Snout To Tail
Emily on Nov 17 2009 at 7:54 pm | Filed under: Artisinal Food, Iconic Images, The Meat Market
The reasons for utilizing the whole animal are easy to grasp: Less waste, additional flavors, cost efficiency.
Philosophy: the animal comes with all their parts, so out of respect for the creature, we should find use for as much of it as we can, which historically is exactly what happened. Currently, only about 30-40% of the animal is used as ‘choice’ cuts, and sold at typical supermarket butchers, with the rest of the animal essentially thrown away. This represents a tremendous waste of nutrition, that if reduced will greatly decrease the number of animals needed to meet consumer demand, which has many environmental advantages. (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16573-eating-less-meat-could-cut-climate-costs.html)
Gastronomic experience: flavors and textures exist beyond the ‘prime cuts’ which can stand alone as the star of a dish, or of course shine as supporting characters for the final result (bones being an obvious example.) There is a treasure trove of food traditions which informs us about how to go about preserving, preparing, and cooking all of an animal’s parts.
Beef Bones for Stocks, Braises, and Stews.
Pig’s Feet
Cost considerations: the finest quality animals, which we believe are locally raised and fed a natural diet, are cared for by farmers on relatively small farms where they are able to graze or forage (edified by Sean Stanton of North Plain Farm.) This requires more space and hands-on care than conventional industrial farms utilize, naturally there are additional costs inherent in raising animals in this way. Customers of the Meat Market should not be concerned that these costs will prevent them from eating this high quality product on a regular basis. Knowledge of how to use the less expensive secondary cuts, organ meats, and other often forgotten bits allows the conscious consumer to enjoy these fine animals more often. Jeremy’s culinary background will be your resource for creating delicious meals of the finest quality ingredients every day, so that purchasing local pasture raised meats is not reserved for special occasions.