Mike, that’s a great bit of information about the cattle farmer in Nashville. Thanks for that. I’ve just interviewed Shaun, the Ag student, and he’s got a lot to say on the subject. Turns out, the best tasting beef comes from grass fed cows that are finished on grain toward the end of their lives, and they usually like to get them ready for slaughter at around 14-18 months.

Groucho, you don’t have to slaughter the cattle yourself. You can have them transported to a slaughterhouse. But that’s where it gets touchy. You have to hire a place you can trust, or your meat can be ruined. The guys over at Wooly Pigs ran into this issue a few months ago. They brokered a deal to provide some pigs for Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and had to have the pigs sent to a different slaughterhouse to have them killed, and they were afraid if the pigs underwent any kind of emotional stress beforehand, it would ruin the meat. The article Michelle posted about the slaughterhouse being closed down - I hope that gets around. If those animals endure any undue stress before being slaughtered, the adrenaline that shoots through the animal before it’s killed will fuck the whole thing up.

Lambda, that is a great story about the hot dog eating contest. I’ve never been to anything like that. The idea of an eating competition just seems very odd and over the top to me.

And Paul, that’s great that you’ve been able to enjoy milk for as long as you have. My wife still loves it and drinks it every day. My body can’t process it, so I can live without it.

Mike

Here is a link to the article http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-usda7feb07,0,401189.story

Sorry, the reason I have written is that Chef John Mitzovich posted a recipe about a truely American Recipe that was taught to settlers by the American Indians, and that was the Johnnycake, A recipe that was:

2 slices of bacon, diced up, in a medium hot pan. Render it. Save the crisp bacon and the fat, once it’s done get it out of the pan and reserve it.
Johnnycake Ingredients
The batter, the mixture is very simple:

* 1 cup cornmeal
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp sugar

Whisk in 1-1/2 cups of boiling water - that’s the entire recipe.

Simple cakes and serve with maple syrup or butter.

Love those Injuns,
Kirk

You know… We have been thinking about getting a calf for the pasture… Course, then we have to deal with the whole slaughtering part! That takes out the fun!

Looking forward to your farm reports.

G

I think I’d make a good case study for milk consumption. I’ve always drank tons of milk, for as long as I can remember (I’m 38 now). I’ve probably averaged about a litre/quart *PER DAY* (at least for the past 25 years). Wow - thinking about it… 365litres a year * 25-30 years - that’s a *lot* of milk

So far, so good though (strep throat only once that I can remember, no memorable ear infections).

I’d say my health has always been ‘above average’, and more recently ‘really good’ now that I’m trying to eat my “5 a day” (fruits and veggies), getting a little more sleep, and regular (moderate)
exercise.

I drank full-fat up until about age 18. I switched to 2% once I was on my own. I drank skim for a few years, and am currently drinking 1% now.

Growing up my father would take the whole family on Sundays to Brighton Beach which is just down the boardwalk from Coney Island. We’d buy knishes at Hershes, hot dogs at Nathans and sometimes even go on the roller coaster, the Cyclone too.

Seems like every year a skinny, young Japanese man easily wins the hot dog eating contest despite competing with lots of huge, football player sized men from around the world. Certainly an over the top piece of Americana. It’s a funny spectacle.

Tex, that video was exactly on point with what I was trying to say. Thank you for posting that. For as difficult as that is to watch, I think it’s important for us to know what’s going on with the food we’re putting into our bodies. And this goes back to what Kirk was talking about. In countries like Germany, you know exactly where your food comes from (and a lot more).

The cows they’re slaughtering in those videos are going to give about the lowest grade of beef you could ever imagine eating. For starters, they’re sick (maybe even with BSE), and the trauma they’re going through before they’re slaughtered is pushing so much adrenaline through their bodies that it’s tainting the hell out of the meat. It doesn’t take much to ruin the quality of livestock - and they’re doing it all wrong.

And Spoon, I’m not worried about negative comments. I expect them. I know I say some insensitive things sometimes, so I ask for it. I appreciate their points, but I’m still going to eat animals. I’ll just be more selective about it.

Thanks again for all of your comments, everyone. I appreciate your support of the show.

The shrimp cakes are very nice, but I did do it a bit differently. I roasted the red paprika (bell peppers) and garlic before hand and just added them without the skin, chopped. I am not too crazy about the skin on paprika and think that the roasted flavour adds an earthiness that goes much better with the corn and avocado.

One of the things that I love about Germany and Europe in General, is that, every piece of meat can be tracked back to the farm that produced it. The labels that accompany the meat in the butchers window has the age of the animal, farm location, butcher location, date of slaughter and sometimes the name of the ranch owner. The only bad part of German butchers, that I can fault, is that they do not age the beef. But I solve that by buying larger portions and aging it myself. Most of the butchers here will have there local farm that they buy the meat and poultry from and you can visit them at request. One that sticks out in my mind is an Angus ranch in the next village that has bulk sale schemes as well as portion sales. Germany is small enough that most produce, and the like, is local and farmers markets are the norm and not the exception.

In closing, I thought of something else that is truly American. Pulled pork and recipes that start with:

1 package french onion soup mix
1 tsp lowry’s zesty season
1 can Mushroom soup

I think Americans are the only people in the world that publish recipes with ready made ingredients. I beat up in a forum once because I suggested replacing the can of soup with real mushrooms, shallot and a bit of cream to cut down on sodium and processed foods. I guess it is fighting words when someone takes your cans and packages of soup away.

Take care, love the show, keep up the good work and all that other ego stroking shite.