Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed Cattle, Not Junk-Fed Cattle
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Grass is the natural feed for cattle and grassfed beef is delicious!
The prices of corn and soy have skyrocketed recently. Have most ranchers returned to grass? After all, the great advantage of corn and soy as feed was that they were cheap. Sadly, the answer is no. The amount of corn and soy fed to cattle, which is almost always GMO, has declined greatly because of the high price. But it is being replaced by ingredients that are even less appealing.
Ingredients such as expired candy, cookies, marshmallows, gummy worms, fruit loops, and a host of other industrial foods that are full of sugar and chemicals, often including high fructose corn syrup, and almost always containing GMOs. Another line of the new feed consists of the plant residue from distilling corn for ethanol, and the leftovers from milling flour, along with cottonseed hulls.
I would suggest that they just return to grass.
Why Is Garbage Being Used to Feed Cattle?
Because this garbage is much cheaper than corn and soy. What is actually happening is that food products that have been thrown out are being gathered and sold as animal feed. It is fair to call these things garbage, because they were actually thrown away, as garbage.
The justification behind doing this is the claim that you can take this garbage and turn it into food by feeding it to cows. In fact, farmers who do this are being commended for their “creativity.†Another word comes to mind, but I am not going to use it here. And garbage is cheap, though the price is going up as demand increases.
The proponents of feeding this garbage to cattle claim that ruminants, designed to eat grass, can turn this garbage into food just by eating it. No mention is made of what eating this stuff does to cattle, or what it does to the content of the meat. And as far as I know, no one has studied the effect of eating meat from garbage-fed cattle on people. Nor has anyone done an impartial study on the effects that eating this garbage would have on the nutritional content of the meat. The FDA and USDA allow this practice, so it must be safe. But it certainly is not desirable, at least not to those of us who want to eat meat from cattle that are eating their natural diet.
After all, the old saying, “You are what you eat,†is just as true for cattle just as it is for humans.
The Return of Swill to Cattle Feed
Herds of cattle used to be raised near distilleries in many cities in the nineteenth century. The cattle were fed the grain mash left over from distilling the grains into whiskey. This garbage had little or no nutritional value, and the cows whose diet consisted entirely of this slop were weak and sick. The milk from cattle fed this swill was bluish in color, and so thin that flour and chalk were added to it to make it resemble healthy milk. But this milk was not healthy, and huge numbers of children died from drinking it. In fact, pasteurization was developed to deal with this problem. Eventually, these kinds of dairies were banned.
Now, the mash left over from making ethanol is being sold as cattle feed.
No doubt the cows that are fed this stuff are fed many other things as well, rather than having a diet that is 100 percent swill, as was done in the nineteenth century. And I just cannot believe that any decent cattleman would sell bluish milk from a sick cow, in this day and age. And we are protected by the FDA and the USDA. So I am not saying the milk and meat from animals fed this stuff is unsafe. But it appears almost certain that the nutritional quality of the meat and milk from such animals would not be ideal.
And since the mash is made from GMO corn, the feed will contain GMOs. But that is nothing new, as almost all the corn and soy previously fed to factory cattle are GMO.
Agricultural and Industrial Waste Is Not the Natural Food of Cattle
In addition to expired candy, factory food, and ethanol mash, many other things are now being fed to cattle in place of soy and corn. These include cottonseed hulls, the waste leftover from making flour at mills, waste products from making rice and potatoes, and probably a lot of other things that used to be thrown out. The cottonseed hulls are particularly unappealing to me, because most cotton is GMO and has been heavily sprayed with pesticides. But the bottom line is that none of these things are the natural food of cattle.
Green, living grass is the natural food of cattle. Dried grass, often known as hay, is also a good food for cattle. The meat of cattle that are grassfed and grass-finished is much more nutritious than meat from cattle fattened on grains in a feedlot, as seen in this informative article at EatWild.com, Health Benefits of Grass-fed Products.
Surely grassfed meat is also much more nutritious than the meat of garbage-fed cattle.
And grassfed meat is much tastier than the grain-finished variety, when properly cooked, which is why I wrote Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue: Traditional, Primal and Paleo.
This is yet another reason why I will continue to only eat grassfed and grass-finished meat from a producer I know and trust.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Fight Back Friday, and Freaky Friday blog carnivals.
What Is a Prime Rib? This Is a (Grassfed) Prime Rib
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
A magnificent grassfed prime rib with a great fat cap and marbling.
As food becomes increasingly industrialized, we are losing more and more of our ancestral food traditions. One of my goals is to try to preserve some of those traditions. And one of the traditions I most want to preserve is the traditional prime rib roast. This tradition is thousands of years old, is absolutely delicious, and may have special nutritional factors. Yet, the tradition of the magnificent prime rib roast, once well known and popular throughout Europe and the U.S., is in danger of being forgotten.
In fact, there are many people who do not even know what a prime rib is. What is a prime rib? Look at the photo above—that is a prime rib.
The King of Roasts
A close look at this beautiful cut of meat shows what was once known as the king of roasts. This is a prime specimen, purchased from U.S. Wellness Meats, and they deserve great credit for this masterpiece.
The roast rests on the natural bones, which impart great flavor, add nutrients to the meat, and act as a natural rack. It is crowned with its own unique fat, which will provide wonderful flavor to the meat while making it tender and basting the meat as it cooks. The meat itself is divided into two sections, the large portion in the center, and a smaller portion on the front and top of the meat. These two cuts have different tastes and textures, which provide a wonderful contrast. Though grassfed, the roast is wonderfully marbled with little flecks of fat, which provide great grassfed nutrition, make the meat tender, and baste the meat internally as it cooks.
I also love the flavor of vegetables roasted in the pan with the prime rib. Vegetables flavored by the melted fat and juices are unbelievably delicious with a flavor like no others.
