November 11, 2023 • 38 mins
As the old Lone Star saying goes, real-life cowboy and cattle rancher Anthony Thomas wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as soon as he could. As a kid, he dreamed of being a rodeo cowboy in Texas, raising cattle and owning a ranch. Now that he’s here, the ‘Aussie-Texan’ is working on getting his fellow Texans to eat better beef.
In 2020, Thomas found his award-winning professional rodeo career sidelined by the COVID-19 epidemic. The pro rodeo circuit was dormant while the pandemic surged worldwide and Thomas began reassessing the road ahead with a young family to think of.
After meeting his wife and settling in the Bayou City, Thomas established the Thomas Cattle Co. and began ranching west of the city, extolling the virtues of locally grown, chemical-free, ethically produced Angus beef. Thomas conveys the importance of buying directly from a ranch in Texas, cutting out the corporate middleman, and knowing where your beef is coming from.
Thomas’ history as a teenage Australian ranch hand, butcher and later a bull rider touring the United States informed his current incarnation as a bespoke cattle baron. He has discovered that his decades of ranching, rustling and riding horses and bulls could give him an edge when it came to running his own cattle business.
In 2020, Thomas found his award-winning professional rodeo career sidelined by the COVID-19 epidemic. The pro rodeo circuit was dormant while the pandemic surged worldwide and Thomas began reassessing the road ahead with a young family to think of.
After meeting his wife and settling in the Bayou City, Thomas established the Thomas Cattle Co. and began ranching west of the city, extolling the virtues of locally grown, chemical-free, ethically produced Angus beef. Thomas conveys the importance of buying directly from a ranch in Texas, cutting out the corporate middleman, and knowing where your beef is coming from.
Thomas’ history as a teenage Australian ranch hand, butcher and later a bull rider touring the United States informed his current incarnation as a bespoke cattle baron. He has discovered that his decades of ranching, rustling and riding horses and bulls could give him an edge when it came to running his own cattle business.
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(00:02):
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. Good morning,Welcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine
(00:23):
fifty. This is your host,Joe Uitar. I am Ramon. It's
been a couple of weeks since wegot to go. Yeah, what are
you doing? I don't know.I was slacking last week. Yeah,
I could tell playing a little rubblestill, that's nice. Yeah, No,
it was just well, we hadsome I think we had somebody scheduled
and we had something happened, andyou want to call him out and shame
them, No, because there actuallyit was a it was a valid excuse.
So we're going to have him onthe show later. So it really
(00:45):
really cool guy. And he's gotsome a neat uh hunting model land model
that we're going to talk about.But anyway, we don't burn bridges,
we no, of course, notnever never. So what have you been
up to? Uh? Not alot? My poor boy. He's he
got Scar Harlett fever this week?What and that just sounds very medieval.
Yeah, when my wife told methat. I thought, Oh my god,
(01:06):
we're gonna have to We're gonna haveto leach him, right, We're
gonna have to hang them up sideand melt some tar. Yeah, something
like that. But evidently it's morecommon than I thought, because I told
some guys at work and they said, oh, yeah, yeah, my
kid had that. Yeah, sohe's getting better. He you know,
just you worry as a parent.It's hard because in the middle of the
night he's whining and you think,Okay, is he whining because it's twelve
thirty and he didn't want to goto sleep, or is he legitimate and
(01:26):
pain? Sure, so you givehim a little bourbon, right, it's
fine, right, yeah, andBenadryla figure out. Yeah, yeah,
that's what it works. Well.Good. I'm glad granddaddy did. Hopefully
he's feeling better. That's it's alwaystough when your kids are sick because you
know that, man, you've gonethrough a three o three of them.
Yeah, it's almost as bad aswhen you're dog sick. Yeah, exactly.
So if the kids can whin alittle bit and tell you what's going
(01:48):
on and what it changes. Uh, my son had a problem with his
his man parts, right, andso my wife had no clue. You
know, can I touch that Ido this right? And so Daddy got
the takeover and it was, youknow, the boy came to me for
medical treatment, did you obtain hislegal consent? I did? Okay,
then I need you talking to thiscamera. State your name right and that
you consent and so so that wasit was nice to be able to finally
(02:14):
comfort my boy in those situations asopposed to just you know, hoping my
wife can get through right. So, yeah, yeah, that was new
to me. It's tough. It'stough when kids are sick. Yeah.
One of the funny stories I hadwhen when my boys are sick is,
you know, when they get theflu or intestinal viruses, it just goes
(02:34):
down the chain, and the youngestgot it, and then the oldest got
it, and then my middle one, who is he'll tell you himself,
he's he's he was a handful,and they're they're all, you know,
pre pre teens. And he's laughing. He's laughing at the oldest one starts
vomiting. Then it was coming atboth ends. He's laughing at him.
All of a sudden, I hearhim go oh oh, and he runs
(02:55):
the bathroom. Well, I won'tget I won't give a graphic display,
but it was not It was notnot fun. So I spent the next
I don't know, seventy two hourscleaning up after kids puking and parenthood all
over the adulthood. This is whatit's all about. Tough. It's tough.
Yeah. I can't wait till Iget old. Somebody else can take
care of me when I'm doing that. So so let me get this straight.
This week, you had a class. Was it for everybody or just
(03:20):
people? I think it was Wednesdaywhere you treated gunshot wound victims? Yeah,
we had us laws show come inand we did a c of course.
It was about an hour and ahalf two hours, and we were
basically doing basic trioas of first aidfor gunshot wing victims. Now, how
do you decide among the group whoto shoot? Uh? Usually the one
that's the slowest. And there theyplay that you treat that, they play
(03:44):
no, no, we uh uh. It's unfortunately, it's it's a sign
of the times where you even havingto offer that course. What happens if
you're at the grocery store, atthe mall or whatever, and somebody gets
shot, what do you do?And it's basic first aid? Well there's
no basic first aid for a gunshotwon victim, but it's it's what are
the first response steps that you cando if there's not an ambulance there or
somebody that doesn't have medical experience therepractical knowledge. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(04:08):
So it was good. We hadWe had had it at the office.
We had a pretty good crowd showup, and uh i'd actually taken
a field all day field triage coursearound that before. That was different though,
because it was a live fire too, so we were actually having live
around shot down range from us,almost in a military type situation. So
now does your nurse training background helpat all? Do you? Yes,
you come with some knowledge. Itcomes back to me, you know it
(04:30):
does. Basically, you know airwaybreathing circulation, make sure your patients,
the victim is alert or at leastbreathing as a heartbeat, and then you've
got to stop the bleeding et cetera, et cetera, cea. But when
you're in those live fire situations likewe did originally, it's it's you forget.
It's like, oh crap, somebody'sshooting at me. Now what do
I do next, and my buddyjust got hit, and you know,
(04:51):
they simulate driving up into a parkinglot or a garage and your buddy getting
hit and you have to defend yourselfand do first aid at the same time.
That's pretty intense. It's pretty cool, yeah, yeah, but it
does make you think more than youtypically have to. Well, it's good
to get those muscle memories started,you know, to remember what you do,
let training take over in those situations. Right right, Very cool,
(05:13):
absolutely real quickly. Houston Spark ClubFoundation has some stuff going on December first,
the Staggingdo of Society that's our youngprofessional group, is having a Christmas
party at counter Attacks Adermy and thenthe whole organization is having their Christmas party
on December seventh at the Bar andin Cypress. I don't know if you've
ever been in there's no I've neverbeen. I'm looking forward to going to
that venue. Are you allowed togo? Can you? They let me
(05:34):
go only if our work. Andthen of course the big convention's coming up
before we know, at January nineteenththrough the twenty first at the Woodlands Watery
Mariott Hotel and Convention Center, andwe have got some really cool stuff happening
around that. Go to we huntwegivedot org and check out the member events
the monthly events. You don't haveto be a member to attend. We'd
(05:55):
love for you to come out.Come to the monthly events and sign up
to become a member. And somethingsomeone to announce this week is we're going
to be running a contest around thisprogram, Honetingmatters. So here's what we're
gonna do. The rules are realsimple. You can have you have a
chance to win fifty dollars in Basspro Shops gift cards, which is pretty
nice with Christmas coming up. Okayhere soon. So all you have to
(06:15):
do is go to the Honey Matterspodcast on any platform and subscribe and rate
and review the podcast. Take ascreenshot of your subscription or your rating or
whatever, and then send it toinfo that's i NFO at we hunt we
give dot org. Again, goto any podcast platform, Apple, iHeart,
whatever, sign up to or subscribeto the podcast, rate it,
(06:40):
and then send us a screenshot toinfo at we hunt we give dot org
and you'll be register for a chanceto win a fifty dollars Pass Pro Shops
gift card and we'll continue doing thaton a monthly basis, so check it
out. It's free money. Yeah, can I do that? Yeah?
