Boozy beef: if you want to make really tender steak, you'll need to get the cows drunk

Massaging meat won’t do — for a truly tender slab of beef you need to get the cows drunk, says Susannah Butter
Tender meat: Susannah Butter with Beer Fed Steak at Brompton Food Market (Picture: Daniel Hambury)

When it comes to beer, six pints sounds like a lot to drink. But for Charles Ashbridge it is the magic number. The farmer feeds that volume to his Dexter cows every day — in the evening, mind, they aren’t complete animals — and the result is some of the most tender, complex-tasting steak I have eaten. It won’t make you drunk, though you might end up cleverer because the creamy yellow fat surrounding the lean pink centre is rich in Omega-3 oils, which are said to boost brain function.

If the £195/kg Wagyu beef that London chefs are going wild for had been invented in England rather than Japan, the result would be a steak rather like this one.

Chef Luke Mackay, at Brompton Food Market, has cooked me a rare T-bone, with salt, pepper and a dab of olive oil. It is firmer than other steaks but cuts easily. Perhaps if Jeremy Clarkson had tried some of this he would have been calmer about the speed of service during that famous meal.

“Beer takes the edge off for the cows,” says Mackay, who uses the meat for steak sandwiches at his café and sells it to cook at home. “It adds to the fat content and relaxes the muscles. I’m told cows come running at beer time and seem to enjoy it.”

Ashbridge says the animals don’t feel drunk — they’re around six times the size of people — “but beer is an acquired taste, just as it is for humans. No one thinks their first pint is amazing.”

Ashbridge has been rearing cattle on the family farm, Taste Tradition in Cold Kirby, Yorkshire, since he was six. He says his method is influenced by the tender, marbled Wagyu and Kobe beef. “Dexter is some of the best-tasting beef I’ve had, so I wondered if I could enhance the flavour with beer from a local brewery, Hambleton Ales.” The cows line their stomachs with hay that Mackay says “smells like herbs de Provence” and start on the beer when they are 18 months old.

Mackay has pictures of the cows on his phone to show customers. He says it is the best beef he has tasted in his 15 years as a chef, cooking for Bill Clinton, novelist Sebastian Faulks and Gary Lineker. “It has a brilliant Maillard reaction,” he says, referring to the chemical effect between amino acids and reducing sugars that creates flavour. “The texture is firmer; the meat is buttery and rich. Customers comment on the difference in taste between beer-fed and normal meat.”

On the bone it lasts three weeks and off it is fine to eat for around four days. It isn’t cheap, at £8.50 for a 250g sirloin steak. Ashbridge says it is 25 per cent more expensive to produce but there is value in good-quality meat. Mackay acknowledges that “lots of us can’t afford stunning meat every day”. His solution is to eat less but spend more. “Ask your butcher where the meat is from and if they don’t know don’t buy it.”

Mackay is the only person serving this boozy beef in London at the moment, so snap some up before it becomes the new Wagyu.

Latest London food trends

1/9

STEAKS ON A PLATE

Do you age your steak by exposing it to air, keep it wrapped up, or just serve extremely lean? Here are the best ways to beef up your cut.

180-day aged steak

It takes six months to reach its tender, gamey best. It is kept chilled but exposed to air, allowing it to mature in a similar way to a good cheese.

Goodman Canary Wharf, 3 South Quay Square, E14, goodmanrestaurants.com

90-day aged Danish steak

When Francis Cardenau and Jesper Boelskifte, the Michelin-starred “rock stars” of Danish restaurants, came to London, they brought their favourite meat with them. They believe 90 days is the optimum duration for beef enzymes to break down and taste fantastic.

MASH, 77 Brewer Street, W1, mashsteak.co.uk

70-day aged steak

Chef Stevie Parle ages whole loins of Galloway beef for 70 days. Try the sirloin with marrowbone bread sauce and lovage liquor.

CRAFT LONDON, Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, SE10, craft-london.co.uk

55-day aged steak

Add bone marrow gravy or anchovy hollandaise.

Hawksmoor, across London, thehawksmoor.com

Wet-aged Wagyu steak

Is wet or dry ageing best? This wet option is coal-cooked and available as a sirloin or d-rump.

M, 2&3 Threadneedle Walk, 60 Threadneedle Street, EC2, mrestaurants.co.uk

Minute steak

For a healthy protein fix head to this LA-inspired restaurant for the Muscle Beach — a minute steak served with a poached egg, spinach and sweet potato hash.

Bel-Air, 54 Paul Street, EC2, bel-air.co

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in