Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
Eating in Season: Roast Spring Lamb on the Bone
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Roast Spring Lamb with Asperagus and Potatoes
Food is always better in season. Our ancestors knew this. Before food was industrialized, we would wait for that particular time of year that each fruit and vegetable would reach its peak of flavor and nutrition, when it would arrive at the markets with great anticipation. The first plump, juicy cherries, the first sweet corn of the year, the first fragrant peaches—were awaited eagerly and consumed with joy. People welcomed the first spring lamb of the year. This lamb, nourished by the rich green grass of spring, often flavored by the young flowers and herbs also loved by sheep, had a tenderness and flavor that was exquisite, beyond compare.
Lamb is available all year round now, and is not very popular in the United States. Most lamb raised in the US has been bred to gargantuan sizes, finished on grain rather than grass, and tastes nothing like the lamb humanity has enjoyed for most of history. No wonder people don’t like it. I don’t like it. But you can still find the real spring lamb, lamb finished on the sweet green grass of spring, lamb that is mild and sweet and tender, infused with the flavor of herbs, lamb that is absolutely delicious.
This lamb is at its absolute best when cooked on the bone, with the flavor of the meat being enhanced by the marrow, and the internal cooking aided by the heat conducted by the bone. It is even better when naturally basted with a cap of its own natural fat.
You can only find the real traditional lamb from grassfed farmers, who raise lamb the traditional way. This recipe was made with a bone in leg of lamb from Northstar Bison, whose lamb is exquisite (as is their bison).
No people honored lamb more than the Greeks, a tradition going back thousands of years. I have used Greek flavors with this wonderful grassfed lamb. Once you taste this lamb, you will understand why spring lamb was so valued.
Roast Spring Lamb on the Bone
1 (4-5½ pound) bone in leg of lamb, (if you cannot find a whole leg of lamb this small, you could use a half leg of lamb of equivalent weight)
4 cloves organic garlic, quartered
1 medium sized organic lemon, well washed
2 teaspoons fresh organic thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried organic or imported oregano, preferably Greek or Italian
1 teaspoon freshly ground organic black pepper
1 teaspoon coarse unrefined sea salt, preferably French, crushed
4 tablespoons unfiltered organic extra virgin olive oil
- The night before you plan to cook the roast, cut 16 slits, about an inch deep, all over the top and sides of the lamb. Push a garlic quarter into each slit, as deep as it will go.
- Roll the lemon on a flat, hard surface, pressing down with your hand. This will help release the juice. Cut the lemon in quarters, and squeeze the juice into a glass bowl. Remove any seeds from the bowl. Reserve the lemon quarters.
- Add the thyme, oregano, pepper, salt, and olive oil to the lemon juice, and mix well to make a marinade. Place the lamb in a glass bowl, and coat well with the marinade. Crush the lemon quarters a bit in your hand (warning, your hand will smell like lemon), and press the yellow side of the lemon quarters into the meat. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
- Remove the lamb from the refrigerator an hour before you plan to start cooking it, so it can come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Place the lamb in a roasting pan, fat side up, and pour any marinade left in the bowl over the lamb. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, baste with the pan drippings, and return to the oven. Cook for another 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, baste with the pan drippings, and return to the oven. Turn the heat down to 300 degrees. Cook for another 30 to 50 minutes, depending on how you like your lamb.
Serve and enjoy! Remember that lamb tastes best when it is hot, not warm.
This recipe is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Cop.
How Grassfed Meat Helps Weight Loss
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Strip Loin Roast with Double Herb Crust, recipe on page 94, Tender Grassfed Meat Cookbook
Very few people think of grassfed meat and fat as a diet food. But eating grassfed meat and fat can satisfy your appetite so you eat less, stop your body from storing fat, and get your body to start burning fat. Grassfed meat and fat also give you many vital nutrients that you might not otherwise get while dieting. Most of the nutrients are in the fat. To paraphrase the title of one of my favorite books, you eat fat to lose fat. But it must be the right kind of fat—grassfed.
Where is the Fat?
The fat in meat is in two places, the exterior fat, which can be seen as a distinct slab on the top or side of the meat, and the interior fat, which is actually in the meat itself, often visible as small white specks (sometimes referred to as marbling).
Grassfed Meat is Different than Other Meat
The actual composition of grassfed meat is very different from that of conventional meat. Conventional meat has been fed large amounts of grain and other substances which are not the natural food of grassfed animals. This creates many changes in the meat, only some of which are known. For example, conventional beef fat has a much lower ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids than grassfed beef fat. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in conventional beef fat is often 1-20. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in grassfed beef fat ranges from 1-1 to 1-4. Conventional meat did not exist prior to the 20th century. Grassfed meat has been nourishing humanity for uncounted thousands of years.
The Benefits of CLA
CLA, or Conjugated Linoleic Acid, has many benefits for someone who is trying to lose weight, as well as everyone else. CLA is abundant in the fat and meat of grassfed animals, and is easily absorbed in this form, making it available for your body to use.
- CLA normalizes thyroid function, so your thyroid produces substances which help normalize your weight, while avoiding the weight gain which often results from hyperthyroidism.
