The landscape gardeners from Southeast Asia
300 zebu humpback cattle graze in Zossen, Brandenburg. Meat sommelier Nils-Peter Czaja does everything he can to make sure his favorites are really tasty.
Zebus are dwarfs among cattle. Wiry and agile, these exotic animals from Southeast Asia are not exactly known for producing good meat. In Zossen, south of Berlin, a meat sommelier breeds 300 of these humpback cattle on a former Soviet military training area. And he has found a recipe for turning lean working animals into meat suppliers whose steaks delight gourmets and chefs alike. Ham from the animals' humps sells for 650 euros a kilo. Head chef Holger Joost from the Berlin Grand Hyatt even considers the zebu ham from Zossen to be one of the five best ham products in the world.
For Nils-Peter Czaja from Zossen, his zebus are his passion and
A stiff wind blows day and night on the Galgenberg - which is why several wind turbines are turning on the hill. The silver grass is bone dry and crunches when you walk on it. Lichen, mosses, herbs and the occasional bush and pine tree are the only source of food that thrives up here. A paradise for insects and birds, not so much for cattle. Nevertheless, a herd of small, stocky cows moves across the heath, with calves and a powerful bull in tow. The male animal has a mighty hump on its back - a muscular hump to impress, which gives the humpback cattle their name.
"No other cattle could thrive up here," says breeder Nils-Peter Czaja, patting one of his cows on the back. "Zebus have a much longer intestine than other breeds and can therefore digest the dry grass," he explains. The animals' behavior is unusual. Almost like pets, the cows flock around their farmer, rub themselves against his legs and seem to enjoy the contact. Czaja speaks to the animals in a friendly manner and gives them caresses. The relationship between breeder and animals is programmatic - "emotional animal health" is the secret recipe with which Czaja wants to grow the best possible meat. He is convinced that only happy, stress-free animals produce good meat.
"With a breed as emotionally sensitive as zebus, it is particularly important that their needs are taken into account," says Czaja. For him, this means, for example, that mother and calf are not separated, but remain together in family groups. The breeder even takes "animal friendships" into account. "If two animals get along well, you shouldn't separate them," he believes. On the other hand, quarrelsome animals are rigorously sorted out - and end up at the butcher's without any detours. He also takes his cattle's sensitivities into account when slaughtering them - they never see a slaughterhouse. Instead, a hunter kills the animals in the pasture, and they die with a tuft of grass in their mouths.
All of the meat sommelier's efforts are shaped by the demand for optimal quality. "I see my animals more through the eyes of a butcher than that of a farmer," he says. This means that meaty thighs, a long back and enough fat are the most important criteria for him. He is less interested in racial purity. "We are not a petting zoo, we produce meat," says Czaja. Which is why he tries to continue to improve the animals through breeding. The herd on the Galgenberg is his own breeding. He calls the breed "small-framed zebu cattle" and has crossed Charolais cattle with it. Everything serves one goal: "Every hump must be ham, every piece of meat must be premium meat," is his mission.
The suckling young bull has already overtaken his mother in stature.
One of his customers is the top Berlin chef Holger Joost. In season, the Grand Hyatt serves the humped ham with marinated asparagus – “absolute madness”, as Joost says. “The ham has a lovely smoky aroma and a great texture – sliced very thin, it melts in your mouth,” he enthuses. The dry-aged meat is also served at VIP events. “The feedback from guests is sensational,” says the chef. “The entrecôte or the fillet are really great!” The head chef is happy that he can tell a good story about his food. Nils Czaja is also very keen that someone passes on the philosophy behind zebu breeding. “People want to know where the cattle are, how they are kept.” And the puzzled faces when he serves the meat to colleagues also please the chef. “They look at me questioningly and have no idea what they are eating,” he reports. Regional partners are important for the Grand Hyatt – what is served to guests here should not have travelled all over Europe beforehand. "Nils has really done pioneering work – and you can see the extraordinary love that he puts into the project."
