I have no idea what we are eating this week. I am still getting used to buying nice meat from the butcher case. And oh, this meat is nice. It’s firm, not too fatty. It smells so good, and is smooth to the touch, not too rough and bumpy. I’d take this meat home to meet my parents if I weren’t already married.
However, this means I have to travel to the store twice a week to see what they have. It’s an interesting attitude adjustment, this change from planning my meals based on loss leader protein and expecting that if I want to make a roast this week, a roast will be available. At the meat counter, they might just have rows of steaks and london broil this week. Three weeks ago, they had bison roasts and I wish I had gotten one because I haven’t seen them since.
Anyway. I have a nice chicky chick in the fridge to make Bird tonight, and it’s organic so I’ll be making stock from the bones (Organic, vegetarian fed and cage free, but not pastured. Nothing’s perfect.) Last night we had eye of round roast. Tomorrow? Well, I shall have to go shopping and see what I find!
This week I want to hear your thoughts on BACON, nectar of the gods. I wish I could type BACON in the glowing, sparkly font it deserves.
I’ve been buying uncured, nitrate free bacon. I found a brand – Applegate Farms – that advertises that their pigs are not given hormones, antibiotics, fed a vegetarian diet, and are allowed to roam and live a naturally piggish life. They have a seal from the Humane Farmers or some such group. It costs 20% than the other brands of uncured bacon (Farmland). But I *know* Farmland piggies definitely do not live a happy oinking life and don’t trust that they aren’t given cannibalistic feed, even if they are antibiotic free.
What bacon do you buy? How much does it matter in the grand scheme of things?
And, rendering bacon fat, what’s your opinion? Oven, or stovetop? I usually use the stovetop.
I know that finding a pig farmer and buying directly is the best method, but that’s not available to me right now. I have to buy my food in stores.
Husband is still on Atkins. I think he’s in the metabolically resistant category so we’re working on that this week.
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Bacon has become a touchy subject around here. My husband absolutely LOVES it, but bacon is almost always cured in sugar which I am allergic to. I am not going to pout, I am NOT going to pout, I am NOT going to POUT… much.
I get bacon from the farm where we have our herdshare. The pigs are raised naturally on grass. It costs more, but that’s oK – we need to eat less of it
It’s so tasty, DH hates it if I buy bacon – even worse, TURKEY bacon – from the store.
Why would you render the fat? What does that mean? (I’m still learning about all this cooking stuff LOL).
Bacon fat is awesome to cook with, and rendering it makes it stable (so it doesn’t go rancid and stink). Rendering it basically means cooking it for a while.
My favorite bacon comes from local farms where the pigs are pasture-raised and live a normal piggy life. Quite expensive though.
So I usually end up buying Beeler’s Pure Pork Bacon. Same concept behind Applegate Farms, though you have to wonder how the pigs of large farms can all be enjoying the good life.
Beeler’s is a thicker cut than Applegate Farms. About the same price, pound-for-pound.
I just hope you’re not fooling yourself that vegetarian, organic, cage-free bacon is healthy food.
(j/k, I know you’re smarter than that.) I love bacon but of course keep my total bacon consumption to a minimum.
I don’t think it’s foolish to say that bacon can be part of healthful eating. It seems to me that the lipid hypothesis has been pretty well debunked and the “prudent plan” hasn’t been very successful (Prudent plan = 2000 calories per day, no more than 30% from fat. Remember, the people who gave us that plan are the same people who pushed pushed pushed consumption of fake-o trans fats in margarine, as a substitution for butter.)
Though, I suppose it may be a matter of defining terms. What do you mean by healthy food? I define it as a real food (not an imitation food product), something people from generations back would recognize as food, that nourishes our bodies, adds flavor and life to table, and becomes part of a meal to savor.
Bacon definitely qualifies.
I get my bacon from either my Brother-in-law, who raises his pork, according to Nourishing Traditions…organic, forage, cage free, no hormones. He sells it from his farm in Cameron (just outside College Station/Bryan area)www.sandcreekfarm.net. It’s great stuff!