Prime rib has a unique taste that is brought out by roasting. It is hard to describe, but it is so delicious, and there is nothing else on earth comparable to it. I suspect, though I cannot prove it, that this taste shows the presence of a particular nutrient that I have found nowhere else. I do not know what this nutrient is, but I do know how I feel after eating grassfed prime rib. I feel rejuvenated and wonderful. And so satisfied. I can smell the presence of this taste about halfway through the roasting, and it makes me so hungry!
The Prime Rib Tradition
The chine portion of an animal, which is where the prime rib comes from, has a long history and storied reputation. In ancient times, it was reserved for heroes and royalty. Irish legend records duels to the death for the right to claim this meat. The hero Achilles barbecued meat from the chine for the kings of the Greeks at the beach of Troy, as described in the Iliad. During the height of the British Empire, the prime rib as Sunday dinner became common, with leftovers forming the basis of meals throughout the week. Prime rib was once very popular in the U.S., as well. It should be noted that the prime rib eaten during this period was always from grassfed cattle, as factory meat did not exist until the twentieth century.
It should also be noted that the chine portion, whether from cattle, lambs, pigs, goats, or bison, was always one of the most prized cuts of meat. It was always expensive, and always associated with strength and nutrition.
The sight and smell of this magnificent cut of meat, roasted to perfection, with an aroma that creates hunger as soon as it is smelled, has brought great pleasure and wonderful nutrition to countless human beings.
Yet the tradition of this king of roasts is in real danger of being lost.
How the Food Industry Is Killing the King of Roasts
The modern food industry has done a lot to kill the prime rib tradition. The factory meat it raises just does not cut it, not in taste or nutrition, and lacks the unique flavor that makes prime rib so special. Even worse, the meat industry decided to do away with skilled butchers and to come up with easy to cut and package pieces of meat. The chine portion of most cattle, even grassfed cattle, is cut into thin boneless, fatless steaks. None of these steaks can possibly come close to developing the incredible flavor and nutrition of a real prime rib roast, which requires the bones and fat, and at least a moderate cooking period to develop the unique flavor.
The anti-animal-fat phobia has resulted in most people wanting to buy meat with all the fat trimmed off, which will ruin any prime rib.
In fact, meat with bones and fat is increasingly frowned upon by government regulators and the anti-fat fanatics, who would like to see it done away with.
Cutting this portion of meat into thin steaks instead of cutting it into roasts has led to a huge price increase, which makes this meat difficult to afford. Most grassfed producers just cut the chine portion of their cattle into thin, boneless, fatless, steaks, which may taste good, but lack the real prime rib flavor. Fortunately, there are some exceptions.
If you buy a whole steer, or a half or a quarter, you can usually arrange to have the rib portion cut into roasts, with the bones and fat left on. A few producers carry prime rib roasts at holiday times. I have a great local market that cuts grassfed beef to order. And as shown above, U.S. Wellness Meats sells excellent grassfed prime rib roasts.
Make no mistake, grassfed prime rib is expensive. But you can still get a great grassfed prime rib roast for less than a restaurant dinner, and it will feed a lot of people. We do not have it often, but we will have it for special occasions, and enjoy the great pleasure and health benefits it brings.
Both Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue have several recipes for the king of roasts, which can be very easy to cook.
I submit that the tradition of the grassfed prime rib roast is well worth preserving.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Freaky Friday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Real Food Is Best with Real Cooking
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Real cooking makes holiday meals special, but it is great for everyday cooking as well.
Many people are starting to realize that the traditional food of our ancestors, real food, is much better for us than the chemical-drenched industrial stuff turned out by the big food industry. Fruits and vegetables grown without chemicals, grassfed and pastured meats, real dairy, traditional fermented foods, and other traditional foods, have nourished humankind for thousands of years, and are so much better than the factory stuff, both in taste and nutrition. Real food generally is more expensive, and is harder to find. But it is truly worth it, as you feel so much better and are likely to experience great improvements in your health, vitality, mood, mental functions, and general quality of life. Real food does a great job of supporting the natural functions. After all, real food has been supporting our bodies for uncounted thousands of years, and our bodies have adapted to thrive on it. Factory food has only been around since the twentieth century, and new artificial ingredients and processes are introduced every year.
But real food comes with a hidden price. It is not convenient. If you are really going to switch completely to real food, someone in your family is going to have to cook it. And that someone might as well be you.
The Death of Real Cooking
Once, America was full of fantastic home cooks who were proud of their cooking. This was not limited to women, as many men were proud of their skill at barbecuing and cooking meat. Cooking knowledge was passed down from generation to generation. Home-cooked food was so good that restaurants had a very hard time competing, and had to struggle to provide food that was even better than home-cooked. This posed a huge problem to the processed food industry, as it slithered into existence. Why would anyone want to eat their dead, relatively tasteless food? Much research was done, and three answers were found:
The first was to claim that packaged, factory foods were more “scientific,†and modern. People in the early twentieth century were in awe of science, and this argument alone was enough to get many people to give up lard and switch to hydrogenated vegetable fats, for example.
The second was to claim that certain traditional foods were “unhealthy,†and to finance “scientific†research to prove the so called “unhealthiness.†This was even more successful, persuading hundreds of millions of people to give up the sacred foods of their ancestors for inferior processed substitutes.
But the third technique was the most effective. Convenience. Factory packaged foods were designed to be convenient to prepare. It was much easier to add a few ingredients to a mix, or heat something in the oven or a pan, than to actually cook from scratch. Or you could pour factory dry cereal directly into a bowl, add a few things, or not, and eat it with no preparation at all. The advent of the microwave made things even faster and more convenient, as you could “nuke†a huge variety of packages for just a few minutes, and have something resembling a meal.
