Wet & Dry Aging Meat

Until reading Good Meat by Deborah Krasner I had no idea what wet aging or dry aging meant. I believed that meat was so bad that as soon as you thawed it you had to cook it or it would spread viruses and bacteria everywhere contaminating everything. I was paranoid to say the least. As a result of this fear, we rarely ate beef. But I also had no idea of the differences between salad bar beef and feedlot, industrial raised beef either.

If you purchase your meat from a farmer, you have some options as to how you want to thaw your meat and if you want to age it.

According to Deborah Krasner, there are two types of aging: wet and dry. Wet Aging is storing vacuum-sealed, defrosted meat under refrigeration for a period of time. Sorta like marinating the meat in blood in an anaerobic atmosphere. This is the way super markets do it and most super market meat has been wet aged before you buy it.  To wet age your salad bar beef from the farmer, simply take your frozen meat, still wrapped, and put it on a plate in the fridge. As long as there are no leeks or holes in the plastic and the meat isn’t discolored, you can be assured that it is still good. Additionally, because this meat is grass-fed/finished and so fresh, you can wet age it for up to three weeks. Many farmers say this really makes for very tender steaks and roasts.

Dry Aging is “a useful way to make meat more flavorful,” says Deborah. To dry age you simply “unwrap the meat, blot it well, salt it lightly, and lay it on a wire cake-cooling rack that has been set on a plate lined with folded paper towels. This way, liquids will drip down onto the paper and air can circulate around the meat. Cover the top of the meat loosely with another sheet of paper towel, and put the meat back in the coolest (always the lowest) part of the refrigerator. Cook it in the next two or three days.”

I wet age my meat for a few days or weeks, then I dry age it for a day or two before setting out a couple of hours before cooking in order to bring to room temperature. It is important to bring all foods, especially meats, to room temperature before cooking. I make it a practice too bring all of our food to room temperature before cooking. Meat cooks best if it starts at room temperature. When you place a cold steak in a hot pan, all the heat goes into getting that steak to room temperature and not where the focus needs to be which is the browned exterior. While I’m waiting for the meat to come to room temperature, I rub them down with a really nice, high quality olive oil and some salt rubs, mostly unrefined Celtic Salt and some pepper. I also don’t incinerate my steaks, but rather cook over low temperatures for longer periods. The results are absolutely wonderful. I know this is contrary to most modern day cooking, but I swear by it, a little patience really pays off. That last tip I learned from my favorite farmer, Joel Salatin.

If meat is chilled, it won’t cook as evenly, and the timing may be off. When meat is at room temperature, the heat of the pan or oven can immediately begin the cooking process (while the meat remains cold, it is insulated from the heat). Thoroughly blotting away the moisture is also important. That way the meat will begin to sear in a hot pan or oven–if it is wet, it will steam. – Deborah Krasner

Deborah also gives some great tips on how to properly thaw meat when your in a bind. Like placing it on a sheet pan or in a cast iron pan (which seems to thaw meat more rapidly) for several hours. I take mine out of the plastic wrappers, when possible, and then put it in direct contact with the pan or sheet pan. Either way works. Make sure to flip the meat every so often so that all sides get in contact with the pan. There is something about the pan that distributes the cold as it does the heat when making cookies. Another way to thaw your meat is to take the vacuum-packed meat, put in a bowl in the sink and run cold water over it every few minutes. If your meat isn’t sealed, place in a plastic resealable freezer bag.

Note: These techniques are mainly for cooks using sustainable grass-fed/finished meat you’ve raised or  purchased from your farmer or farm raised meat. Grass-fed/finished beef rarely, if ever, contains viruses, eColi, salmonella or other things that modern meat has. That is only found in industrial, feedlot, farmed animals. It is the model of farming that contaminates the meat and promotes disease and sickness in animals that are help like prisoners in concentration camps. This is also the case for eggs, poultry, lamb and any other type of meat you can think of. To learn more about the difference between properly farmed animals and industrial farmed animals or CAFO raised animals, read Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin or Good Meat by Deborah Krasner.

The Versatility of Sauerkraut!

