Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
Frugal and Delicious: Traditional Ways to Stretch Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Ingredients for Traditional Burger Mix: ground grassfed beef from U.S. Wellness Meats; pastured eggs; and chemical-free sourdough spelt bread.
Many people who eat grassfed meat have trouble affording the higher cost. Grassfed meat is more expensive than factory meat, in a per pound cost. However, there are many ways to reduce the cost of grassfed meat, such as buying a whole, half, or quarter animal, joining a CSA, searching the websites of trusted providers for specials, making a good deal with a local farmer, and other similar methods. But there is another way to make grassfed meat feed more people and provide more meals, which was developed over the centuries in Europe and elsewhere. Add wholesome and less expensive ingredients that literally enable you to stretch the meat, while adding a delicious taste and texture. Done right, these dishes can actually taste better than a dish made up only of meat.
The ordinary European had a hard time getting meat, so they made the most of it. Meat scraps were made into stews combined with many different vegetables. Chopped or cubed meat was often added to grains such as wheat, rye, oatmeal, rice, kasha, and barley. Sausages often contained a large number of non-meat ingredients such as grains, fat, sometimes blood, and sometimes all three. Onions, chopped, or sliced, or pureed, were added to almost every meat dish other than roasts or steaks, and often to those dishes as well. Herbs, fresh and dried, were added for flavor, as were spices such as pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and others. Spices were usually added in very small amounts, because spices were expensive. The use of small amounts meant that the spices did not overwhelm the meat, but blended with the other ingredients to create a wonderful taste.
Ground meat is usually the lowest priced form of grassfed meat available, especially in bulk. Traditional European cuisines had many recipes for ground meat, almost always stretched by the addition of other ingredients, both for economy and taste. The added ingredients often included eggs, onions, milk, cream, stale bread or bread crumbs, small amounts of various spices, and always some of the fat of the animal. Ground meat was cooked in the form of meatballs, meatloaves, as part of the filling for pies, in sausages, as part of a filling for all kinds of pastries, and in dumplings. These methods and flavors work very well with modern grassfed beef. Adding traditional ingredients to ground meat can result in a hamburger, for example, that is much tastier than an all meat burger.
I want to make a distinction between the traditional use of stretching meat with other ingredients, and the modern factory food method of making more money by adding ingredients such as soy protein, water, and all kinds of other filler materials to ground meat before the meat is sold. The traditional practice of adding other ingredients to ground meat occurred only when the meat was actually cooked, not when it was bought. Any ground meat I buy is 100% grassfed and grass finished, with no ingredients except meat and meat fat.
The following is my version of a typical European meat mixture for hamburgers. There are hundreds of different versions. This one contains many of the typical ingredients used to stretch ground meat in Europe and is delicious. It is intended for grassfed hamburgers. The mixture can be grilled, sautéed in a frying pan, or cooked under a broiler. It should be cooked thoroughly, with medium rather than high heat. Stale bread does not appeal to me, so I have substituted fresh bread crumbs.
Traditional Burger Mix
1 pound grassfed ground beef
2 slices chemical free sprouted or sourdough bread of your choice
1 small organic onion, very finely chopped
2 pastured or free range organic eggs
1 teaspoon coarse unrefined sea salt, crushed
1/2 teaspoon organic freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground organic cloves
- Chop the bread into cubes, and crumb in a blender.
- Break the eggs into a small bowl, and beat lightly with a fork until well combined.
- Add the crumbs, eggs, and all other ingredients to a large bowl, and mix until well combined. Traditionally, this would be done with your clean hands, but it is a sticky experience, and it can be hard to wash the mixture off your hands. A large spoon is a very practical alternative.
- Form into hamburgers and cook, or refrigerate until just before cooking. This delicious mixture should be used within 24 hours of being made.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Read more frugal real food blogs at Pennywise Platter Thursday at the Nourishing Gourmet.
Two Simple Rules for Good Nutrition
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
These beautiful pastured eggs were raised by my dear friend Sheri. Note the beautiful orange yolks full of nutrition.
Understanding nutrition may seem hopeless. There are hundreds of books, thousands of articles, thousands of studies, dozens of conflicting theories, and endless advertisements. All this information can be very confusing. But you don’t have to know all of it. I enjoy the benefits of great nutrition by following two simple rules.
Rule Number 1: Eat only the natural, whole, and unmodified foods humankind has been eating for thousands of years.
Rule Number 2: Eat only those natural, whole, and unmodified foods which have been raised, processed, and prepared by the methods humankind has used for thousands of years.
Following these rules has literally taken me from constant chronic illness to robust good health. Here is why I follow these rules:
Rule Number 1: Eat Only the Natural, Whole, and Unmodified Foods Humankind Has Been Eating for Thousands of Years
Our bodies know how to digest and handle natural molecules, especially those that humankind has been eating for thousands of years or longer. For thousands of years, our bodies have adapted to digest these molecules, and this knowledge is passed down in our genes, and in the very makeup of our bodies. We are born with it.