Sure, sure, I know youremail address. I'll just negate that entry.
Okay. Our guest today is AnthonyThomas. Anthony is with Thomas Cattle
(07:00):
and Catering. He is based hereout of Houston, Texas, and uh,
we've almost talked up his whole segment. But anyway, hey Anthony,
what's going on? Man? Howyou doing good? Good? Thanks for
joining us today. Yeah, thanksfor having me so, Anthony. I'm
sure our listeners can tell by yourby your accent. And you've probably been
(07:24):
uh uh pointed point in case youdidn't know you had an accent. But
where where did you? Where didyou grow up? Where'd you grow up?
I grew up in Australia in thein the west Australian outback, Northwest
Australia. Nice, nice, nice, And we're going to go right there,
(07:46):
Anthony Marmona, so rude. We'regonna take a quick break here on
Honey Matters k p r C.We'll be back with our guest, Anthony
Thomas of Thomas Cattle and Catering.I'm a strange lady, you make me
(08:24):
nervous. Let's just say welcome backto Honeymetters on KPRC nine fifty. This
is Joe Bitar and I am unoriginal and original. I'm sure our guest
has never heard that. I know, but you know. Our guest of
today is Anthony Thomas of Thomas Cattleand Catering. Check out their website at
(08:46):
Thomascattleancatering dot com. Anthony, thankyou once again for joining us. Yeah,
thanks for having me so ramind youyou we discovered something before we even
started the show today. Yeah,before we got the guests for this week,
I went online to search for halfa beef because I'm always interested in
by a half beef. And thereason I remember this website was because it
(09:07):
was an Australian cowboy who lived inTexas and I thought, well, that's
kind of cool. Perused the websiteand I thought, well, you know
what, I'm going to go aheadand buy a whole hog because he was
selling whole hogs and bought a wholehog. YadA, YadA, YadA.
Come to the studio today find outour guest is none other than Anthony Thomas
of Thomas Cattle and catering where Ijust bought my hog from. Total coincidence
(09:28):
just happened to work out that way, So this is very fortuitous, Anthony,
Yeah, what a coincidence. Gladyou found us on Google and excited
to fill your family's fraser and seeyou're from the table bas from now this
(09:48):
hog will way. I'll have aboutone hundred and fifty pounds of me delivered
somewhere around there. How much ofmy freezer is that going to take up?
You think? You know it'll fitcomptably in one of those five cubic
foot freezers, the little box freezer. Yep, I have a stand up
freezer. We're kind of we're kindof what's the word, I'm looking for,
(10:09):
high high society. So we havea couple of stand up freezers.
Yeah, and I recommend the twentyfour cubic foot stand up freezer. That's
why we have. We have acouple of those in our garage because of
course we keep our fund raised beefand talking there. And it just gives
you an up room to kind ofsort out all your cuts and and you're
different parts of meat. You're onthe right track. Yeah, good,
(10:31):
Now, listen to this question.Carefully, Anthony, do you think if
I have two of those, Icould fit a half beef in the other
one. Half a steer will completelyfull fill a twenty four cubic foot stand
up freezer. So you would needthat other one. You would need that
other one just for the hot steel. No problem. Now, I said
half a beef, and you're sayinghalf a steer, so I'm obviously saying
(10:54):
it wrong. City boy. Yeah, well you said it a lot better
than most of the people in thecity. They usually call it half a
cow, and we don't, uh, you know, we don't. We
don't butcher cows. Cows make thebabies, and we butcher seeds. Yeah.
Half, you're doing good, allright, half steer, you can
stay. We'll let you stay onthe shoff road. But you knowing well,
(11:16):
you're doing well. When I tellyou I'm going to buy half a
beef, you probably don't care.You just let me buy the half of
whatever I want to call it.Well, yeah, but you know,
a lot of my what my businessentails, is educating Houstonians about the industry
and about everything that we do,so that you know exactly where your food
(11:37):
is coming from and everything about it. That's that's what I'm passionate about.
I respect that. Yeah, andI want to dig into that too,
talk about uh buying meat and bulkand knowing where your food comes from and
all those sort of things. Let'sgo back a little bit now, you're
originally from Australia, and uh wereyou were you rodeoing over there in Australia
growing up? Yeah, so longstory, short, long winded story short.
(12:01):
I ran away from home when Iwas twelve years old. I had
a troubled childhood. I came fromthe city in furs and I ended up
at an all boys agricultural boarding schoolthat was for the last chance kids like
me, and also kids that comefrom cattle stations, whose parents owned cattle
stations, that lived too far fromtown to go to a normal school.
(12:24):
And so from there I learned thetrade of agriculture, learned how to look
after horses and cattle, and founda sense of purpose and peace with the
cattle and the horses, and prettymuch molded my whole life. I did
rodeo professionally in Australia. I wonthe Australian title in twenty eleven, and
(12:45):
I have been in North America eversince rodeo and professionally, So long story
short, been rodeo professionally in theUnited States, all across America and Canada
for the last eleven years. WhenI was at Rodeo Houston in twenty twenty,
I was competing there and I progressedto the finals in Rodeo Houston.
(13:07):
The day after I progressed out ofmy super series, the pandemic hit and
they shut the Holy Houston and theyshut the Houston down. So they shut
the Houston Rodeo down. We didn'tget paid and then our whole pro rodeo
tour in the whole of America shutdown following Rodeo Houston. And so since
that's how I you know, rodeoingis how writing bucking hos, this is
(13:30):
how I provide my family and keepa roof over my head, I was
like, holy crap, what amI going to do? And so,
you know, nothing short of anact of God. I had this vision
to start this fund the table beefbusiness. Through my experiences and surroundings growing
(13:50):
up, I have the full broadspectrum knowledge of raising cattle all the way
through to the custom butcher test andthen and then also being an avid foody
cooking the highest quality meat. Andso when I came over here from Australia,
I noticed how bad the beef wasin the grocery stores that were getting
(14:11):
I noticed how different it tasted andsmelled and cooked, and how that it
wasn't pure beef. Because growing upin the bush in Australia, raising of
all of our own beef and butcheringall of our own beef, I know
what real beef tastes like and smeltlike and feels like. And this wasn't
it. So from the rodeo,from the rodeo shutting down and our whole
(14:33):
Rodeo pro Rodeo tour shutting down,I started this farm that farmed the table
beef business, providing director consumer beeffrom the ranch straight to the Houstonian.
You know, we primarily sell quarters, halves and whole steers. We take
(14:54):
the steer to the process of foryou. We slaughter the steer and dry
age this year for you for aminimum of twelve days, which industry standards
a zero to three days. You'rebuying age B. And then I have
a very elaborate custom cuts sheet whichI've developed through my own knowledge, and
we will custom butcher, old schoolcustom butcher the steer for you exactly the
(15:18):
way that you want it, andthen we vacuum seal it and flash freeze
it and you either come pick upfrom the processor or we deliver in the
Houston area. And the goal isto fill your freezer once a year,
fill your family freezer once a yearwith the highest quality meat that money can
buy. You're feeding inflation, andyou're cutting out all of the chemicals and
(15:39):
additives in the beef. And ofcourse now we're doing the same with pork.
Now, when you say you cana butcher, however we want,
give us cuts how we want.That doesn't mean Rabbi is in the shape
of Texas, does it. No, So you'll customize all of your steaks,
the thickness of your steaks, whetheryou want boning or boneless. I've
(16:02):
got my butcher schooled up to cutall of the specialty gol mate cups that
you can only find in a hhigh end steakhouse such as Denver Steaks and
Delmonico Steaks for Khan your flat irontry tip those type of steaks that you
typically can't find at a regular grocerystore or even a regular butcher shop.
(16:23):
Whether you want leaner ground beef oryou want the juice of your ground beef.
You can choose how you want yourbrisket trimmed and how you want your
short ripped plate cut. So yeah, we go through every muscle group on
the steer and you get to completelycustomize how you want my butcher to catch
your steel for you that the Kanyesteak here recently has just exploded in popularity.
(16:44):
Sure, why is that? Doyou know? You know, I
don't with you know, the Braziliansteakhouses are a popular thing in Houston,
but the solo on capt has beenon the steers back forever. So that
we eat something that we eat inAustralia and that I was well aware of
when I came over here. It'sjust, you know, things are trending.
(17:07):
Buzzwords in foods are trending, andrestaurant restaurant things are trending. So
it's something that we provide as wellas a lot of the other cuts that
I just mentioned that most people don'tknow about. You know, everybody goes
for either a New York's trip orfilet or a rabbu because those are the
mainstream cuts. That generally tend toeat really well that you can't really screw
(17:30):
up unless you really can't cook.But those actually, those other cuts that
I had mentioned previously, they're actuallyjust as good, if not better than
a fil ay or a rib ora New York strip from our cattle.