It took absolutely no skill or knowledge to prepare food this way, and most Americans simply gave up on cooking. Today, it is estimated that two-thirds of American adults do not know how to cook, though they can pop a package in a microwave, or pour cereal into a bowl, or buy a pre-made salad at the supermarket. People eat a huge portion of their meals at fast food joints or restaurants. But this convenience comes at a terrible price. Malnutrition. Most Americans suffer from malnutrition without even knowing it. Processed and factory foods are far inferior to real food in supporting the natural functions of our bodies. Chronic illness is at an all time high, and many of the afflicted are young adults, which is something new and disturbing. In fact, the physical condition of American youth has deteriorated to such a degree that 75% of those who try to join the military are rejected as being physically unfit to serve.
I believe that switching to real food is the ultimate solution to these problems, and it certainly worked for me and many others. But you cannot get real food out of a package, or just nuke it in a microwave and expect to have a meal. Real food requires real cooking.
Many people complain about the cost of real food, but I believe in the truth of the old saying, “Pay the farmer or pay the doctor.â€
The Return to Real Cooking
I cook just about everything from scratch, using real food ingredients. And the benefits to my well being have been enormous. I have gone from being chronically ill to healthy. If you are not used to cooking, learning how to cook might seem overwhelming. But it can be far easier than you might think. Real home cooking is simple, and consists of learning certain skills which are well within the abilities of most people. You do not need to be a fancy chef. And I will share a little secret with you. The more you cook, the easier it gets, if you are on the right path. Eventually, it becomes second nature, like riding a bicycle. And the real food you prepare will taste so much better. And you can take pride in the fact that every meal you make is truly nourishing and helping the natural functions of the people you feed, helping them to feel better and be better in every way. Another benefit is the sheer pleasure you can bring to others with a tasty, home-cooked meal of real food.
There are some excellent resources for learning how to cook real food. The Weston A. Price Foundation has a series of instructional cooking videos on their website, which are very informative and well done. I also recommend Sally Fallon Morell’s excellent cookbook, Nourishing Traditions as a great basic cookbook. It is also full of valuable nutritional information. When it comes to grassfed meat, I recommend what I use, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue. I use them regularly. I designed them to be easy to use and traditional. While the inspiration is traditional, I have adapted these traditions to the modern kitchen.
There are other resources, as well, but learning how to cook real food is a very important part of receiving the benefits of real food. Real food deserves real cooking.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday Freaky Friday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Enjoy your Traditionally-Cooked Grassfed Barbecue without Fear
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Barbecuing tender grassfed meat the traditional way with indirect heat.
July the Fourth is near, and that means barbecue. It is an old American tradition, and a most delicious one. Barbecues in America go all the way back to colonial times, where easy access to inexpensive meat and wood meant delicious grassfed feasts cooked with logs burned down to coals. Barbecues were huge social events, often drawing hundreds or even thousands of people, lured by the ancient pleasure of pastured and wild meat cooked with fire.
But today, many are afraid to barbecue, being concerned by studies that find that suspected carcinogenic substances are created by the barbecue process.
Not to worry. Even if these studies are accurate, you can avoid the cooking method that creates the suspect substances by using traditional techniques, which are perfect for cooking grassfed and pastured meats.
What the Studies Found
I was concerned by these studies, and I must admit I stopped barbecuing for awhile. But I really missed the wonderful flavor that can only come from real barbecue, so I decided to take a close look at the studies. I wanted to resolve this paradox. The healthy peoples studied by Dr. Weston A. Price nearly all barbecued most of their meat and fish, and they had no cancer, despite the modern studies stating that barbecuing created carcinogens. Just as puzzling was the fact that humans have been cooking with fire for uncounted thousands of years, yet cancer is a very modern disease, unknown among people eating a traditional diet. If cooking with fire created cancer, humanity might have died out a long time ago. There had to be another explanation.
I decided to start by looking at the raw data. The studies found that barbecuing created two substances that were believed to be carcinogenic. One substance was created by cooking meat over direct high heat, especially when the flames touched the meat. The second substance was created when fat from the meat dripped directly on to the heat source, which created a smoke that went into the meat.
The key is that these substances were created only when the meat was cooked directly over the heat source.
Traditional Barbecue Methods Avoid the Creation of Carcinogens
My next step was to study the barbecuing methods of traditional peoples, which I did. What I found was fascinating. Most traditional barbecue was never done directly over the heat source. This was true for most peoples all over the world, and over time. The meat was cooked in front of, never directly over the heat source. The meat was invariably cooked over a container to catch the drippings, which were used for basting and as a condiment. This meant that the meat was never cooked over direct high heat, and never touched by the flames. This also meant that fat never dripped into the fire.
There were some exceptions to this rule. Some traditional peoples grilled directly over the fire, but set the grill so high over the coals that the heat was gentle, and the flames never touched the meat. Some European cooks grilled directly over the fire. The people who wrote older cookbooks looked down on this practice, stating that it gave “a noisome stink†to the meat, or that it was the mark of a bad cook.
Some peoples cooked small pieces of heavily marinated meat over a small fire, but this was the exception. Even these people kept the heat of the fire low, and kept the flames from touching the meat. Interestingly enough, the studies found that marinating meat reduced the formation of the suspect substances by 90 percent or more.
In other words, the cooking method that creates the carcinogens was not used by most traditional peoples. Use their methods, and you will not create the potential carcinogens mentioned in the studies.
But What about the Smoke?
A number of articles have been published over the Internet that point out the toxins given off by burning wood. But this is not a problem in traditional barbecue. That is because the most common fuel was one hundred percent hardwood charcoal. Charcoal is made by burning wood under controlled conditions. The toxic chemicals burn off during the process, and are gone by the time the charcoal is made. This process goes back many thousands of years.
Barbecue experts and traditional peoples did not cook over blazing raw wood, but made sure to burn the wood down to coals before cooking. Burning the wood down to coals also burns off the toxic chemicals, which literally go up in smoke.