- CLA increases your metabolic rate, so your body burns more calories.
- CLA actually signals your body to stop storing fat, and to start burning it.
- CLA increases muscle mass while decreasing fat.
- CLA decreases abdominal fat.
Grassfed Meat and Fat Satisfy Your Hunger by Nourishing Your Body
One of the hardest things for anybody on a diet is to eat less, or to give up foods that you are used to eating. The constant hunger can make it very difficult to lose weight. The main reason for most hunger is very simple. The body is not getting the nutrients it needs, so it wants to keep eating until it has what it needs. The problem is that modern foods do not contain all the nutrients your body needs, so eating them does not satisfy hunger.
Grassfed meat and fat are nutrient-dense, containing many of the nutrients we know about, such as vitamins D and A, most B vitamins, vitamin E, many minerals, most amino acids, the proper ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats, and high quality protein. Grassfed meat and fat also contain nutrients which have not yet been discovered, but which your body still needs. Your body is ready, willing and able to absorb the nutrients in grassfed meat, as your ancestors have been eating this meat for thousands of years and longer.
Grassfed meat is much denser and less watery, and it satisfies. When you eat a properly cooked serving of grassfed meat and fat, your body is nourished, you are satisfied, and the hunger disappears. I eat about half as much meat since I switched to grassfed, and I am satisfied. When my hunger is satisfied, I lose all desire to eat.
Grassfed meat and fat can really help any dieter, especially the low carb dieter, as grassfed meat and fat are allowed on such diets.
A very good book on weight loss is Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD. Two great books that really support the low-carb dieter are: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOW-CARB: My Journey From Flabby Fat to Sensationally Skinny in One Year and 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Healthy Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew by Jimmy Moore.
Podcast Interview about Grassfed Meat
Low-carb expert and advocate, Jimmy Moore, interviews me on the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show. We talk about all things grassfed—cooking, health, and nutrition. I really enjoyed the interview and think you will too. Here’s a link to the podcast:
Stanley Fishman Cooks Grassfed Meats the RIGHT Way!
The Cooking Advantages of Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed meat has many cooking advantages over other meat. Grassfed meat is tender and tastes much better than other meat. Grassfed meat is often easier to cook that other meat. Surprised? All of these statements are absolutely true, if you know how to cook grassfed meat.
Grassfed Meat Is Different
Grassfed meat, coming from animals that have been fed the diet they were designed to eat, is quite different from other meat. It is denser, with considerably less water in it, and leaner. It has much more flavor, right in the meat. These differences mean that grassfed meat can be cooked at lower temperatures, shrinks much less in cooking, does not release water into the pan, cooks much faster, needs little or no seasoning, and is much more satisfying, so you are satisfied with a smaller amount.
No More Smoke in the Kitchen
Conventional steaks are almost always cooked over very high heat, creating much smoke in the process. The high heat is necessary to deal with the large amount of water in the meat. Grassfed meat browns beautifully over medium heat, whether on the grill or in the pan or under the broiler.
No More Water in the Pan
Conventional meat will often release a fair amount of water into the pan when it is heated. This water can really interfere with the cooking process, and can ruin the taste and texture of the meat, while diluting the flavor of any sauce or gravy. The only way to prevent this is to use really high heat. Grassfed meat does not have this excess water, and will almost never have this problem.
Shrinks Much Less in Cooking
Grassfed meat retains most of its volume when properly cooked with a dry heat method. A conventional roast will shrink in size dramatically when roasted. Grassfed meat will shrink much less, because it is denser, with much less water.
Grassfed Meat Cooks Much Faster
Grassfed meat cooks much faster than conventional meat. You can cook a delicious roast with a roasting time of 30 minutes. Steaks, stews, and pot roasts also cook much faster. This gives you considerable saving, in time and energy costs, and is much more convenient.
Grassfed Meat Needs Less Seasoning
Grassfed meat, properly cooked, has great natural flavor right in the meat and fat. This flavor is so good that it does not need much in the way of seasoning to be outstanding. The recipes in Tender Grassfed Meat are designed to bring out the great natural flavor of the meat by using just a few traditional ingredients and flavor combinations. This tastes so good that I am getting very hungry as I type this, and I just had a big breakfast! Conventional meat has a bland, uniform taste that needs all kinds of seasoning and sauce to provide flavor.
Grassfed Meat Is Much More Satisfying
Grassfed meat and fat are full of nutrients, and have much less water in the meat. This makes grassfed meat very satisfying. When your body gets the nutrients it needs, hunger stops and you lose the desire to keep eating. Now that I eat grassfed meat, I eat half the amount of meat I used to. I did not make a decision to eat less meat, it just happened because grassfed meat is so satisfying. When I am satisfied, my desire to eat ends, and I stop eating.
Grassfed Meat Is Tender and Easy to Cook
I ruined the first grassfed meat I cooked, because I tried to cook it like conventional meat. After much research, I learned how to adapt the knowledge of our ancestors and developed several methods of making grassfed meat tender and delicious. I have found that cooking grassfed meat with these methods is easy. These methods are described in Tender Grassfed Meat, and they have worked for many people who knew nothing about cooking grassfed meat.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, March 19th at Food Renegade.
