Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
The Butchers Tale, or Is Real Food Worth It?
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Cuts of grass fed meat.
I ran into one of my favorite butchers yesterday. He was trained the old way, when butchering was an art. He knows a lot about all kinds of meat. He can cut steaks and roasts that are so beautiful that they are like a fine painting.
He had just finished reading Tender Grassfed Barbecue. He said that he agreed with everything I wrote about nutrition. He could see it in the meat, over the many years he was a butcher. He had wondered for a long time why grain-finished meat looked so different, and was so full of blocky streaks of fat, rather than the fine marbling he looked for in a superior piece of meat. He said that he believed that most conventional foods were not that nutritious. And then he let out a shocker.
“I am still going to eat the conventional food. I know the grassfed meat and real food is much better for me, but it is too much trouble to change. It would just be too much work. And the better food is too expensive.”
I have heard words like these from so many people. It is too hard, too much trouble, and too expensive, to make the switch to real food.
Having reached the point where we eat nothing but real food and grassfed meat, I can tell you this:
- It is very hard to make the switch.
- It is a lot of trouble.
- It is more expensive.
And, many people will think you are nuts.
Is it worth it?
Absolutely. The blessings of good health and mental clarity that I have received from changing my diet are worth all the trouble, expense, and even being made fun of or being thought of as a nut. It has been like being reborn.
Health Is Much Better than Convenience
Many years ago, when I was twenty, my Dad asked me if I ever felt good when I woke up in the morning, full of energy, eager for the challenges and pleasures of the day. I honestly told him that I never did. I did not even know what he was talking about. When I woke up, I was discouraged, annoyed, short of breath, and in pain.
I thought I was eating a good diet, because the FDA inspected all food, and would not allow any food that was not good to be sold. I ate only conventional foods sold by big supermarkets, because they were cheaper, and “just as good.”
I thought I was well nourished, because I was big and looked powerful. And because I followed my doctor’s advice on what to eat.
I thought I was getting the best medical care in the world.
So why was I so sick, exhausted, and miserable?
I am convinced I was suffering from severe malnutrition, like most Americans. And I did not even know it.
Because it is easy to find, buy, and use conventional food, I had convenience. But I did not have health.
Making the Change
Eventually, things deteriorated to the point where the medical profession had no help to give me, and told me so. Rather than give up and die as predicted, I got furious. I got determined. I used my skills as a research attorney to find another way.
What I found was the website of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and the priceless information on their website enabled me not only to save my life, but become healthy for the very first time as an adult.
I knew I had to switch to real food. It was difficult. I had to drop most of the food items I used to buy. I thought I loved many of them, though in reality, I was addicted. I had to learn a whole new way of cooking. And we spent much more money on food than we were used to. And I had to deal with the fact that some of the foods I needed could not be bought, only made. Making homemade broth, especially skimming it, and straining it, seemed so hard. Learning how to cook grassfed meat was hard, especially when I kept ruining it and there was nothing I could find that taught me how to cook it. I wrote Tender Grassfed Meat to make it easier for others to learn how to cook this wonderful meat. Making my own fermented foods was hard, at first. And I really missed the factory foods I was addicted to.
But once I learned how to make broth, cook grassfed meat, and make fermented foods, it became familiar and easy. Still time consuming, but easy.
I learned how to find and buy real food, which became fun. And the extra expense became easier to accept, as we adjusted our spending priorities, realizing that nothing we can buy is as important as the good food that keeps us healthy. We also learned how to find sales and bargains, which really helped.
The addiction to the factory foods began to fade, as we ate much better real food alternatives.
Many of our family members, friends, and acquaintances thought we were too picky. Some got offended when I would not eat the conventional food they liked.
The convincing argument, the one that convinced me that real food was worth all the time, expense, and trouble, is this—I became much healthier. When properly nourished, the natural functions of my body kept me healthy, without any drugs. My mind became much sharper, and the occasional short term memory problems disappeared. The quality of my life became so much better, in every way.
Now I wake up each morning eager for the challenges and pleasures of the day, full of energy, and so happy to be here. I finally understand what my Dad was talking about, so many years ago.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
The Traditional American Right to Eat Good Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
photo credit: Gerry Dincher
We live in a time when the eating of all meat, any meat, is under attack. We are constantly told we must eat less meat, especially less red meat, or should eat no meat at all. We are given many reasons, which are false when it comes to grassfed meat. The attacks on meat never distinguish between the pure, grassfed meat of eaten by our ancestors, and the very different factory meat that eaten by most people.
Yet restrictions on eating meat are not new, and go back thousands of years. In most human societies after the advent of agriculture, meat eating and hunting were heavily restricted. Only the ruling classes and some of their servants were able to get enough. Before the founding of the United States of America, this was still true for most of the world, including Europe.
