A HEARTY beef promotion at one of Brisbane’s best known steakhouses has seen the Charbray breed come up trumps against its more fancied rivals.
Steak diners at the Norman Hotel – a stone’s throw from the Gabba cricket ground – pitched up in October to deliver their verdict on strip loin cuts offered by the Charbray, Santa Gertrudis, Shorthorn and Hereford breeds.
Billed as the ‘Norman’s Best Breed’ competition, the line-up of choice cuts saw Charbray in front, closely followed by Shorthorn, with the Santa Gertrudis and Hereford articles not far off the pace.
The win caps a stellar year for Charbray eating performance. A feedlot trial held at Nolan Meats’ Waterfall facility earlier this year saw the breed achieve MSA grading for 119 beasts out of 121 entered.
The Norman Hotel result was a first-time win for the Charbray breed since the competition began four years ago, delighting Charbray Society president Les Marshall, Greenfields, Jambin.
“This has just been a tremendous achievement and a very significant signal that we’re producing quality cattle and great tasting beef,” he said.
“It certainly shows that our efforts to add depth to the genetic base of our cattle and stabilise the integrity of the breed by focusing on traits such as softness, fertility and temperament is paying off.”
Norman Hotel chef Frank Correnti, who is also a regular RNA branded beef judge, said he couldn’t fault the performance of the marble score 1+ Charbray cuts off the grill.
“I’d describe the meat as lean with a clean, silky mouthfeel with a warm, buttery and popcorn flavour – quite exquisite,” he said.
The competition was part of the Norman Hotel’s menu offering in October, when diners could pay for a sample plate of four steaks, cooked medium rare and portioned at 100 grams each.
Competition organiser Tania Chisholm said the hotel rotates the breeds each year. Previous winners have included Brahman in 2015 and Shorthorn twice in 2016 and 2017.
Representatives of supporter and supplier of the beef, JBS Australia, were also on hand to take part in the celebrations with several Charbray Society councillors and executive officer Gaye O’Dea.
JBS business development manager Denis Conroy said the Shorthorn article was from JBS’ 1000 Guineas brand and the Hereford product from the Boss brand, sourced from herds out of southern Australia.
The Charbray and Santa Gertrudis beef was sourced from pens of purebred steers out of JBS’ Beef City feedlot outside Toowoomba after 120 days on feed.
Weighing an average of 370 kg, all steers were killed in mid August and then aged for six weeks, before delivery to the Norman Hotel.
Mr Conroy said the Charbray win was no slight on the eating merit of its premium Shorthorn or Hereford brands.
“Those Charbrays and Santas would have gone into Beef City Black or Platinum brands anyway and, at the end of the day, as far is this competition is concerned, there was very little that split the entries,” he said.
“Beef is really the winner, because when it comes to promoting beef I don’t think there's a hotel in Australia that does it better than the Norman Hotel.”
Hotel manager Andrew Ford, who estimates “a couple of herds” in steak meals served every week at the Norman, said the success of the competition would prompt a shift to August next year to coincide with the Royal Queensland Show.
