Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
When It Comes to Meat, Just Eat Grassfed
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Cows grazing on grass, their natural food.
Sean Croxton, of the Underground Wellness Show, has a saying that I love—JERF—Just Eat Real Food. That sentence alone says the essence of what we need to know about food and healthy eating. I asked Sean if he minded my using an acronym so similar to his, and he graciously told me to go for it. Sean’s saying has inspired me to come up with my own acronym—JEG—Just Eat Grassfed, which contains the essence of what we need to know about eating meat. Here are a few examples of the wisdom of JEG.
Want to avoid residues of the artificial growth hormones that are common in factory meat? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid ingesting antibiotic residue in your meat? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid ingesting steroid residue used to make conventional cows grow faster? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid getting a huge imbalance of omega-6 fatty acids in your meat? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to get a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids, in perfect proportion to omega-6 fatty acids? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to get a healthy dose of CLA, a valuable fat that reduces inflammation, aids weight loss, and enables the body to fight off many inflammatory diseases? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid the risk of getting Mad Cow disease by eating meat? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid eating meat from an animal fed huge amounts of GMO corn and GMO soy? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to avoid eating meat from an animal that was fattened on candy bars, chicken manure, rendered restaurant waste, plastic balls, candy wrappers, chicken parts, chicken feathers, and all kinds of similar garbage? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want a roast that has not shrunk to half its original size when it is done? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want a steak that does not have to be cooked at super-high heat? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to enjoy lamb that tastes of the pasture rather than the feedlot? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to enjoy bison that tastes like bison instead of factory beef? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to enjoy beef in a multitude of local flavors, instead of standard feedlot flavor? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to eat meat from an animal that has lived its life on pasture, and has never been in a feedlot? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to eat meat that tastes wonderful even when cooked with only a few ingredients? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want meat that never makes you feel stuffed or bloated, but makes you reel refreshed and renewed? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to eat a food that will nourish the natural functions of your body, giving strength, and helping your body recover from injury or illness? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to support the raising of animals who actually create good soil and farmland? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to eat the oldest food of humankind, the food our bodies know how to use and benefit from more than any other? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
Want to eat the tastiest, healthiest, most satisfying meat on the planet? JEG—Just Eat Grassfed.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Freaky Friday, and Fight Back 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.
The Most Paleo Food, Bone Marrow, Easy and Delicious
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
As interest in Paleo and Primal Diets continues to expand, one question continues to come up—what did our Paleo period ancestors actually eat? While there is no conclusive answer, we can be assured that one food was right at the top of their list—bone marrow.
Bone marrow is a soft, fatty substance found inside bones. It contains all the nutrients and substances that the body uses to build, repair, and maintain the living bones, from the inside out. There are a number of caves that show long evidence of human habitation, going all the way back to the Paleolithic period. All of these caves contained ancient fire pits. And all of these caves contained the remnants of large piles of bones. The bones that were found were animal bones. Almost without exception, they had been cracked open, and every trace of the marrow removed. This is the most direct evidence we have of what Paleo people actually ate.
Wild animals also value bone marrow. Large predators will crack open the bones of their prey, and eat the marrow. Hyenas, which are scavengers rather than hunters, have incredibly powerful jaws that are perfect for cracking even large bones open so they can get at the bone marrow.
The healthy peoples studied by Dr. Weston A. Price also valued bone marrow, when they could get it. Some would crack open the bones and eat it raw, most would simmer marrowbones in their broths, and others would extract the marrow and use it in all kinds of dishes. Bone marrow was an important component in traditional European cooking, with many different ways of preparing it, some of which were quite complicated. Marrow dumplings were a favorite throughout central Europe.
Dr. Price once designed a diet for a group of very poor children who went to school at a mission in Canada. These children were of native background, and usually ate modern, cheap, high-carbohydrate, high-sugar foods. They had terrible teeth, poor attention spans, stunted growth, and all kind of health problems. They did very poorly in their studies. The school did provide lunch. Dr Price devised a lunch plan for them that centered largely around a meat dish he designed. This dish contained a large amount of vegetables and meat broth, and a substantial amount of bone marrow. Broiled rare meat was finely chopped and added to other ingredients. Not only did the children’s teeth and health improve substantially, but they began to excel in their schoolwork. There is a recipe for my version of this dish on page 120 of Tender Grassfed Meat.