While most people think of well known American freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, most never think of a freedom that is just as traditional and possibly even more important—the right to eat enough good meat.
The Old Restrictions on Meat, and the American Difference
In Europe, most people ate very little meat. The policies of the governments prohibited most people from hunting, as all game was considered to belong to the crown or the nobility. People who killed a rabbit to feed their hungry family were guilty of the crime of “poaching,” and were often executed for that “crime.” While peasants and farmers would often raise animals, they would keep them mainly for milk. The surplus animals would usually be sold so the peasants could pay the high rents and taxes to the nobles and other landowners. In fact, in Ireland, the pigs raised by families were known as “the gentleman who pays the rent.”
The result was that most Europeans had to survive on a diet consisting mainly of grains, vegetables, seasonal fruits, with some dairy products and some fish. The result was a population so stunted and malnourished that a man of 5 feet 4 inches was considered tall, even into the nineteenth century.
Some of these people immigrated to the British, French, and Spanish colonies in North and South America. There were very few nobles and rich people there, especially in the British colonies. But there was a huge supply of wild game, and no one to restrict hunting. The early settlers learned a lot about hunting from the Native Americans, who were expert hunters, and much taller, stronger, and healthier than the first European immigrants. Anyone who wanted to hunt could, and meat immediately became a huge part of the colonial diet. In addition to wild game, pigs and cattle were imported, and quickly thrived on the almost unlimited grazing of the new lands, multiplying in huge numbers. Keeping animals for meat was cheap and easy, and these immigrants were able to eat their fill of good, grassfed and pastured meat for the first time.
The Benefits of Good Meat.
The research of Dr. Weston A. Price established the fact that people need animal foods, especially animal fats, to thrive and be healthy, and grassfed and pastured meat are perfect animal foods. The benefit of these foods was shown by the history of the United States.
The population of the English colonies in North America exploded, as people thrived on the meat-heavy diet. A number of people immigrated to these colonies just because they heard that even poor people could afford meat there. In fact, the diaries of immigrants, even in the early twentieth century, reveal that one of the most important motivations for moving to the Americas was the ability to afford and get good meat.
Not only did people live longer, but they were taller, stronger, healthier, and more independent. British visitors to the thirteen colonies were astonished at the height, strength, and health of the Americans, who often towered a foot or more above their English relatives. The genetics were the same, the difference was in the diet, and the Americans ate huge amounts of good, natural meat. A diet that only the wealthy and privileged could enjoy in England.
Good meat and fat nourish the brain, and these tall, strong people were very independent minded, would not just do what they were told, and took pride in thinking for themselves and making their own decisions. “Yankee ingenuity” became a byword in Europe. Eventually, these well nourished people founded the United States of America, defeated the greatest military power on earth in a bloody, yet completely successful revolution, and founded one of the best systems of government the world had yet seen. A system that had many flaws, yet allowed more freedom and personal responsibility than any system existing in Europe at the time.
These ideas were exported to Europe, and eventually resulted in the freeing of most Europeans, giving them a degree of freedom that they never had before.
The right to eat good meat has been a basic American freedom, and it is a right that everyone on earth deserves to have.
Switching to grassfed meat, using the grazing practices pioneered by Allan Savory, would greatly increase the supply of good meat and increase the amount of grasslands and water throughout the world.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
Study Does Not Prove that Grassfed Red Meat Increases Diabetes Risk
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Healthy grassfed steak.
Every few weeks or so, someone publishes a study “proving” that eating red meat does something horrible to us. I consider all these studies to be invalid, especially when it comes to eating grassfed meat.
Because none of them, not even one of them, ever considers the immense difference between eating grassfed meat, the natural food of nature, and factory meat, which comes from animals eating an unnatural diet. Factory animals have been made to grow at an unnaturally fast rate by growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids, and other unnatural methods.
All studies on the effect of eating red meat which do not differentiate between grassfed meat and factory meat are invalid, as to grassfed meat. The latest study purporting to show that red meat is bad for us has many flaws, and proves nothing.
Grassfed Meat Is Very Different than Factory Meat
Grassfed Meat is perhaps the oldest food of humankind, and is ideal for our bodies. This is the meat you get from herbivorous animals eating nothing but their natural food, green living grass, though they may need to eat hay, which is dried grass, in the winter.
