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I don’t know if many in the Bioenergetic community know much about Beef Tendon. It’s technically offal, but can be used regularly in meals, and has quite a bit going for it, both in terms of nutrition and enjoyment factor.
Here’s a nice little primer from Jon Kung-
As far as taste goes, I don’t think it has much on it’s own, but it has a similar function to fat. It takes up the taste of whatever it is prepared with, and adds more depth and richness to whatever you are cooking. It also helps to add a moist sort of texture, similar to how fat does.
And it does this, even though it is very low in fat. 100g of beef tendon has about half a gram of fat, and 34 grams of protein. Most other lean protein sources tend to be very dry (think chicken breast).
Which makes beef tendon a very interesting and useful protein for a number of purposes. Looking to do a very low (almost no) fat diet? Beef tendon will be extremely helpful. Just want to restrict PUFA, or both PUFA and MUFA? Beef Tendon very useful here, too. Looking to add a lot of glycine and proline? Beef tendon once again is very helpful. Want to restrict the inflammatory amino acids (Tryptophan, Cystine, Histidine, and Methionine)? Beef tendon once again scores high.
Here is the Amino Acid breakdown from my Cronometer. I got these figures using a study Amazoniac posted on RPF back in the day-
I’ve been using Beef Tendon a lot recently. You can use it as your only protein in a dish, and it will take up the flavors of everything else. You can also combine it with other protein (like chicken or regular beef), and it kinda “stretches” those other proteins, and also helps to give a better animo acid profile. You can find some recipes online that use something like 500g of Beef Tendon with 500g of chuck steak or chicken. Together, they are a great combo.
You can use it with very low fat sources, like eye round or chicken breast, and it vastly improves the moisture and flavor of any low fat meal. I actually did a 5% fat diet for a couple months, beef tendon elevated the quality of those meals, and actually made it doable. Longest I ever did before was about 5 days. Sure, adding some more fat in the form of butter, cheese, or coconut oil would have made those meals even better, but these were quite good. If other low fat meals were a 1 or 2, and using those fats would make the meal a 10, then Beef Tendon alone can raise a low fat meal to a 7 or 8, a vast improvement.
Also, you can use Beef Tendon as your sole source of gelatin/collagen in a meal, or add more gelatin, to get more glycine and proline and less inflamatory aminos (ratio wise).
The only real downsides are that it’s harder to find in stores (but any Mexican or Asian grocery store should have it), it’s hard to cut, and needs the long cook times. But if you have a good knife and an instant pot, these are minor issues for an incredibly delicous and nutritious food.
This is a well kept secret in the West @Zach Vegas. It is everything you say it is Zachary there very little taste but cutting it up and putting it in a stew in a crock pot let it simmer all day and it will break up nicely not like the rubber band texture if you try to cook it in a dry heat. But an excellent source of collagen like food source.
I am going to order some. I found beef tendons at http://www.grasslandbeef.com
@Zack Vegas I finally got some lamb tendons. They were sold out for a long time from the only place I could find them. I am soaking the blood out of them now to cook tomorrow! I’ will let you know how mine turn out.
Holy cow my lamb tendons made the firmest gelatin! First I soaked them for 24 hours to get the blood out changing the water out a couple of times. It makes a clearer broth doing this step. I cut the tendons in smaller pieces and cooked them for 5 hours. I still had about a third of the tendons that didn’t cook down so I added them to a new batch of beef bone broth I’m cooking today.
Does the spoon stand up in the gelatin??
Here is an email from me to Ray Peat.
ME:
“Good morning Dr. Peat!
Is there such a thing as too much bone broth? Can too much of is cause any harm?”RAY PEAT
“Bone broth made with marrow bones can be harmful, because of the iron and fat. Cartilage and skin make the best gelatinous broth.”Would you ever put cooked meat chunks and herbs, spices and some carrots in the gelatin and make a meat jelly? I remember eating that when I was little and it was really good
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