Beef Up the Holidays

Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday, December 9th, 2024.

Have your host James J. Mailoff here at 430 today.

We're going to talk to Art Stevenson about a very Merry Bluegrass Christmas coming to the

Pitzville School Auditorium on the 15th.

We'll be talking about that in a little bit right now, though.

We got our great friends from the Wisconsin Beef Council on our new friend Angie Horkin

is with us director of marketing.

Angie, thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

Angie and I are going to talk with you about beefing up for the holidays, but before we

do that, two very important questions.

Angie, did I say your last name right?

You did.

You said it perfectly.

I don't get a lot of those.

So I appreciate that.

That's great.

And Angie, more importantly, Art just is important.

I wanted to ask too, anytime we have somebody new joining us, can you tell us a little bit

about yourself?

How did you get involved with the Beef Council?

Well, that's a great question.

I've been with the Beef Council since I was a summer intern in 1996, so I'm really dating

myself there.

Yeah, I've been there quite a while.

My position as a director of marketing, actually, I have a beef farm myself.

My family does.

My parents and my husband and I and our children, we have registered Angus cowcaps, seed stock

operation.

So in Southwestern Wisconsin, so I grew up in the beef industry, went to college in

Madison.

Actually, at Edgewood College, I played basketball in softball and I got a marketing management

degree and the beef council is in Madison.

So I was a summer intern, one of the summers when I was in college, and then opening became

open.

They had opening and it was right about the right time.

So I applied and kind of been there ever since.

A lot has changed and evolved at the Beef Council, of course, a lot of what we do, where

the beef check-offs, so we're funded by all beef producers.

And we do consumer education, research and promotion.

And as a director of marketing, I oversee all of our consumer education efforts, our

paid advertising, our website.

I kind of like to tell people if they ask me what I do, I kind of teach people how to

cook beef.

That's kind of the gist of it.

So how to cook it, how to store it, how to shop for tips and tricks, and of course our

great recipes.

So our website is known for our recipes.

I don't know how many we have, hundreds if not a thousand or more.

We're just a nice resource for beef.

Yeah.

Thank you for sharing that, Angie.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

It has to mean, first, you know, there's plenty of great people working in these industries

that may have not grown up in that, but it's got to mean something a little bit different.

Not just what the knowledge you can share and the experience you know, but I imagine it

means something a little more to be able to be in this industry when you grow up in this

industry.

Oh, it does.

It does.

I'm like fully 100% vested in the beef industry and at some times, you know, most days it's

hard to differentiate my life from work, but they overlapped a lot.

I did a batch.

I kind of live it and I work it and it's really nice and you know, all of the different

egg industries, you know, not beef specifically, but there's so many great people and there's

so many great egg industries in Wisconsin.

We have a really great agriculture system to be proud of.

And so it's a wonderful and it's great work.

And you know, I live about 35 minutes from where I grew up and then I get to head down

to Verona, Madison for our office, I get to experience big city life.

So it's kind of, it's nice.

And you know, one thing that myself or audiences is able to tell right away and just meeting

you Angie is the passion and the energy you feel for this, being able to cover a subject

you care so much about while also doing it in state, your home state.

That's just extra meaning behind it also shows you know what you're talking about.

Like you know what you're talking, it matters.

It matters a lot, not just with this subject certainly, but with beef for the holidays,

which is what we're going to dive right into.

Go right ahead.

I want to get out of your way.

No, but you know, I've been telling people I travel around the state and I do TV segments

on our morning news evening shows and know a lot of great people.

But I love this time of the year.

I always say this is kind of our favorite time of the year at the beef console.

Granted, you know, every day is beef today at the beef console.

But this time of year with the holidays, we have so many great beef cuts, you know,

those premium, really beautiful, just traditional, comfort food, beef recipes and cuts that

we love promoting this time of year.

And in Wisconsin, the prime rib, you know, making a prime rib is the king of the table.

And you'll watch, watch your supermarket flyers wherever you shop or meet markets, they'll

probably be on sale because they know us with scantonite, they're out and we're going

to buy one and we're going to try it or we're going to make a holiday roast tradition in

our household and make it every year.

Yeah.

And Angie, you guys do a really nice job on the website of really like taking a walkthrough

of some of these recipes and how to make them.

You've got a great one on here and how to make a rib roast.

Right.

So if you go to our website, our website is beeftips.com and then right on the homepage, we've

kind of got slider pictures.

The first one is beef up the holidays and if you click there, you'll go to a page and

it's kind of my one-step shop for December.

For right now, I tried to put every, all of our assets that we've created that we have

to share with people, put it right here on this one page.