All right, we're gonna got Igot questions, Joe, I'm getting hungry.
We got to run a break.Taking a break here, honey matters
KPRC nine fifty steak and eggs.My heatas I tooket a couple of steaks
(17:52):
last week. Boy, I thinkif cowboys had walk up music, Yeah,
(18:40):
this would be this would be Anthony's. It's like a prop uh yeah,
bare back or a bull rider music. It's probably Anthony's walk in music,
right anything. Yeah, that's justbrought back nostalgic memories from being on
the Barca chutes. Anthony, don'tbe messing around time. Thomas of Thomas
Cattle and Catering Company, Folks sayingAnthony's website is Thomas Cattle and Caatering dot
(19:10):
com. I got to ask thequestion, now, this question, why
the what's the catering part? Yeah, so you know, growing up,
I my mother was actually a gourmetchef. I obviously didn't have a lot
to do with her with running awayfrom home, but I did inherit sensitive
(19:30):
palate and cooking skills from her.And growing up, I lived on my
own a lot and oftentimes went withouta meal. And so now that I've
found my home in Texas and becomeestablished, I'm very passionate about cooking for
people. So around the rodeo circuit, I'm known cooking meals for people and
(19:53):
doing it well. And so whenI had first started this business, there
was already a Thomas Cattle Company inIdaho could ship beef and could reach out
to anywhere in America, and soI wasn't able to actually take the name
Thomas Cow Company. So I startedThomas Cattle and Catering with an idea that
(20:18):
I would do small, small,high end catering events to cook for people
in their own homes. And thatkind of just with the cattle business blowing
up for me, that kind ofjust got put on the back burner for
now. So we've just stuck withit. Got it, got it,
I get it. I get it. Well, you never know what it'll
grow and what'll become. You mighthire a promona and now come over and
(20:41):
start cooking for you. I'm openfor everything. Man. I have to
call my son. My oldest sonlives up in Portland, Oregon. I've
been trying to get him out ofthat god for a sakend cent forever.
He's a he's a fine dining show. So maybe I'll convince him coming down
and work for you. There yougo. So where were we? We
were talking about talking about a lotof beef and a lot of hogs,
stuff like that. So you talkedyou talked about earlier. You know you
(21:03):
guys uh uh shrink wrap and freezeall the beef and everything. How long?
How long would a half a steeram I freezer? Well, not
Ramona, because we know it wouldn'tlast long in our freezer. But what's
what's the shelf life on those?So with the vacuum seal that we have,
it will last. It will befine fresh for two years as long
as you throw it out. Generally, it will not freeze a bone,
(21:23):
it will not go bad. Wehave had several customers that that have that
have called in and said, hey, we found beef in our freezer from
two years ago and it's still perfectlyvacuum sealed, and it was as good
as the day that we bought itfrom you, So that's known to be
true. However, the beef isso good that you'll go ham on this,
and it and and and it willbe all gone in a year.
(21:45):
So typically from the size of thefamily that you have, I kind of
match you up with what kind ofwhat size of steer share that you need,
whether that be a quarter or ahalf or a whole steel. And
then of course with the whole hogsthat we're doing, families just like to
get a whole hog. You know, you get Christmas hams, and you
get sick cut old natural sugar cutsugar bacon without the night rates and the
(22:08):
sulfates. And it's also proven tobe very popular with the Houston folks.
Well, you know, it's funny. When I was looking at the hog,
I was looking, you know,it came with the ham and different
cuts, and then when I gotto the bacon, it said fourteen pounds
of bacon. I went, yeah, okay, yep, that's a Sunday
morning at my house. Yeah,that's what I need. Give me fourteen
(22:30):
pounds of thick cut bacon, please, yeah, no, true, Jaxon
is going to say no to that. Huh yeah. Let me tell you
how cool my wife is. Soshe's a phenomenal cook, and we when
the boys are growing up, Ithink we talked about this for when,
you know, if three kids andboth of us were working at the time.
We used to do guilt breakfast onthe weekend. So my wife would
cook Sunday morning guilt breakfast, andguilt breakfast is anything you want, she
(22:51):
cooks it. And she's a phenomenalcook. Anyway, so last weekend she
made grit We grew up in SouthLouisiana, so you know, grits is
a staple like rice were most people. And we had grits, and we
had homemade biscuits and all this otherstuff. And she's cooking and I'm like,
there's just the two of us athome now all our kids are growing
and gone. And I'm like,that's a lot of bacon. She goes,
(23:11):
well, you know, if youdon't cook the whole pack. She
cooked a whole bout of bacon.She's like, we'll eat half of it
now and we'll do BLTs tomorrow.I'm like, you're my hero, you
know, that's thirty plus, thirtyplus years of marriage to a woman who
understands the value that bacon's together staystogether. Yes, exactly, exactly.
Uh, Anthony, talk, Let'stalk a little bit about, uh,
(23:32):
you know, the things like youknow, we're living in once again,
living in inflationary times, hard time. So let's talk about the virtues of
buying meat and buying meat in bulk. Uh. You know a lot of
people that go, oh, mygosh, we'll never eat that much meat.
I don't think people understand how muchthey consume, or they'll go,
oh, we got to go outand buy a freezer. But you know,
in the long run, buying afreezer and buying a half a steer,
(23:52):
you're saving money, right, Yes, you're absolutely saving money. You
know what, We've done so manycase studies. We itemize out everything that
you get from a half a steer, and we have matched that with Walmart's
pricing. And of course, don'teven get me started on the beef in
the grocery stores. But Walmart isprobably the lowest to blow right across the
(24:15):
board. Per pound of packaged meat, Walmart was almost two dollars a pound
right across the board. More expensiveas a whole of everything that you get
on a half sea. So sothe price point alone. Of course,
you know people that live paycheck topaycheck, they don't understand the concept of
buying involved. However, you're buyingyour beef once a year. It is
(24:37):
a lump sum payment, but you'rebuying your beef once a year, and
it's going to have every variety ofsteak and riob and brisket and everything that
you would need that you would goto the grocery store for throughout the year,
and plus the fresh hamburger, andso it is it is you make
you do make tremendous savings then gointo the grocery store every week, and
(25:00):
also just being able to reach intoyour freezer and knowing that you're not running
the gauntlet of having some dry,nasty piece of steak. We strive to
have the best genetics in Texas andthe best or natural feed program so that
we're we're delivering a higher quality ofbeef to you every time. And so
you know, the product sales itselffrom when from when you try the beef,
(25:21):
you'll notice straight away that it tastesbetter, it's more tender, and
that it's just different from buying thegrocery store beef. And let's talk a
little bit about that further. Youknow, you you you talk, you
talk about knowing where your where yourfood comes from. I don't think unless
you've seen some of these Netflix documentaries, which you know, this show is
called Honting Matters, there's a lotof people who have decided to start hunting
(25:44):
again for their food because they watchthese factory farming Netflix documentaries and they see
these things. And I'm sure youbetter than anybody can talk about the virtues
of of uh, you know,uh, farm raised, farm to table,
holistically raised cattle. And I'm probablygrabbing at the wrong termology here,
but let's talk a little bit aboutknowing where your food comes from. Yeah.
Absolutely, it's huge. And youknow, when being a pro athlete,
(26:07):
back riding is are very violent sport, and so my whole adult life,
I've been very passionate about my nutritionand what I put in my body,
of course, because I demand somuch out of my body riding these
bucket horses. And then you know, now being married and being a family
man, it's it's definitely on myheart all the time. That steered my
family towards the direction of no chemicals. And you know, when I come
(26:30):
from Australia and come over here andjust saw how lacked the food laws were
in what they were allowed to putin the food that we eat, it
is just ridiculous. And so fromworking in the major packing plant and seeing
all the machines that they have thatpump the chemicals into the beet that we
buy in the grocery stores, ithorrified me and I just I just knew
(26:52):
that I would be able to providea better way for people in Houston.
So we're not talking about what thewhat the you know, cattle eat.
We're talking also after the fact andprocessing and things that are put in tender
meat. Correct, you know whatall of or I shouldn't say all.
Most of the things that they putin the doctor the cattle before the cattle
(27:15):
are slaughtered are non residual. Theproblem is after the beef is slaughtered,
after it's off the rancher's hands andin the hands of the packer, the
big four packers, they are goingto make money on weight and volume.
