Ostrich
OSTRICH MEAT
Though the ostrich is large, most of its meat comes from its thigh and hindquarter. Similar to other livestock such as beef cattle, part of the ostrich meat is ground and part of it is more tender and suitable for steaks and filets.
Ostrich meat is red because it contains myoglobin, a protein that turns red once exposed to oxygen. The USDA classifies ostrich meat as technically poultry, but it looks and tastes almost exactly like beef and is a perfect 1-1 replacement for beef in most recipes that call for red meat.
Ostrich meat is very lean - the ground steak is typically 95% lean and filets can be up to 98% lean! It tastes similar to beef, but without the marbled fat. Most people can't even tell the difference between beef and ostrich.
Ostrich absorbs marinades and seasonings well. Some eaters may find plain ostrich meat bland. Try cooking it on its own, then add seasonings according to your taste.
To cook ostrich meat "rare", ostrich internal temperature should reach 120-125F, and for medium-rare, cook to 125F-130F. Since ostrich is so similar to beef, if you prefer your beef medium-rare, you'll also like your ostrich that way. The only difference in cooking ostrich meat is that it will cook more quickly than beef due to the lower fat content, AND ostrich meat does not shrink down like beef, so you get more cooked product, ready to eat.
Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. Ostrich meat is very red, so it is hard to tell its doneness by eye alone.
THE NUTRITION OF OSTRICH MEAT
Ostrich meat is far healthier than beef. A serving of ostrich steak has two to three grams of fat and 110 to 125 calories. A serving of beef steak has four to five grams of fat and 125 to 130 calories.
A serving of ground ostrich meat has nine grams of fat and 165 calories, while a small portion of ground beef has 15 grams of fat and 250 calories.
Ostrich meat is high in iron, protein, and zinc. Ostrich meat is also low in cholesterol.
Ostrich is compatible with the paleo diet. People with an alpha-gal allergy to red meat can eat ostrich because that allergy only pertains to mammalian meats like beef, bison, and elk.
THE SUSTAINABILITY OF OSTRICH MEAT
Ostrich meat has a very high degree of environmental sustainability, especially when compared to beef. Beef is extremely resource-intensive, requiring tremendous amounts of human, land, and energy inputs for production. Beef production releases many multiples more greenhouse gases than pork. chicken, or any other protein.
Producing one pound of ostrich meat requires dramatically less water, feed, and land, and creates far less greenhouse gas emissions and waste. Beef cattle, in particular, are one of the leading causes of several forms of environmental destruction worldwide. Ostrich leaves a fraction of the environmental footprint of beef, by using 1/3 the fresh water, 1/50 the land, and emitting less than 1/10 the greenhouse gases per pound produced.
Ostriches require only one-quarter of the feed as grassfed cows to produce the same amount of meat and they reach market-readiness 250 days sooner than cows, making them much easier on the land.
Enterprising ostrich farmers work hard to produce a great deal of value-added byproducts from all parts of the ostrich. This enables ostrich producers to make more than 130 pounds of product from a 250-pound ostrich, while a 1,200-pound cow produces only 490 pounds of product. Since an ostrich yields eleven percentage points more of its total weight than a cow, fewer valuable resources go to waste.
Ostrich is the single most sustainable red meat on the market. Its sustainability is comparable to poultry, yet has all the cravable red meat characteristics as the most premium beef.