Old-time physicians would prescribe eating bone marrow to strengthen the teeth and bones, to recover from injury, and relieve rheumatism and other bone problems.
Most people are intimidated by the thought of cooking bone marrow, but there is an easy solution. My friend, Sarah Pope, of the Healthy Home Economist blog, has come up with a method of cooking bone marrow that is so easy and delicious that it defies belief. Here is a link to Sarah’s video that explains her easy method and demonstrates it. You will not believe how easy it is.
Video: Boost the Immune System with Bone Marrow
Sarah likes to serve it on toast, which is traditional in Europe, but you do not have to eat grains to enjoy this most nutritious and delicious of foods. You can eat it right out of the bone, with a small spoon (there used to be spoons designed specifically for this purpose), or you can spread it on a nice hot piece of grassfed steak or roast, which was also a tradition all over Europe. This is so delicious that I do not even know how to describe it. And bone marrow is one of those foods that really satisfies, being loaded with nutrients.
I only recommend bone marrow from the bones of grassfed animals. This was the kind of marrow our ancestors ate, and I have always found grassfed animals to be totally superior when it comes to nutrition and taste.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Freaky Friday blog carnivals.
Don’t Be Afraid of Real Food
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Tender grassfed rib steak with pastured eggs.
Some years ago, I was going to lunch with two friends. The restaurant had a special, a brisket pot roast that smelled wonderful, and made us all hungry. One of my friends wanted to order the special, but he was afraid. He said “That looks so good, but it will clog my arteries and take years off my life. I cannot risk it.†He ordered a chicken salad he did not want and did not enjoy. He had no chronic disease, but he was afraid that one serving of meat would shorten his life.
Fear is the great convincer. Fear overwhelms reason, education, logical thinking, and common sense. Fear is used routinely by the government, the medical profession, the food industry, and large corporations to get us to do what they want.
Fear has been used very effectively in scaring people to change what they eat. We are told that we must have GMOs, or the world will starve. We are told that we must stop eating butter, or our arteries will be clogged. We are told not to eat cholesterol, or we will die from heart disease. We are told not to eat animal fats, or we will die from diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or all of the above. All of these lies are not true. Yet all of these lies are believed by most of the American people.
Ironically enough, the targeted “scientific study†has become the most effective way to spread fear. After all, everyone trusts science. But science has little to do with many such studies, which almost inevitably are full of holes and prove nothing.
Red meat, the oldest and most natural food of humankind, is often a target of these studies. The powers that be want to reduce or end the eating of red meat by the general population, something that ruling classes have tried to do since grains became plentiful. So, several times a year, almost every year, studies come out claiming that eating red meat will do something terrible to us. Usually they try to scare us with heart disease, or cancer, or diabetes, or all three. This year, the latest “meat is doom†study is trying to scare us with DEATH. We are told that we have a much higher chance of dying from all causes if we eat even a small amount of red meat. Of course this study makes no distinction between grassfed meat and factory meat. The study has already been debunked by Denise Minger, among others in this article: Will Eating Red Meat Kill You?
But here is the point—we have nothing to fear from real food. We have nothing to fear from grassfed meat, humankind’s oldest food. The foods of our ancestors, without chemicals or modern tampering, prepared in traditional ways, are good for us. It is that simple.
Our ancestors did not fear their food. On the contrary, they ENJOYED it. The only problem with food was getting enough of it. When real food was available, our ancestors prepared it in a myriad of delicious ways and joyfully ate their fill, relishing the taste, texture and satisfaction good food provides. Every great event was celebrated with food, with special foods served to celebrate special events. Throughout most of the world, the most special food was some form of red meat, served without fear or guilt, and enjoyed thoroughly.
