Meat

[smokingboot]

I love a good horror story. Sometimes it helps to know it's a horror story in advance.

When larians bought 'The River Cottage Meat Book' by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, I was prepared for my usual sneers regarding the author, a man whose tv series about his smallholding, 'River Cottage' down in Dorset, resurrects every Famous Five cliche except the dirty stinking low class villains who always get caught in the end. His is a pure sweet Dorset populated by men with cider enhanced sideburns and their practical peahen wives, incubated in jam jars at the local women's institute. There are no children in Dorset; people are born at the fine age of 53, safe from new ideas, loving the old and playing skittles when they feel daring.

I watch the show with a kind of dreamy contempt that veers between wanting a smallholding of my own full of fine fat pigs and lambs, and obliterating the whole smug little fib with a death ray from Mongo. I am a fan.

So then, this book. I was expecting an homage to darling Dorset, far from the evils of the city. Well, now I know.

It's about meat, different types and cuts of meat and what they are good for...and with great passion as well as rationality, it talks about what we are getting in our supermarkets. Now of course, as a smallholder he is going to talk up the little guy against those massive corporate villains Tescos et al. But the truth is, I find myself convinced by his arguments. For a man who is arguing the case for real meat, he is very close to sending me back to vegetarianism.

Of course, that's not what he's trying to achieve. His argument is that good meat less often is surely preferable to bad meat every day. By good meat he means that which is organic, ethically maintained, and therefore more expensive and asks us to look towards our farmers markets etc, etc. By bad meat he means that which is intensively farmed, unethically maintained and therefore very cheap indeed. Of course, the former would cost a mint, but he argues that there are ways of making it more economical...

larians and I are taking it pretty seriously, and we're going to see what we can do about buying better meat. For me the big one is pork. I have issues with it anyway, because the pig is an intelligent creature and I just don't know if it's OK to eat sentients. Also, the most intelligent farm species (excluding us) is by far the most badly kept. The book is full of recipes and information I appreciate. But Hugh's tales of what intensive farming is really all about is the nastiest horror story I've ever read. So I guess it's time for change.

Comments

[blackcurrants.livejournal.com]

oooh this is interesting to read.
For context, I'm a radically unsentimental and vaguely unethical omnivore, (I think growing up on a farm either makes you veggie or callous) but since moving to the USA I have become someone who buys and cooks meat once or twice a week at most. The cheapness of meat here horrified me, as did the knowledge that I was eating stuff full of hormones and antibiotics that are banned in the UK/EU. I was veggie for a while, then realised I'd been a rubbish veggie as I was anaemic, and so bought a posher multivitamin and took things a little more seriously.

Now I buy stuff from the local farmer's markets (mmn, organic pork chops raised in NY state, seared with honey and ginger) and if that fails me, I buy organic from the supermarket. Yes, it's way more expensive, but it means that the meat every now and then is not only utterly delicious, but produced in a way that I can think about it without being disgusted.

Have you read Michael Pollan's article "An Animal's Place" ? It's about agribusiness and meat production, and it's very interesting indeed. It was in the New York Times Magazine (Nov 10th, 2002). I actually teach it as a course text in my 'essay, argument, rhetoric' university writing class. Pollan is engaging with Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation" - and ends up deciding that he can eat meat, but only - much as you have decided - meat that is produced in a certain way.

You might enjoy that, if this is something you're pondering at the moment... I can email you a pdf if you can't find it online.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Wow, amazing stuff to refer to, I'm going to hunt the article down, thank you!

I went veggie for a few years, after a mystery lump appeared in one of my breasts, and my mother waved a study at me which implied that Northern European women suffered more lumps, benign and otherwise, than their Southern counterparts. It went on to speak of test situations in which women ate no meat or dairy, and their lumps disappeared. That's what happened with mine. A month after I gave up meat and dairy, the day came for the lump to be excised and the hospital sent me home because they couldn't find anything to cut out...I was veggie for 5 years after that. But I wasn't very good at it either, being a carnivore at heart!

I am more sentimental than I realise. One of the series episodes is about Hugh trying to get his chickens laying - his cockerel wasn't doing his business, so into the pot goes crapcasanovacock! I couldn't help my indignation!

The book has photos of the cow from death in the abattoir to hanging meat, and it's not trying to be shocking or put one off - Hugh's very into his meat - but to give one a sense of respect for the animal and also the reality of any farming. Weird how closeted I have been because the photo of the cow with the abattoir gun/bolt thing to its head really upset me.

I'm often oblivious to the world around me. Sometimes that's a good thing, but more and more I begin to think it isn't.

[cyanidemigraine.livejournal.com]

an ex girlfriend who lived in hong kong said that in rural areas they would refer to breast cancer as "rich womans disease" as it was almost unheard of except in people who could afford lots of foods that the rural types couldnt afford or eat every day (dairy, fresh meat)

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

The lump loss was so quick I couldn't believe it. Of course, it could have been down to a lot of things, but the main change I made was the diet. If only fresh veg tasted nicer!

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

More tasty powder! That's what you need.

Probably. Well, it is nearly Chinese New Year. Having said that, soy sauce allegedly causes cancer... so I'm not convinced there's a winner anywhere except in variety.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Tasty powder, tasty powder! Where are our tasty powder farms?

Year of the Rat on its way, isn't this your year sign? Gregarious, smart, always sparky?