Factory meat is the meat you get from animals who start out on grass, but are finished with a stay in the feedlot, a stay that usually lasts at least 120 days. While in the feedlot, the animals eat no grass and do not graze. They are fed grains like GMO corn and GMO soy. Neither one of these substances are the natural feed of cattle. Other items are often fed to these cattle, including candy bars, restaurant plate waste, bakery waste, the sludge left over from making alcohol and ethanol, and many other substances which are not the natural food of cattle. In addition to the unnatural feed, factory cattle are usually given growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids, and other chemicals which cause them to grow much faster than normal.
The difference in diet creates a great difference in the meat. Grassfed meat is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and CLA, but these nutrients are reduced by each day spent in the feedlot. See Health Benefits of Grass-fed Products.
The meat of grassfed animals is much less watery than factory meat, and should be cooked differently, as described in my cookbook, Tender Grassfed Meat.
Well over 98% of the meat sold in this country is factory meat.
Because of these differences, no study that does not differentiate between grassfed meat and factory meat means anything, when it comes to the effect of grassfed meat.
This Study Does Not Prove that Eating More Red Meat Increases the Risk of Diabetes
First of all, the author of the study admits that it does not prove that eating more red meat increases the risk of diabetes! (Eating Red Meat Tied to Higher Diabetes Risk)
Second, the study has many flaws:
- It only cover doctors and nurses, not the general public.
- It asks the participants to remember how much red meat they ate over several four year periods. This is very unreliable. Do you remember each time you ate red meat over the last four years and what the size of the serving was? Of course not.
- The difference found by this questionable data was insignificant, and means nothing.
- 2 in 300 of the participants who reported increasing their consumption of red meat got Type 2 Diabetes.
- 1 in 300 of the participants who reported not increasing their consumption of red meat got Type2 Diabetes.
- The risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes for those who reported increasing red meat consumption was 2/3rds of one percent.
- The risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes for those who did not report increasing red meat consumption was 1/3 of one percent.
- The difference was an increase in risk of 1/3 of one percent. This is the real, absolute risk.
- By the rules of statistics, this difference is so far within the margin of error that it means nothing.
- The study did not differentiate between grassfed and factory meat.
- So contrary to the news headlines, this study does not prove that increasing red meat consumption increases the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Especially when it comes to grassfed meat.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
We Need to Know More About Our Meat, Not Less
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued regulations in 2009 that required retailers to disclose the country of origin on the labels of meat products. This gave U.S. consumers some real information about where their meat comes from.
It also upset Canada and Mexico. They do not want U.S. meat products labeled with the country of origin. In fact, they filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, which ruled against the U.S. And where was the U.S. meat packing industry? Right on the side of Canada and Mexico, of course. The big meat packing industry does not want us to know where our meat comes from either.
The USDA has proposed new regulations that would provide us with even more information on the labels of meat products. This is a very good thing. But Canada and Mexico are threatening to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products if the new system is used, or the old system is continued.
Why do these nations not want us to know if a product contains their meat? Are they not proud of the meat they produce and sell?
Apparently not.
I contend that we have an absolute right to know what country our meat comes from, and much, much more about it. It is all about freedom. Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. meat packing industry have no right to deny us this information.
My Experience with Canadian Meat
In 1983, I visited Canada as a tourist. I still remember walking into Safeway as a consumer, and seeing some absolutely beautiful meat. A beautiful prime rib roast caught my eye. It was two ribs, and much smaller than a comparable American roast. I cooked it simply. I was astonished at how good it was, far better than American beef. Tender, with incredible flavor. If meat from Canada had been available at my local store, I would have bought nothing else after this wonderful experience. That is the kind of meat Canada used to produce.
Many years later, beef labeled as being from Canada appeared in local stores, and I eagerly bought some. It did not look any different from U.S. beef, but I was excited to get it. I was very disappointed. The meat tasted the same as U.S. factory meat. Canada had adopted the U.S. factory meat model. A great tradition of raising wonderful beef was thrown away for short-term corporate profit. That was a shame. There is no way I will ever eat factory meat again, no matter where it comes from.
While there are some wonderful grassfed Canadian ranchers, their meat is not exported to the U.S., as far as I know.
The Glory of Mexican Beef
I have not had meat that I know comes from Mexico, but I know the history of the Mexican expertise with cattle. Mexican vaqueros were experts in raising great cattle. They founded the huge California cattle industry, one of the most successful in the world when California was part of Spain, and later, Mexico. When the king of Hawaii wanted experts to teach his people how to raise and manage cattle, he hired three vaqueros from Mexico to teach his people, which they did. They shared much knowledge with the Americans who settled the west. I know butchers raised in Mexico who have great knowledge about fine beef, and how to raise it and recognize it. I fear that the meat exported to the U.S. from Mexico follows the U.S. Big Ag factory model, rather than the traditions of Mexico, which is another shame.
