A New Taste for Old Meat

It’s a hard knot of gristle for soft-jawed Americans to swallow, but steaks butchered from old cattle can somehow taste beefier and cleaner than the tender but flat-flavored meat we’ve been weaned on. And yet, we’re coming around. 

The tipping point came when José Andrés—seeking to replicate the vaca vieja of his homeland—chose “antique meat” for his rib-eye tasting at Bazaar Meat in Las Vegas. He notes...