At Flannery Beef, father-daughter duo Bryan and Katie Flannery specialize in dry-aging beef from Holstein dairy cows. “If you tell somebody to think of a cow, you’re going to think of a Holstein,” says Katie Flannery. “It’s going to be the black and white spotted cow.” But while Holsteins are mostly known as producers in the dairy industry, they’re less well-known for their meat — something the Flannerys are hoping to change.
“The marbling on Holstein [beef] is really fine, and almost diffuse,” says Katie Flannery. “That’s what gives you the tenderness and the flavor.”
While Flannery Beef uses male Holstein steers in its butchery, “the Holstein females need a larger bone structure to be able to support the weight of the udder,” Flannery says. “Where that translates into the males, into the steers, is that you actually have more bone than you do meat.”
Usually, this lack of meat compared to other cows would be unappealing to the meat industry, but the Flannerys have a different way of looking at it. “From where Dad and I are sitting, that’s fine, because, if we get this marbling every time; that’s what we are looking for,” says Flannery.
Watch the full video to see how the Flannerys cut the beef up and package it for restaurants in their area, like Epic Steak in San Francisco.