I don’t know about you, but I love sauerkraut! It is such a versatile food. You can eat it by itself, as a side dish, or warm it up and toss in some grilled pork or turkey sausage for a quick dinner or throw in some beans and ham and make a delicious soup! I’ve made all three. The key is to not heat the sauerkraut as heating destroys all the life giving nutrients. Also, if you have acne, a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of organic, raw sauerkraut a day takes the pimples away! Read here.

Bubbies used to make a delicious organic,  raw, unheated sauerkraut, but they recently started heating their sauerkraut. What a shame! Their pickles are still good and aren’t heated! You can find them at Whole Foods.

Note: Almost all sauerkraut sold commercially in stores HAS BEEN PASTEURIZED!!!
Even if it was made the right way, by fermenting, most brands HAVE BEEN PASTEURIZED (heat treated) which kills the enzymes & good bacteria (good bugs) – all the goodness has been killed! If it’s not in the refrigerated case, it HAS BEEN PASTEURIZED!!!

Sometimes, even if it IS in the refrigerated case, it may have been heat- treated! Unfortunately, we’ve received a report that Bubbies Sauerkraut is now being heated. We believe that Bubbies Kosher Dill Pickles are still really raw. That is why you need to make it yourself, or buy a brand that is really live and raw! That is also why we always need to research producers and products.- Organic Lifestyle

Until recently I didn’t know why I liked Sauerkraut so much, but after learning about lacto-fermented foods, I realize this is nothing new for me and falls right in line with my love of pickled beets too.

The digestive process has two distinct features: one is the breaking down of ingested foods; the other is the building up of nutrients needed by the body. If the breaking down is incomplete, the building up cannot proceed correctly. In reality we nourish ourselves not by what we eat but by what we are capable of breaking down and transforming into nutrients the body can use. Of great importance in this process is the role played by the aromatic substances that are formed during lacto-fermentation. The aroma of lacto-fermented foods is the by-product of certain substances present in infinitesimal amounts but essential for the ultimate assimilation of the food to the body. Hippocrates expressed this principle with the words Suavia nutriunt–that which smells good nourishes and promotes healing and health. Thus, the role of these substances that make fermented foods taste good goes far beyond that of gustatory pleasure and the stimulation of digestion to our general well being.

What is astonishing is that lactic acid contributes to both processes–that of decomposition and that of reconstruction. On the one hand it supplies digestive juices in the form of organic acids that help break down the foods we eat, and on the other it activates the metabolic processes whereby these foods are transformed into new living substances.

Lacto-fermented foods normalize the acidity of the stomach. If stomach acidity is insufficient, it stimulates the acid producing glands of the stomach, and in cases where acidity is too high it has the inverse effect. Lactic acid helps break down proteins and thus aids in their assimilation of iron. The decomposition in the stomach of the organic forms of iron depends on the quantity of hydrochloric acid present as well as the amount of vitamin C, which is why sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented vegetables rich in this vitamin have such a favorable influence…Lactic acid activates the secretions of the pancreas, which is particularly important for diabetics…

Sauerkraut contains large quantities of choline, a substance that lowers blood pressure and regulates the passage of nutrients into the blood…Choline has another interesting property in that it aids the body in the metabolism of fats. If choline is lacking, fats accumulate in the liver…Sauerkraut also contains acetylcholine which has a powerful effect on the parasympathetic nervous system. It helps reduce blood pressure, slows down the rate of heartbeat, and promotes calmness and sleep. As acetylcholine is destroyed by cooking, raw sauerkraut and its juice is preferable to cooked. Acetylcholine also has a beneficial effect on the peristaltic movements of the intestine. Sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented vegetables thus are recommended for constipation. Annelies Schoneck Des Crudites Toute L’Annee quoted from Nourishing Traditions