So the more that they can pumpinto the beef, the more money that
they can make. So when you'rebuying a steer from us, you're literally
(27:36):
putting a reservation down for a butcherdate from one of our home rag steers,
which we don't feed in concrete feedlots. They are in big grass traps
and pastures. They get to migrateon and off feed and on and off
water as they please, so they'realways in a relaxed state, so the
meat is always more tender, andyou're allowing that stew to have the maximum
(27:57):
aunt of marbling and that come fromgreat genetics, a great feed program,
and raising the animals humanely, andyou're working specifically with hand selected processors and
butchers to handle your steers correct.Yes, I have one butcher that I
use. You know, I've usedevery butcher in the whole of South Texas,
(28:18):
and we ran into a lot ofproblems with a lot of them,
with USBA processors not being honest andreally not caring about the job that they
do with your beat. But afterscouring all of Texas, I've found a
process is that as a phenomenal job. It's a moment pop processing plant operation,
and the whole family works inside theprocessing plant. They're very clean and
(28:40):
they're very hard working and they cutmy beef exactly the way that I want
it and exactly the way that mycustomers want it. And in this day
and age, in twenty twenty three, with it being such a dying breed
of butchering, that's worth it's weightin gold for my company and my customers.
Very cool, very cool folks werewith Anthony Thomas and Thomas Cattle and
Catering. Check out their website atthomascattlan Catering dot com. I'm gonna take
(29:04):
a quick break here before our lastsegment Honeymatters KPRC nine fifty Tomas Stage.
(29:33):
We have raight frum stars when sheknows the cards of Welcome back to Honeymatters
on KPRC nine fifty. This isyour host, Joe Bitar. I am
Ramon Robles and joining us today isour guest Anthony Thomas of Thomas Cattle and
Catering. Check out their website atthomascattlean Catering dot com. Anthony, Uh,
(29:59):
I have so many questions, butI guess one right now is there
seems to be this I don't knowif war is the right word, but
this war against red meat from peopleon social media to mainstream media. Don't
eat red meat, it's bad foryou. Only eat grass fed meat because
it's better for you. Can youhelp set the record straight on that.
Yeah. Look, so you knowpeople in the city, obviously they're not
(30:23):
in agriculture, so they don't knowwhere their food comes from. They don't
know how their food comes and sothey are at the mercy of what they
see on social media, what theysee in the media, and what their
doctors tell them. And unfortunately thedoctors don't even know. They're just being
told what they read in a book. And so I absolutely disagree with them
(30:45):
saying that you can only eat grassfed beef if you want to eat red
meat. That's not true. I'ma pro athlete. I'm thirty six year
old male, and I have threepercent body fat and I eat red meat
for five times a week a minute. Who's got a jape. We're jacked,
(31:10):
baby, that's why we're on theradio. Oh wait, I thought
you said three. So the reasonthat the doctors and the and the nutritions
and the pediatricians try to tell peopleto eat the grass fed meat, it's
totally it's totally an oxymoron. Firstof all, there's no such thing as
grass fed meat. In Texas,let me tell you why we're in a
drought most of the year. Everyyear, no rain means no grass.
(31:34):
So how are the cattle finished ongrass when there's no grass. There's a
problem there. So our cattle getto migrate and eat on grass when there's
grass quote unquote when it rains,and then they are on free choice feeders.
Now we use an all natural grainblend. The cattle eat what they
want to eat, what they're supposedto eat, and the marveling that's in
(31:57):
the beef because of that genetics andthe because of the feed program that we
have. Obviously, that's the squigglylines that you see in your rearbis in
your filets. That is actually aMega three fat like eating avocados or salmon.
Not only does it make the beefmore juicy and tender and gives it
the flavor, but it's actually goodfat. So the trams fat that they're
(32:22):
adding to the ground beef that youbuy in the grocery store is actually what
gives you these half problems. Butbecause our animals are treated so healthily and
raised so carefully, the ground beefthat you buy from us the fat content
comes from the marveling which is omegathree fat. And so there are great
(32:43):
health benefits from buying your beef porkchicken from a local farmer or rancher,
you know, and the grass fedthing and don't eat red meating. That's
not true. Yeah, I thinkI would, you know, up in
Louisiana. So there's two things Idon't think I can live with that.
I can't live without seafood, andI don't think I could live without beef.
(33:05):
I think my body would stop tofunction. I don't get that.
I mean biology will just tell you. You see these a little canine teeth
in front of our mouth here thatshred and meat. Yeah, you know,
I didn't really know Anthony before thisweek. So we're blessing that we
actually have a true butcher shop rightor in the corner from our house where
we live. And it's not ifI'm going to the butcher shop the weekend,
it's what am I going to getthis weekend? So now I know
(33:28):
I'm just hook up with Anthony andwe get our stuff at the house and
just shopping, the shopping, thefreezer. Let me ask you this.
We talked about this earlier, butI place an order online today, When
can I expect my beef at thehouse and you guys order delivery options or
where you can pick it up.Yeah, you can pick it up from
the process or where we take theSteve Shoe in Baytown, or we can
(33:49):
deliver in the Houston area. Butbasically we have butchered dights every month or
every six weeks, So you putdown a deposit where reserve the next available
butcher day, which right now Ihave his at the end of November.
In November, we take the skarto the process, so we slaughter the
steer. The carcass weight, whichis what we call the hanging weight is
what you're is what you're paying for. From there, we dry age a
(34:10):
minimum for minimum of ten to twelvedays and then it takes a week to
custom butcher and vacuum steel on flashfreezer beef that's ready for your freezer.
So you're two to three weeks outfrom your butcher day. So right now,
if you were to order a sideof beef for a quarter or even
a whole steer, your beef wouldbe ready or your poor could be ready
before Christmas. We also do somesmaller sample steak packs in order for the
(34:36):
people to try the beef and seehow much better it is than the beef
you buy from the grocery store,and the product sells itself. You try
people try a steak pack. They'relike, this is wonderful. This is
the best steak we've ever had.It's the best hamburger we've ever had.
We want to fill our freezer upwith this because it is a commitment,
right You're buying everything involved one timea year. How do you know if
it's good or not. How doyou know if it's crappy or not.
(34:59):
Try us up for a pack.We back our product one hundred percent.
You're going to love it, andthen you're going to move forward and get
a start and get a side ofbeef. So that again you're beating inflation.
You're buying your beef one timing year. You're never going to have a
beef shortage. If you've got familyor friends over for a barbecue, you
know you're always going to have whatyou're going to need. You know,
with the with the concerns of warand the pandemic that we've had, there's
(35:22):
been so many food shortages in thiscountry. This is just another way to
tackle that. Yeah, and Ithink it's brilliant that you can order those,
you know, sample steak packs,because you know, some people are
kind of a little bit antsy aboutpulling the trigger on that, and you
know, that's that's a great,sure, great. It's a gateway drug.
It's a gateway drug to your beef. And I totally get it.
(35:44):
And I totally get it because you'renot buying a total box or a new
hunting rifle that cost five hundred,you know, five or six hundred bucks.
You're literally spending sixteen hundred up toa couple of grand to fill your
freezer. And if it's not good, you've made a big mistake, you
know. And so that's why wedo that, is because we're going to
provide you with the best beef thatmoney can buy, and we want you
(36:05):
to feel good about filling your freezerwith it. And we want to we
want to return customer, We wantpeople Texas is the cowboy state we want.
There's no reason why everybody in Houstonshouldn't be able to get their food
straight from the source without going throughthe packing plants, without going through the
factories, without the big four packingplants and the middle the middleman all reaching
their hands in and putting a feeon it and putting a fee on it,
(36:28):
and putting a sea on it.No, you're dealing straight with the
rancher. You're buying your beef fromthe rancher and you're putting it in your
family's freezer. And that's the waythat it should be. And that's the
way it was in a bush growingup in Australia. So if Vermona and
I were show up tonight, whatkind of meat would you throw on for
us? You know, I'd puta del Monico on there, and I
(36:52):
probably and I'd probably see you guysa try tip, you know, try
to I seen try tips. I'msure they've always been around, but it
seems like in the past year theykind of popped up in popularity. I
know, for a while it wasthe tomahawk, you know, I think
some guy on YouTube did a tomahawkand it it went off, It went
off like you know, like hotcakes. But the tri tip, I think
(37:12):
is starting to become a more popularcut. Is that correct? Yeah?
You know, traveling throughout the wholeof America, Rodeo and professionally. It's
It's typically been a northern California slashIdaho thing where they smoke a try tip
and serve it. But it's becominga biggest thing here in Texas. And
I don't know why it has been, because it's absolutely phenomenal piece of meat.
(37:32):
It's stacked with marveling. You couldkind of open it looks like a
five wag you from our animals,and I see it real fast and rested
for ten minutes and then slice itagainst the grain. And I would put
it up next to any piece ofmeat that you could show me, and
it'd be better than that. Trytip is a phenomenal piece of meat.
