so it is mainly sold direct and through niche markets. The Mercato had a wide a selection of cuts to choose from.
While there I bought a flank steak and picanha to try out. They wrapped the beef in nice paper, and were nice enough to vac seal the meat when I asked them to, since I was traveling and wouldn’t be cooking it until I got home from my trip.
The first piece I cooked was the flank steak with a carne asada seasoning on it, which came out excellent and was extremely tender, living up to its hype of being a tender but lean breed of beef.
The next cut I cooked was the CP picanha(right side), which I cooked beside a commercial cut of picanha (left side) with its cap removed, which was purchased from Doc’s Prime Cuts which is West Texas A&M’s meat lab store.
A nice touch I didn’t notice until I was seasoning was that the Mercato had scored the fat cap on their picanha.
I cooked both cuts on my PK 360 over high heat flipping every minute or so until they were medium rare.
Conventional Left, CP Right
In my opinion the CP cut was more tender than the conventional cut, and had just as much flavor. If I come across more CP beef I will certainly buy more, and I would encourage anyone out there who comes across some to give it a try and see what you think. Austin Jonathon I think a great experiment for you guys to do on a Podcast would be to do a direct comparison of CP beef with Wagyu. I’d even volunteer to come be on that Podcast. Joe Hell Chef JoeB -
Tex_77
Are they raising the CP over here or importing it in?processhead They are being raised here. I know the beef I purchased was raised by Great Plains Beef, which is based in Lincoln, NE. I’m sure in some places, there is probably some imported for resale as well.
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Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share the detailed post. I will keep an eye out for it.
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On a recent trip to Lincoln, NE I discovered a breed of beef that I had not heard of before, Piedmontese. I discovered this breed as I was looking for meat markets to check out while I was in town and found The Mercato which carries only Certified Piedmontese Beef (CP). It is also attached to a swanky reservation only restaurant Casa Bovina.
After doing some research I found that this breed of cattle originates in Italy, and is prized for it’s tenderness and leanness compared to conventional commercial breeds of beef. Some even consider it “The Italian Wagyu.” According to one source I found, in a study by the University of Nebraska, when cuts of filet mignon, ribeye, and sirloins were compared for tenderness CP cattle beat the USDA Prime in two of the categories. The tenderness comes from a gentic mutation that allows the animal to put on more more muscle with less fat. The graphic below also shows a significant difference in the calorie count between CP and conventional USDA Prime in 4oz portions.
The beef was not overly expensive when compared to conventional beef such as Angus or Herford, and was at a discount compared to Wagyu. One of the reason I found stated for the rarity of CP being in the main stream consumer market is that, it does not grade well on the USDA grading scale due to it’s leanness, so it is mainly sold direct and through niche markets. The Mercato had a wide a selection of cuts to choose from.
While there I bought a flank steak and picanha to try out. They wrapped the beef in nice paper, and were nice enough to vac seal the meat when I asked them to, since I was traveling and wouldn’t be cooking it until I got home from my trip.
The first piece I cooked was the flank steak with a carne asada seasoning on it, which came out excellent and was extremely tender, living up to its hype of being a tender but lean breed of beef.
The next cut I cooked was the CP picanha(right side), which I cooked beside a commercial cut of picanha (left side) with its cap removed, which was purchased from Doc’s Prime Cuts which is West Texas A&M’s meat lab store.
A nice touch I didn’t notice until I was seasoning was that the Mercato had scored the fat cap on their picanha.
I cooked both cuts on my PK 360 over high heat flipping every minute or so until they were medium rare.
Conventional Left, CP Right
In my opinion the CP cut was more tender than the conventional cut, and had just as much flavor. If I come across more CP beef I will certainly buy more, and I would encourage anyone out there who comes across some to give it a try and see what you think. Austin Jonathon I think a great experiment for you guys to do on a Podcast would be to do a direct comparison of CP beef with Wagyu. I’d even volunteer to come be on that Podcast. Joe Hell Chef JoeBTex_77 I agree great information, write-up, and comparison. Never heard of CP before, but will keep an eye in the markets.
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Funny you should mention this- Today- for the first time- I found this online: https://www.piedmontese.com/ “Real Nebraska Beef - From family ranches to your table”. And it’s on my “must buy and try” list!
elisse it’s worth it, the link you postec I had actually linked to above. I’m going back up thete in a couple weeks, so I plan to buy more.
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Austin Jonathon JohnG5 Looks like Certified Piedmontese made the August Cover of Meat + Poultry magazine, here is a link to the article. https://rb.gy/zem5k3
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Tex_77 Very cool! We did a comparison with a Wagyu burger and standard store-bought ground beef on a podcast one time. I would love to do a similar thing with Piedmontese, Wagyu, and just plain store-bought, but instead of a burger we should do a whole muscle cut. We can probably make that happen on a future podcast. Poke Jonathon a bit and get him to work out a time that works!
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Tex_77 Very cool! We did a comparison with a Wagyu burger and standard store-bought ground beef on a podcast one time. I would love to do a similar thing with Piedmontese, Wagyu, and just plain store-bought, but instead of a burger we should do a whole muscle cut. We can probably make that happen on a future podcast. Poke Jonathon a bit and get him to work out a time that works!
Austin I am sure Jonathan would be more than willing to try different steaks!
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