The Icelandic Experience
Iceland, rather than trying to hide the origin of its lamb, proudly proclaims it. Many Americans are willing to pay very high prices for lamb from Iceland, which is grassfed, raised in a traditional manner, and has wonderful taste and tenderness.
Canada and Mexico Should Learn from Iceland
Rather than trying to hide the origin of meat from U.S. consumers, I contend that Canada and Mexico should raise and export better meat—grassfed meat. Meat raised on the great natural forage of each nation. Meat they can be proud of. In fact, if they adopt and promote the methods of Allan Savory they will preserve and improve their grasslands and water courses, while raising excellent beef. They should give up the American factory model, which produces meat through chemicals, hormones, and unnatural feeds. I challenge them to return to the tradition of their ancestors, and produce real meat that is so good that Americans will flock to buy it. If Canada and Mexico produce meat of that quality, the label will become an advertisement of quality, rather than a handicap.
In the meantime, kindly stop interfering with our right to know where our meat comes from!
And I want to thank the United States Department of Agriculture for actually protecting our right to know what country our food comes from, and requiring even more labeling information.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
Why I prefer Charcoal Barbecues for Grassfed Meat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Fragrant charcoal smoke rises.
When I think barbecue, I think about the magic of wood and charcoal, of fragrant smoke, of the heavenly smell of meat roasting in front of a charcoal fire. Yet most people have gas barbecues.
I was faced with a choice when I wrote Tender Grassfed Barbecue. Should I write it for charcoal barbecues, or gas barbecues, or both?
Writing it for both would give me the widest audience, and the most sales. Yet I chose to write it for charcoal only, though I did include a small section on how you could use a gas barbecue.
Why? Because our ancestors used wood coals, and 100 percent hardwood charcoal. I always try to honor tradition in my books, and there is no tradition in gas grilling. The traditional fuel is wood burned down to coals, or 100% hardwood charcoal. And it tastes so much better.
The Tradition of Cooking with Fire
Our ancestors cooked a great deal of their meat in front of fires. The fires were usually made of wood burned down to coals, or 100 percent wood charcoal, which has been used for thousands of years. The wood and the charcoal give a distinct and glorious flavor to barbecued meat, and have other cooking benefits that you do not get from gas.
I also like starting a fire, controlling it, adjusting the heat by how I adjust the vents, and adding flavor to the charcoal with wood and herbs. I enjoy looking at the coals, judging when they are just right to begin cooking.
I love the smell of meat roasting in front of charcoal, which mingles with the glorious smells of the fire to make my mouth water in anticipation of the joys to come.
And I love the flavor that comes only with the use of wood or charcoal, or both.
No gas grill can provide these experiences, though it is possible to get some wood taste into meat by using smoking chips with a gas grill.
And I believe that cooking with wood and charcoal adds something special to the meat, something that may even improve its digestive and nutrient qualities, since humans have been cooking this way since the beginning. I have no scientific proof of this, but I feel in my heart that it is true.
Many people who use gas barbecues talk about how they are much more convenient. But cooking with charcoal can also be very easy and convenient, as advances in barbecue technology has made it so much easier. I have developed a system, using a chimney barbecue starter, a drip pan, a meat thermometer, and a covered kettle grill, that is very easy to use and makes the most delicious barbecue I have ever tasted. This system is at the heart of Tender Grassfed Barbecue.
Starting the fire, controlling the temperature, avoiding flare-ups, and cooking the meat is very easy with this system, and I use it most days when the weather and the law allows.
And a little extra effort is so rewarding, in taste, in the pleasure of mastering fire, in the wonderful smells, and, best of all, in the delicious food it produces, which I love to eat.
Gas Barbecues Do Not Have the Magic of Charcoal
First of all, I have a confession to make. I have never used a gas barbecue. I have had friends with gas barbecues test my ideas on how to add some barbecue flavor, and have tasted the successful results.
But I have never used one. Not even once. That said, I respect the right of everybody to use the method of barbecue they prefer. And I have tasted a fair amount of barbecue cooked with gas. Some of it was good, but all of it was lacking, in my opinion. And what it lacked was the magic of wood and charcoal.
In my opinion, there is something magical about cooking with wood and charcoal, the qualities and tastes and textures it creates, which are like no others. And the smell, the wonderful, heavenly smell that makes my mouth water and gets me hungry in a way that no other form of cooking has ever done.
Finally, grassfed meat, my favorite food in all the world, and charcoal cooking were made for each other, being perhaps the oldest food of mankind, cooked in the most traditional way. This union of fuel and meat, when done right, appeals to a taste that seems to be coded into our very genes.