The zebu breeding near Zossen was originally a species protection project for bees and ground wasps. Czaja is not a trained farmer, but an insurance salesman. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, he played handball professionally for the GDR. In 2007, Czaja was a volunteer in the landscape conservation association and was looking for animals to graze on the former military training area and loosen the soil for the protected insects. 40,000 Russians used to practice war here. Goats and sheep proved unsuitable - the hardy cows seemed the perfect choice. "I thought we would put a few animals on the area, slaughter them and sell the meat at a high price," he remembers. After the first 20 zebus arrived from a breeder, he quickly realized that the concept was not working. "The response to the meat was not good - and the costs quickly climbed higher and higher." As an autodidact, he knew far too little about the animals to produce decent meat. And although the zebus did indeed cope well with the meager diet on the pasture, this was not the case with the European climate. "We lost calves in the winter - the humpback cattle are used to the warm Asian climate and not the bitter cold up here on the mountain." The animals live outdoors all year round on the open ranch and have their offspring there. "I tried a lot of things, but nothing worked," says Czaja.
The change came after training as a qualified meat sommelier at WIFI (the Economic Development Institute of the Chamber of Commerce) in Innsbruck. During the training, participants learn everything about the production, processing and preparation of meat. Czajas learned how the right feeding can influence the quality of the meat and what the needs of the individual breeds are.
Supplementary feeding is necessary if the animals are to become strong
He went back to work at home with a new concept. Today, according to Czaja, Zebuland Zossen is the largest zebu farm in Europe. Seven herds of mother cows and one herd of bulls graze on several pastures around his hometown of Zossen. The farm is 120 hectares in total - although part of the land is used to grow the animals' feed. The most important innovation is a fattening paddock where the animals are fed for at least a year before slaughter. Old, fat cows, whose meat is considered a special delicacy among gourmets, are allowed to stand for longer. The animals eat brewer's grains, oats, corn and hay to build up the fat that is essential for good meat quality. The breeder also pays attention to the emotional well-being of his animals in the fattening paddock. "Here, calves make the fattening animals calmer - all the cows look after the young animals and are wonderfully occupied," says the breeder.
Czajas developed the concept of emotional animal health himself. He discovered the term as an advertising slogan on a milk package - but what it meant could not be clarified even after extensive research. "But it was clear to me that the quality of the meat depends on whether the animals are well or whether they are suffering from stress, for example," says Czaja. So he began to observe his animals closely over the years and to recognize their needs better and better.
Czaja processes the meat in a small local butcher's shop, where everything is still done by hand. The beef halves mature in the cold storage facility for up to 90 days, developing a particularly intense aroma. "Zebu has its own taste," explains Czaja. "It is intense, slightly nutty and spicier than conventional beef." It is most comparable to buffalo or bison meat. In terms of quality, the breeder sees his meat in the same league as American Prime Beef. "We don't quite get the marbling right with our pasture-raised animals, but we beat the competition in terms of taste," he is convinced.
The breeder currently delivers the meat to his customers personally. But word of quality is getting around - a large specialty market in southern Germany has now expressed interest in offering its customers zebu meat and ham. And a renowned online retailer is hoping to be able to include dry-aged meat in its range, says Czaja.
He thinks the higher prices for the meat, and especially for the humped ham, are justified. "A zebu has a slaughter weight of 120 kilos - in contrast to a conventional cow, which weighs 500 kilos when slaughtered," he explains. The work remains the same. In return, he charges 20 euros per kilo of slaughter weight - the price of beef is currently between three and four euros per kilo. Only a few pieces of humped ham are produced each month - the muscle hump from which it is made weighs three kilos in a bull and just one to two kilos in a cow. Another 50 to 60 percent of the weight is lost during processing. The refinement through smoking, curing, air drying and seasoning takes around half a year. "If you want something special on your plate, you'll gladly pay the 650 euros for a kilo of humped ham," says Czaja.
Contact: The breeder can be reached by email at:
nils-peter.czaja@zebuland.de
On the quality of zebu meat
First of all: Zebu cattle do not normally offer the best quality meat. Where would it come from? Zebu cattle are naturally nervous and extremely frugal when it comes to food. This means that hardly any intramuscular fat is formed, which is an important flavor carrier in meat. However, zebu meat is also valued for its low cholesterol content. Meat consumption could hardly be more contradictory. Nils-Peter Czaja was aware of this and, through selection during breeding and final fattening, achieved a zebu meat quality that is probably currently unique. Ronny Paulusch, one of the best-known meat specialists, can also confirm this. Zebu meat from a 3-year-old heifer or a cow that is at least 7 years old produces the best results.
Article by Fridtjof Atterdal