Dr. Weston A. Price studied a number of peoples eating the diet of their ancestors. Though many of these people were considered “primitive,†none of them had cancer, or heart disease, or diabetes, or tooth decay, or any of the many diseases that plague modern humans. All of these peoples ate red meat. Some of them ate huge amounts of red meat, every day. One of them (the native people of the interior of Northern Canada) ate nothing but red meat, along with the fat and organs of the animal. They were healthy and vital in a way that few modern people are.
None of them feared their food, which was natural and real. Neither should we.
This post is part of Monday Marnia, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Related Posts
A Real Paleo Diet — Grassfed Meat, Fat, and Organ Meats
The Traditional Highland Diet Continued
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
This post supplements the three-part article I did on the traditional diet of the Scottish Highlanders, their prowess in battle, and how the traditional Highland way of life was destroyed by the industrial agriculture of the day. The three-part article was posted on the excellent Hartke Is Online blog, and links to the articles are posted below.
Unlike other Europeans, the Scottish Highlanders had plentiful meat in their diet. The traditional Highland diet, described in Part 1 of the three-part article, also had a valuable feature that was missing from almost all the other diets eaten in Europe—free access to meat, wild game, and wild fish. Under the traditional system in the Scottish Highlands, the land was owned by the clans, though its use was given to individual families within the particular clan. Everyone in the clan could hunt the wild game that was so plentiful in the spring, summer, and early fall. Everyone could fish in the many small rivers, ponds, and lakes, which were full of wild fish most of the year. Every Highland farmer could kill some of his herd animals and salt their meat in preparation for the long winter.
This was very different from England, indeed from the rest of Europe, where wild game was considered the exclusive property of the King, or the nobles, or the rich landowners, and common folk were prevented from hunting by anti-poaching laws. Poaching (the crime of hunting game that belonged to the rich and powerful) often came with the death penalty. A peasant who killed a rabbit to feed his hungry family could be executed for doing so. The right to fish in a particular body of water was also heavily restricted, and a man who violated the fishing restrictions also faced death. While many peasants raised farm animals for meat, the animals were usually sold so the peasant could pay his taxes, and meat was rarely eaten by most of the population. In fact, in Ireland at the time, the family pig was often called “the gentleman who pays the rent.”
Though the death penalty was removed from anti-poaching laws in the nineteenth century, armed gamekeepers prevented most Europeans from hunting. Meat remained very expensive and usually unaffordable for most people, who were condemned to eat a diet consisting mostly of grains and vegetables. Many Europeans immigrated to the United States because they heard that even the poor could afford meat there, and hunt.
The situation in the Highlands changed with the Clearances, where restrictions on hunting and fishing where imposed along with the Clearances, which drove the Highlanders from their land as detailed in Part 3: Destruction of the Scottish Food Culture in the Highlands
But traditionally, the Highlanders had free access to wild game, wild fish, and the meat of their herds, which made them unique in Europe at the time. Game, fish, and meat were a large part of their traditional diet, and an important part of their incredible health, size, strength, and vitality, as shown in Part 2: Well Fed Scottish Warriors Waged Fierce Battles
The series begins with a description of the traditional Highland diet in Part 1: Scottish Highlanders Traditional Diet
This post is part of Monday Mania and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Aging in Reverse with Real Food—Then and Now
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
photo  credit: 4johnny5  The redwood tree gets stronger and more beautiful with age.
My wife gave me a wonderful gift for Christmas. A DVD showing photos of our son when he was a baby and a small child. He looked great, and it was amazing to see how tiny he used to be. But there was someone else in some of the photos. Someone who did not look great. Someone who looked sick and strained, even at the happy times when these photos were taken. That someone used to be me.
These photos were taken from twelve to seventeen years ago. The man in those photos looks so much older, weaker, and sicker than I look today. The difference is so remarkable that I think it is worth describing. It is a living testimony of the difference that switching to real food can make.
The Skin—Then and Now
Then. The man in the photos has pale, pasty skin, quite blotchy, with a very unhealthy pallor. I remember that it was often itchy and irritated, with small growths that would come and go.
Now. My skin is smooth, supple, and a healthy color. It is hardly ever itchy and never irritated. The growths are gone.