People have been eating meat cooked with fire for a very long time, since the beginning. People have only been using gas for barbecue since the twentieth century.
For these reasons, barbecue means wood and charcoal, to me.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Cattle Should Eat Grass, Not Garbage
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
photo credit: spencer77
Cattle have eaten grass and meadow plants for most of human history. These plants are the natural diet of cattle, and they thrive on it. Cattle eating their natural diet of grass (or eating hay in the winter when forage is scarce or impractical) produce the most nutritious and oldest food of humankind—grassfed meat.
Meat from cattle fed their natural diet of grass and meadow plants is full of nutrients that our bodies have adapted to use over the long years. Why would anyone want to mess with this perfect food?
The answer is simple—money. Producers can save a lot of time and money by using chemicals and drugs to increase the growth rate of cattle, and by feeding them grains and industrial byproducts.
Industrial byproducts that would otherwise be thrown out—as garbage.
Cattle should eat grass, not garbage.
The Prevalent Use of Industrial Byproducts in Feed
While all cattle start out eating grass, they are finished in different ways, usually in a feedlot. This period is usually at least ninety days, and often more. There is no grazing in a feedlot, and no living grass.
Most Americans are totally unaware of what is fed to finish most cattle. They are told that conventional beef is “corn fed”. This is only partly true. What is also largely unknown is the fact that corn and other grains are not the natural food of cattle, and cause the composition of their meat to be different than that of grassfed cattle. What is not publicized is the other things fed to conventional cattle.
These include substances which are industrial byproducts of the food industry. This includes the sludge left over from making soybean oil, the sludge left over from making canola oil, in fact the many sludges left over from making almost any vegetable oil. It includes the sludge left over from making beer and whisky, and other distilled beverages. These sludges, which used to be thrown out as garbage, are used to make feed for cattle, and sometimes food for humans, in the case of soy sludge. Most of these sludges contain chemical residues from processing, and most of them are GMO. In addition to this industrial sludge, cattle are often fed expired candy bars and bakery goods, loaded with sugar and other sweeteners, and chemicals. These expired goods are often served to the cattle when still in their plastic wrappers. Another product used to make feed for cattle is restaurant plate waste, which would otherwise also be thrown out as garbage.
The government says it is safe to feed these substances to cattle, so it must be safe. But safe does not mean ideal, or even desirable.
In my opinion, garbage should be thrown out, not fed to cattle.
The Blessings of Grass Feeding
Cattle have been fed grass and meadow plants, and dried grass, for most of human history. Eating rich, living grass gives many beneficial qualities to the meat and fat of cattle, providing invaluable nutrients including an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, CLA, and many others. These advantages diminish with each day in the feedlot, as the cattle are fed substances which are not their natural diet. See Health Benefits of Grass-fed Products.
Science has not discovered everything about nutrition, and new things are constantly being discovered. I believe that there are other nutrients in grassfed cattle which have not been discovered yet, which are also beneficial. What I do know is that humankind ate cattle raised on grass and meadow plants for most of history, and found the meat and fat of these grassfed animals to be a wonderful food.
I know from my own experience that nothing energizes and restores me like grassfed meat and fat, the favorite food of our ancestors.
Grassfed meat is also much tastier than industrial meat, if it is cooked properly. I know how to cook it, and it is my favorite food, for taste, nutrition, and feeling satisfied after eating.
Which is why I say that cattle should be fed grass, not garbage.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
The Goodness of Grassfed Meat and Real Food
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
The deep orange color of the yolks shows that these are pastured eggs, rich with nutrients.
Grassfed meat and real food are more expensive, and much harder to get than factory food. Why should we pay the higher cost? Why go to the considerable trouble of finding real food and quality grassfed meat?
The answer is simple, yet profound.
- Because it makes me feel so much better.
- Because it enables the natural functions of my body to function better, keeping me healthy, with every part working well, from mind to toes.
- Because it tastes so good, and makes me feel so satisfied.
- Because eating properly prepared grassfed meat and real food makes me happy and content.
In a world that sells convenience above all else, it is important to remember that easy is not always best. Quality really matters, especially when it comes to food.
Good Health
Our bodies were not designed or evolved to live on pills and supplements, or on food raised with chemicals that did not even exist until they were invented in a lab. Humanity has eaten grassfed meat and real food for most of our history, and our bodies have adapted to use this wonderful fuel.
It is not just the individual nutrient that matters, it is the combination of nutrients, many of which have yet to be discovered. When we eat a balanced traditional diet of real food and grassfed meat, we need not worry about whether we are getting good nutrition that our bodies can easily absorb and use—because we are.
