A new blaze of glory

MEMORIAL Day arrives: Break out the barbecue grill and give it a good cleaning. Run to the grocery for a couple of steaks. Light the fire and start the meat. Smell the smoke. But then comes the downfall -- the steaks are dry and flavorless. An anguished cry erupts all across the nation, “Whatever happened to beef?”

But fear not: The world of meat is changing. Just as grocery-store tomatoes have expanded from a few dull, standard types to a bright rainbow of choices, so too is the selection of beef beginning to blossom today.

Call it the boutique-ing of beef.

You can find meat that is branded by a single company, such as Coalinga’s Harris Ranch. There is beef like that from niche meat pioneer Coleman in Colorado, which is billed as “natural” -- a phrase that is popular but legally means only that it has been “minimally processed” with no artificial coloring added.

There is organic beef, which not only has been certified to have had no hormone or antibiotic treatments but also has been fed only on grasses and grains that have been raised organically.

There is American beef from imported breeds, such as French Limousin, Italian Piedmontese and Japanese Wagyu. And there is good old American Certified Angus.

Boutique giant Niman Ranch has made its reputation by harvesting beef that is more mature. At the same time, other places are trying for better beef by going back to their roots -- selling prime grades that have been dry-aged.

And then there’s the new carnivorous cutting edge, the most extreme beef -- grass-fed, which has a flavor that is so different it might even be shocking to traditional meat lovers.

A steak test

The taste of the meat -- and the best approach to grilling it -- varies with the philosophy behind it. At Niman Ranch, the cattle are slaughtered as much as a full year later than is customary. This results in meat that makes no compromises. A Niman flank steak purchased at Trader Joe’s had a deep, beefy flavor and a texture that was dense and chewy, which is not to say tough.

On the other hand, a dry-aged prime New York strip from Bristol Farms could not have been more different. The strip was a paragon of old-fashioned steak values: so tender it cut like butter with a flavor that was subtle but complex. When grilled over moderate direct heat to medium-rare, it developed a crust so lovely and evenly browned that it almost looked as if it had been fried.

Wagyu, the variety of cattle used for Japan’s famed Kobe beef, is so richly marbled that every cow must be the bovine equivalent of a sumo wrestler. A Wagyu chuck steak purchased at Torrance’s bustling Mitsuwa Marketplace had a mouth-filling flavor that seemed to last forever. Even cut three-quarters of an inch thick and cooked over a fairly hot fire to medium-rare, it was somewhat chewy.

That is to be expected: Chuck is not the best cut for grilling. At Mitsuwa, it is usually sold sliced either medium-thin for quickly grilled yakitori or extremely thin so it will cook with only a quick swish in the hot broth of shabu-shabu. Wagyu also developed a better crust during cooking than anything but the dry-aged prime.

Mitsuwa also carries Certified Angus. A Spencer steak had the cut’s characteristically loose and somewhat chewy texture and was clearly not as well marbled as either the Wagyu or the prime. Consequently, the flavor, although deep and beefy, didn’t linger on the palate the way the other steaks did.

Far and away the most distinctive steak of all was a New Zealand grass-fed rib-eye from Whole Foods Market. It tasted almost as if it came from another animal -- the intense gamy character of lamb married to the deep bottom notes of beef. It was very lean, with almost no marbling, so it required careful cooking.

At Whole Foods, the rib-eyes were cut what seemed to be ludicrously thick -- between 1 1/2 and 2 inches. But this turned out to be perfect. Cooked over indirect heat (most of the coals pulled to the opposite side of the grill), this grass-fed steak took about 20 minutes longer to get done, but it stayed moist despite its lack of marbling. However, it still didn’t have the long finish of the other steaks.

As you might suspect, none of these boutique steaks is inexpensive. Expect to pay around $12.99 to $13.99 a pound for most and as much as $25.99 for the dry-aged prime.

Rise of the small rancher

In addition to the search for flavor, there’s another reason for the explosion of interest in boutique beef -- economics. It turns out that the only people more dissatisfied with the state of the modern beef industry than meat lovers are meat ranchers.