The Mouth and Breathing—Then and Now
Then. The man in the photos always had his mouth wide open, and often appeared to be gasping for breath. I remember that I was on many medications for asthma and the constant respiratory infections I was afflicted with. I saw doctors frequently and occasionally had to be rushed to the emergency room when I got an asthma attack that the medication could not control. I remember that I could never get enough air, and could only breathe through my mouth. Often breathing and gasping for air would end with a nasty, painful hacking cough.
Now. My mouth is shut unless I am talking, or eating, or laughing. I breathe easily through my nose at all times. I hardly ever notice my breathing, which is effortless. I do not cough, or gasp, or choke. I am on no medications (over-the-counter or otherwise), and have not seen a doctor for at least nine years.
The Hair—Then and Now
Then. The man in the photos had dull, damp, thin, coarse hair that looked like it was about to fall out. I remember that I was losing hair, with ever growing bald spots.
Now. My hair is lighter in color, with a fair mixture of gray. But it is very thick, and gleams. It is soft and full-bodied. It never falls out. In fact, the bald spots seem to be shrinking a bit.
The Eyes—Then and Now
Then. The man in the pictures often had a look of pain in his eyes, even at the happy times when those pictures were taken. I remember that I was almost always in pain, with all kinds of discomforts, aches, and soreness—all over my body.
Now. My eyes are calm and serene. Many people tell me I have “kind eyes.†I usually feel good, with no pain or discomfort of any kind. When there is an occasional bump or ache, it goes away very quickly.
Posture—Then and Now
Then. The man in the photos is always slumped, whether sitting or standing. I remember that it seemed hard to hold my head up, to sit or stand straight, as I was so tired all the time. It was so hard just to get out of bed in the morning.
Now. I sit and stand straight naturally, without even thinking about it. I am full of energy most of the day and much of the night. I am eager for the day, which is always full of good things. I leap out of bed without effort.
What Did I Do Differently?
I switched completely to real food, in particular, grassfed meat, and stopped eating processed and factory foods. I followed the dietary guidelines of the Weston A. Price Foundation, modifying them a bit to eat only meats that are grassfed and grass-finished. It took years, but all my many illnesses healed, and I have had no need for drugs or doctors.
This is what real food can do.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
Using the Whole Goose, the Traditional Way
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Goose casserole from delicious, nutrient-dense goose
Why get a goose? The goose has relatively little meat, lots of skin, a huge amount of bone, and a very large amount of fat. However, the meat is very nutrient-dense and filling, and absolutely delicious when properly cooked. The crisp skin is even better. The bones and fat give incredible flavor to the meat, and have many uses of their own. We get so many benefits from every goose.
We had a wonderful roast goose yesterday, for Christmas dinner. But that was just one of the benefits provided by this most delicious bird. My ancestors would use the whole goose, for food and other purposes. So I decided to do the same. I was delighted to find how many benefits could be provided by a single goose.
The Christmas Dinner
We bought the goose so we could have a traditional Christmas dinner. The goose not only provided the delicious main course, but also contributed to the stuffing and gravy.
The goose was supposed to be naturally raised. I examined the liver of the goose. The liver was firm and clear, a sign of a healthy bird. The ancient Romans used to examine the livers of chickens before a possible battle. A clear liver was the best omen. I think of it as a sign of a healthy goose that will be nourishing and tasty.
The goose itself provided the main course, a roast goose. I removed the interior fat and set it aside to render into liquid goose fat. The liver and heart were minced, and reserved for the stuffing. The neck and other giblets were set to simmer in a quart of filtered water, to provide a stock for the gravy.
I stuffed the goose with a sage, onion, and apple stuffing, moistened with plenty of whole pastured eggs, using cubes made from sourdough spelt bread, and mixed in the minced liver and heart.
As the goose roasted, it released a huge amount of fat into the pan. I removed the fat from the pan several times, and saved it.
When the goose was ready, the kitchen was filled with a wonderful aroma, and the crisp skin made it a most appetizing and beautiful sight. In fact, the goose looked and smelled so good we forgot to take a picture of it.
When it was time to make the gravy, I used goose fat drippings from the pan, along with sprouted spelt flour, as a base for the gravy, along with the goose broth made from the neck. Browned drippings from the pan were used to color the gravy and enrich its magnificent flavor.