So you can avoid the toxins in raw wood smoke by using one hundred percent hardwood charcoal, or burning your wood down to coals. These are the most traditional ways of using wood for cooking.
How to Adapt the Tradition to Modern Barbecues
Cooking in front of, not over the fire, is very different from the way most Americans grill. Grilling over direct high heat results in the creation of the substances mentioned in the studies. I believe that this method was created to deal with the extra water in factory meat, which requires direct high heat to be somewhat palatable rather than grey and soggy.
But grassfed meat, including steaks and burgers, cooks beautifully in front of, not over the heat source. The meat is never scorched or charred, and picks up a wonderful flavor from the coals. You can avoid the risks and have a perfect cooking method for grassfed barbecue by cooking in front of, not over the heat source.
This cooking method is used in all the recipes in Tender Grassfed Barbecue, and is the method I use whenever I barbecue. This July 4th, we are going to enjoy a beautiful thick prime rib steak, cut from a beautiful grassfed roast we got from U.S. Wellness Meats. And we will enjoy without fear, following the tradition of our ancestors.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Freaky Friday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Debunking the “Healthiest Meal Everâ€
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
English Style Prime Rib, recipe on page 86, Tender Grassfed Meat
A group of British scientists, who specialize in food research, have designed a menu that they call “the healthiest meal ever.†Their list of dishes and ingredients does not even address the idea of where the food comes from, treating organic and chemical-free as being the same as factory and chemical-processed. While this is a common practice for food scientists, it totally destroys the validity of their argument. Just as bad, the “healthiest meal ever” boasts of avoiding saturated fats, being low-fat, and avoiding the ultimate demon, cholesterol. Never mind that the entire “low-fat is good—cholesterol is death†scam has long been exposed as invalid. This meal also leaves out the healthiest food ever—grassfed meat. Healthiest meal ever? Allow me to disagree, from a real food perspective.
Bear in mind that I have been unable to find the actual recipes, so this debunking is based on the information that has been reported.
The courses in the “healthiest meal ever” will be looked at individually. These are the courses:
Fresh and Smoked Salmon Terrine
Wild salmon is actually a very healthy food. But farmed salmon, the most common kind, is very different in flavor and composition. Farmed salmon is not allowed to roam the ocean as nature intended, and is usually fed food pellets, which is not their natural diet. In fact, many food pellets contain GMO soy, which is something salmon have never eaten before the twentieth century. Farmed salmon are so different from wild salmon that their flesh is colored white, not orange. A dye is added before the fish hit the market to fake the natural orange color of real wild salmon. The scientists fail to specify whether the salmon are wild or farmed, treating them as the same, which is a mistake. Since almost all Atlantic salmon are farmed, this dish would almost certainly be made of farmed salmon. And the other ingredients in the terrine are not even mentioned. Healthy? Not in my book.
Mixed Leaf Salad with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This also sounds good at first glance. But no specification is made as to whether the vegetables should be grown without chemicals. If they are grown with chemicals, they contain pesticides, which are not healthy. No specification is made as to whether the vegetables are grown with artificial fertilizer or in rich natural soil. This makes all the difference when it comes to nutrient content, as vegetables grown with artificial fertilizer have far less. Even the types of leaf vegetables are not specified. This is an important omission because some raw leafy greens, such as spinach, contain large amounts of oxalic acid, a substance that prevents the body from absorbing vital minerals, such as calcium. To imply that any leaf salad, no matter what the vegetable is, is healthy is simply not true. This might not be so healthy, after all.
High-Fibre Multigrain Bread Roll
This does not sound even remotely healthy. Adding additional grain fiber to bread is a modern practice, not done by our ancestors. We can get all the fiber we need from fruits and vegetables, just like our ancestors did, for uncounted thousands of years. Many people cannot digest modern grains, and many are gluten-intolerant. Since high-fiber is specified, the grains are almost certainly whole grains, which contain large amounts of phytic acid. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Phytic acid can be neutralized through traditional soaking and sprouting techniques, but those methods are not even mentioned. The grains contained in the “multigrain bread roll†are not specified. Chances are overwhelming that it contains unfermented GMO soy, a substance full of toxins and mock female hormones, both as a “grain†and in the form of soy lecithin. It quite likely contains other GMOs, especially if it contains corn. Once again, the ingredients almost certainly come from grains grown with chemicals and pesticides. Chemicals and pesticides are not healthy. Processed grains like this are high in refined carbohydrates, which have an effect on the body similar to processed sugar. Healthy? Not in my opinion.
Chicken Casserole with Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
When I first read the title of this item, I let out a loud and heartfelt “Yuck!†My wife came over to investigate, and her face twisted in revulsion as she read the title. This dish sounds so horrible, both in title and content, that it could be an entrée in an American school cafeteria. Once again, no attention is paid to where the ingredients come from, treating organic the same as conventional. This dish is touted as “low-fat†and “low-sodium.†This can only mean that the chicken consists of the most boring meat on earth, skinless, boneless, tasteless, flavorless, chicken breast, most likely from a factory farm where the chickens never see the sun, are fed GMO corn and GMO soy, and are confined in crates. Of course, no specifications as to where the chickens should come from are made. The difference between true free-range chickens and factory chickens is huge. The lentils are almost certainly conventionally grown with chemicals. The “mixed vegetables†are not specified, are almost certainly grown with chemicals and pesticides, and could even come out of a can. It is quite likely that some of them are GMO. This is one dish that probably tastes just as bad as it sounds, like it came from an American school cafeteria. Not healthy to me.
Live Yogurt-Based Blancmange Topped with Walnuts and Sugar-Free Caramel-Flavored Sauce
While the yogurt sounds good, A blancmange always contains plenty of processed sugar. Walnuts can be healthy, but no distinction is made between walnuts grown with chemicals and walnuts grown without chemicals. The sugar-free caramel-flavored sauce almost certainly contains a number of artificial ingredients, especially artificial sweeteners, and does not even qualify as food, let alone as something healthy. I would not even taste this.