Yeah, especially when they come fromthe cattle that we raised. Sure,
(37:55):
yeah, absolutely, yeah, it'sit's it's and it's great, you know
it's not. I mean, wewe had three boys at the house,
but they're gone, you know,they're out of the house now. So
we always had we put plout througha ton of food. But try tip
is great for you know, smallfamilies or a couple to cook that.
Man. I just love it.Love it. Well, listen, Anthony,
we're gonna have to have you backbecause we remooning I still have a
thousand questions, but thank you somuch for your time and folks. Anthony
(38:19):
Thomas of Thomas Cattle and Catering,you know, Ramona, I like to
support local, so man, thankyou so much for coming on and check
out their website at Thomascattleancatering dot com. Anthony, it's been a pleasure.
Yeah, Joe and Randy, thanksso much for having me. Look forward
to hear from you guys. Takecare man, See you guys next week
here on Honeymatters KPRC nine to fifty
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. Good morning,Welcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine
(00:23):
fifty. This is your host,Joe Uitar. I am Ramon. It's
been a couple of weeks since wegot to go. Yeah, what are
you doing? I don't know.I was slacking last week. Yeah,
I could tell playing a little rubblestill, that's nice. Yeah, No,
it was just well, we hadsome I think we had somebody scheduled
and we had something happened, andyou want to call him out and shame
them, No, because there actuallyit was a it was a valid excuse.
So we're going to have him onthe show later. So it really
(00:45):
really cool guy. And he's gotsome a neat uh hunting model land model
that we're going to talk about.But anyway, we don't burn bridges,
we no, of course, notnever never. So what have you been
up to? Uh? Not alot? My poor boy. He's he
got Scar Harlett fever this week?What and that just sounds very medieval.
Yeah, when my wife told methat. I thought, Oh my god,
(01:06):
we're gonna have to We're gonna haveto leach him, right, We're
gonna have to hang them up sideand melt some tar. Yeah, something
like that. But evidently it's morecommon than I thought, because I told
some guys at work and they said, oh, yeah, yeah, my
kid had that. Yeah, sohe's getting better. He you know,
just you worry as a parent.It's hard because in the middle of the
night he's whining and you think,Okay, is he whining because it's twelve
thirty and he didn't want to goto sleep, or is he legitimate and
(01:26):
pain? Sure, so you givehim a little bourbon, right, it's
fine, right, yeah, andBenadryla figure out. Yeah, yeah,
that's what it works. Well.Good. I'm glad granddaddy did. Hopefully
he's feeling better. That's it's alwaystough when your kids are sick because you
know that, man, you've gonethrough a three o three of them.
Yeah, it's almost as bad aswhen you're dog sick. Yeah, exactly.
So if the kids can whin alittle bit and tell you what's going
(01:48):
on and what it changes. Uh, my son had a problem with his
his man parts, right, andso my wife had no clue. You
know, can I touch that Ido this right? And so Daddy got
the takeover and it was, youknow, the boy came to me for
medical treatment, did you obtain hislegal consent? I did? Okay,
then I need you talking to thiscamera. State your name right and that
you consent and so so that wasit was nice to be able to finally
(02:14):
comfort my boy in those situations asopposed to just you know, hoping my
wife can get through right. So, yeah, yeah, that was new
to me. It's tough. It'stough when kids are sick. Yeah.
One of the funny stories I hadwhen when my boys are sick is,
you know, when they get theflu or intestinal viruses, it just goes
(02:34):
down the chain, and the youngestgot it, and then the oldest got
it, and then my middle one, who is he'll tell you himself,
he's he's he was a handful,and they're they're all, you know,
pre pre teens. And he's laughing. He's laughing at the oldest one starts
vomiting. Then it was coming atboth ends. He's laughing at him.
All of a sudden, I hearhim go oh oh, and he runs
(02:55):
the bathroom. Well, I won'tget I won't give a graphic display,
but it was not It was notnot fun. So I spent the next
I don't know, seventy two hourscleaning up after kids puking and parenthood all
over the adulthood. This is whatit's all about. Tough. It's tough.
Yeah. I can't wait till Iget old. Somebody else can take
care of me when I'm doing that. So so let me get this straight.
This week, you had a class. Was it for everybody or just
(03:20):
people? I think it was Wednesdaywhere you treated gunshot wound victims? Yeah,
we had us laws show come inand we did a c of course.
It was about an hour and ahalf two hours, and we were
basically doing basic trioas of first aidfor gunshot wing victims. Now, how
do you decide among the group whoto shoot? Uh? Usually the one
that's the slowest. And there theyplay that you treat that, they play
(03:44):
no, no, we uh uh. It's unfortunately, it's it's a sign
of the times where you even havingto offer that course. What happens if
you're at the grocery store, atthe mall or whatever, and somebody gets
shot, what do you do?And it's basic first aid? Well there's
no basic first aid for a gunshotwon victim, but it's it's what are
the first response steps that you cando if there's not an ambulance there or
somebody that doesn't have medical experience therepractical knowledge. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(04:08):
So it was good. We hadWe had had it at the office.
We had a pretty good crowd showup, and uh i'd actually taken
a field all day field triage coursearound that before. That was different though,
because it was a live fire too, so we were actually having live
around shot down range from us,almost in a military type situation. So
now does your nurse training background helpat all? Do you? Yes,
you come with some knowledge. Itcomes back to me, you know it
(04:30):
does. Basically, you know airwaybreathing circulation, make sure your patients,
the victim is alert or at leastbreathing as a heartbeat, and then you've
got to stop the bleeding et cetera, et cetera, cea. But when
you're in those live fire situations likewe did originally, it's it's you forget.
It's like, oh crap, somebody'sshooting at me. Now what do
I do next, and my buddyjust got hit, and you know,
(04:51):
they simulate driving up into a parkinglot or a garage and your buddy getting
hit and you have to defend yourselfand do first aid at the same time.
That's pretty intense. It's pretty cool, yeah, yeah, but it
does make you think more than youtypically have to. Well, it's good
to get those muscle memories started,you know, to remember what you do,
let training take over in those situations. Right right, Very cool,
(05:13):
absolutely real quickly. Houston Spark ClubFoundation has some stuff going on December first,
the Staggingdo of Society that's our youngprofessional group, is having a Christmas
party at counter Attacks Adermy and thenthe whole organization is having their Christmas party
on December seventh at the Bar andin Cypress. I don't know if you've
ever been in there's no I've neverbeen. I'm looking forward to going to
that venue. Are you allowed togo? Can you? They let me
(05:34):
go only if our work. Andthen of course the big convention's coming up
before we know, at January nineteenththrough the twenty first at the Woodlands Watery
Mariott Hotel and Convention Center, andwe have got some really cool stuff happening
around that. Go to we huntwegivedot org and check out the member events
the monthly events. You don't haveto be a member to attend. We'd
(05:55):
love for you to come out.Come to the monthly events and sign up
to become a member. And somethingsomeone to announce this week is we're going
to be running a contest around thisprogram, Honetingmatters. So here's what we're
gonna do. The rules are realsimple. You can have you have a
chance to win fifty dollars in Basspro Shops gift cards, which is pretty
nice with Christmas coming up. Okayhere soon. So all you have to
(06:15):
do is go to the Honey Matterspodcast on any platform and subscribe and rate
and review the podcast. Take ascreenshot of your subscription or your rating or
whatever, and then send it toinfo that's i NFO at we hunt we
give dot org. Again, goto any podcast platform, Apple, iHeart,
whatever, sign up to or subscribeto the podcast, rate it,
(06:40):
and then send us a screenshot toinfo at we hunt we give dot org
and you'll be register for a chanceto win a fifty dollars Pass Pro Shops
gift card and we'll continue doing thaton a monthly basis, so check it
out. It's free money. Yeah, can I do that? Yeah?
Sure, sure, I know youremail address. I'll just negate that entry.
Okay. Our guest today is AnthonyThomas. Anthony is with Thomas Cattle
(07:00):
and Catering. He is based hereout of Houston, Texas, and uh,
we've almost talked up his whole segment. But anyway, hey Anthony,
what's going on? Man? Howyou doing good? Good? Thanks for
joining us today. Yeah, thanksfor having me so, Anthony. I'm
sure our listeners can tell by yourby your accent. And you've probably been
(07:24):
uh uh pointed point in case youdidn't know you had an accent. But
where where did you? Where didyou grow up? Where'd you grow up?