The crisp skin and flavorful, tender meat of the goose were absolutely delicious, greatly enhanced by the stuffing and the very flavorful gravy. Goose is a very nutrient-dense meat, and very satisfying. We all felt wonderful after the meal.
The Leftovers
Goose bone broth, slowly simmered to perfection over many hours, is one of the tastiest of broths. We also had a lot of meat and skin left over, as well as stuffing and gravy. I trimmed the skin, and a fair amount of the tender meat from the carcass. This would be used for a goose casserole.
The rest of the bones, including the wings and the wing tips, and the sizable carcass, went into a large stockpot for goose bone broth. I started the broth early this morning, and it will simmer slowly into the early evening, so all the nutrients and flavors will release into the broth. This will give us many quarts of delicious, nutrient-dense, goose bone broth.
Goose casserole will be for lunch. I will chop the goose skin and meat into small bits, and add it to the stuffing and leftover gravy, with some more liquid from the simmering broth pot until it is just the right thickness. The mixture will be slowly simmered until it is hot and tender, and will be delicious. I know, because I have done this before.
The Glorious Goose Fat
I rendered the fat I removed from the goose, which turned into a nicely colored yellow liquid. I saved this in a mason jar, along with the goose fat I collected during the roasting process.
Goose fat has many uses. It is great for cooking and marinating. It has a somewhat beefy flavor, and can really enhance the flavor of all beef, from steaks to roasts to pot roasts. Potatoes roasted or sautéed in goose fat are a favorite dish in many European countries. Goose fat is wonderful for sautéing any kind of beef, and is perfect for caramelizing vegetables.
You can also use goose fat to baste any roast meat, and it gives great taste and crispness to roast chicken.
The ancient Greeks and Romans used goose fat to treat their wounds, and reported it was very effective. The same peoples would rub goose fat into aching joints and muscles, and considered it to be a very effective remedy. I have no personal experience with this, but these ancient peoples used it for those purposes.
Cool goose fat is a terrific moisturizer, being particularly soothing for dry winter skin. It will make you smell a bit like goose, but is very soothing.
So as you can see, we got a great deal of benefit from our goose, and we will be enjoying the flavorful fat and delicious broth for some time. Our ancestors knew just what to do with a goose.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
Give the Gift of Real Food
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
This delicious holiday meal of grassfed prime rib, pan-roasted potatoes, and sautéed cabbage was a joy to cook and eat.
This holiday season, like all holiday seasons, is a time to give and receive.
Gifts are a wonderful way to express your appreciation of another person, whether it is a relative or a friend. Some people are impressed by expensive, fancy gifts. I prefer gifts that give a real benefit, and the price or status of the gift is not important to me. A gift that shows something of the giver is often the best of all. A gift that gives pleasure, and supports joy, is a gift I cherish, both as a giver and a receiver.
Would you like to give a gift that has the following benefits:
- Gives great pleasure to the person who receives it
- Gives great pleasure to the giver
- Creates a wonderful aroma in the home
- Makes the person who receives it feel wonderful
- Improves the natural functions of the body
- Creates a wonderful feeling of contentment and satisfaction
- Warms the body and soul
For me, this most magic of gifts is real food, skillfully and lovingly prepared.
The Most Traditional of Gifts
Many decisions are being made about gifts at this time of year. In modern times, we often think of commercial products like electronics, jewelry, designer clothing, and a host of other products when we are deciding what to give. Yet in older times, one of the most popular and appreciated gifts was that of food. Not just any food, but special foods that would not only be appreciated for their wonderful taste, but would nourish the body and soul of the receiver. These special foods were not factory candies and cakes, but some of the most nourishing and delicious real foods available.
Not only was the giving of special foods a tradition, but the cooking of those foods by a skilled cook was a much-anticipated blessing of the holiday season, and great efforts were made to have this happen. This was true for almost everybody. For the poor, the holiday season might be one of the few times they actually had grassfed meat or pastured pork to eat, or another special meat such as goose, or duck, or a capon. Grassfed or pastured meat, or wild fish, were the featured highlight of holiday meals. The traditional European holiday feast dishes covered such wonderful dishes as roast prime rib of beef, pork loin roasted with the skin on, rack of lamb, saddle of lamb, roast stuffed goose, roast stuffed turkey, roast duck, and many others.