When we eat foods made up only of natural substances that our bodies are programmed to digest, our bodies and organs know exactly what to do. The nutrients are extracted from the foods and used to nourish, fuel, and regenerate our bodies. The waste and toxins are identified and removed from the body.
Unfortunately, now humans eat foods where the very molecules have been modified into something no human body has ever been programmed to deal with. This started a few hundred years ago with refined sugar and refined flour, increased enormously in the 20th century, and is very common today, with all kinds of hydrogenated foods, trans fats, many thousands of artificial laboratory-made and/or modified foods and chemicals, artificial fertilizers, pesticides, livestock raised on feed that is not part of their natural diet, the use of artificial hormones and antibiotics, and other unnatural foods.
Our bodies literally do not know what to do with these new molecules, which do not exist in nature and are created by technology.
Rule Number 2: Eat Only those Natural, Whole, and Unmodified Foods which Have Been Raised, Processed, and Prepared by the Methods Humankind Has Used for Thousands of Years
The knowledge of how to raise, process, and prepare food has been passed down over many thousands of years. This knowledge represents the collective experience of many millions of our ancestors, who learned over time how best to raise, process, and prepare food. They knew a lot more that they are given credit for.
For example, they did not have refrigeration, but they knew how to preserve food, by natural fermentation, smoking, drying, salting, and many other methods, including cold storage and freezing when permitted by the weather. These methods often increased the nutritional value of the food.
Our ancestors knew how to process foods so the nutrients were available, often by soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and other such methods.
Our ancestors knew how to cook foods so as to preserve and enhance the nutritional value, and how to combine different foods into nourishing meals.
Our bodies adapted to the traditional methods of raising, processing, and preparing foods over thousands of years, and know how to digest such foods.
Modern methods of raising, processing, and preparing food change the very molecular structure of the food, once again giving us molecules that our bodies do not know how to digest, or what to do with.
Even the most natural and traditional foods will have their molecular structure and content changed by modern methods such as: cooking with very high heat; using cookware made of space age materials like aluminum and the metals in non-stick cookware; irradiation; microwaving; hydrogenation; modification; homogenization; preservatives; artificial colors and flavors; and many other modern methods of dealing with food. Again, our bodies do not know what to do with these artificially changed molecules.
The result of following these two rules is that you know what food to put into your body and your body knows what to do with the food you put into it.
How I Follow These Rules
Learning how to follow these rules is simple, though it is a lot of work. The blessings of good nutrition are more than worth the effort. And it becomes easier and easier, once you are used to it.
I rely on two cookbooks in following these rules. Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, the magnificent work by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig, provides information and recipes on just about everything except how to cook grassfed meat. Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat, my cookbook, provides information on grassfed meat and how to cook it, in detail. Yes, I do use my own cookbook.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.
Energizing Egg Recipe: A Nutritional Powerhouse
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Ultimate Energizing Eggs
This just might be the most nutrient-dense egg dish I know.
This recipe was inspired by low-carb advocate Jimmy Moore. Jimmy is on a very unusual diet. He is eating only eggs, butter, and cheese. For each egg he eats, he has 1 tablespoon of butter and can have up to 1 ounce full fat cheese. Jimmy is using pastured eggs from a local farmer, pastured butter, and raw cheese. The amount of nutrients in each of these ingredients is huge, and combining them enhances their value even more. This diet has ignited a storm of controversy on the Internet, but Jimmy is fine with it. He has lost over 20 pounds in two weeks, and has been able to give up artificially sweetened diet soda for the first time in six years. He is full of energy and feels great. Jimmy calls this diet “eggfest.â€
I should mention that this diet was specifically designed for Jimmy by health care professionals, and he is being carefully monitored while on it. Obviously, this is a short term diet, not a permanent one.
I am not recommending or condemning this diet. I am doing fine with the Weston A. Price Foundation diet, and I am not about to give up my grassfed meat and fat.
But I do recommend this egg dish, which combines all the elements of Jimmy’s eggfest to create a nutritional powerhouse. This is a wonderful dish for breakfast, and I find it really energizes me. And it tastes very good indeed. The stirring is very important as it really combines all the ingredients well. It may look like ordinary scrambled eggs, but wait until you taste it!
Here is a link to my podcast interview with Jimmy Moore:
Stanley Fishman Cooks Grassfed Meats the RIGHT Way!
Ultimate Energizing Eggs (The Jimmy Moore)
4 pastured eggs
4 ounces raw cheddar cheese, full fat
4 tablespoons pastured butter
- Chop the cheese into very small pieces.
- Break the eggs into a bowl and mix well with a fork.
- Add the cheese to the eggs and mix well.
- Heat the butter in a medium sized skillet over medium heat until the butter melts.
- Add the egg/cheese mixture to the butter and start stirring the mixture in a clockwise direction with a fork as it cooks.
- Continue to cook and stir until the eggs set. They should set within a few minutes and look just like the photo of the recipe.
Serve and ENJOY!
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival for March 31, 2010 at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
« Previous Page