I grew up in Australia in thein the west Australian outback, Northwest
Australia. Nice, nice, nice, And we're going to go right there,
(07:46):
Anthony Marmona, so rude. We'regonna take a quick break here on
Honey Matters k p r C.We'll be back with our guest, Anthony
Thomas of Thomas Cattle and Catering.I'm a strange lady, you make me
(08:24):
nervous. Let's just say welcome backto Honeymetters on KPRC nine fifty. This
is Joe Bitar and I am unoriginal and original. I'm sure our guest
has never heard that. I know, but you know. Our guest of
today is Anthony Thomas of Thomas Cattleand Catering. Check out their website at
(08:46):
Thomascattleancatering dot com. Anthony, thankyou once again for joining us. Yeah,
thanks for having me so ramind youyou we discovered something before we even
started the show today. Yeah,before we got the guests for this week,
I went online to search for halfa beef because I'm always interested in
by a half beef. And thereason I remember this website was because it
(09:07):
was an Australian cowboy who lived inTexas and I thought, well, that's
kind of cool. Perused the websiteand I thought, well, you know
what, I'm going to go aheadand buy a whole hog because he was
selling whole hogs and bought a wholehog. YadA, YadA, YadA.
Come to the studio today find outour guest is none other than Anthony Thomas
of Thomas Cattle and catering where Ijust bought my hog from. Total coincidence
(09:28):
just happened to work out that way, So this is very fortuitous, Anthony,
Yeah, what a coincidence. Gladyou found us on Google and excited
to fill your family's fraser and seeyou're from the table bas from now this
(09:48):
hog will way. I'll have aboutone hundred and fifty pounds of me delivered
somewhere around there. How much ofmy freezer is that going to take up?
You think? You know it'll fitcomptably in one of those five cubic
foot freezers, the little box freezer. Yep, I have a stand up
freezer. We're kind of we're kindof what's the word, I'm looking for,
(10:09):
high high society. So we havea couple of stand up freezers.
Yeah, and I recommend the twentyfour cubic foot stand up freezer. That's
why we have. We have acouple of those in our garage because of
course we keep our fund raised beefand talking there. And it just gives
you an up room to kind ofsort out all your cuts and and you're
different parts of meat. You're onthe right track. Yeah, good,
(10:31):
Now, listen to this question.Carefully, Anthony, do you think if
I have two of those, Icould fit a half beef in the other
one. Half a steer will completelyfull fill a twenty four cubic foot stand
up freezer. So you would needthat other one. You would need that
other one just for the hot steel. No problem. Now, I said
half a beef, and you're sayinghalf a steer, so I'm obviously saying
(10:54):
it wrong. City boy. Yeah, well you said it a lot better
than most of the people in thecity. They usually call it half a
cow, and we don't, uh, you know, we don't. We
don't butcher cows. Cows make thebabies, and we butcher seeds. Yeah.
Half, you're doing good, allright, half steer, you can
stay. We'll let you stay onthe shoff road. But you knowing well,
(11:16):
you're doing well. When I tellyou I'm going to buy half a
beef, you probably don't care.You just let me buy the half of
whatever I want to call it.Well, yeah, but you know,
a lot of my what my businessentails, is educating Houstonians about the industry
and about everything that we do,so that you know exactly where your food
(11:37):
is coming from and everything about it. That's that's what I'm passionate about.
I respect that. Yeah, andI want to dig into that too,
talk about uh buying meat and bulkand knowing where your food comes from and
all those sort of things. Let'sgo back a little bit now, you're
originally from Australia, and uh wereyou were you rodeoing over there in Australia
growing up? Yeah, so longstory, short, long winded story short.
(12:01):
I ran away from home when Iwas twelve years old. I had
a troubled childhood. I came fromthe city in furs and I ended up
at an all boys agricultural boarding schoolthat was for the last chance kids like
me, and also kids that comefrom cattle stations, whose parents owned cattle
stations, that lived too far fromtown to go to a normal school.
(12:24):
And so from there I learned thetrade of agriculture, learned how to look
after horses and cattle, and founda sense of purpose and peace with the
cattle and the horses, and prettymuch molded my whole life. I did
rodeo professionally in Australia. I wonthe Australian title in twenty eleven, and
(12:45):
I have been in North America eversince rodeo and professionally, So long story
short, been rodeo professionally in theUnited States, all across America and Canada
for the last eleven years. WhenI was at Rodeo Houston in twenty twenty,
I was competing there and I progressedto the finals in Rodeo Houston.
(13:07):
The day after I progressed out ofmy super series, the pandemic hit and
they shut the Holy Houston and theyshut the Houston down. So they shut
the Houston Rodeo down. We didn'tget paid and then our whole pro rodeo
tour in the whole of America shutdown following Rodeo Houston. And so since
that's how I you know, rodeoingis how writing bucking hos, this is
(13:30):
how I provide my family and keepa roof over my head, I was
like, holy crap, what amI going to do? And so,
you know, nothing short of anact of God. I had this vision
to start this fund the table beefbusiness. Through my experiences and surroundings growing
(13:50):
up, I have the full broadspectrum knowledge of raising cattle all the way
through to the custom butcher test andthen and then also being an avid foody
cooking the highest quality meat. Andso when I came over here from Australia,
I noticed how bad the beef wasin the grocery stores that were getting
(14:11):
I noticed how different it tasted andsmelled and cooked, and how that it
wasn't pure beef. Because growing upin the bush in Australia, raising of
all of our own beef and butcheringall of our own beef, I know
what real beef tastes like and smeltlike and feels like. And this wasn't
it. So from the rodeo,from the rodeo shutting down and our whole
(14:33):
Rodeo pro Rodeo tour shutting down,I started this farm that farmed the table
beef business, providing director consumer beeffrom the ranch straight to the Houstonian.
You know, we primarily sell quarters, halves and whole steers. We take
(14:54):
the steer to the process of foryou. We slaughter the steer and dry
age this year for you for aminimum of twelve days, which industry standards
a zero to three days. You'rebuying age B. And then I have
a very elaborate custom cuts sheet whichI've developed through my own knowledge, and
we will custom butcher, old schoolcustom butcher the steer for you exactly the
(15:18):
way that you want it, andthen we vacuum seal it and flash freeze
it and you either come pick upfrom the processor or we deliver in the
Houston area. And the goal isto fill your freezer once a year,
fill your family freezer once a yearwith the highest quality meat that money can
buy. You're feeding inflation, andyou're cutting out all of the chemicals and
(15:39):
additives in the beef. And ofcourse now we're doing the same with pork.
Now, when you say you cana butcher, however we want,
give us cuts how we want.That doesn't mean Rabbi is in the shape
of Texas, does it. No, So you'll customize all of your steaks,
the thickness of your steaks, whetheryou want boning or boneless. I've
(16:02):
got my butcher schooled up to cutall of the specialty gol mate cups that
you can only find in a hhigh end steakhouse such as Denver Steaks and
Delmonico Steaks for Khan your flat irontry tip those type of steaks that you
typically can't find at a regular grocerystore or even a regular butcher shop.
(16:23):
Whether you want leaner ground beef oryou want the juice of your ground beef.
You can choose how you want yourbrisket trimmed and how you want your
short ripped plate cut. So yeah, we go through every muscle group on
the steer and you get to completelycustomize how you want my butcher to catch
your steel for you that the Kanyesteak here recently has just exploded in popularity.
(16:44):
Sure, why is that? Doyou know? You know, I
don't with you know, the Braziliansteakhouses are a popular thing in Houston,
but the solo on capt has beenon the steers back forever. So that
we eat something that we eat inAustralia and that I was well aware of
when I came over here. It'sjust, you know, things are trending.
(17:07):
Buzzwords in foods are trending, andrestaurant restaurant things are trending. So
it's something that we provide as wellas a lot of the other cuts that
I just mentioned that most people don'tknow about. You know, everybody goes
for either a New York's trip orfilet or a rabbu because those are the
mainstream cuts. That generally tend toeat really well that you can't really screw
(17:30):
up unless you really can't cook.But those actually, those other cuts that
I had mentioned previously, they're actuallyjust as good, if not better than
a fil ay or a rib ora New York strip from our cattle.
All right, we're gonna got Igot questions, Joe, I'm getting hungry.