Now, it has been said that the British cannot cook, and this menu would seem to support that rumor, started by the French, I believe. However, I have had enough traditional English food to know that English food can be delicious. In fact, a traditional English dish was featured in the meal I am about to describe, and it was wonderful, both in taste and nutrition.
My Idea of a Much Healthier and Infinitely Tastier Meal
Since I feel I have an obligation not just to complain, but to come up with a better alternative, I will do so. Every ingredient in this meal was free of chemicals, raised on grass or on good soil.
The meal my lovely wife prepared for Father’s Day will do, as it was absolutely delicious and loaded with valuable nutrients. The menu contained:
Homemade Salmon Broth
This was made from wild salmon heads, stomachs, and collars, simmered for twelve hours. Loaded with the nutritional bounty of the sea, and delicious and invigorating.
Grassfed English Style Prime Rib (from Tender Grassfed Meat)
The king of roasts, a magnificent cut from U.S. Wellness Meats, full of grassfed goodness and nutrition, restoring, rejuvenating, delicious and satisfying beyond dreams.
Pan-Roasted Organic Yukon Gold Potatoes
These magnificent potatoes were cooked in the same pan as the prime rib, roasting in the delicious beef fat as the roast cooked, crisp on the outside, hot and tender on the inside, rich with the nutrients that come from good soil and grassfed fat.
Organic Carrots Cooked with Butter and Garlic
These deep orange carrots were naturally sweet, and savory, redolent with the wonderful combination of pastured butter and garlic, which are very healthy foods in their own right.
Crimini Mushrooms Sautéed in Butter
Butter and mushrooms are magic together, and the wonderful flavor of the deeply colored mushrooms combined perfectly with the pastured butter to make a simple, yet delicious masterpiece.
Roasted Organic Onions
These onions, rich with special nutrients, were roasted right along with the prime rib, and came out with a wonderful, caramelized, sweet and rich flavor.
Homemade Fermented Cilantro Salsa
This homemade condiment, made with cilantro, green onions, tomatoes and garlic fresh from the Farmers’ Market, provided the special nutrients of fermented raw vegetables, while perfectly complimenting the rich, deep taste of the prime rib.
Apricots in Season
These apricots, fresh from the Farmers’ Market, in season, smelled wonderful, tasted better than they smelled, contributed valuable nutrients, and were the perfect dessert for this magnificent meal.
Now, would you rather have my meal, or the one created by the English scientists?
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Traditional Heat Is Best for Cooking Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Traditional cast iron casserole is perfect for slow cooking.
There are two questions I often get about cooking grassfed meat.
The first question is “How do you cook grassfed meat in a microwave?â€
The answer to that one is very simple, I don’t.
The second question is “How do you cook grassfed meat in a slow cooker?â€
The answer is the same, but for very different reasons.
Why do I not use these two modern cooking methods? The main reason is that our ancestors never used them. They used heating methods that created heat similar to that created by modern grills, and gas and electric stoves. Since my cooking is completely based on ancestral methods, you cannot get the same results with microwaves or slow cookers. But there are also other, important reasons.
The Problem with Microwaves
Microwave ovens are a relatively modern invention, never used before the twentieth century. Their main advantage is that they are easy to use, and give quick results. Many people find them very convenient and a huge timesaver. Senior housing and apartments often have no conventional ovens, just microwaves. But that convenience comes at a price. A price I am not willing to pay.
Microwave ovens cook by heating from the inside out, unlike every other method of cooking food known to humanity. The heat starts at the center and moves outward, and has the effect of damaging and changing the cells that are heated. That process creates compounds never before seen in nature, known as radiolytic compounds. The process actually breaks and damages the cells while creating the compounds. Which means that our bodies have to deal with substances that are new to nature and humanity.
There is much controversy over the safety and effects of microwaved food. The Soviet Union banned microwaved food and microwaves in 1976, for safety reasons. The American government, the food industry, and the manufacturers of microwaves insist that microwaved foods are safe. But the government states that microwaves should not be used for heating baby formula. As always, when you have this kind of controversy, it is very difficult to know what is true, and we all have to make our own decisions. But this area was carefully researched by a Swiss scientist named Hans Hertel.
Hertel conducted a carefully controlled study which found that the blood of people eating microwaved food was changed in a negative way, one that could lead to illness. A Swiss industry organization went to court, and got a gag order which prevented Hertel from disclosing or stating some of the results of his research, so certain business interests would not be harmed.
I do not know for sure which side of the controversy is right. But the very fact that this controversy exists is enough to convince me that I do not want to take the chance. Another factor is that the microwave effect of cooking food from the inside out is totally new to humanity, and I cannot believe it would work well with traditional food.
The Problem with Slow Cookers
Slow cookers were originally marketed with the idea that they would be an easy way to replace the iron pot that used to simmer for many hours on your Grandmother’s stove, producing all kinds of wonderful, flavorful meals. In addition, slow cookers could be turned on when you left for work, and you would come home to a wonderful dinner, ready in the slow cooker. Again, very convenient.
However, no slow cooker is the equivalent of the legendary iron pot that simmered for many hours on the stove. If you want to recreate the effect of that famous pot, you can put a cast iron or enameled cast iron pot in a very low oven for many hours, and you will get a very similar effect.
Slow cookers are never made of cast iron, and they have a ceramic or aluminum inner pot, in which the food is cooked. Cast iron retains heat and becomes hotter as the cooking continues which causes the liquid in the pot to slowly reduce, concentrating flavors and developing them. The materials used in slow cookers do not do this, which often leads to watery sauces and a pronounced lack of flavor. While many slow cooker users have found ways to make delicious meals in slow cookers, it is not a traditional way of cooking and never was. I get wonderful results using cast iron pots, as shown in Tender Grassfed Meat.