What made these gifts unique is that they actually nourished the bodies of the lucky people who ate them, improving their natural functions and creating a wonderful feeling of well-being and contentment.
Traditionally, these foods were real food, not factory food, and were exactly the kind of traditional food our bodies welcome and thrive on.
It is true that many holiday foods were special desserts. But these were different than modern desserts. They always contained large amounts of saturated animal fat such as butter, lard, and egg yolks. They were only served at the end of a meal, when the eater’s body was well-nourished with traditional fats and other nutrients that protected the body from the effects of the sugar in the desserts.
GMOs, pesticides, and artificial chemicals had no place in these wonderful, traditional foods.
While you may not find much real food in the supermarket, local farmers and ranchers, and farmers’ markets often have wonderful real food available, including grassfed and pastured meat, and organic or the equivalent vegetables and fruits. There are some wonderful Internet sources of great grassfed and pastured meat. Three of my favorites are U.S. Wellness Meats, Homestead Natural Foods, and NorthStar Bison.
Give the Blessings of Your Cooking
Even the best quality real food needs a skilled cook. A skilled cook can turn the best natural ingredients into a feast that will provide great eating pleasure and nutrients to all who are lucky enough to share in the meal. If you can cook, the time and effort you put into making a holiday feast is a wonderful gift to all who eat it, and to yourself.
If you do not think of yourself as a skilled cook, I have some good news.
Cooking wonderful real food is easy, and simple. There is an old saying, “God gives us good meat, the devil sends us cooks.†The meaning of this saying is that high-quality food should not have its great natural taste overwhelmed by fancy and complicated cooking. The wonderful natural flavors and tastes of the food will do most of the magic for you. All you have to do is bring them out. The recipes I use create wonderful food, yet most of them are very simple and easy to use. Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue are full of simple recipes for grassfed and pastured meat that result in wonderful food, cooked in an easy and natural way.
I spend a big part of the holiday season planning and cooking the holiday feasts, as a gift to my loved ones. It is also a gift to me, as I also get to share in the feast!
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
Feast Without Fear — on Real Food
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Santa's Workshop is the newest addition to my wife's Christmas Village collection this year.
The holiday season has come. It should be a time of joy, a time to celebrate. Wonderful, special meals have always been part of the holiday season, but an ugly new element has entered the scene in the last few years—fear. Every holiday season, we are barraged with fear—fear of getting fat, fear of eating fat, fear of indigestion, fear of getting sick, fear of cholesterol, fear of heart disease, fear, fear, fear!
We are told, over and over again, to count calories, eat low fat, substitute dead factory foods for the rich, traditional holiday foods of our ancestors—where is the joy in that?
All of that fear is nonsense, if you eat properly prepared real food. Leave the factory products in the supermarket, and buy grassfed meats, grassfed organ meats, pastured pork, pastured poultry, traditional dairy, wild fish and seafood, organic or the equivalent fruits and vegetables, real pastured butter, traditional fermented foods, and make this the basis of your holiday feasts. You will not only enjoy a magnificent feast, but feel much better after eating these truly nourishing foods.
There is nothing to fear about eating real food. Nothing.
The Joy of Feasting
Almost every culture on Earth has celebrated holidays by enjoying a special meal, or meals. The finest meats, fish, vegetables, and almost every other kind of food were carefully prepared by traditional methods, and served in quantity during the feast. Many of the best recipes were specially designed for the holidays, and served only at that time. The Christmas feast was so important in old England that wages often included a fat goose at the holiday season—so even the middle and poorer classes could enjoy a special holiday feast. Fear of the food was not even an issue for most of our history, and the feasts were cherished, looked forward to, and enjoyed, with great gusto. Feasting is one of the most universal and traditional human joys, and a feast should be an occasion for pleasure, joy, and good fellowship for all.