So you definitely need more than a couple minutes to check out this page, maybe set aside

like five minutes, okay?

And start going through it.

But yeah, we just created a, how to make a rib roast, so a prime rib.

We made a video in less than a minute, kind of just showing you simply the utensils you

need, the whole just behind it.

Of course, you go to the website, pick a rest of you, so any rubbed or sauces, but in

under a minute, we kind of show you how to make that rib roast.

These roasts that we're purchasing this time of year, you know, like a rib, rib-y

roast choice, tenderloins, they're premium, so they're expensive.

They cost more than our traditional beef meals because it's kind of a splurge and indulgence.

This time of year for Christmas or Christmas Eve or even a New Year's meal, so we want

to make sure you're confident in making that roast because it is an investment and you really

want to have a delicious memorable holiday meal.

And Angie, when it comes to, and we certainly, we want to encourage people to check out the

website, check out the videos, you can go to beeftips.com for those.

But are there some, you know, just off the top of your head, some things that mistakes

or things that people should really keep in mind, maybe when they're picking out the

rib roast?

Well, so I like one of my most favorite tips to this time of year is if you're not friends

with where you shop, your meat department personnel, make friends now.

Go in, tap in, or even call in ahead of time, just to take a little bit of the stress

out of the meal.

I like it, I know mine, but going, you know, say, I'm thinking of making a primer roast,

maybe if you've never done it before, you're a novice or a tenderloin.

And I'm going to have this many people, you know, I kind of want to give them a really

nice big serving or you know what, I just want to, two pound tenderloin roast, I'm going

to slice it off thin and do an appetizer and they'll help you out.

They'll get you what you need.

You know, you can get a bone in roast or a boneless rib roast.

Sometimes they call the bone in rib, the boneless rib eye, but it totally depends on the establishment.

But they'll offer to kind of cut your bones off of your rib roast and then tie them back

on.

Do you still get that bone in flavor and that presentation?

But then it makes it carving so much easier.

Just little tips like that, call ahead, stop in and then tell them what day you want to

pick it up, you know, maybe the day before your meal or two days before.

And then you've got that, you've got a little bit of assurance that, you know what, it's

going to be okay.

It's going to be their wait for me with my name on it.

Just little things like that.

And then these roast, you know, they don't need to be tenderized.

So if you're making a tenderloin or a rib roast, they don't need to be tenderized.

So, you know, we're just roasting them in a pan with a rack and an oven-safe meat thermometer

is key.

Get a thermometer, invest in a thermometer that you feel confident in.

You know, you can get the, I use the one with the dial the old time.

It's like, you know, they're probably like $6.99 and the grocery store in the store.

But there's so many different thermometers.

You can use Bluetooth Wi-Fi ones like if you have a smoker and you use them, use those

in your oven, because once you go, once you cook that roast too far, then you want it,

you can't go back.

So, use a meat thermometer, you're confident in and just watch your temperatures.

Every roast cooks differently.

Everybody's oven cooks a little differently.

Maybe you've got a couple side dishes in with it.

It's going to take a little longer to cook.

So even though you're following your S.E. and it says blank minutes, set your timer

for an hour and 30 minutes and check, you know, always check that thermometer, because

that is, that you're go to utensil this time of year for a holiday roast.

Yeah, my, my father's going to be all over this segment Angie and one of his, one of his

oldest lines is cooking beef and everything is that thermometer is as important as the

knife.

Mm-hmm.

And he uses an old school one too.

He loves the old, there's something about those, you know, they, they work, they're

good.

I know, I trust it.

It's never let me down, it's, it's got some age on it, but it still works great.

Yeah.

But yeah, just, so if you go to the website and that beef up to holidays page, we got,

if you scroll down, we do have some, some cooking time table charts.

So oven roasting time table.

So just, you know, some guidelines, I like to tell people if they, if you've got a

rib roast, bone inner boneless, set your timer for 20 minutes a pound, and that's definitely

on the light side, of course.

And then start checking that thermometer.

Now you know, if you're going to do a tenderloin roast, they don't take very long at all.

So I've been buying two pound center cut tenderloins and this is another good tip too.

So with the ribbon rib, I, all of, everything you'll find in Wisconsin is choice.

So we sell choice beef.

That's the grade.

So it's got a lot of internal flex of fat and marbling.

Now you can buy a choice tenderloin for sure, but I've been buying the lower grade tenderloin.

It's actually like a select or high select and my supermarket calls them pizmo.

So maybe you want to call ahead and say, okay, choice tenderloins are running this much

a pound.

Could I get like a high select still a steer tenderloin, but just a little bit low

or great.