But there is another good reason why I never use slow cookers, and that is the controversy over their safety. Many slow cookers release lead or cadmium into the food. Both of these substances are harmful to humans. However, the manufacturers maintain that the amount of these substances released into the food is safe, because it is within the amounts allowed by the FDA, I have a conceptual problem with accepting that any amount of poison is safe, especially heavy metals like lead which can build up in the body. But the FDA says it is safe. Others have claimed that the lead or cadmium is sealed within the material of the pot, and never leaches into the food. Some slow cookers use an aluminum liner, but I do not want to eat anything that could have leached aluminum in it. Independent tests have claimed that lead and cadmium have leached into the food cooked in various slow cookers. Once again, it is very hard to know what is true, or who to believe. Given the controversy, I do not want to take the chance, especially when the real thing, cast iron pots, produces food that is traditional and tastes much better.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Enjoy Grassfed Barbecue Without Fear
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Bison Porterhouse Steak, page 126, Tender Grassfed Barbecue.
Every barbecue season, the health “experts” tell us what not to eat to supposedly “lower the risk of cancer.” Usually the first item on their list can be predicted before the list comes out, “Do not eat red meat!”
I have a huge problem with this advice. These experts NEVER distinguish between factory red meat and grassfed red meat. Factory red meat is raised with the use of chemicals, fed unnatural feed sprayed with pesticides, and often bizarre feeds like chicken manure, donuts, and candy bars still in their wrappers. Grassfed meat is raised on green living grass, without the chemicals, and unnatural feed. The difference between these two types of meat is huge, as they are very different in their content and composition. The studies used by these experts for the basis of their opinion NEVER distinguish between factory meat and grassfed meat, treating them like the same substance. Since over ninety-eight percent of the red meat eaten in the U.S. is factory meat, those studies really only apply to factory meat, not grassfed.
Our ancestors barbecued red meat all the time. In fact, a huge portion of the meat enjoyed by humanity for thousands and thousands of years was cooked with fire. But until modern times, nearly all of this meat was grassfed.
Is Grassfed Meat Dangerous to Barbecue?
Every food has some element of risk, but I do not worry about barbecuing grassfed meat. As long as I use the traditional techniques described in my book, Tender Grassfed Barbecue, and as long as all the red meat I barbecue is grassfed or pastured—I feel fine.
The studies that demonize red meat and claim it increases cancer risk all have a huge flaw. Since all these studies are based on factory meat, they are not just testing meat. They are also testing the effect of the chemicals, growth hormones, and unnatural feed in the meat. Is the increased cancer risk found by these studies created by the meat, or by the chemical additives to the meat, or by the unnatural feed, or by the combination of some or all of these factors? No study has resolved this issue, and no study has addressed it. To the studies, red meat is all the same. A few recent studies have tried to differentiate between fresh red meat and processed meat. But even these studies do not distinguish between factory meat and grassfed meat.
The studies that have found that barbecuing red meat increases cancer risk also treat all meat the same. In addition, it appears that the meat was cooked by direct high heat, directly over the heat source, in all these studies. Most Americans use direct high heat when they barbecue.
So, in looking at these studies, we must ask—What causes the increased risk of cancer? Is it the meat? Or the chemical additives to the meat? Or the unnatural feed? Or the barbecuing methods? Or any combination of these?
There are no modern studies that address these questions directly. But there is an older study, one that I consider to be the most well researched, well reasoned, and valid nutritional study ever made—the research of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Dr. Price, a dentist and researcher, noticed that in each generation, his patients were sicker than their parents, and had worse teeth. Dr. Price suspected that the reason was nutritional, and spent many years traveling the world to study those peoples who were healthy and had great teeth. Dr. Price found that the peoples he studied, eating the diet of their ancestors, were free of the chronic diseases that plague modern cultures, and had perfect teeth. One of the diseases they did not have was cancer. And nearly all of these peoples barbecued grassfed meat. Some of them ate huge amounts of grassfed meat, often barbecued. So, based on Dr. Price’s research, eating barbecued grassfed and wild meat does not cause cancer.
In researching traditional barbecue methods, I learned that almost nobody barbecued meat directly over a very hot heat source, which is the most common barbecue method in the U.S., today. Our ancestors either cooked their food in front of, but never over a fire, or they placed their meat so high above a low fire that the meat would never get scorched or be touched by flames. This is completely consistent with modern studies that have found that substances believed to be carcinogenic are created by grilling meat directly over a hot heat source or by fat dripping directly over the heat source.
These risks can be avoided simply by barbecuing as our ancestors did, and never putting meat directly above a hot heat source. Interestingly enough, some of the experts also advise avoiding high heat when barbecuing. I trust the research of Dr. Price, which showed that people can eat large amounts of red, grassfed meat while remaining free of all cancer.
Should Meat Be Pre-Cooked Before Grilling?
Some of the experts advise that you partially cook all meats before barbecuing them. The theory is that the less time the meat is the barbecue, the safer it is. That conclusion is simply not supported by the studies which found that the substances believed to be carcinogenic were created by cooking over direct high heat. If you barbecue in a traditional manner, this problem is solved.
Our ancestors did not pre-cook meat and finish it on the barbecue. And they most certainly did not “nuke” the meat in a microwave, which some of the experts advise. In fact, I never use a microwave, not for any purpose. Microwaves heat food from the inside out, something that was never done in all the history of human cooking before. Some research has found that microwaving foods changes their very composition, in ways that have never occurred before. Not something that our ancestors ate and not something that I want to eat. And, to be honest, the very thought of “cooking” food with microwave radiation gives me the creeps. I would much rather stick with the kind of heat used by our ancestors.
Parboiling foods to be barbecued ruins the taste and texture, in my opinion. Properly barbecued grassfed meat is tender, with the savory wood smoke flavor that only real barbecue can give. The wood flavoring of barbecued meat takes time, and reducing this time by pre-cooking means less flavor.
