Does Your Grass-fed Meat or Raw Milk Ever Taste “Off”? (Reader Question)

Yes, the taste of milk and meat depends on the variety of plants on the pasture.
A friend of mine fed a few kohlrabi leaves to her milk sheep and the milk tasted for 3 days very ugly like cabbage. Wild leek, onions and garlic are worse.
It’s not the fault of the farmer but the typical “local” taste of that pasture. You just can’t control what the cows are eating of it.
And that’s the reason why there are so many different kinds of cheese allover the world – the taste comes from the local pasture with the different minerals in the soil and the different plants.
You can tell easily the difference between a cheese from the marshlands and from highlands – the plants differ a lot.
So don’t blame the farmer if you don’t like the taste of his milk/meat – it’s just “local” and very special.

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Hi,

I have been farming grass-fed beef, chicken, milk, and eggs for seven years. I agree with the posts about grass-fed sometimes smelling and tasting off. In order to get the grass smell out of the milk, the farmer has to tie the cow up for a 2 hours prior to milking. This works for both goats and cows. As far as meat goes, a farmer should confine the steer for 3 days and feed hay. If your meat smells like fish, that is a good thing, omega 3 fatty acids…. If your meat smells strong, but not like fish, that is the minerals, probably too much potassium in the grass prior to butchering. If you butcher in the winter, your beef is probably eating rye grass. Lush new grass growth, even mid winter can have a negative effect on the taste of your beef. Ask the farmer to feed your beef hay for three days prior to butchering. It will affect the nutrients very little as long as he has been pasture raised. Also ask about how your beef is killed. If your steer is stressed on the day that he is butchered, he will have tons of adrenaline flowing through his body. This will give an off taste to the meat. I like to butcher steers myself, because I kill them as they are eating their hay. They are peaceful and then gone. I always pray and ask God for mercy before killing any of my animals. These are all things you can ask your farmer to do, or you can do yourself if you are the one butchering your own beef.

Theresa Taylor’s last blog post..Did Jesus say, " You’re not the boss of me?"

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It is my understanding that different cow breeds taste different. Ask your famer what breed of cow they raise and how that the meat typically tastes, where it is fed (what it is fed, and what kind of grain it may eat before slaughter), and about the typical texture of the meat. My parents buy their grass-fed beef in NH and their meat tastes different than the meat we buy here in VA. If you have a farmers market near you, you could buy a single cut to try before committing to a whole side! good luck. Abbie

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We drink raw goats milk and every once in a while I get a sip that just tastes – goaty. It’s not really a bad taste, I just instantly think “goat.” The first few times I wasn’t sure I could handle it long term but now I don’t even mind, I just think it is odd. Especially since it is that it really is only a portion of the gallon each time. I am a bit weary of trying to make ice cream or yogurt if I know it will be served to guests.

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Definitely, the concept of “terroir” comes into play with grass-fed animals and their milk. We are what we eat. Europeans are very sensitive to this, but Americans have largely lost this distinction due to generations growing up on bland, uniform industrialy controlled supermarket food. I remember thinking my English in-law were nuts when they compared butter from different places, but now I “get it”. Butter isn’t just “butter”.

I have a friend who grew up in Germany and she can’t stand frozen beef. She says it has a funny taste when it has been frozen, but I can’t taste that. Go figure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir

I’ve been consuming pastured bison for two years, plus some wild field-dressed venison when my huntress sister shares, so my palate has definitely changed toward the bolder flavors. I find corn-fed supermarket beef to be so bland and boring now, and always a disappointment (which helps to resist the cheap prices). I also find boneless chicken breasts almost inedible and boneless pork loin roast really boring; now I always go for the more flavorful bone-in cuts. Perhaps the lower fat content of grass-fed meats might mean the other flavor constituents come through stronger and more bluntly.

It’s definitely a good idea to try some of the meat before committing to a huge bulk order. Some farmers are new to the grass model and might not have the right breeds or be managing their pasture right. Pasture-management became a lost art among many farmers, so it pays to do some homework.

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Recently our milk smells “grassy”, but I assume it’s because the cows are eating rapidly growing green grass. It still tastes fabulous.

However, I completely understand the “off” smell, and sometimes taste of grass fed beef. We purchased 1/4 beef last November. The roasts, slow cooked in the crock pot are great. Steaks cooked on the grill are amazing. Even the hamburgers are good when they’re grilled. When I cook ground beef or steaks on the stove, or in the oven or broiler… well, it’s not so good. I like the advice of using lots of spices and sauces.

I plan to find a different farmer, when we’re ready to make our next bulk purchase. It’s worth it to me to search out a product I like.

We also purchased 1/2 pastured pork, and 10 chickens from the same farm. I later discovered (to my dismay) that they are fed non-organic feed with corn and soybeans. Which of course means it’s genetically modified. In addition, I noticed the label from the processor on the sausage one day, and right there in the listed ingredients is MSG and nitrates!!!!!!!! All of this pretty much defeats the purpose of “pastured” in my opinion. Please make sure your processors aren’t using those nasty ingredients too!