We got to run a break.Taking a break here, honey matters
KPRC nine fifty steak and eggs.My heatas I tooket a couple of steaks
(17:52):
last week. Boy, I thinkif cowboys had walk up music, Yeah,
(18:40):
this would be this would be Anthony's. It's like a prop uh yeah,
bare back or a bull rider music. It's probably Anthony's walk in music,
right anything. Yeah, that's justbrought back nostalgic memories from being on
the Barca chutes. Anthony, don'tbe messing around time. Thomas of Thomas
Cattle and Catering Company, Folks sayingAnthony's website is Thomas Cattle and Caatering dot
(19:10):
com. I got to ask thequestion, now, this question, why
the what's the catering part? Yeah, so you know, growing up,
I my mother was actually a gourmetchef. I obviously didn't have a lot
to do with her with running awayfrom home, but I did inherit sensitive
(19:30):
palate and cooking skills from her.And growing up, I lived on my
own a lot and oftentimes went withouta meal. And so now that I've
found my home in Texas and becomeestablished, I'm very passionate about cooking for
people. So around the rodeo circuit, I'm known cooking meals for people and
(19:53):
doing it well. And so whenI had first started this business, there
was already a Thomas Cattle Company inIdaho could ship beef and could reach out
to anywhere in America, and soI wasn't able to actually take the name
Thomas Cow Company. So I startedThomas Cattle and Catering with an idea that
(20:18):
I would do small, small,high end catering events to cook for people
in their own homes. And thatkind of just with the cattle business blowing
up for me, that kind ofjust got put on the back burner for
now. So we've just stuck withit. Got it, got it,
I get it. I get it. Well, you never know what it'll
grow and what'll become. You mighthire a promona and now come over and
(20:41):
start cooking for you. I'm openfor everything. Man. I have to
call my son. My oldest sonlives up in Portland, Oregon. I've
been trying to get him out ofthat god for a sakend cent forever.
He's a he's a fine dining show. So maybe I'll convince him coming down
and work for you. There yougo. So where were we? We
were talking about talking about a lotof beef and a lot of hogs,
stuff like that. So you talkedyou talked about earlier. You know you
(21:03):
guys uh uh shrink wrap and freezeall the beef and everything. How long?
How long would a half a steeram I freezer? Well, not
Ramona, because we know it wouldn'tlast long in our freezer. But what's
what's the shelf life on those?So with the vacuum seal that we have,
it will last. It will befine fresh for two years as long
as you throw it out. Generally, it will not freeze a bone,
(21:23):
it will not go bad. Wehave had several customers that that have that
have called in and said, hey, we found beef in our freezer from
two years ago and it's still perfectlyvacuum sealed, and it was as good
as the day that we bought itfrom you, So that's known to be
true. However, the beef isso good that you'll go ham on this,
and it and and and it willbe all gone in a year.
(21:45):
So typically from the size of thefamily that you have, I kind of
match you up with what kind ofwhat size of steer share that you need,
whether that be a quarter or ahalf or a whole steel. And
then of course with the whole hogsthat we're doing, families just like to
get a whole hog. You know, you get Christmas hams, and you
get sick cut old natural sugar cutsugar bacon without the night rates and the
(22:08):
sulfates. And it's also proven tobe very popular with the Houston folks.
Well, you know, it's funny. When I was looking at the hog,
I was looking, you know,it came with the ham and different
cuts, and then when I gotto the bacon, it said fourteen pounds
of bacon. I went, yeah, okay, yep, that's a Sunday
morning at my house. Yeah,that's what I need. Give me fourteen
(22:30):
pounds of thick cut bacon, please, yeah, no, true, Jaxon
is going to say no to that. Huh yeah. Let me tell you
how cool my wife is. Soshe's a phenomenal cook, and we when
the boys are growing up, Ithink we talked about this for when,
you know, if three kids andboth of us were working at the time.
We used to do guilt breakfast onthe weekend. So my wife would
cook Sunday morning guilt breakfast, andguilt breakfast is anything you want, she
(22:51):
cooks it. And she's a phenomenalcook. Anyway, so last weekend she
made grit We grew up in SouthLouisiana, so you know, grits is
a staple like rice were most people. And we had grits, and we
had homemade biscuits and all this otherstuff. And she's cooking and I'm like,
there's just the two of us athome now all our kids are growing
and gone. And I'm like,that's a lot of bacon. She goes,
(23:11):
well, you know, if youdon't cook the whole pack. She
cooked a whole bout of bacon.She's like, we'll eat half of it
now and we'll do BLTs tomorrow.I'm like, you're my hero, you
know, that's thirty plus, thirtyplus years of marriage to a woman who
understands the value that bacon's together staystogether. Yes, exactly, exactly.
Uh, Anthony, talk, Let'stalk a little bit about, uh,
(23:32):
you know, the things like youknow, we're living in once again,
living in inflationary times, hard time. So let's talk about the virtues of
buying meat and buying meat in bulk. Uh. You know a lot of
people that go, oh, mygosh, we'll never eat that much meat.
I don't think people understand how muchthey consume, or they'll go,
oh, we got to go outand buy a freezer. But you know,
in the long run, buying afreezer and buying a half a steer,
(23:52):
you're saving money, right, Yes, you're absolutely saving money. You
know what, We've done so manycase studies. We itemize out everything that
you get from a half a steer, and we have matched that with Walmart's
pricing. And of course, don'teven get me started on the beef in
the grocery stores. But Walmart isprobably the lowest to blow right across the
(24:15):
board. Per pound of packaged meat, Walmart was almost two dollars a pound
right across the board. More expensiveas a whole of everything that you get
on a half sea. So sothe price point alone. Of course,
you know people that live paycheck topaycheck, they don't understand the concept of
buying involved. However, you're buyingyour beef once a year. It is
(24:37):
a lump sum payment, but you'rebuying your beef once a year, and
it's going to have every variety ofsteak and riob and brisket and everything that
you would need that you would goto the grocery store for throughout the year,
and plus the fresh hamburger, andso it is it is you make
you do make tremendous savings then gointo the grocery store every week, and
(25:00):
also just being able to reach intoyour freezer and knowing that you're not running
the gauntlet of having some dry,nasty piece of steak. We strive to
have the best genetics in Texas andthe best or natural feed program so that
we're we're delivering a higher quality ofbeef to you every time. And so
you know, the product sales itselffrom when from when you try the beef,
(25:21):
you'll notice straight away that it tastesbetter, it's more tender, and
that it's just different from buying thegrocery store beef. And let's talk a
little bit about that further. Youknow, you you you talk, you
talk about knowing where your where yourfood comes from. I don't think unless
you've seen some of these Netflix documentaries, which you know, this show is
called Honting Matters, there's a lotof people who have decided to start hunting
(25:44):
again for their food because they watchthese factory farming Netflix documentaries and they see
these things. And I'm sure youbetter than anybody can talk about the virtues
of of uh, you know,uh, farm raised, farm to table,
holistically raised cattle. And I'm probablygrabbing at the wrong termology here,
but let's talk a little bit aboutknowing where your food comes from. Yeah.
Absolutely, it's huge. And youknow, when being a pro athlete,
(26:07):
back riding is are very violent sport, and so my whole adult life,
I've been very passionate about my nutritionand what I put in my body,
of course, because I demand somuch out of my body riding these
bucket horses. And then you know, now being married and being a family
man, it's it's definitely on myheart all the time. That steered my
family towards the direction of no chemicals. And you know, when I come
(26:30):
from Australia and come over here andjust saw how lacked the food laws were
in what they were allowed to putin the food that we eat, it
is just ridiculous. And so fromworking in the major packing plant and seeing
all the machines that they have thatpump the chemicals into the beet that we
buy in the grocery stores, ithorrified me and I just I just knew
(26:52):
that I would be able to providea better way for people in Houston.
So we're not talking about what thewhat the you know, cattle eat.
We're talking also after the fact andprocessing and things that are put in tender
meat. Correct, you know whatall of or I shouldn't say all.
Most of the things that they putin the doctor the cattle before the cattle
(27:15):
are slaughtered are non residual. Theproblem is after the beef is slaughtered,
after it's off the rancher's hands andin the hands of the packer, the
big four packers, they are goingto make money on weight and volume.
So the more that they can pumpinto the beef, the more money that
they can make. So when you'rebuying a steer from us, you're literally
(27:36):
putting a reservation down for a butcherdate from one of our home rag steers,
which we don't feed in concrete feedlots. They are in big grass traps
and pastures. They get to migrateon and off feed and on and off
water as they please, so they'realways in a relaxed state, so the
meat is always more tender, andyou're allowing that stew to have the maximum
(27:57):
aunt of marbling and that come fromgreat genetics, a great feed program,
and raising the animals humanely, andyou're working specifically with hand selected processors and
butchers to handle your steers correct.Yes, I have one butcher that I
use. You know, I've usedevery butcher in the whole of South Texas,
(28:18):
and we ran into a lot ofproblems with a lot of them,
with USBA processors not being honest andreally not caring about the job that they
do with your beat. But afterscouring all of Texas, I've found a
process is that as a phenomenal job. It's a moment pop processing plant operation,
and the whole family works inside theprocessing plant. They're very clean and
(28:40):
they're very hard working and they cutmy beef exactly the way that I want
it and exactly the way that mycustomers want it. And in this day
and age, in twenty twenty three, with it being such a dying breed
of butchering, that's worth it's weightin gold for my company and my customers.