Factory foods raised with chemicals, GMOs, foods that have been irradiated, foods with chemical additives, are all new to humanity, and are different from the foods that have nourished us since the beginning.
How do we know if we are well nourished? We feel good, clear, with lots of energy. We experience a great deal of satisfaction and contentment. There is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction that comes after eating a good meal of real food, that can never come from eating factory food.
The chemicals they add to factory food can make it taste good, and can make us crave it, but it does not satisfy. In fact, one of the telltale signs of factory food is that you can eat a great deal of it and never be satisfied, always craving more. That is why people will eat whole quarts of factory ice cream, drink a gallon or more of factory soft drinks in a day, eat huge quantities of candy, and still be hungry.
With real food and grassfed meat, you eat, and your body knows when you have had enough. Then the desire to eat ends, and you enjoy the wonderful satisfaction that only real food can bring.
Better Taste
Real food and grassfed meat, properly cooked with traditional ingredients and methods, tastes so good it is hard to describe. The smell and taste of a grassfed beef roast cooked over smoldering charcoal is good beyond belief, as are countless other traditional dishes.
And it is not hard to cook this kind of food to the point where it is wonderful. It is not complicated. If you have great ingredients, you can enjoy wonderful, tender grassfed meat, and utterly delicious real food, with just a few ingredients and simple cooking methods.
Two days ago, we had a grassfed beef roast cooked in front of a hardwood charcoal fire, seasoned with no more than three ingredients. Cooking it was simplicity itself, being just a matter of a very simple marinade, timing, and adjusting the temperature of the fire by adjusting the vents once. Yet this beef was so good, so delicious, absolutely mouth-watering as it came off the grill with that heavenly aroma that only barbecued meat can have.
Yesterday, we had a pastured pork roast, marinated with a traditional combination of four ingredients, then roasted in the oven with one change of temperature. We sliced it thin, and enjoyed the incredible flavor and tenderness of the meat, enhanced by the traditional spicing. This meat was so good it was hard to imagine anything better, and most of the dinner conversation involved praising the goodness of the pork.
Yet, when we had enough, in both of those meals, the desire to eat ended, and we experienced the wonderful sensation of satisfaction.
My cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue, contain detailed instructions on how to cook wonderful grassfed meat—the easy way.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
Let Them Eat Grass
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
photo credit: Jeff Pang  Grassfed sheep thriving in rocky pastures.
Yet another arm of the United Nations is demanding that we stop eating meat, “to save the planet.”
It is valid to be concerned about artificial fertilizers, which have caused great harm. But the UN solution, to stop eating meat, is, to be polite, nonsense.
The UN Scientists reason that eighty percent of artificial fertilizers are used to grow crops fed to meat animals. Thus, they think, if we stop eating meat, we will use less artificial fertilizers. But the truth is that if we stop eating animal foods, we will all suffer from severe malnutrition, and the myriad illnesses that come with the lack of vital nutrients. The research of Dr. Weston A. Price established that we need good animal foods to be well nourished and healthy.
My solution is practical, and will greatly increase the food supply. Stop feeding grains and other crops to meat animals Let the animals eat the their natural food, the food that makes them healthy.
Let them eat grass.
Is There Enough Grass?
Yes, there is enough grass to feed all grass-eating meat animals, and we can greatly increase the supply.
Most of the scientists and government officials who attack the eating of meat dismiss the grassfed solution by claiming there is not enough farmland to feed grazing animals. But they are ignorant of one key fact—you do not need farmland to feed grazing animals. You need grazing land, which is not the same thing. Animals can graze and thrive on land that is not suitable for crops, and the earth is full of such land, largely unused. And the earth is full of deserts and wastelands than can be turned into great grazing land by the techniques created by the Savory Institute, which has turned millions of acres of desert into rich grazing land, with trees and streams. The techniques involve using concentrated herds of cattle to engage in a pattern of rotational grazing, the same system used by nature to create the grasslands in the first place.
We can use these techniques to greatly increase the grazing land available. It should be noted that several grazing meat animals, like sheep and goats, can thrive even in poor grazing land, but do even better in great grazing land.
We do not need any artificial fertilizer to grow grass and restore watercourses. But we do need grazing animals to do this, and the meat and milk of such animals is our best and most nutrient-dense food source.
But What Will They Eat in the Winter?
There are huge areas of unused grazing land in areas where animals can graze all year round. In other areas, where there is good land but cold winters, grass can made into hay and dried, and provide adequate food for the animals.
But Isn’t Grassfed Meat Tough?
Properly grazed grassfed meat is tough only when it is cooked wrong. Our ancestors knew how to cook grassfed meat, and celebrated this wonderful food in their traditions, literature, and stories. Unfortunately, most have forgotten how to cook grassfed meat, as cooking grain-finished meat is very different. The techniques developed to cook grain-finished meat ruin grassfed meat, which is why grassfed has a “tough” reputation.