So just maybe a little less marbling, but you're still going to have a great eating experience.

And in my supermarket, they're almost half priced per pound.

So I, and I like that value to this time of year, I'm kind of watching my pocketbook

and stuff.

And then I'm using that tenderloin and other recipes.

We've got like a mini beef Wellington appetizer, small plates, mixed 24 little puff pastry

appetizers.

And that high select tenderloin is perfect in that recipe and I make 24 appetizers with

one pound.

So a nice economical way to stretch a tenderloin if you do have a larger, larger gathering

and you don't want to maybe give everybody a big slice of tenderloin to try one of our

appetizers.

Let's use them.

We've got a nice page two talking about the thermometer with the times and temperature.

So that nice pink medium rare, if you like your steak done that way, you want to take

your roast out of the oven before they reach 145.

So USDA says 145 is medium rare, but you want to take these roasts out at 135 and let them

rest 10, 15 minutes for sure for a rib roast tenderloin doesn't have to be that long.

Let them rest the juices.

The roast will keep cooking.

So that's why you want to take it out early.

You'll keep cooking and the temperature will keep raising, but all those juices that are

boiling in the meat and doing the cooking will settle back down and get in their little

pockets where they belong.

So then when you transfer that roast your carving board and slice it, the juice will stay

inside.

It won't run on your, you know, you know, when you cut into soon because it's like, oh,

I didn't wait long enough.

All my juices are on my carving board.

But then I guess, you know, you grab a piece of crusty bread and pop up the goodness.

Oh, yes.

But yeah, yeah, just little tips like that.

So all on the website on beeftips.com.

And then of course, the recipes.

We got links to holiday entertaining collection, classic holiday dinners, appetizers.

I got to put the brunch recipes on this page also because you know, maybe you got family

coming in for more than one day, you're going to need brunch, maybe brunch recipes, you

want to do a really nice brunch recipe with some ground beef in it like a strata egg

bake.

So you're not cooking lunch and breakfast for the crew.

They're all on there.

Yeah, a lot of fun stuff.

Yeah.

And Angie, we're speaking with Angie Harkin, director of marketing with Wisconsin Beef

Council.

And Angie, you know, as big as our churcuterie boards are nowadays and everything, I know

they're mostly for cheeses, but I see people putting all kinds of stuff on those things.

So, you know, adding a little beef to that isn't a bad idea.

There is so many different options to do with beef.

And well, you know, you mentioned early in the, in the episode here, especially in Wisconsin,

you know, rib roast is king, it is certainly going to be used to let, well, maybe there

are some people that want to try serving it differently or are a classic way.

You've got the classic holiday dinners section for the recipes with that.

And then there's people that may want to try something different, and so there's options

there for them as well.

But I also wanted to mention the drinks that you compare these with because that's something

else.

And certainly during the holidays here in Wisconsin, we want to be able to do so pairing

your prime rib with a wine or a, a pairing your beef with an alcohol.

There's also some sections for that.

Yes.

We've got some links on there.

We, um, pairing prime rib with wine.

I have a link to Vindolge in there.

She's a blogger out east, but, uh, no, last, I think she's out west, but she's great.

She does a lot of beef recipe.

She's a great, um, advocate for the beef industry.

But yes, she's got a really fun, um, red wine pairing for prime rib.

Um, yeah.

And then we've got links to pairing beef and alcohol and some beer pairings, um, what kind

of beer to have with what kind of, like, meal, fun stuff.

Just something I like trying, I'm glad you rub it up because I like trying a, like, a

new wine or a new beer this time of year, too, and it, you know, very economical stuff,

too.

I'm like a 12 dollar bottle of wine kind of girl.

Yeah.

See here.

I hear you.

Uh, when it, in one other thing that I thought was really cool about this, and I, I

don't know, I, I imagine it was intentional, but it also, but it'd been subconscious.

Um, when, when it comes to, you know, Christmas dinner and Christmas time and everything, there

is so much going on.

There's, there's family around and it doesn't feel like we ever get enough time with

them.

And one of the things that I thought was cool about this is the different ways to prepare

it and the time that it takes to make them.

And maybe you, you, you feel like you've been spending too much time in the kitchen on

Christmas and everything.

Well, there's, there's ways to make this, you know, make the way, make roast in a faster

way.

There definitely is, you know, and if you are wanting to try or you already maybe have

a roast tradition, you do the primaries, so the rib roast, the ribeye, um, definitely

season that up ahead of time before your guests arrive, um, it goes, you know, they'll

cook them.

They take about two, two and a half hours in the oven.