There is nothing like homemade sauerkraut because conventional sauerkraut is pasteurized and during the heating process all the lactic acid producing bacteria is killed. Additionally, when the pickling process became industrialized most of the great benefits and nutrients of sauerkraut were lost or removed. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig of Nourishing Traditions are big proponents for pickling and fermented fruits and vegetables. There are several recipes that allow you to make your sauerkraut from scratch in the traditional manner. I did just that. It wasn’t difficult besides the ten minutes of required pounding to release the juices. After pounding the shredded cabbage and adding the whey, sea salt and caraway seeds, you stuff each quart canning jar one inch from top and make sure the juices are above the kraut but 1 inch below the top of the jar.  After that you leave out for a few days to allow the fermenting process to begin. But according to the experts, sauerkraut needs at least six months to fully mature. I would have to make a crap load of sauerkraut to make it worthwhile and then wait for six months before I could really enjoy it. That is just too long for me to wait. On that note, I did some research and found a great resource for some organic, raw sauerkraut, both salted and unsalted as well as Kim-Chi, another fermented vegetable, made by Rejuvenative Foods. I found all these at Whole Foods. Remember when I say salted, I’m not referring to table salt, but high mineral, unrefined Celtic sea salt.

Because of all the benefits in raw fermented sauerkraut, it is a staple in our weekly repertoire. My family especially enjoyed the sauerkraut and bean soup in Nourishing Traditions, but instead of sausage, I cooked a ham roast and added it to the soup instead of the sausage. It was delicious! I keep sauerkraut and sausages on hand in the event I want a quick but super nutritious meal or if we just have a hankering for the kraut!

Bon Appetite!

Beef Liver Dumpling Soup

Liver! YUK…or so you would think. I remember loving liver as a kid, but it was the processed liverwurst. My mom and dad both remember the days were liver and other organ meats were a part of their households weekly meal plan. What happened to liver and why did we drop it and other organ meats from the American plate?

I will admit, up until reading Good Meat by Deborah Krasner and being intrigued and curious by the many recipes she has for a variety of animal livers, and then getting the “why” behind eating liver and organ meats in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions, I would have NEVER entertained the idea or considered it. Nor did I ever think liver could taste good. But then there is liver mousse, liver pate’s and liver spread. Look at the French, they are noted for their liver pate’s. I guess I just never thought liver was healthy, but that just goes to show my ignorance.

As a final example, let us consider the French. Anyone who has eaten his way across France has observed that the French diet is loaded with saturated fat in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver, meats and rich pates. Yet the French have a lower rate of coronary heart disease than many other western countries. In the United States, 315 of every 100,000 middle-aged men die of heart attacks each year; in France the rate is 145 per 100,000. In the Gascony region, where goose and duck liver form a staple of the diet, this rate is a remarkably low 80 to 100,000. This phenomenon has recently gained international attention and was dubbed the French Paradox. (The French do suffer from many degenerative diseases, however.  They eat large amounts of sugar and white flour and in recent years have succumbed to the time saving temptations of processed foods.) Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions

It didn’t take much convincing me after I read that and a bunch more research on how good liver is for you. So with that in mind I thought, “What the hell. Why not try it, and if I don’t like it, that will be the end of that.” In that spirit, I called up my local farmer and

ordered a few livers. A beef and a lamb liver. There are many liver recipes in both Nourishing Traditions and Good Meat and I thought I’d try the liver dumpling soup from Nourishing Traditions. Not surprisingly it was delicious. I didn’t tell my family what they were eating, I just said we were having a dumpling soup. As they got half way through their liver dumplings I said, “Ok, what do you think you are eating?” They had no idea and I told them. They were shocked and couldn’t believe liver could taste so good. My son and seconds and thirds.

I’m not going to lie when I first opened up the package of liver, I was disgusted. The texture, the feel, the site of it, was pretty gross. But like I do with so many other things, I bucked up and threw all my hesitation and distracting thoughts aside, washed it off, blotted it dry and threw it in the food processor right away. After mixing in the other ingredients I tasted it raw and was wow’d. I liked it! The second time I made this, I had no problem handling it!

It’s a very simple recipe and pretty much is made in your food processor. It doesn’t require a whole lot of time either and is a meal in and of itself. I also got to use the beef stock I made earlier in the week and it was great to see everything come together. I’m experimenting with other livers like lamb and chicken and some interesting recipes. Over the next few weeks I’m venturing into pate’s, mouses, and spreads. Liver is going to be something we eat regularly.

On a side note: make sure to only eat liver from pasture raised, grass-fed, finished beef and pasture raised chickens, ducks, geese, and lambs. You want to buy the highest quality liver to consume. Liver from industrial farmed, grain-fed, feedlot animals are going to be very toxic with no health benefits.