I ran into this problem when I started eating grassfed meat to rebuild my body. After ruining much good meat, I researched the traditions of our ancestors and learned how to cook it. I have made much of this knowledge available in my cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat , and Tender Grassfed Barbecue.
I eat only grassfed meat, and it is always tender and delicious.
Grassfed Meat Is More Nutritious and Satisfying, So Less Is Needed
Grassfed meat has far more nutrients than grain-fed meat, and has these nutrients in perfect balance. Even the fat is different, with grassfed meat having an ideal ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids, while grain fed meat has a huge imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. An excess of omega-6s has been linked to inflammation, and to many illnesses.
This means that grassfed meat is much more satisfying to the body and appetite. I have found that I am satisfied with eating only half the meat I used to, if it is grassfed. I did not intend to reduce my meat consumption, it happened naturally, because my body got the nutrients it needed and was no longer hungry. Based on my experience, people will be satisfied with less meat, but be much better fed.
We can solve so many problems, if we just let them eat grass.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Give Grassfed Meat, not Candy, on Valentine’s Day
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Mighty Porterhouse, page 56. Tender Grassfed Barbecue
The idea of having a special day to celebrate your love is both romantic and enjoyable. People in love have been sharing special days long before the creation of Valentine’s Day. There is no doubt that Valentine’s Day has been heavily commercialized, and the candy industry has tried to seize this day for its own, to the point that many people expect to get candy as a gift on Valentine’s Day.
But candy is very unhealthy, being full of refined sugar or other sweeteners, and a host of other unhealthy ingredients. In fact, high doses of refined sugar is one of the worst things the Standard American Diet (SAD) has to offer. Too much sugar disrupts the natural functions of our body, causing havoc and setting the stage for many illnesses. Just about all candy has too much sugar, in my opinion. And I consider artificial sweeteners to be even worse.
Which is why I do not give candy to my love on Valentine’s Day. I give grassfed meat, and use it to make a romantic meal.
Grassfed meat is very healthy, supporting the natural functions of the body, including reproduction and all that goes with it. Properly cooked grassfed meat does not leave the eater feeling stuffed or bloated, but refreshed and renewed, and fueled for a romantic evening. And there is something truly romantic about sharing a special, traditional meal.
Our Ancestors Celebrated Special Occasions with Meat
In most cultures, our ancestors had many holidays and special occasions to celebrate. One of the most enjoyable ways to celebrate these special days was with a special meal, and meat, usually grassfed meat, was the most common choice. Grassfed meat and grassfed fat are the oldest and most nutrient-dense foods known, and are so satisfying when properly cooked. A review of recorded culinary history shows a huge variety of meat dishes prepared to celebrate special occasions.
Some Special Meat Selections for Valentine’s Day
Some cuts of meat have been used for romantic dinners as a matter of tradition. I have used many of these, and all of them came out great and enhanced the occasion. Some of my favorites are:
Thick Grassfed Ribeye Steak
These delicious steaks, cut from the prime rib area, a cut of meat that used to be the food of heroes, have a unique and delicious flavor of their own. Grassfed ribeye steaks have the most flavor of all. A nice marinade will help make the meat even more tender and bring out its flavor. Grassfed ribeye steaks are wonderful sautéed in butter to medium-rare perfection. Every bite provides strength and health, and it is possible to trim and arrange two such steaks so they form a heart shape, to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Thick Grassfed, Bone in Rib Steak
This is a thick steak from the same cut of meat as the ribeye, with the bone left in. This steak is very thick, and is meant to be shared by two. It is a favorite cut in France. This meat has all the advantages of the ribeye, with the bone providing even more flavor. It is a wonderful steak to share, and so delicious!
Thick Grassfed Porterhouse Steak
The Porterhouse is made for two, as it is at its best when cut thick. The Porterhouse, which is almost identical to the T-bone, contains two wonderful cuts of meat, the tenderloin, and the strip. Both have different textures and flavors, and complement each other wonderfully. The bone that separates the two cuts of meat adds incredible flavor and tenderness to both cuts, along with increased mineral content. Like most grassfed steaks, the right marinade greatly increases tenderness and brings out the wonderful flavor. The bone makes these steaks difficult to sauté, but they are wonderful grilled, or broiled with butter.