Very cool, very cool folks werewith Anthony Thomas and Thomas Cattle and
Catering. Check out their website atthomascattlan Catering dot com. I'm gonna take
(29:04):
a quick break here before our lastsegment Honeymatters KPRC nine fifty Tomas Stage.
(29:33):
We have raight frum stars when sheknows the cards of Welcome back to Honeymatters
on KPRC nine fifty. This isyour host, Joe Bitar. I am
Ramon Robles and joining us today isour guest Anthony Thomas of Thomas Cattle and
Catering. Check out their website atthomascattlean Catering dot com. Anthony, Uh,
(29:59):
I have so many questions, butI guess one right now is there
seems to be this I don't knowif war is the right word, but
this war against red meat from peopleon social media to mainstream media. Don't
eat red meat, it's bad foryou. Only eat grass fed meat because
it's better for you. Can youhelp set the record straight on that.
Yeah. Look, so you knowpeople in the city, obviously they're not
(30:23):
in agriculture, so they don't knowwhere their food comes from. They don't
know how their food comes and sothey are at the mercy of what they
see on social media, what theysee in the media, and what their
doctors tell them. And unfortunately thedoctors don't even know. They're just being
told what they read in a book. And so I absolutely disagree with them
(30:45):
saying that you can only eat grassfed beef if you want to eat red
meat. That's not true. I'ma pro athlete. I'm thirty six year
old male, and I have threepercent body fat and I eat red meat
for five times a week a minute. Who's got a jape. We're jacked,
(31:10):
baby, that's why we're on theradio. Oh wait, I thought
you said three. So the reasonthat the doctors and the and the nutritions
and the pediatricians try to tell peopleto eat the grass fed meat, it's
totally it's totally an oxymoron. Firstof all, there's no such thing as
grass fed meat. In Texas,let me tell you why we're in a
drought most of the year. Everyyear, no rain means no grass.
(31:34):
So how are the cattle finished ongrass when there's no grass. There's a
problem there. So our cattle getto migrate and eat on grass when there's
grass quote unquote when it rains,and then they are on free choice feeders.
Now we use an all natural grainblend. The cattle eat what they
want to eat, what they're supposedto eat, and the marveling that's in
(31:57):
the beef because of that genetics andthe because of the feed program that we
have. Obviously, that's the squigglylines that you see in your rearbis in
your filets. That is actually aMega three fat like eating avocados or salmon.
Not only does it make the beefmore juicy and tender and gives it
the flavor, but it's actually goodfat. So the trams fat that they're
(32:22):
adding to the ground beef that youbuy in the grocery store is actually what
gives you these half problems. Butbecause our animals are treated so healthily and
raised so carefully, the ground beefthat you buy from us the fat content
comes from the marveling which is omegathree fat. And so there are great
(32:43):
health benefits from buying your beef porkchicken from a local farmer or rancher,
you know, and the grass fedthing and don't eat red meating. That's
not true. Yeah, I thinkI would, you know, up in
Louisiana. So there's two things Idon't think I can live with that.
I can't live without seafood, andI don't think I could live without beef.
(33:05):
I think my body would stop tofunction. I don't get that.
I mean biology will just tell you. You see these a little canine teeth
in front of our mouth here thatshred and meat. Yeah, you know,
I didn't really know Anthony before thisweek. So we're blessing that we
actually have a true butcher shop rightor in the corner from our house where
we live. And it's not ifI'm going to the butcher shop the weekend,
it's what am I going to getthis weekend? So now I know
(33:28):
I'm just hook up with Anthony andwe get our stuff at the house and
just shopping, the shopping, thefreezer. Let me ask you this.
We talked about this earlier, butI place an order online today, When
can I expect my beef at thehouse and you guys order delivery options or
where you can pick it up.Yeah, you can pick it up from
the process or where we take theSteve Shoe in Baytown, or we can
(33:49):
deliver in the Houston area. Butbasically we have butchered dights every month or
every six weeks, So you putdown a deposit where reserve the next available
butcher day, which right now Ihave his at the end of November.
In November, we take the skarto the process, so we slaughter the
steer. The carcass weight, whichis what we call the hanging weight is
what you're is what you're paying for. From there, we dry age a
(34:10):
minimum for minimum of ten to twelvedays and then it takes a week to
custom butcher and vacuum steel on flashfreezer beef that's ready for your freezer.
So you're two to three weeks outfrom your butcher day. So right now,
if you were to order a sideof beef for a quarter or even
a whole steer, your beef wouldbe ready or your poor could be ready
before Christmas. We also do somesmaller sample steak packs in order for the
(34:36):
people to try the beef and seehow much better it is than the beef
you buy from the grocery store,and the product sells itself. You try
people try a steak pack. They'relike, this is wonderful. This is
the best steak we've ever had.It's the best hamburger we've ever had.
We want to fill our freezer upwith this because it is a commitment,
right You're buying everything involved one timea year. How do you know if
it's good or not. How doyou know if it's crappy or not.
(34:59):
Try us up for a pack.We back our product one hundred percent.
You're going to love it, andthen you're going to move forward and get
a start and get a side ofbeef. So that again you're beating inflation.
You're buying your beef one timing year. You're never going to have a
beef shortage. If you've got familyor friends over for a barbecue, you
know you're always going to have whatyou're going to need. You know,
with the with the concerns of warand the pandemic that we've had, there's
(35:22):
been so many food shortages in thiscountry. This is just another way to
tackle that. Yeah, and Ithink it's brilliant that you can order those,
you know, sample steak packs,because you know, some people are
kind of a little bit antsy aboutpulling the trigger on that, and you
know, that's that's a great,sure, great. It's a gateway drug.
It's a gateway drug to your beef. And I totally get it.
(35:44):
And I totally get it because you'renot buying a total box or a new
hunting rifle that cost five hundred,you know, five or six hundred bucks.
You're literally spending sixteen hundred up toa couple of grand to fill your
freezer. And if it's not good, you've made a big mistake, you
know. And so that's why wedo that, is because we're going to
provide you with the best beef thatmoney can buy, and we want you
(36:05):
to feel good about filling your freezerwith it. And we want to we
want to return customer, We wantpeople Texas is the cowboy state we want.
There's no reason why everybody in Houstonshouldn't be able to get their food
straight from the source without going throughthe packing plants, without going through the
factories, without the big four packingplants and the middle the middleman all reaching
their hands in and putting a feeon it and putting a fee on it,
(36:28):
and putting a sea on it.No, you're dealing straight with the
rancher. You're buying your beef fromthe rancher and you're putting it in your
family's freezer. And that's the waythat it should be. And that's the
way it was in a bush growingup in Australia. So if Vermona and
I were show up tonight, whatkind of meat would you throw on for
us? You know, I'd puta del Monico on there, and I
(36:52):
probably and I'd probably see you guysa try tip, you know, try
to I seen try tips. I'msure they've always been around, but it
seems like in the past year theykind of popped up in popularity. I
know, for a while it wasthe tomahawk, you know, I think
some guy on YouTube did a tomahawkand it it went off, It went
off like you know, like hotcakes. But the tri tip, I think
(37:12):
is starting to become a more popularcut. Is that correct? Yeah?
You know, traveling throughout the wholeof America, Rodeo and professionally. It's
It's typically been a northern California slashIdaho thing where they smoke a try tip
and serve it. But it's becominga biggest thing here in Texas. And
I don't know why it has been, because it's absolutely phenomenal piece of meat.
(37:32):
It's stacked with marveling. You couldkind of open it looks like a
five wag you from our animals,and I see it real fast and rested
for ten minutes and then slice itagainst the grain. And I would put
it up next to any piece ofmeat that you could show me, and
it'd be better than that. Trytip is a phenomenal piece of meat.
Yeah, especially when they come fromthe cattle that we raised. Sure,
(37:55):
yeah, absolutely, yeah, it'sit's it's and it's great, you know
it's not. I mean, wewe had three boys at the house,
but they're gone, you know,they're out of the house now. So
we always had we put plout througha ton of food. But try tip
is great for you know, smallfamilies or a couple to cook that.
Man. I just love it.Love it. Well, listen, Anthony,
we're gonna have to have you backbecause we remooning I still have a
thousand questions, but thank you somuch for your time and folks. Anthony
(38:19):
Thomas of Thomas Cattle and Catering,you know, Ramona, I like to
support local, so man, thankyou so much for coming on and check
out their website at Thomascattleancatering dot com. Anthony, it's been a pleasure.
Yeah, Joe and Randy, thanksso much for having me. Look forward
to hear from you guys. Takecare man, See you guys next week
here on Honeymatters KPRC nine to fifty
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