Our Chosen Heritage Sells All of Our Feeds and Select Cuts of Beef
Naked Beef is Now Heritage Aberdeen Angus Beef!
We're re-branding our beef (no pun intended)! Joyce Farms Naked Beef is getting a new name: Heritage Aberdeen Angus Beef. Don't worry, though — it's the same top-quality beef you've come to expect from Joyce Farms.
To answer some of the questions you may have about this change, here's a brief Q&A:
What else is changing about the beef?
Absolutely nothing. Only the name has changed.
Our beef program will remain exactly the same. The cattle are still 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, raised on open pasture to GAP 4 Animal Welfare standards. They are never, ever given any hormones, antibiotics, animal by-products, artificial ingredients, corn, or grain (no grain silage, no DDGs - dried distillers' grains).
If it's the same, why change the name?
Joyce Farms beef has always been Naked (as in, nothing added ever), and it always will be, but the new name better conveys the unique heritage genetics used in our grass-fed beef program. It's a critical component in producing flavorful, well-marbled beef using cattle fed and finished on grass.
Our grass-fed beef comes from cattle descended from the original Aberdeen Angus of Scotland. Unlike the modern Angus, bred to consume a grain-finishing diet, the Aberdeen Angus used by Joyce Farms has an unaltered digestive tract, allowing it to thrive on a 100% grass diet. It's that trait that allows our Heritage Beef Aberdeen Angus to develop naturally and eat the right foods, producing the best tasting beef in the world.
When will this happen?
We've already changed most of the content on our website to reflect the new name. We will be phasing in new packaging and incorporating the change into promotional materials over the coming months. During this transition, you may see or receive some products and materials that say Naked Beef, and some that says Heritage Beef. Rest assured, they are exactly the same.
For more information on our Naked and Heritage product lines and how they compare, check out this blog post: Naked vs. Heritage — What's the Difference?
Have any other questions? Feel free to send us a message!
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Chicken Is A Healthy Choice (When It's Real Chicken)
We all know fast food is, by its very nature, more about convenience than nutrition. But when faced with the necessity of getting fast food, you may think opting for chicken is the lesser evil. Chicken, after all, is touted as a healthier type of meat. A recent study, however, shows that even chicken can be made unhealthy when it's subjected to fast food's "flavorizing" techniques.
Last month a CBC Marketplace investigation did DNA testing on the meat in a variety of fast food meals containing chicken. Amazingly, none had chicken that was 100% chicken DNA, and in one case the "chicken" was found to contain only about half chicken DNA. The restaurant in question is disputing these findings, but whether it was 50% chicken or 90% chicken isn't the point of this post. The fact that it wasn't 100% chicken is the point.
How does chicken end up not being 100% chicken? Well, it isn't because they mix in other types of meat. No, what brings the percentage down is all the stuff they put in for flavor. As the article linked above says, "An unadulterated piece of chicken from the store should come in at 100% chicken DNA. Seasoning, marinating or processing meat would bring that number down, so fast food samples seasoned for taste wouldn't be expected to hit that 100% target."
In other words, 10% or more of fast food chicken is usually made up of other ingredients that are added for taste. And they do add more taste, but they also add calories and carbs and lower nutritional value. To quote the CBC article: "Marketplace's testing revealed that once the ingredients are factored in, the fast food chicken had about a quarter less protein than you would get in its home-cooked equivalent. And overall, the sodium levels were between seven and 10 times what they would be in a piece of unadulterated chicken….Nutritionist and registered dietitian Christy Brissette notes that most [added] products…are simply variants on salt or sugar, the latter of which can elevate the carbohydrate level of a chicken breast to well above where it should be: zero percent."
Why is it necessary to add all this stuff to chicken to make it taste good and be less healthy? Because, sadly, our food is no longer developed for taste or nutrition, but for commerce (e.g. low cost, fast production, ease of shipping and storage). It has no taste, so we add more seasonings, sugar and salt. The result is chicken that's not really chicken, whether you get it from the local fast food place or your local grocery store and add all those things yourself.