Should Only Lean Meats Be Grilled?
The “safer barbecue” advice this year not only contains the traditional prohibition of all red meat, without differentiating between factory meat and grassfed meat, but also recommends what should be grilled. The selection does not excite me. They recommend skinless, boneless chicken breasts, and vegetables, and fish. All of these foods are low fat. It is true that some studies have found that fat dripping directly on the heat source is a factor in creating substances believed to be carcinogenic. But you do not need to eat low-fat meat to avoid this problem. All you have to do is not cook your food directly over the heat source.
The fat of grassfed animals is not only very different from the fat of factory animals—it adds enormous flavor, as well as vital nutrients. In fact, animal fat ranging from butter to suet to lard is a huge part of my barbecue cooking. Our ancestors used and cherished this natural fat, and used it extensively in every kind of cooking, including barbecue.
To me, barbecue means what it almost always has to our ancestors—meat. And I do not include boneless, skinless chicken breasts in my cooking, as they have been stripped of the very parts that give them the most flavor, namely, the skin and the bones. You can grill vegetables, if you like, but I have never done it. I would much rather barbecue grassfed meat.
Should Barbecued Meat Be Marinated?
Traditional peoples marinated the meat they barbecued, and/or basted it. The experts do advise marinating, and I agree with them—to a point. They emphasize marinades made almost entirely out of acidic ingredients such as wine, vinegar, or lemon juice, where my marinades, based on traditional combinations, always include a good amount of healthy fat. Too much acidic ingredients in a marinade will toughen grassfed meat. Our ancestors always used plenty of fat in their marinades and bastes—and so do I. This kind of marinade and/or baste not only may be beneficial, but makes the meat more tender and delicious.
I stopped barbecuing for awhile, being concerned with the studies connecting barbecue with the creation of carcinogens. I really missed it, so I started researching traditional barbecue. I was delighted to discover that the risk factors caused by the grilling process could be avoided by using traditional barbecue methods. I was also happy to discover that these methods worked perfectly with grassfed meats, being ideal for them. My research led to the discovery of many traditional and delicious marinades and flavor combinations. This research was the foundation of my cookbook, Tender Grassfed Barbecue, which is full of delicious recipes, based on tradition, and cooked with an easy method that avoids direct high heat.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Fight Back Friday, and Freaky Friday blog carnivals.
Grassfed Meat Gives Strength and Recovery
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Super-Tender Double Bison Chop, nicely browned on the outside, with a very rare interior.
When I was a child, I had an illustrated copy of an old story, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. The story tells of a young Dutch boy from a poor family, who is a great skater. More than anything, Hans wants to win a race that had a pair of silver skates as the grand prize. Hans wanted those skates more than anything. While Hans was preparing for the race, his father had a serious injury. The doctor (this was back in the days when doctors actually made house calls and treated poor people who could not afford them) said that only good food, including rich red meat, would enable Hans’ father to recover. But Hans’ family was too poor to afford meat. Hans won the race, and the silver skates. He then sold the skates he had wanted so much, and used the money to buy good food for his father, including beef. The father recovered from the good food and grassfed beef.
Most of the versions of the story today have the money used to pay for surgery, but in the version I had, meat was the key to healing. That story has always stuck with me.
The power of grassfed meat made an important change in my life recently. There was a very nasty illness going around, and I caught it a couple of weeks ago. Normally I do not catch anything, but I got this. I was not getting enough sleep at the time, and I am sure that was part of it. But I soon became sicker than I had been in thirteen years, with a very nasty, deep cough that fed on itself. There was one four-day period when I slept a total of seven hours. It was very difficult to eat. How can you use food to fight an illness if you have difficulty in eating?
I tried a number of things, various home remedies, sunbathing, sipping an ocean of broth, and prayer. The one thing I did not do was use doctors or medication. I have found them to be useless for this type of illness. Eventually I was able to stop the cough and the other symptoms. But I was totally, completely worn out. I was tired all the time, and did not want to do anything. My body ached all over, the way it used to feel after an afternoon of being pounded on a football field. Sleeping did not really seem to help. I was able to eat (though my appetite was greatly reduced), but I remained tired. This went on for day after day. Finally, my birthday came. We had a grassfed bison roast to celebrate, and I cooked it very rare, using the Super-Tender Double Bison Chop recipe in Tender Grassfed Meat. The meat was cooked so rare that the natural enzymes were not denatured. The very first bite I took of the tender red meat created a great hunger in me. My whole body was demanding more, more, more! I slowly and carefully ate slice after slice of the delicious, juicy meat. And I started to feel energy flowing back into my body. I started to feel good and energetic. By the time that meal was over, I was no longer tired. I awoke the next morning full of energy, and completely myself. I was totally well. I have since made sure to regularly eat some serving of very rare grassfed beef, and I am doing great.
So what happened? Almost all of the healthy peoples studied by Dr. Weston A. Price ate some of their meat raw. Raw meat has a number of enzymes that are deactivated if the meat is cooked beyond a certain temperature. There is an old saying in Germany that beef gives strength. And eating some raw meat is an old tradition in Germany. Many European and Native American cultures believed that eating meat would help healing. Based on these traditions, and my own experience, it is clear that there is something in raw or very rare grassfed bison and grassfed beef that can renew a tired and damaged body. I do not know exactly what it is. I just know that it worked a miracle for me.
What it actually did was give the natural functions of my body the nourishment they needed to restore my health and energy. Our bodies are amazing, and can heal almost anything if they get proper nutritional support.
