Pizza Nova: "Raised Without Antibiotics. Grain-Fed Pepperoni."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samita-sarkar/pizza-nova-raised-without_b_7526454.html
http://puro.pizzanova.com/

This Canadian chain just started using “Grain fed pepperoni”…

Nothing about any of that makes any sense. From the article that sounds like it’s written by an easily offended liberal arts college freshman to my understanding that “grain fed” isn’t something to brag about when it comes to beef. But what do I know?

I’m with you. Grain fed? I always though grass fed was the best way to go if you were looking for healthier beef. Did they say if the grain was non GMO? I stand to be corrected, but at this time I don’t think that’s a problem with grass. Just a few comments from a Kansas boy watching the cattle graze across the street. Ya gotta love’en though.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Not to a certain audience… but there is no doubt that grain finished beef is the best tasting.

Lol.

I’d put up $1000 for a taste test between pepperoni made with grass fed beef, grain fed beef, saki massaged beef, or any mumbo jumbo someone could come up with. I’d bet it all that no one could tell me which was which, if they could even taste a difference.

Oooh, and their tomatoes are “washed and packed within 6 hours after being picked”. Well, that sucks. Everyone knows the best sauce is made from tomatoes washed and packed within 5 hours after being picked. 6 hour old tomatoes made horrible sauce!

Even better if they are hand picked and not machine picked ! We all know those machines damage the tomatoes and make them taste icky !

Hand picked by 18+ year old 100% Italian virgins, right? :slight_smile:

I haven’t seen a pepperoni farm, where may I find one? Do they use Border collies to round them up, or do they ride ATV’s to get them into the barn? And when is calving season?

I was handed a bag of “Doughnut Seeds” by my uncle when I was really young. I planted them, but they never grew.
Probably because it was a small bag of Cheerios with a label on it that said “Doughnut Seeds”, the package had planting directions and everything. (The rat-bastard was always teasing me)

Grass Fed VS Grain Fed;
Grass fed beef is virtually devoid of E-Coli bacteria, something as simple as finishing grain fed beef on grass 2 weeks before slaughter will wipe out E-Coli in their guts.
Flavor; Grass fed seems to have a gamey taste to it, intramuscular marbling is non-existent, and it really sucks for BBQ (Low & Slow) because of it.
There was a brisket shortage in my area for a few weeks, my supplier sent me a case of grass fed beef to try out to see if we could use it, the taste was funky, it was drier than a popcorn fart no matter how gently it was cooked, they averaged around 8 pounds each where my typical briskets are always 16# & Up, the 'Point" muscle was tiny, there was no fat between the point and the flat.
After smoking them, I ended up chopping it all up and making a batch of chili out of them. its all I could do, I couldn’t serve that to our customers.

It’s nice knowing there is actual real world differences that show up with simple things like this. I never bothered to look into it personally, because well, it is outside of what i do.

I wonder if also the reason for the difference is how the beef are feed ? I would imagine grain feed, stay in pens and are allowed little movement. Where as grass feed, will more then likely be allowed to range to feed. This could be a plausible reason for what you saw in the difference of the end product.

I live in beef country with ranches all around us. The cattle here are raised on grass and they range freely in the pasture or on open lands… but nearly all are finished on grain. The reason given is flavor, attained grade and finished weight. The ranchers around here all say that the marbling is key to the great taste and it is certainly key to the USDA grade given to the finished product which impacts price.

Best for beef:
Grass fed then grain fed before sent to market.
George mills

It is believed that the deadly strain of E-Coli came about in a feedlot where the E-Coli organism somehow crossed with Shigella.
As BodegaHwy mentioned, grain creates intramuscular fat which equals higher USDA grading. The grading used to be done by each individual inspector, but now it is done through a digital camera and a computer, allegedly it is more accurate, and it is more difficult to bribe a computer to assign a higher grade than then beef actually is.
The ribeye is cut at the 3rd rib, and marbling is checked there, and there is also strict age requirements too.

I believe what we are seeing graded as USDA Prime these days would have had a difficult time meeting USDA Choice 20-30 years ago.