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a Holiday Feast!
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Fresh green parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
People in the United States think of corned beef and cabbage as being the traditional fare for St. Patrick’s Day. In Ireland itself, however, people are far more likely to eat the best grassfed beef they can get, green cabbage, and the well beloved potatoes. The recipes in the following link were developed as a Christmas menu, but are just as appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day. They include fine grassfed beef in the form of a magnificent prime rib roast, crispy roast potatoes, and a particularly fine cabbage dish. There is much green in this menu from the fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme—to the cabbage. Enjoy this wonderful meal, and here’s the link to the recipes, at Kimberly Hartke’s fine blog:
Cooking for the Holidays with Stanley Fishman
A Sample of Tender Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Herb Crusted Strip Loin Roast
Tender Grassfed Meat is a different kind of cookbook. I designed the book to provide a lot of information about grassfed meat, why it is healthier, why it is best when cooked differently, and how to cook it. I also filled the book with delicious recipes. The following blog post is a sample of the book, containing information about grassfed meat, why it should be cooked differently, and a delicious recipe that demonstrates how to cook it.
Here is a link to the post, at Hartke is Online, one of my favorite blogs:
At Last, The Secret to Tender Grassfed Meat, Revealed!
Bringing Back the Fat Cap – Restoring the Fat of the Land
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed strip loin roast from U.S. Wellness Meats, cut from strip loin primal
Do you know what a fat cap is? Most people today do not. A fat cap was once considered absolutely necessary for roasting meat. Fat caps will greatly improve the nutritional qualities and taste of any grassfed meat.
Here is a link to my guest blog about fat caps on Kim Hartke’s great site, Hartke Is Online:
Fat on Grassfed Meat is Healthy, Claims Cookbook Author
Health Benefits of Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
English Style Prime Rib, page 86, Tender Grassfed Meat.
Why did I spend three years writing a book on cooking grassfed meat? Why did I read over 300 cookbooks and novels? The answer is very simple. I wanted to improve my health by enjoying the immense health benefits of grassfed meat. Grassfed meat and fat are so nutritious that they can literally rebuild your body. They certainly rebuilt mine.
Grassfed meat is a completely different product from conventional meat. The natural food of cattle, bison, and lamb is grass and meadow plants. That is all they should be eating. When the animals are raised on grass, their meat is packed full of nutrients in the perfect proportion for good health, in a form that can be easily assimilated by the human body.
Meat that is not 100 percent grassfed and grass finished is fed a mixture of grain, soy, and many other things that were never a part of the natural diet of these animals. The “other things†can include rendered restaurant waste, various animal parts, cement dust, plastic balls, chicken manure, and many other unsavory ingredients. Some producers only feed a 100 percent vegetarian diet to their animals. However, even these diets usually consist of a large amount of grain and soy, which are not part of the natural diet of grass eating animals.
Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids
The meat of grain finished animals is very different in composition than the meat of grassfed animals, and lacks many of the wonderful nutrients that are present in grassfed meat. For example, the natural balance of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids should be no more than four to one. In grassfed meat, the ratio is usually one to one. In meat that is not exclusively grassfed, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is often twenty-to-one. The omega-6 excess in the American diet has been associated with a greatly increased risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, rapid aging, and many other health problems. Many doctors advise their patients to take fish oil capsules to try to help with the imbalance. Grassfed meat has the same ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 as wild fish.
The Benefits of CLA
In addition to having the proper ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, grassfed meat contains a large amount of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). The amount of CLA goes down when the animal is fed grain. The more grain fed to the animal, the less CLA. Various studies have shown that CLA:
- Increases the metabolic rate
- Increases muscle mass while reducing fat
- Decreases abdominal fat
- Strengthens the immune system
- Reduces the risk of cancer
- Reduces the risk of heart disease
- Reduces the risk of diabetes
- Reduces the risk of hyperthyroidism
- Normalizes thyroid function
More Nutrients in Grassfed Meat
But that is not all. Your body does not use nutrients in isolation, but is accustomed to receiving them together with other substances that are present in the food and necessary for your body to assimilate and use the nutrients. These substances are known as cofactors. When the cofactors are missing or altered, the ability of your body to use the nutrients is greatly reduced. This is why vitamin supplements are often ineffective, because your body needs the cofactors present in real food to properly assimilate nutrients. When you eat 100 percent grassfed and grass finished meat, you know you are getting all the cofactors, in their proper form.
Grassfed meat also provides a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. All of these nutrients are present in proper proportion to each other, along with the cofactors needed for your body to properly assimilate them.
My health has improved enormously since I made the switch to eating only 100 percent grassfed and grass finished meat. Learning how to cook grassfed meat was worth all the time, trouble, and expense. Good health is worth it!
Disclaimer:
I am not a doctor, and the above is not intended to be medical advice. Grassfed meat is a food, not a medicine. By all means, see a doctor if you want medical advice. The above is just a description of my understanding of the nutritional benefits of grassfed meat.
This post is part of GAPS Friendly Friday blog carnival. Read more great Real Food Wednesday blogs at Kelly the Kitchen Cop.
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