This joy is often absent in modern times, where carefully designed propaganda has convinced many people to be afraid of food, especially the rich holiday specialties enjoyed by our ancestors. Fear ruins joy.
Real Food Feasts Are Good for Us
Not only is joy great for human health, along with being a great deal of fun, but the traditional foods of the feast are great for the natural functions of our bodies. Often these meals center around special cuts of meat, poultry, and fish, cooked in a traditional manner with rich sauces and side dishes. If real food is used, we are talking about grassfed meat, pastured pork, pastured poultry, wild fish and seafood, and flavorful organic fruits and vegetables. We are also talking about plenty of pastured butter, pastured cheese, and the wonderful saturated animal fat that comes from the pastured animals. These foods are exactly what our bodies crave, and give us the nutrition we need for our natural functions to work at their very best, which leaves us satisfied and feeling wonderful. When we eat a well-balanced meal of real food, we are getting all the nutrition that we need.
Traditional foods that are eaten at this time are often especially rich in the nutrients that our bodies crave.
Even though many traditional holiday desserts come with sugar, the traditional forms of these desserts are loaded with butter, cream , lard, egg yolks, and other sources of saturated animal fat that help protect our bodies from the effects of sugar. And the original forms of the desserts contained far less sugar than modern desserts.
When we are eating real food, our bodies regulate our appetite by what we actually ingest, because there are no phony chemicals or dead foods to con our bodies into overeating.
Many people equate feasting with feeling bloated or stuffed. I used to, until I switched completely to real food. I have never felt bloated or stuffed since.
Our Holiday Feast Plans
We have four feasts during this holiday season: Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. We start planning the menus right after Thanksgiving, and look for the best real food we can find.
This year, we will have grassfed prime rib for Christmas Eve, redolent with the unique, mouthwatering flavor that only grassfed prime rib has, along with a plethora of delicious side dishes.
For Christmas, we will have a pastured goose, stuffed with a traditional apple stuffing roasted inside the bird, with crisp goose skin—one of the most delicious things on earth, gravy from the drippings, and other wonderful side dishes.
New Year’s Eve will bring a pastured pork loin roast, with a magnificent fat cap, marinated with Polish seasonings, roasted on a bed of apples, surrounded by roasting potatoes crisped to perfection by the melting pork fat, and many other wonderful side dishes.
New Year’s Day itself will bring another prime rib. Why two prime ribs? Since we eat only grassfed beef, we could not decide whether to get a prime rib from U.S. Wellness Meats or Homestead Natural Foods. Both have wonderful meat, yet the flavor is quite different because the plants the cattle graze on are quite different. We solved the problem by getting both, and having them on different holidays. Besides, a major holiday is a perfect excuse for the expense of prime rib, a cut we all love.
How much will we eat? As much as we want, no more, no less. And we will feel wonderful.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.
My Real Food Plate
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
My Real Food Plate (clockwise from top): grassfed beef and fat; traditional sauerkraut; sourdough spelt bread with pastured grassfed butter and grassfed bison liver pâté; raw cheese; smoked wild salmon; and fermented vegetable salsa.
“MyPlate†is the new brainwashing concept introduced by the U.S. government, since the horrid “food pyramid†did not convince enough people to eat the way the diet dictocrats dictated. “MyPlate†has bothered me ever since Jimmy Moore exposed its many problems in this great blog post: Harvard’s ‘Healthy Eating Plate’ Only Marginally Better Than USDA’s MyPlate.
“MyPlate†has somehow managed to be even worse than the “food pyramid,†which is quite an accomplishment, being a true route to dietary disaster, severe malnutrition, and rampant disease. However, the dietary guidelines have been effectively debunked by many, including the Weston A. Price Foundation in Comments on the USDA Dietary Guidelines.
I have also been thinking about the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference, which will begin this Friday, November 11, 2011, all the wonderful real food they will serve, and wishing I could be there.
So I thought I would present “My Real Food Plate,†made up of what I actually eat, based on the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, the recommendations of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and what makes me feel good and healthy, while tasting wonderful. You can see “My Real Food Plate†in the above photo. After the photo was taken, I brought the plate to the table, and happily ate every bit of it. So you can see that I back my writing with my appetite, unlike the diet dictocrats. (You NEVER see them eating what they attempt to impose on the rest of us.)