That's why we do what we do at Joyce Farms. We set out to produce the absolute best tasting chicken possible, and we have. Our Naked Chicken is the finest all-natural domestic chicken for sale in America, with the flavor nature intended (much more flavorful than factory-farmed commodity chickens). Our heritage Poulet Rouge Fermier®chicken, meanwhile, raises the bar even higher – we believe it's the best tasting chicken in the world.
So if you're looking for chicken that you can cook and eat as it is, 100% chicken, not loaded down with stuff to give it some kind of taste, we have it. Don't settle for "chicken" that's not really chicken. The real thing is so much better!
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5 Reasons Air-Chilled Poultry Is Better
The USDA requires that processed chickens be chilled to at least 40 degrees within four hours of killing. Within our industry there are two accepted ways to do this – using air or using water. Most processors use the latter method, cooling their chickens in large communal vats of ice cold chlorinated water. But at Joyce Farms, we choose to air chill all our Heritage Poultry, and we inject them with nothing. Here's why.
1. We sell chicken, not water.
When chickens are water chilled, they absorb some of the water they're placed in and then they're injected with more water, so when you buy water-chilled chicken, part of what you're paying for is water.
Some estimates say that, on average, water is actually 8% of the chicken's body weight when it's sold. But when you buy air-chilled chicken, all you're paying for is chicken.
2. Air-chilled chicken tastes better.
Because the birds aren't subjected to the chlorine or added salt and water that is absorbed by the birds in the industrial chilling tanks, top chefs agree that air chilling preserves the true flavor of the birds.
3. Air-chilled chicken cooks better.
The water in water-chilled chicken evaporates as it cooks, creating shrunken, rubbery chicken, especially when it's grilled or barbecued. Further, air-chilled chicken cooks faster, absorbs marinades and seasonings much better, and has a crispier skin after cooking.
4. Air-chilled chicken is safer.
Air-chilled chickens are cooled individually, while water-chilled chickens are dunked in a communal pool. With air chilling there is much less chance for bacteria to spread among chickens.
In fact, a University of Nebraska study found that air-chilled chicken contains 80% less bacteria than water-chilled chicken.
5. Air chilling is better for the environment.
In the last few years we've seen major droughts in both the southeastern and western United States. In those conditions, every drop of water becomes precious. According to one expert, if the 9 billion water-chilled chickens processed annually were air chilled instead, 4.5 billion gallons of water would be saved.
There you have it. Our goal is to offer our customers the best poultry in the world, and we believe air chilling contributes to achieving that. And experts agree. Not long ago the website TheSoftLanding.com looked at air-chilled chicken vs. water-chilled chicken and declared Joyce Farms air-chilled, heritage Poulet Rouge™ chicken to be the best on the market!
More information:
Air-Chilled Chicken vs Water-Chilled Chicken: Is There a Winner? (thesoftlanding.com)
If You're Not Cooking With Air-Chilled Chicken, You're Doing It Wrong (Bloomberg.com)
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Here's the Real Reason Most Grass-Fed Beef Isn't USDA Graded
When you buy grain-fed beef in your local grocery store, it probably has a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grade on it. The USDA grades meat quality for tenderness, juiciness, and flavor, and there are eight quality grades for beef. How are they determined? According to the USDA, "Quality grades are based on the amount of marbling (flecks of fat within the lean), color, and maturity."
Prime grade, for instance, "has abundant marbling," while Choice grade (the grade most commonly found in grocery stores) is "high quality, but has less marbling than Prime." Select grade, meanwhile, "is very uniform in quality and normally leaner than the higher grades…but, because it has less marbling, it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades."
So for the USDA, the grading is largely based on the marbling. Why? Because feeding cows grain not only gets them fatter quicker, it also enhances fat marbling. Marbling is the intramuscular fat that adds juiciness and some elements of tenderness to beef. Because almost all US cattle are finished on grain, and have been for decades, marbling became the quickest and easiest way to grade the beef.
This is why a lot grass-fed beef producers say their product gets the short end of the steak when it comes to grading. They'll tell you that their grass-fed beef is leaner and healthier than grain-fed beef, but not as marbled, so for them to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade for their grass-fed beef is impossible. And frankly, for THEIR grass-fed beef, it probably is.
