Ground Rules

So why am I doing this. Not why am I doing the blog (I think we’re all well aware how desperate for attention I am), but why am I going so nuts with the meat thing? A totally fair question. I mentioned the episode that put me over the edge in my first post, but truly, there is quite a bit more to it.

First of all, I am not trying to kill myself eating questionable foods a lá Andrew Zimmern (beating frog’s hearts are definitely out) or taking my chances in foreign countries with street food. And I would NEVER eat a bunch of cockroaches in a contest for a chance to win a snake (although personally, I think if that guy had just baked or fried those suckers first, he’d be alive today to tell the tale and probably have a new best friend!)

And seriously, I really am not trying to gross anyone out. The truth is: I am über-bored with my food, so uninspired with the meat choices I see in the grocery store that many nights I lack the interest to cook dinner. The stuff I’ve been cooking all my life, which I like well enough, I am able to prepare in my sleep. It had become a rote process that lacked joy and passion. And I think what I was looking for was an adventure. What I got – am getting – is an education with a capital E.

Is my goal to eat my way – head to tail – through any animal I can get my hands on? In a way, I guess. With the exception of deer, I am sticking to domesticated animals. Also, no road kill. (Thanks anyway, Uncle Rich!) Other ground rules: I am looking for sources of these animals that are local and that have been raised humanely and as organically and sustainably as possible. Lastly, I am ordering whole or partially butchered animals only, so that I can learn the craft of butchering.

Topics for this blog will include butchering, “odd bits” recipes (successes and failures), meat curing (successes and failures), buying locally, cookbooks, reviews of meat specialties being served up by butchers near me, excursions out into the countryside, experiences finding and meeting meat producers, the "state" of things, and other philosophical meanderings about our place in the universe.

For preparation of cuts and various parts, I am relying on recipes from chefs whose taste for this sort of thing began developing way earlier than mine did. In some cases, these chefs are not American, since eating these less popular parts of animals is more typical outside the United States. That said, many of the American chefs who cook this way often have spent time with and learned how to cook odd bits from foreign chefs.

Lastly, my goal is to go into every process with the mindset that it will be fun and to go into every recipe with the mindset that it will taste good. I am consciously shedding the hangups that dogged me as a young person (the same ones we all grew up with) so these new foods have a fair chance. This is truly a novel area for me. Part of the fun, as I see it, is that I am not a professional chef. I don’t have a bunch of fancy tools in my kitchen or describe my food with flowery language like a judge on Iron Chef America might. Just picture me flailing around while I wrestle with an unwieldy pig carcass like a real amateur because that’s exactly what will be happening.

So I welcome any questions or comments about what I’m doing as well as any stories you have about your great grandmother trying to make you eat something from the old country that you thought looked and tasted disgusting. Or conversely some weird thing you thought you’d never eat or like, but gobbled it up and then asked for seconds. What would be really cool is if some of the people reading this blog were inspired to make and try a meat dish they’ve never had before. But ultimately, I will be content simply to learn and share something new.