It is a bit embarrassing to the lowfat people, as the truth is beginning to come out about vitamin A. A recent New York Times article noted that vitamin-A rich foods like liver, egg yolk, cream and shell fish confer resistance to infectious disease in children and prevent cancer in adults. A Washington Post article hailed vitamin A as “cheap and effective, with wonders still being (re)discovered,” nothing that recent studies have found that vitamin A supplements help prevent infant mortality in Third World countries.

….Serious students of nutrition know that foods rich in vitamin A, like liver, eggs, and cod liver oil, are vital to good health. If you–or your children–don’t like liver, eggs and cod liver oil, don’t despair. Studies show that the best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A is butterfat, a food relished by young and old alike. So use butter and cream liberally for good taste and wise nutritional practice. -Vitamin A Vagary from Nourishing Traditions

Winter Root Soup

I don’t know about you, but I love soup. I could eat soup morning, noon and night. I love all kinds of soups, but especially love creamy soups and this soup is exceptionally delicious and easy to make, Full of onions, leeks, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips and carrots, what could be better!

This dish takes about thirty minutes to make. Make sure you have a handheld blender as it will make pureeing quick, easy and effortless.

After washing and cutting up all your vegetables warm up a stainless steel pot and add 4 tablespoons of your raw whole milk cow butter. Melt over the lowest heat possible and throw in the veggies. They should cook gently for about 30 min. Ah! Now is where all the hard work pays off! That homemade chicken stock you recently made, well, now is where it comes in handy. Almost all of the soups in Nourishing Traditions require some sort of stock as the base. If you’ve been following me all along then you know the benefits of making your own stock.

Add the chicken stock along with garlic and herbs and let simmer for another until vegetables are soft. When the veggies are soft, throw your handheld blender in the pot and blend puree soup. Season to taste and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche!

There are a ton more great soups and stew recipes in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. Not only are they delicious and a meal in and of themselves, but they are super healthy.

Calcification of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), the joints (degenerative arthritis) and the [pineal] gland may be due to the excessive intake of fractionated milk, i.e., skim or low fat milk. On the advice of physicians, millions of people have switched to lowfat milk under the mistaken belief that avoiding the milk fat will enable them to avoid hardening of the arteries. Drinking fractionated milk may cause exactly the opposite effect!

Many other millions are drinking lowfat milk to avoid weight gain…Do you know how a farmer fattens hogs? He feeds them skim milk. – William Campbell Douglass, MD The Milk Book

Homemade Beef Stock

Making broth is my new favorite thing to do. I love putting all these odd body parts, carcasses, feet, and more into a pot and watching it dissolve into an amazing life giving, nutritious food. Broth or stock is the basis to many recipes and is also great alone. It is very healthy and also adds incredible flavor to your dishes. Chicken stock/broth is known for its healing and medicinal qualities and is as old as the Bible.

I now drink a simple chicken broth and coconut milk soup for breakfast each morning and add some whey for digestive purposes and  muscle, joint and ligament health and nutritional yeast flakes for B vitamins. This is a great way to start the day and heal the stomach. It is also used for healing colds and sore throats.

Beef stock is also a must for your kitchen. It is great to make stock in advance and freeze in small pint/quart size containers so it is readily available when needed. As you will see in my upcoming posts, beef stock is in many recipes like beef or lamb stuffed green peppers, beef liver soup, lamb meatballs, sauerkraut, ham and bean soup and a whole lot more.

Similar to chicken stock, beef stock is made the same way but with the bones from the cow. Basically you use everything that you can. I used meaty back ribs, soup bones, beef marrow bones, knuckle bones and ox tail bones in place of the calves feet. Like the chicken feet, if I could have gotten my hands on some calves feet I would have used them, but ox tail bones worked just fine.

Why all the bones? Great question. According to Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, each bone imparts unique flavors. For example: knuckle bones and feet impart large amounts of gelatin to the broth. Marrow bones impart flavor and the particular nutrients of bone marrow; and meaty rib or neck bones add color and flavor. So ask your farmer for all the bones you can.