But it's not impossible for our grass-fed beef to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade; we know that because ours does. In fact, Joyce Farms is one of only a few grass-fed beef producers in the country that elects to have our beef USDA quality graded.
Because we have cattle with the right genetics and we utilize superior raising and forage grazing standards, our grass-fed beef can offer the tenderness, the delicious taste and, yes, the marbling required to get a USDA Choice or Prime grade. Want proof? Just check this out...
So don't believe the myth that a delicious, well-marbled, USDA Choice or Prime grade grass-fed steak is unrealistic, and that off-flavors, lack of marbling, and a lack of tenderness is part of the grass-fed eating experience. To top it all off, that added marbling is loaded with healthy Omega-3's and CLA's and other healthy fats. If you're looking for grass-fed beef that's healthy and makes the grade, look no further than our Heritage Aberdeen Angus Beef.
Note to our web shoppers: The cuts sold on our web store are USDA Choice or Select grade, and grades are noted in product descriptions. Due to such high demand from our foodservice customers, we are unable to offer Prime Grade on the web at this time, but you can find it on the menus of a number of fine-dining restaurants across the United States!
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6 Reasons Grizzly Coolers are the Coolest
Joyce Farms is an authorized dealer of Grizzly coolers because they're the best, and if you've tried any of our poultry or beef products, you know we're sticklers for quality! When we decided to add premium coolers to our offerings, we did our research and chose to partner with Grizzly Coolers. Here's why:
1. They're Made in America
All Grizzly coolers are manufactured right here in the USA, in the small town of Decorah, Iowa. That's not always the case with other premium cooler brands. Yeti coolers, for example, are manufactured in China, the Philippines, and the United States.
2. Quality Construction
Grizzly Coolers are made using RotoTough™ rotationally molded construction for maximum durability. The "roto-molding" uses heat and rotation to evenly disperse plastic material within a mold to create the cooler body. The process helps ensure that Grizzly coolers are tough enough to withstand almost any conditions or abuse. It also produces very little waste (most excess material can be reused), making it economical and environmentally friendly.
3. Certified Bear-Proof
Speaking of durability, Grizzly coolers are certified to be bear-proof by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. They're put through strict IGBC Bear Resistance testing to make sure cooler contents and the animals are kept safe.
4. Cold for Days!
A cooler's most important attribute is its ability to keep things cold for a long time, and Grizzly coolers do just that. The cooler's roto-molded construction and pressure-injected foam insulation work together to hold internal temperature extremely well. A Grizzly cooler will keep ice frozen up to 6 days!
5. Guaranteed for Life
When you invest in a premium cooler, you want it to last. Grizzly coolers are come with a lifetime warranty (compared to a 5 year warranty offered by some other premium brands like Yeti).
6. People Love Them, Including Us
From chefs to fisherman, there is a growing community of Grizzly enthusiasts who stand behind the brand as the best premium cooler (see some of their ambassadors here). Now we are among them. In addition to selling Joyce Farms Grizzly coolers on our website, we frequently give them as gifts, prizes and use them in our own day to day operations. Our farmer partners love them because they are perfect for keeping produce, drinks, or anything else long, hot days outside. Our sales team loves them because they keep sample products cold during long food shows or as they travel around the region visiting customers. Our customers love them because they are great for travel or any outdoor activities — that's why they're the "Outdoor Everything Cooler." Whether it's in a field under the blazing sun, on your tailgate during the game, or at your campsite for days, the Grizzly won't disappoint.
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Better Tasting Beef From The Ground Up
According to a study by the International Food Information Council Foundation, the majority of shoppers say taste has the biggest impact on their food choices — more than price, convenience, sustainability, or even nutrition. What that means for producers of grass-fed beef is that they can tout its nutritional and ecological superiority all day long, but if it doesn't taste good, people won't eat it.
One of the biggest complaints about grass-fed beef is inconsistent taste and off flavors. The reality is, grass-fed beef can taste as good or even better than grain-fed beef — the difference comes down to three key variables: grass, grazing, and genetics.