Grassfed Rack of Lamb
Castilian Rack of Lamb with Chine, page 167, Tender Grassfed Meat
This luxury cut is also perfect for two. Known in ancient times as the “Champions Portion,” the dense, flavorful meat rests on a rack of bones, and is topped off with a magnificent cap of grassfed fat. The fat and bones provide incredible tenderness and flavor. Properly marinated and cooked, the meat is not at all gamy, but has a somewhat nutty flavor that is delightful to eat. It is best cooked medium rare to rare, and is full of valuable nutrients. But it is the taste that makes this cut something special.
My cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue, have many delicious recipes for these wonderful cuts of meat.
By giving the gift of grassfed meat, you promote health, not sickness, as well as a wonderful taste and nutrition experience.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Our Ancestors Thrived on High-Fat Diets
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Grass-fed beef with its natural fat cap.
If you study the history of food, and read what contemporary people wrote and said about it, you will be struck by one inevitable fact—our ancestors considered fat a vital nutrient, and loved to eat it. The only bad thing about fat was the difficulty in obtaining it, as it was often expensive and hard to get.
This fact is shocking to modern people, who have been subject to a propaganda campaign that labeled most fat as bad, unhealthy, and the cause of most illness. This propaganda campaign began in the 1960s, and became accepted as absolute fact in the 1980s. Even though there never was any real evidence to support the all-animal-fat-is-bad theory, nearly everyone believed it. Even today, most people believe that fat, especially saturated animal fat, is bad for health and should be restricted.
This belief remains common even though it has never been proven and many studies and much research has totally discredited it.
Now, I am not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or a scientist. But I am an attorney, and I have been one for a very long time. Attorneys are experts in evaluating evidence. I have evaluated the available evidence on fat, and it is my opinion that animal fat from healthy animals eating their natural diet is one of the healthiest, most vital, and most needed foods we can eat.
The Case Against Traditional Animal Fat
The claim that fat is bad and causes illness began with the infamous “lipid hypothesis “developed after World War II. This unproven theory tried to connect cholesterol with heart disease, and eating fat with the creation of excess cholesterol.
This theory was of great benefit to the makers of factory vegetable fats and modified foods, who had to find a way to get Americans to drop the healthy traditional foods of their ancestors, so they would buy the new products. It also created a whole new set of illnesses and medical conditions, which increased revenue for the medical profession and the drug industry. These powerful forces supported the lipid hypothesis and the related belief that eating saturated animal fat caused too much cholesterol, and therefore, heart disease. Since eating factory foods makes people fat, a huge diet industry grew and added its money and power to the propaganda campaign. Eventually, these industries were able to persuade most people and institutions that eating traditional animal fats caused many other illnesses. Since these industries have a great deal of influence over government, they were able to get government agencies to support the fat and cholesterol myths.
A number of careful reviews of the studies supporting the lipid hypothesis have shown that there is no real evidence to support the theory. The same is true of the theory that eating animal fat is unhealthy. A number of these reviews are available at the website of the Weston A. Price Foundation. The lipid hypothesis is believed not because it is true, but because it has been marketed so effectively.
The Case for Traditional Animal Fat
Human history and even animal history establishes conclusively that traditional animal fat is a vital nutrient. The very first part of the animal eaten by predators is the fatty liver, followed by the other fatty organs. Caves which sheltered prehistoric peoples are full of bones that have been cracked open to get at the fatty marrow. Nearly every traditional people valued natural animal fat as one of their most important foods. Pemmican, the traditional survival food of the Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains, was one-third bison fat. European poets wrote poems about their love and appreciation for fatty foods. There are countless other examples.
Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist and researcher, became aware that each generation of his patients had worse teeth than the preceding generation. He noticed how healthy some traditional peoples seemed to be. He decided to visit a number of them, all over the globe, and learn what made them healthy. Dr. Price was convinced that nutrition was the key, and expected to find that these people were vegetarians. He spent ten years travelling the world, visiting these healthy peoples in person and learning what they ate, and did not eat.
He learned that none of them were vegetarians, and all of them relied heavily on what he called sacred foods—which were always foods rich in animal fats, including butter, the back fat of moose, fish eggs, seal blubber, cod livers, milk that had six times the fat content of American milk, and other similar foods.
These people were healthy, having perfect teeth, no degenerative diseases, no mental illness, and no birth defects. When the very same people began to eat the processed foods of civilization, their health collapsed, they lost their teeth, and became the victim of many horrible illnesses, like tuberculosis.
Dr. Price had thousands of traditional foods studied in labs, and concluded that the most important nutrients were found in traditional foods rich in animal fat.
I find Dr. Price’s research convincing, and adopting a high animal fat diet based on his research brought me from being very ill to being free of all illness.
My cookbooks, Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue, are true to the principles discovered by Dr. Price, and make full use of traditional animal fats in the recipes.
This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday , and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
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