On a side note, I tripled the stock recipes and didn’t have enough bone to water ratio and had to add Bernard Jensen’s bovine gelatin in order to ensure the stocks had liberal amounts of gelatin. In fact, you know you have a good amount of gelatin in your stock when you refrigerate it and it thickens to the point of jelling. If it’s runny you didn’t add enough bones or the correct bones that provide the gelatin. So be sure to have enough bones for the amount of water you use otherwise you won’t get the jello like broth you are striving for. It is in the jell that all those great benefits are hiding.

We browned anything that had meat on it, great project for the kids. I enlisted my son to help me on this. He browned while I cut up the onions, carrots, leeks, and celery. It was a great bonding experience and I enjoyed teaching him all about making stock and why it should be a staple to the modern diet and its importance. You can find quite a few stock recipes in Nourishing Traditions along with all the great health benefits and uses.

Stock is very easy to make and we seem to have a pot of stock brewing all the time. If it isn’t chicken stock, it’s beef or fish stock. I’ve also made duck stock. Each stock imparts different flavors and is great to use with the corresponding animal dishes. Bon Appetit!

Broth isn’t much: a chicken back, some parsley sprigs, a carrot, a celery stalk and time, of course, to bring the flavors out. And after hours of simmering, its life begins, for broth is not a finished food–it is just the start of culinary magic. And it is the crux of all cooking. With it, the sauce is a snap and the soup is practically made.

The words ‘broth’ and ‘stock’ are used interchangeably in many cookbooks, and for good reason, because the differences between the two are hair-splittingly small. In general usage ‘broth’ is a home-cooking term, while ‘stock’ is the province of professional kitchens. Broth is made from spits and spots of leftovers, and its nature changes according to what’s on hand. Stock follows a prescribed formula. It is made on a regular basis and forms the groundwork for all of the sauces, soups and simmerings that are the mainstay of a classic kitchen.

There is yet another distinction. The meaty element of stock is predominantly bone, while broth is typically made with meat. This difference changes the finished products in two significant ways. The large proportion of bone gives stock a more gelatinous texture and greater clarity. Broths tend to be thinner and cloudier.

Essential to all broths is starting with cold water. As the ingredients warm in the water, their fibers open slowly, releasing their juices to add flavor. Off flavors can result if the broth is not skimmed.

The broth must be kept at a bare simmer throughout the cooking process to ensure clarity. Andrew Schloss The Washington Post

Fish stock, according to traditional lore, helps boys grow up into strong men, makes childbirth easy and cures fatigue. “Fish broth will cure anything,” is another South American proverb. Broth and soup made with fish heads and carcasses provide iodine and thyroid-strengthening substances.

After soup cools, it congeals and you simple pick this top layer off. Great bird food or for making french fries!

When broth is cooled, it congeals due to the presence of gelatin. The use of gelatin as a therapeutic agent goes back to the ancient Chinese. Gelatin was probably the first functional food, dating from the invention of the “digestor” by the Frenchman Papin in 1682. Papin’s digestor consisted of an apparatus for cooking bones or meat with steam to extract the gelatin. Just as vitamins occupy the center of the stage in nutritional investigations today, so two hundred years ago gelatin held a position in the forefront of food research. Gelatin was universally acclaimed as a most nutritious foodstuff particularly by the French, who were seeking ways to feed their armies and vast numbers of homeless in Paris and other cities. Although gelatin is not a complete protein, containing only the amino acids arginine and glycine in large amounts, it acts as a protein sparer, helping the poor stretch a few morsels of meat into a complete meal. During the siege of Paris, when vegetables and meat were scarce, a doctor named Guerard put his patients on gelatin bouillon with some added fat and they survived in good health.

The French were the leaders in gelatin research, which continued up to the 1950s. Gelatin was found to be useful in the treatment of a long list of diseases including peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice and cancer. Babies had fewer digestive problems when gelatin was added to their milk. The American researcher Francis Pottenger pointed out that as gelatin is a hydrophilic colloid, which means that it attracts and holds liquids, it facilitates digestion by attracting digestive juices to food in the gut. Even the epicures recognized that broth-based soup did more than please the taste buds. “Soup is a healthy, light, nourishing food” said Brillant-Savarin, “good for all of humanity; it pleases the stomach, stimulates the appetite and prepares the digestion.” – Sally Fallon Broth Is Beautiful

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