Well, after a week of curing and a whole night in the slow cooker, there's my final plate of corned beef and cabbage. How did it turn out? Very pink, as you can see, thanks to those slightly suspicious nitrates and nitrites. (I figured one plate a year can't hurt too much.) Read on for the rest of my thoughts, and the final outcome of my little corned beef experiment. More

Glance into the meat cases at any grocery store and you'll see a whole slew of cured meat products, some of which look raw and some of which look like they could survive a cross-country back packing trip. What does "cured" mean for these different products? Let's take a look. More

My home-cured corned beef has been sitting in its brine for a little over a week, and guess what? Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, so it's time to pull out the corned beef and get it ready to cook. This is the first time I have ever cooked corned beef (let alone cured it) so this is all new for me. Are you cooking corned beef today or tomorrow? What's your method? I am actually going to split mine up and cook it two ways, for the sake of scientific experimentation. More

As you know, we're big proponents of grass-fed beef. Beef is a big issue in the landscape of American food, and we can't reduce the complex issues down to a simplistic choice of grass-fed vs. grain-fed. But it is a good place to start the discussion, and to help people see the changes that have come to farming and ranching in the last 100 years.

As another point in that discussion, we wanted to talk with someone who actually raises cattle — grass-fed cattle. Meet Scott Stone of Yolo Land & Cattle in Woodland, California. We had a few questions for him, and here are his thoughts. More

Are you a meatloaf fan? We are... when it's made right. Fresh, homemade meatloaf, made from wholesome and well-raised beef, baked until moist and tender with herbs and vegetables — it's a classic and old-fashioned treat! We don't often eat so much meat at one sitting, but when we do, a recipe like the one we're sharing here at the end of Beef Week is perfect. This one includes salsa for a Southwest flair, and it also lets you spice this up however you want! Try a mellow homemade salsa with good canned tomatoes and peppers, or a spicy cilantro and garlic green sauce for a kick. Recipe and salsa links below! More

Beef bacon. It just sounds weird to say. Bacon as most of us know it comes from pigs and there's never really been a reason to question that. Before now, beef bacon has only been available through Halal Butchers (for the most part), although it's slowly creeping onto your local grocery store shelves. We took it for a test run this morning and as you might expect there are some differences! More

Will you take our weekend cooking challenge and try a new cut of beef this weekend? (Or if you aren't eating beef, or meat at all, try a braised vegetable instead, to send winter out in style!)

We get nervous, though, about trying new cuts of beef, cheap or otherwise, because we often aren't sure how to cook them. Well, here is one more handy supermarket cheat sheet to help you choose. More

A while back, Dana posted a Weekend Meditation on moving outside the comfort zone, and that's just what we aim to do this weekend! After all our talk this week on beef and what to do with it, we're feeling inspired to go to the butcher shop and pick up something we've never cooked with before. What about you? More

Christina wants to try a pot roast, but she's a little stuck. Can you help her?

I would love to find a worthwhile pot roast recipe! All the recipes I can find include things like "can of mushroom soup", "envelope of instant onion soup mix", or "can of Coke". And I can't take it! I trust the knowledge and judgement of thekitchn.com — can someone out there help me out? More

If you are a meat eater, then you may have wrestled with this question (or at least wondered about the wording) before. What's the deal with grass-fed beef? It's a subject we've written about it briefly before, including a one-minute tip on how to cook it, but we think it's worth revisiting. Because buying grass-fed beef makes a big difference in the quality of the meat you're getting and the impact you're making on the environment. More