GRASS
If grass-fed beef doesn't get the right forage – the perfect cocktail (as we call it) of mature grasses and legumes – it doesn't always taste good. A lot of grass-fed cattle are raised in what's called a "monoculture pasture" where the grasses are at a single root depth, and they draw their mineral content from only one layer of soil. The result is meat that can have a metallic flavor. However when grass-fed cattle are raised in multi-culture pastures, eating forage made up of a variety of grasses and legumes that provide a balanced mineral intake from multiple root depths, there is no metallic taste in the meat.
GRAZING
It's not just the variety of things the cattle eat that matters. It also matters when they eat them. Grass-fed beef can have an off-flavor that tastes of liver or game when the cattle's forage isn't mature enough and contains too much protein and not enough carbohydrate (sugars). To prevent this, the forage can be measured for Brix. Without getting too scientific, Brix is a measurement of the sugars, amino acids, oils, proteins, flavonoids, minerals and other nutrients in a food. By monitoring Brix levels closely, the cattle can be brought to pasture for grazing when the forage is at optimum maturity, so they only eat the sweetest grass and have the best tasting meat.
GENETICS
Producing great-tasting grass-fed beef isn't as simple as just switching to a grass-fed diet; you have to start with the right cattle. Most beef produced in America today comes from modern cattle that have been selectively bred to produce larger animals that finish well in a commercial feed lot; they just aren't built for a grass-based diet. In fact, less than 5% of cattle genetics in the US will produce quality beef on grass.
Our Heritage Beef comes from true Aberdeen Angus cattle raised exclusively in multi-cultural pastures eating forage that is mature and sweet. Joyce Farms maintains a bloodline of this prized heritage Aberdeen Angus breed – the original Angus of 18th century Scotland.
There are a lot of different grass-fed beef producers out there, and it's important to know that not all grass-fed beef is the same. At Joyce Farms, we go to these lengths because we're just like you – if we're going to eat our grass-fed beef (and we are), we want it to taste delicious (and it does).
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Why Slow Beats Fast (For Growing Chickens)
We don't rush our chickens. They eat all-natural food, roam freely, and get nice and healthy on Mother Nature's schedule. That's how we've done things for many years, but it isn't the industry norm. So earlier this year it was a pretty big deal in our industry when Whole Foods announced they 're supporting new Global Animal Partnership (GAP) standards that will require all chicken producers to move away from fast-growth breeds if they want to be certified under GAP's 5-Step® Rating Program. By 2024, Whole Foods will require their chickens to have a 23% slower growth rate than commercial, factory-farmed birds.
So what's the problem with fast growth? Well, in the last 100 years or so, standard commercial chickens have been bred to grow faster so they're ready for market sooner (allowing the producers to increase the number of birds they sell each year) while consuming less feed (cutting the cost to raise them).
A century ago it took about four months to grow a standard chicken; today the average for most commercial breeds is 42 days. That's great for producing a lot of chicken, but not so great for the animals or consumers.
When chickens grow too fast, they can develop before their bones are ready to support all that weight, and many develop problems with their legs and joints, some to the point where they can't walk. So the chickens suffer. In fact, Whole Foods predicts that this shift to slower growing birds will "improve the lives of 277 million chickens."
The shift is also better for consumers because fast-growth chickens don't taste as good as slow-growth chickens. The slower growing process gives intramuscular fat time to develop in the meat, producing a juicier, more flavorful chicken with a superior texture (which is why slow-growth birds are preferred by chefs).
We learned all this a long time ago – we have many years of experience in slow growing chickens. Our Poulet Rouge Fermier™ chicken grows 100% slower than commercial breeds (84 days vs. 42 days), which far exceeds the Whole Foods and GAP standards. That's why we're excited that Whole Foods and others are switching to slow-growth chickens – it's how we think all chickens should be raised.
Does all this mean that the poultry industry is doing away with industrialized farms and returning to more natural methods? No, but it's a step in the right direction, starting the industry down a path we've been forging for a long time, and we're happy to see that happen.
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Source: https://joyce-farms.com/blogs/news/tagged/products
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