After decades of consolidation, four companies sell more than 80% of the beef in America. This has created an economic trickle-down effect that has resulted in tighter prices and less profit all the way down the line.

According to a study by Roger Ingram, a UC Cooperative Extension agent in Placer County who specializes in livestock, ranchers in his area receive 32% less in inflation-adjusted dollars for their products than they did in 1969. It is only by raising something different and going outside the normal commodity chain that they can hope to make more money.

Mac Magruder is one rancher who is seeking an alternative. He raises 600 head of cattle in eastern Mendocino County’s Potter Valley.

A conventional rancher for most of his career, Magruder sold 25 grass-fed cattle last year and is increasing that to 40 this year.

“The money is just so much better,” he says. “I’ll gross $1,000 an animal on grass-fed. The same animal, if I sent it to the conventional feedlot situation, it’d be more like $650.”

Guinness McFadden, an experienced organics entrepreneur, agrees. McFadden, who is one of the largest grape growers in Mendocino County, also grows herbs that are dried and packaged at his ranch for sale at Williams-Sonoma stores.

He says he had always run cattle on the hillsides that were too steep to cultivate, but he didn’t begin to take the beef business seriously until a couple of years ago when Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters began buying meat from him. Now he runs 25 head of Black Baldie cattle and sells the organically raised meat only at a natural foods co-op in nearby Ukiah.

“The closer the farmer gets to the consumer, the better off he is,” says McFadden, who holds an MBA from Stanford University. “Selling your product yourself takes time and effort and you have to be involved. But you will be repaid if you do a good job.”

Still, Magruder says, most conventional growers in his beef-heavy area are reluctant to even think about making any kind of change.

“People get very defensive about it,” he says. “They’ll laugh at you for trying something different, then tell you how bad the cattle market is. They don’t see the connection.”

That is changing. Placer County’s Ingram sponsored a two-day workshop this spring that attracted 100 ranchers interested in marketing niche meat.

Ingram himself is part of a group looking at forming a six-county cooperative that would sell California “natural” beef along the lines of Colorado’s Coleman.

As part of its feasibility study, his group is conducting a series of consumer interviews focused on selling specialty beef. Although the survey is not yet completed, he says one aspect has become clear.

“What we’re finding is the really big thing is the quality of the meat -- flavor, consistency and tenderness,” he says. “Things like it being produced locally, being healthful, and the food safety issues are not unimportant, but they don’t score nearly as high as flavor.

“The message is that if you’re going to grab people with your beef, it’s got to be the quality. Then, if they like it, you can really get them by telling them, ‘Hey, this is really healthy,’ or ‘Hey, you’re helping some small farmer.’ Those are added benefits only after you’ve established you have a great product.”

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Prime places to buy

Here are some specialty beef purveyors that sell small quantities:

* American Grassfed Beef: Individual cuts of grass-fed beef. www.americangrassfedbeef.com. (866) 255-5002.

* Bristol Farms: Prime beef, including some dry-aged. Various locations in Southern California.

* Gary Yamamoto Wagyu Beef: Individual cuts of Wagyu beef. www.yama-beef.com. (877) 792-9262.

* Lobel’s of New York: Individual cuts of Wagyu beef. www.lobels.com. (877) 783-4512.

* Mitsuwa: Certified Angus and Wagyu chuck steaks. Store locations: 665 Paularino Ave., Costa Mesa; 333 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles; 3760 Centinela Ave., Los Angeles; 21515 Western Ave., Torrance; 515 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel.

* Napa Free-Range Beef: Individual cuts of grass-fed beef. www.napafreerangebeef.com. (707) 963-6134.

* Niman Ranch: Some cuts of Niman Ranch beef are available at Southern California Trader Joe’s markets. Others can be ordered online at www.nimanranch.com.

* Prather Ranch: Individual cuts of grass-fed beef. www.diamondorganics.com/meat.html. (888) 674-2642.

* Whole Foods: New Zealand grass-fed beef. Various locations in Southern California.