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I grew up with a milk cow and a particular gourd would make her milk taste bitter. When it began to taste off we had to examine her pen and make sure we chopped all the gourds out.

Charity Grace’s last blog post..Nourishing Food

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I would like to echo the comment about knowing the breed of animal – it does make a big difference.

Another question I’d be curious to have Kelly post sometime & people weigh in on is how to cook patured meats as compared to non-pastured. I’ve had more issues with chickens than with beef – sometimes they seem pretty tough as compared to a store bought chicken. Even chickens from the same farm – sometimes they come out good & sometimes not. The biggest beef issue I’ve had is with burgers on the grill – they’ve not seemed to have as much taste as I thought they would.

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I’ve had issues like this before. I’ve had raw milk from three different states now, and it never tastes the same. The Kansas milk was definitely the weirdest… smelled SO grassy. Tasted ok, but almost had to pinch my nose. The cream never tasted very good, either, which was a huge disappointment for me! I personally love all the Texas goat milk I’ve tasted (haven’t been able to stop myself from tasting, even though I’m allergic to dairy now)… so creamy. Ahhh, I love talking about fresh raw milk. Anyway… I’ve had pretty awful grassfed beef before. The first time I bought over 1/4 of a cow, and the roasts and steaks were beyond fabulous. The ground beef, however… blech. It tasted like ground turkey. I learned to really spice things up- even our hamburgers. We just didn’t eat a lot of hamburgers until that beef was used up. I have no idea why there was such a difference between the steaks and the ground beef. Same cow. Puzzling.

Since then I’ve bought 1/4 of a cow from a dairy farm… one of their young steers (somewhere between veal and whatever age they are usually butchered at) and it doesn’t have the same depth of flavor that I’m used to. But I expected that. Got a really good deal on it. *sigh*

Oh, I do want to say… when I was still in Kansas my milk (and beef, pork, chicken) farmer sent out a notice that one of the dairy cows had broken her leg badly and had to be put down. Her meat was for sale at a big discount, if anyone was interested. Always keen for a deal, and wanting to test myself (first time eating meat where I knew it’s name!) I bought some ground beef.
BLECH!
Maybe it was the breed, maybe it was her age, maybe it was the adrenaline from probably being in pain. But it was horrid.

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Anna said: “Some farmers are new to the grass model and might not have the right breeds or be managing their pasture right. Pasture-management became a lost art among many farmers, so it pays to do some homework.”
She is right on here. My husband’s family raises beef cattle the conventional way. He is interested in getting into intensive rotational grazing so that we can do grass- feed instead. Many farmers are seeing the difference in price and thinking that grass-fed may be the way to go. However, many don’t realize that it takes extra work because to have quality beef (both nutritionally and flavor- wise) they have to learn a whole new skill- pasture management. A farmer who has good grass fed beef can walk through a pasture with you and not only tell you what the plants are but also what impact/ benefit they have and how long they have been growing in that pasture. Most pastures are not ready to produce quality beef as many of the native grasses and plants have been exterminated or forced out. So pasture management is a key difference. You can have the same cows on different pastures in the same area and still get a vastly different taste!

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My son drank a glass of fresh milk from a carton which tasted really bitter.Why is this so?The milk is still within expiry date.I hope he will be alright after drinking it.Would appreciate if somebody can tell me why.

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I just found this post when I did a search for “does hay affect the taste of milk”. We are suddenly having a flavor difference with our raw milk that we’ve been getting for nearly a year, and never before had problems with. The milk now tastes incredibly sweet as though it was not fresh, as in when the raw milk naturally sours.

There are two differences that have occurred recently which may have altered the taste of our milk – now that we have snow and sub-zero temps, cows are no longer eating grass in our region. The cows we are getting our milk from are eating alfalfa hay. Also, we have just started freezing the milk. We’ve never done this in the past since when we started getting it was February and cows were producing enough milk that we weren’t having to get a large quantity at a time and freeze. I called the farm and they suggested that a possible reason could be due to the diets of the cows, as they are now eating exclusively alfalfa and not grass.

Also when we freeze the milk, even though I went into my freezer and shook it up numerous times during the freezing process, the cream has completely separated from the milk and now will not return to its prior state before freezing. I thought this might be a problem before I froze it, but had heard reports that other people had used the shaking method at various intervals during freezing to combat the separation process. I don’t think my efforts worked…but now I’m also worried that this separation process has effectively made my milk not as healthy to drink since the fat is now in globules instead of how it naturally occurs when it comes from the cow.

Maybe the answer is simply that during winter months, it’s simply impossible to achieve milk in the same condition if you are freezing it than if it is fresh from the cow. I know this post is from July, but if anyone has had experience with this phenomenon, I’d really appreciate some information!

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