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

Yup yup yup. Water rat is me. Looking forward to this year. I missed our New Year so I'm having the Chinese one instead.

Besides, they make me sound far more interesting and exciting. ;-)

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he got me on chickens.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I missed the whole chickenrun thing, though Russ saw it, and described it as pretty harrowing. The poultry chapter of the book is waiting for me, and it gives me the fear, I tell you.

If I could guarantee I could get to an allotment with feed every day, I might even attempt a few chickies of my own. But the way Russ looks at me when I mention it makes me suspect that this idea works better in my head than in the real world.

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

It would be more plausible in the garden, although you would have to keep them carefully fenced away from the cats.

Don't keep chickens, though. They are evil. The term "pecking order" comes from chickens, who peck every chicken lower than them in the social order, and as every social order has a chicken at the bottom of it, there's always one sad bullied thin little chicken.

Also they smell.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I will adopt the bullied chicken, feed him protein mix and animal residue and send him back into the pen, king of the world! OK maybe not...

But if not chickens, which birds? Ducks are nice, but need a pond I guess...

This is just academic interest, of course.

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

Geese keep your lawn clear of weeds and moss, and make excellent protection from burglars, if that's any help? :-)

[sixtine.livejournal.com]

We went through the same moral overhaul a few years ago now and stopped buying any meat which was not free-range. Applies most specifically to pigs and chickens really. Some animals simply can't thrive unless they're out and about - ducks and sheep for example. We eat much less meat than we used to and I've convinced it's healthier. Having said that, we are both still as fat as ever we were.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I admire your stance - though I also have found that quality of meat has not made me thinner. Caffeine, nightshifts and weightwatchers have to take all the credit for that!

Hugh has much to say on the joys of mutton and hogget, so I have to try some. And if there's one animal I am absolutely not buying unless it's a well looked after beastie, it's pig. Not a sausage, not a rasher, not a ham unless it's been free-range/organic/certified by the Soil Association, cos the chapters on beef and lamb were sad, but the pig chapter was horrible. They say start with one thing and for me, it's pork.

[yapman.livejournal.com]

Big joint, bought well, used sensibly works a treat for me. It's about two years since I converted.

Nearly all of my meat now comes from a local butchers on a farm. One of the key things for me is cutting down the waste. That and the expensive cuts are seldom the tastiest.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Hugh's argument is that the expensive nature of organic meat can be offset by the way it is used. It's more great-great-grandma's economy than ours - and it all comes down to what you're saying as well as understanding the cuts and recipes they're good for, which the book also has in good measure.

Of course, as I can barely cook, let alone cook well and without waste, I have a long way to go!

[yapman.livejournal.com]

A big joint is surprisingly easy to cook. Hugh's instructions work well, buy yourself a meat thermometer and give it a try. The shepherd's pie is easy and damn tasty for leftover use, I tend to buy a shoulder of lamb, on the bone, stud it with anchovy, rosemary and garlic and roast it, then make shepherd's pie for dinner and the freezer the following day. Freeze the bones for stock, once you've enough, the pie gets even nicer ...

[velvet-the-cat.livejournal.com]

The "Chicken Out" series focussed our attentions nicely - even followed the suggestion for chicken risotto made with stock made from the left over bits. Very fine indeed. We is converted.

We've bought F-R eggs for years, but had been overlooking other stuff with egg in the ingredients. That's proving quite restrictive to get round - short of shopping at Waitrose all the time. (Need a £10K payrise for that me thinks!)

We were gutted when we found out that Cadbury's Cream Eggs are not free-range. And no, I wasn't expecting a foil clad chicken to lay chocolate eggs, it's just that the buggers use 'egg' in the product somewhere... :o(

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Well this is where it is going to get difficult, because just about everything seems to have bits of egg in it. I have no idea how we are going to manange this aspect of more ethical eating:-(

[andsoitisso.livejournal.com]

:)

Veggies are delicious. Ask my husband and he will beg to differ. How can anyone resist them is beyond me(seriously) - so colorful and delicious - bell peppers and tomatoes and chives, green onions, eggplant, beans, lemon and spinach...ummm mmm - oo and I forgot potatoes and carrots(dont they go so well together).

Actually for me, meat is an acquired taste...when I was a kid I thought, this tastes so strange and I watched everyone eating it with relish and I forced myself to like it. Now I eat once in a while.

There! I beamed to you a little bit of love of veggies. ;)

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

You make them sound so lovely! And yes, I love the way they look, but the tastes...well, it kind of depends on the sauce. Do I really like asparagus and artichokes (the nearest I have to favourite veggies) or are they just an excuse for lots of butter/vinaigrette? I just don't know.

Your love of veggies reminds me of my mother, who was always a veggie by nature, even as a little girl. Her friends used to tell her she was a rabbit in human shape, cos all she ate was the green stuff, tomatoes and garlic, wild grains and poppies - she used to break the stalks and drink that white milky stuff inside. Wuggh! So bitter!

But I must say that my mum's always been a)physically fit and b) thin as she pleased. When she had to settle in England, she was emotionally and, I suspect, colonically challenged by these huge platters of flesh laid out in front of her

[bytepilot.livejournal.com]

Vegitarians taste better.

S'truth.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

But beware the corn-fed ones, they give you wind.

[bytepilot.livejournal.com]

I bow to your superior knowledge in this area Oh wisest of Boots.