When I can’t get it from there, I buy it from Homestead Heritage which does the same thing with their pigs. http://www.homesteadheritage.com
Personally, I try to buy British bacon because the standard the pig farmer has to meet are slightly higher than in the rest of Europe (a lot of our bacon comes from Denmark – I signed up to this Jamie Oliver pledge thing a while ago). However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s perfect or that the pigs have been wandering wild n’ free.
I just root around and try to find the best for the money I have at the time. I look for the following: British, not pumped full of water/nitrates, organic or free range, if it’s smoked then I’d look to see if it was actually smoked or if it was just soaked in ‘smoke flavouring’. But if I’m skint then I might just have to settle with what I can get.
I think most foods are OK in moderation.
I think it comes down to priorities. First priority, chemicals – nitrate free. (In the US hormones aren’t allowed in pork.) Next, antibiotic free. Next, the feed (in the US, it’s entirely possible that pigs could be fed ground up cow, chicken, other pork scraps, or chicken litter.) Honestly, whether the pigs are happy is a low priority for me; however, farms that let their pigs be pigs probably take better care of the animals and have a higher quality meat.
I’m no help. The one thing I regularly get that is all good and happy and healthy is bacon. My mom’s house is on the back end of a farm. They do beef and pork. Mom buys half a cow and a whole pig at a time. But, she doesn’t like bacon and neither does her husband (I don’t know how she can be my mom) so I get the bacon. I make it in the oven and only render the fat when I have a specific use. I just leave the broiler pan in the oven for a while after the bacon is done cookin’ then strain it before using it. I don’t store it.
It was partly ‘poor piggies’ and partly ‘poor British farmers’ (who are losing business because they are forced to keep their pigs to higher standards than the rest of Europe – thus the meat is dearer – thus the consumer in trying to save money wasn’t buying it) that made me sign the Jamie Oliver ‘Saves Our Bacon’ pledge.
Is that the longest sentence in the world?
In the UK it is illegal to feed piggies meat products or bone meal; antibiotics (except in cases of illness) are also illegal. So if I buy British I know that the pig is at least being kept and fed to a reasonable standard.
Is meat labelled clearly in the USA? I know that labelling here can be very confusing.
however, farms that let their pigs be pigs probably take better care of the animals and have a higher quality meat. – yes I suppose pigs allowed to exercise will have less fat? Sounds an oxymoron to want a slim pig though!
Meat is labelled, but the food corporations have a lot of input so what the label says can be confusing. Also, in the US, not only are GMO foods NOT required to be labeled, it is illegal for a company to advertise that their food is NOT GMO. In fact, my milk is labeled “from cows not treated with rBst” and THEN they have to have a disclaimer saying “FDA states: no significant difference between milk from cows treated or not treated with artificial growth hormones.” This is because the big food lobbies don’t want anyone to get the idea that rBST milk is bad or different somehow.
Often there are strange claims on packages. It’s not unusual to see chicken labeled “hormone free” even though using hormones on chickens is illegal. Things are labeled “natural” even if they contain GMO corn; foods that shouldn’t have corn starch or whatnot in them are still labeled “natural” because that is a natural ingredient, even though a particular food, say, sour cream, has no business having corn starch in it. There was quite a dust up over 7 Up labeling itself “all natural” when they used high fructose corn syrup.
In the US, irradiated and GMO foods do not have to be labeled. But if you sell a pecan pie, and fail to note the allergy alert, contains nuts, you’ll get a recall.
It’s complicated.
I’m going to post on eggs, soon, but in the US, chicken/egg labeling is weird. Cage free doesn’t mean the chickens aren’t kept in a dark shed for their whole lives. It means they aren’t kept in cages in the dark shed. Often they are debeaked so they don’t peck the other birds. Free range chickens doesn’t mean they are pecking in the grass. It means that the chickens are kept in a shed, but have access to the outdoors for part of their lives. It doesn’t mean they actually GO outside, just that they have access.
