Culinary Weekly Message
Culinary: meat week
Sustainability: factory farms
Message
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Know your meat…cuts. Learn where and how meat is produced and processed.
Monday
Culinary:
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beef cuts
Primal cuts of beef include: rib, chuck, shank, brisket, plate, flank, loin, sirloin and round
Beef cuts are graded by USDA inspectors as prime, choice, select and some lower grading.
Prime is the top of the grading scale.
Marbling- flecks or streaks of fat running through a beef cut. The more marbling, the higher
the grading.
Sustainability:
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Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)) are agricultural operations where animals are
kept and raised in confined situations. CAFOs congregate animals, feed, manure and urine,
dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals
rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures fields, or on rangeland.
Further, the waste materials generated come into contact with the water supply. EPA
Because of the conditions and the grain-based feed used in factory farms (CAFOs),
conventional beef may contain over twenty times the amount of omega-6 fatty acids
(associated with arthritis, chronic inflammation, and cancer) than healthful omega-3 fatty
acids (which help blood circulation, reduce inflammation, and strengthen the heart). By
contrast, grass-fed beef typically has nearly seven times more omega-3s than omega-6s.
2011 study in the British Journal of Nutrition
Tuesday
Culinary:
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lamb
Primal cuts of lamb include: shoulder, neck, rib, loin, sirloin, leg, fore shank, breast and hind
shank
Lamb has grown more popular over the last several years and the impression that it will have a
“sheepy” flavor is fading because of improved breeding, raising and feeding techniques.
Lamb is slaughtered while still young (less than a year). This allows for more tender cuts that
can be cooked by any cooking method.
Any older animal slaughtered must be labeled as mutton.
Sustainability:
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Know what the label means! “Organic” and pasture-raised” are different from “grass-fed”. The
USDA has defined grass-fed as meat or milk from animals raised solely on grassed, hay, and
other non-grain vegetation with a continuing access to pasture during the growing season.
Pasture-raised- The USDA once proposed a standard for this label, but it was ultimately
withdrawn. Informally, pasture-raised is a term used to describe dairy cattle and products, and
loosely, means cattle have had access to pasture and have not been confined in CAFOs.
Organic is a federally certified label available for both meat and milk that requires cattle be
raised under a comprehensive set of standards established by the USDA. These standards
require, among other things, that the corn or other grain fed animals be organically grown, but
thee do NOT require that the animals be grass-fed.- Union of Concerned Scientists.
Wednesday
Culinary:
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pork
Primal cuts of pork include: jowl, Boston butt, picnic shoulder, loin, sparerib, side and ham
Pork has become among the most popular meats sold in the United States, despite growing
concerns over fat and cholesterol in the diet.
Pigs over the many generations have been specifically bred to produce leaner cuts of meat.
They are usually butchered in facilities that handle no other types of meat, to prevent the
spread of diseases such as trichinosis.
Sustainability:
NONE
Thursday
Culinary:
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poultry
Poultry entrees are among the most popular on most menus. Chicken has a subtle and familiar
flavor that lends itself to most cooking methods.
Chickens are usually sold as: broilers, fryers, or roasters, according to their size. Baby chickens
may be referred to as poussins. Chickens are sold whole or as parts.
Stewing hens or fowls are more mature and are best simmered, stewed or braised.
Sustainability:
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Large livestock farms can produce more waste than some U.S. cities-a feeding operation with
800,000 pigs could produce over 1.6 million tons of waste a year. That amount is one and a
half times more than the annual sanitary waste produced by the city of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Annually, it is estimated that livestock animals in the U.S. produce each year somewhere
between 3 and 20 times more manure that people in the U.S. produce, or as much as 1.2-1.37
billion tons of waste.-EPA 2005
Friday
Culinary:
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seafood
Types of fish: Flat Fish (Sole, Flounders, Ray, Skates), Round Fish (Cod, Trout, Tunas, Sword
Fish, Sea Bass), Shell Fish (Mollusks, Clams, Mussels, Scallops, Oysters, Snails, Squid, Shrimp.
Lobster, Crabs and etc)
Cooking methods: Poach, Broil, Grill, Fry and Bake and Raw.
Seafood in general, was once plentiful and inexpensive but because of increased popularity,
pollution and over fishing, demand has outstripped supply. Fish farming and aquaculture, a
growing industry is becoming one of the few reliable sources of fresh fish.
Sustainability:
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The trend of using antibiotics n feed has increased with the greater numbers of animals held in
confinement. The more animals that are kept in close quarters, the more likely it is that
infection or bacteria can spread among the animals. Seventy percent of all antibiotics and
related drugs used in the U.S. each year are given to beef cattle, hogs, and chickens as feed
additives. Nearly half of the antibiotics used are nearly identical to ones given to humans.
Kaufman, 2000 (National Association of Local Boards of Health.