Make your side dishes ahead so you can just pop them in or if fuck calls for like a

coarse radish sauce or a red wine sauce, you can make those definitely ahead to, um, and

then, then you get that hangout time while it's in the oven.

But like a tenderling, you could even roast off your tenderloin ahead of time, uh, especially

if you want to slice it off and do like a little appetizer like, I just love doing, it's

not even a rush.

We just roast my tenderloin like a day ahead and then slice it off, then, um, have it cold

on with some flavored cream cheese on a little crispy, they go, um, or even a nice kind

of a cracker, like a thicker cracker or something like that, nice little handheld appetizer,

it's fine cold.

You can have it all ready to go in the refrigerator, bring it out, um, yeah, a lot of versatility.

So take, take at least five minutes, go to BeastsCons.com and check out our BeastsCons.com

it is page.

And then, you know what, two on the website, we have an about us, um, page and you can

email me from the website, and I want to make sure, yeah, if you go to, and there's a contact

us on the about us and you can, you can email me.

So maybe if you're still got some questions that you can't get answered on the website,

definitely shoot me an email.

I've already talked to, I've already had a couple of phone calls, uh, we joke about

the Prem rib hotline, this time here, you know, how they used to have a turkey hotline.

We get Prem rib calls, it's okay, you know what, shoot me an email or give me a call, our

phone number is probably on the website too, I'm sure, somewhere, yeah, if there's contact

us.

Um, but yeah, we'll help you out.

We'll get that, yeah.

We want everybody to have a beautiful Christmas dinner.

Absolutely.

And we'll get that information out before we wrap up with Angie here about how you can

call the website and how you can reach her.

And, and, and one of the last things I wanted to make sure to bring up is a great section

you have about the holiday roast swap.

As we've touched on here, Angie, you're not alone myself and my, my mom and dad, I'm spending

Christmas with are certainly thinking about ways to, you know, save a buck or two with

this Christmas.

And the holiday roast swap is a nice section for that.

It is.

So we've got some of the most popular roast there.

And then, yeah, you can, you know, swap out the tend to link for the strip wing roast.

I didn't even talk about that, but I have a lot of information.

If you, if you're a New York strip steak lover, the strip roast is just keeping those

steaks all together.

You know, kind of like the rib roast is our rib eye steak.

But maybe if you had to visit your market and the strip roast is on sale and it's a couple

dollars cheaper per pound than the rib eye.

Similar cut.

A little bit different, similar cooking methods, but yes, slap in one of those.

And we do have separate recipes for the strip roast, but, you know, they're pretty interchangeable

because they're tender.

You just need to kind of roast them, not tenderize them.

But yeah, then some other like a tap, certainly, a strip, you guys print this off as PDF.

It's just a nice eight and a half by 11.

Pop it in your car so you got it when you go to the supermarket, pull it out and say,

Hey, you know what?

I want to try slapping it out for one of these, and yeah, they're flexible.

And we've barely scratched the surface, the tip, the beef tip of all the things that are

available for you at beeftips.com, everybody.

I do want to send a real quickly, do you want to make a note?

I did a little homework before this interview, watch some of these videos, Angie.

You're great.

You're really good at these.

You did a great job with them.

Thank you.

I got a good editor, Caitlin, my co-workers.

She does all my video and editing, she makes me look good.

I have a good producer.

I don't exactly what you mean, I have a good, Angie, thank you so much for joining us.

If people do have follow up questions, I want to know more about some of what we talked

about today.

How can they get in touch with you?

So yeah, I just, the easiest way is probably to head right to beeftips.com, click on

about us.

And then on that page, you'll see, we got our phone numbers on here, and then you'll

see me, Angie working, you can click on contact, Angie, and that email come right to me, shoot

me an email and if you want to talk on the phone, I'll give you a buzz back.

I'm busy traveling, but I got a lot of windshield time this week and next I'll be on the phone.

So I can, I can talk on the phone right up.

The phone number I have here is 608-833-9941, that's 608-833-9941.

You can find that number and how to reach out to Angie at beeftips.com, beeftips.com.

Be sure to bookmark that page.

And of course, as always, buy local, support local and find the beef in your area and supporting

our lag industry as best you can.

Angie, thank you so much for joining us.

You did too good of a job though, you're going to have to come back, we're going to talk

to you soon.

Okay, we can do that, I can do that, thank you so much for having me and you guys all have

a great holiday.

Yeah, you too.

Have a great holiday to you when you're as Angie.

Thank you for the time.

We'll be back with more Midday Magazine coming up for you right here at 97-5 FM, 13-28-AM,

WFHR.

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