These are the foods on “My Real Food Plate†(clockwise starting with the grassfed meat at the top):
- Grassfed beef and fat. This leftover roast beef, made from 100 percent grassfed and grass-finished beef (from U.S. Wellness Meats) has a perfect ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats, large amounts of CLA, and a wonderful range of vitamins, amino acids, and other valuable nutrients. I eat the little pieces of fat you see around the meat. The nutrition in grassfed fat is great fuel for our bodies. Grassfed meat is one of the oldest foods, going back to the Paleolithic Era and the very beginning, and our bodies welcome it. And it tastes so good!
- Traditional sauerkraut. This traditional lacto-fermented sauerkraut is made from nothing but cabbage and salt, and the fermentation process. It is also full of nutrients and enzymes, enhanced by the fermentation process. These enzymes help with digestion, and it is delicious. Sauerkraut is one of the oldest and most traditional foods in the world, going back to ancient China and beyond.
- Sourdough spelt bread. This bread contains only three ingredients: spelt, water, and salt. The grain is grown without the use of chemicals. A sourdough starter is used in making this bread, consisting of nothing but spelt and water. This bread is absolutely delicious, and easy to digest. It is covered with pastured grassfed butter, and bison liver pâté, as I always eat grains with plenty of good animal fat. This is one of the most traditional of breads, and is full of valuable minerals.
- Pastured grassfed butter. Real butter, full-fat, from grassfed animals, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat, and utterly delicious. Butter is full of fat-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin A and Vitamin D. Grassfed butter also is the best source of Vitamin K2, and contains many components that are great for our bodies. This kind of butter is one of the most valued and traditional foods in Europe, where people would eat it at every meal if they could get it.
- Homemade grassfed bison liver pâté. Liver is one of the most nutritious of foods, if it comes from healthy, grassfed animals. Liver is full of the perfect range of B vitamins, and many other vitamins and nutrients including Vitamin A and Vitamin D in a form that is easily absorbed by the body. Liver also has many amino acids and helpful substances, and high-quality fat and protein. Grassfed bison is one of the healthiest of animals, and its liver is a superfood. The large amount of pastured butter I use in the pâté helps make it delicious as well as even healthier. Liver pâté is yet another traditional food. Even people who hate the taste of liver can enjoy liver pâté.
- Raw cheese. This full-fat traditional cheese, made from unpasteurized, raw milk, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. It is full of good fats, easily-absorbed quality protein, and many vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes. Since cheese is a fermented food, the nutritional value has been enhanced through the fermentation process. Raw cheese is one of the most traditional foods in Europe, and many other parts of the world.
- Organic apple wedges. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away†is ancient wisdom. Since I consider doctors and their poison drugs, radiation, and surgery to be the biggest single threat to my life and health, I do want them to be kept away from me. And I have not needed them for over eight years. In addition to protection from doctors, organic apples have many wonderful nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and special substances that help reduce inflammation and fight the effect of free radicals on our bodies.
- Smoked wild raw salmon. The delicious meat of wild salmon has been traditionally cold smoked to preserve it, which gives it wonderful flavor. The beautiful orange color of the fish is real, unlike farmed salmon, and the raw fish is full of minerals and nutrients abundant in the sea such as iodine and magnesium, and helpful enzymes. Smoked wild fish is one of the most ancient of foods, going back thousands of years.
- Homemade fermented vegetable salsa. Chopping various organic vegetables into tiny shreds and lacto-fermenting them is a traditional way to enhance their nutritional value and digestibility. The traditional fermentation process makes the vegetables easier to digest, and increases the vitamin content, while adding beneficial probiotics. This kind of salsa not only provides great nutrition, but aids digestion.
My real food plate is 100 percent free of GMOs, soy, modern refined foods, modern vegetable oils, modern grains, and all the other factory foods that comprise the Standard American Diet, known as SAD. Instead, my real food plate makes me HAPPY.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday blog carnivals.