Now, our government is totally against the eating of raw meat, and very rare meat, claiming it is unsafe. This is the same government that allows animals that are so sick that they cannot stand to be processed into meat, something no traditional society would ever do, unless they were starving. Obviously, the government intended these standards to apply to factory meat. I cannot stand to eat factory meat, anyway. But I personally feel fine if I am eating very rare beef or bison from healthy animals, raised and finished on grass. While I am not personally opposed to eating raw meat from healthy, grassfed beef, or bison, I have never been able to get myself to eat raw meat. But I love very rare grassfed beef and very rare grassfed bison. I am not advising anyone else to eat as I do, merely relating my experience. Everyone must decide for themselves.
And my experience was that eating very rare grassfed bison was exactly what my body needed to regain its normal energy and vitality.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Freaky Friday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Underground Wellness Appearance
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Tender Grassfed Meat by Stanley A. Fishman
Today, I will be interviewed on Sean Croxton’s fantastic show, Underground Wellness.
This will be a live interview, with questions from listeners. The show will begin at 5:00 pm, Pacific Daylight Savings Time. Here is the link that will get you to the show:
Sean Croxton is one of the best friends the real food movement ever had. Not only does he constantly raise awareness and educate people about real food on his show and other activities, but he has created the best slogan I have ever heard, which contains one of the most important truths anyone can know — JERF — Just Eat Real Food. If you do nothing else, to change your eating but that—just eat real food—you will almost certainly receive great benefits to your health, your energy, your mind, your immune system, your senses, your longevity, your joy of life, and so many other areas. Because, ultimately, we are what we eat. And our bodies need high quality real food to function well, not the factory junk that is destroying the health of the American people. Real food saved my life and enabled the natural functions of my body to fully restore my health. I found grassfed beef to be the final piece of the puzzle in restoring my health. My struggles in learning how to cook it lead to the writing of Tender Grassfed Meat, Tender Grassfed Barbecue, and this blog. So you can see why I am so passionate about this whole food issue, and want everyone to benefit from the blessings of real food.
But to get back to Sean, he not only gets the truth out there on his show, but he always manages to make it fun and entertaining. I am very happy and deeply honored to be on the show this afternoon. You are all invited to listen!
Update
The interview was a lot of fun and we got to discuss the newest Harvard “meat is doom” study along with how wonderful grassfed meat is. Here is a link to the recorded interview:
Tender Grassfed Meat with Stanley A. Fishman By Underground Wellness
Grassfed Goodness—One Roast, Many Meals
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
This grassfed beef stir-fry was made with organic shallots, onions, and Italian peppers.
The United Kingdom in the nineteenth century was perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. One of the ways in which the British people of the time enjoyed that wealth was to eat plenty of meat, often grassfed beef. Beef was relatively affordable and plentiful in England at that time, as opposed to the rest of Europe, where meat, especially beef, was a very rare treat.
Yet even the English middle and working classes had to watch their money, and they came up with a way to make beef go further.
They invented the tradition of the Sunday Roast. A large roast of beef would be roasted on Sunday, and would be used as the basis of meals for most of the rest of the week.
These meals would include cold-sliced meat, hash, curries, minced beef, broth, and meat pies, all from the same roast.
Contrary to popular belief, leftover beef can be wonderful when twice or even thrice cooked, with a very deep and wonderful flavor. A bigger roast will often taste better than a smaller roast, but as there are three people in our immediate family, we did not make large roasts unless we had company.
I decided to try reviving the tradition, but with a tastier selection of secondary dishes. This would also give me the excuse to make a large roast.
The results were delicious, and surprisingly frugal.
Sunday
We made a large center cut shoulder roast, about five and a half pounds. This cut is also known as cross rib in the western United States. The roast was suitably marinated, and roasted, until fairly rare in the middle. The hot, juicy meat was wonderful, and satisfying, with a more developed flavor that comes from cooking a bigger piece of meat. It was so satisfying that we had most of the roast left over.
Monday
I cut a large, single piece of the leftover roast and cooked it as a pot roast. The twice-cooked meat was so tender, with a wonderful deep flavor. It was fork tender, and no one would have thought it came from leftovers. It was very satisfying, and we had a fair amount of leftover pot roast and gravy.
Tuesday
I took more of the leftover roast, the part that was made very rare, and sliced it into thin pieces for stir-frying. They were marinated with an oriental style marinade, and stir-fried with delicious organic peppers, shallots, and onions from our favorite vegetable farm. You can see a photo of this wonderful meal at the top of this article. It tasted even better than it looks, and no one would have imagined it was made from leftovers.
Wednesday
I took some more of the leftover roast, cut it into small chunks, and made it into a stew with plenty of vegetables and Hungarian spices. It came out great, so tender and flavorful. Not like leftovers at all.
Thursday
I took the leftover pot roast, sliced it thin, and reheated it gently in the leftover gravy, enhanced with a sautéed onion and some more beef broth. Many traditional European recipes call for cooking a pot roast one day, and reheating it later. This is done so the flavor can develop in the refrigerator, and I must say that this reheated pot roast was over-the-top delicious, with a more complex and beefier flavor than the original roast. These slices were actually thrice cooked—first as a roast beef, second as a pot roast, and third as reheated pot roast slices.
At this point, there was only about a third of a pound of scraps, including some sinew, left from the various meals. They went into the freezer to become part of a future homemade broth.
By following the tradition of re-cooking the leftovers of a large roast, we had five wonderful meals, and some meat for soup. A complete success, moderate in cost, and absolutely delicious.
Tender Grassfed Meat contains a number of recipes for roasts, pot roasts, and stir fries. It is simple to modify one of the beef roast recipes for a larger roast, simply continue cooking at the lowest temperature in the recipe, until done to your taste. The pot roasts can be made from a large chunk of leftover roast. The stir-fries can be made from leftover rare or medium rare roast beef. The cooking instructions are the same, although a pot roast made from leftover beef may be ready sooner. Remember, when the fork goes in easy, the pot roast is ready.
There is a reason why something becomes a cooking tradition–it works!
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
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