In the US, feeding cattle, chickens, and pigs bone meal, blood products, and chicken litter is perfectly legal. Unless the food is labeled “vegetarian feed” – that’s the only way to know that your cow WASN’T fed animal byproducts. They used to be allowed to feed the cows all kinds of beef scraps, but that’s no longer allowed, I don’t think. Bone meal and blood products still ARE allowed.
It doesn’t mean they actually GO outside, just that they have access.
Aye, labelling is a tricky one, the sneaky food producers will say anything on their packets. So perhaps the hens do have access to the outside, but what they don’t say is that the hens have to decipher a 24 PIN locking device in order to open the door
Jokes aside it is very annoying – all this ‘farm fresh’, ‘all natural’ nonsense. It’s just as sneaky as shops putting cheap concentrated orange juice into the fridges alongside the freshly squeezed stuff and bumping the price up because Mr & Mrs Consumer will presume that it must be better/fresher than the 50p tetra-pak orange juice because it’s in the fridge. Or putting cartons marked ‘Apple’ on the shelf next to Apple Juice with a tiny tiny caveat ’50% juice’; and with a larger carton making you think you’re getting more juice for your money. I fell for that one – curse you ASDA! Horrid 50% juice, sugar and flavourings! Grrrr.
Ok I’m starting to rant…
In the US they put “fruit drink” next to the “100% juice”, too.
[i] Also, in the US, not only are GMO foods NOT required to be labeled, it is illegal for a company to advertise that their food is NOT GMO. [/i]
I have noticed some products marked as NO GMO’s here in Ky.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm186/christa9756/010610_5425_OrganicMeals_D.jpg
Interesting! I wonder if the law got changed, or if it only applies to certain GMO foods?
Can’t help you there. I don’t believe that pork has any place in a healthy diet, so we don’t eat it.
Harper, that’s interesting! I think it would be interesting to know what everyone considers a “healthy” diet. For example, some people would say low fat cream of mushroom soup is part of a healthy diet, because they define “low fat” as healthy. But others, like myself, would never have low fat cream of mushroom soup as part of what we consider a healthy diet, because it has MSG. I bet that would be an interesting post.
Have you seen the study from the Center for Public Health from Harvard? http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-news/low-fat/
They came to the conclusion that a low fat diet has no effect on cancer, heart disease, or weight.
It hasn’t gotten much press; food manufacturers and other lobbyists can’t make much money off real food.
Hey Lisa-
You should really read “Fast Food Nation.” It has really in-depth research on where beef comes from, the big corporations that own the beef…plantations? lots? It also has info on potato farmers as well. The author actually takes tours, does super-in-depth research with notations and bibiography, plus it’s funny. It was published originally in..2001? I think? so some of the statistics are outdated and some of the standards have been changed (ie, beef being fed beef products is now illegal due to mad cow concerns)
It’s a good read.
CAFOs – Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Basically, a meat factory. I think they made that into a movie, it’s in my Netflix queue!
I’m likewise not a believer that low-fat equals healthy. I believe that fat is one component of a healthy diet (especially healthy fats) and a source of calories. Since weight loss largely depends on balancing caloric intake against activity, the reduction of fat intake is one of many possible ways to accomplish that goal without thinking too hard. That said, whipping cream is currently a staple in my fridge, and my husband and I are working our way to a healthy weight and lifestyle.
My objection to pork has more to do with pigs being naturally omnivorous scavangers and carriers for many diseases that jump easily to humans.
Interesting! I’ve read other books about health that say don’t eat pork; OTOH, it’s a staple in many other diets where the people are fairly healthy (probably because you can raise pig faster than cow.)
I should also note that I’m a huge fan of Nourishing Traditions!
Although, I think the author failed to note that the traditional diet worked so well in part because people generally led more strenuous daily lives. In today’s typically more sedentary lifestyle, simply replicating a traditional diet without altering caloric intake doesn’t seem particularly wise.
Still, it’s a great book with a lot of good info.
I would say that rather than alter caloric intake, we should alter caloric output and DO more!