meat

2.0. MEATS - Introduction

"I'm a meat and potatoes guy!"

That sentence is typical for the American attitude towards meat, although anyone saying that is usually talking about beefsteak.

Each animal species has its own typical flavor that remains regardless of how it is prepared.

Beef, pork and chicken are readily available year-round in every meat department in small-town America. Walmart and Sam's Club also carry some lamb.  Anything else you might have to special-order, or buy it online. Big cities usually have more choices available, geared to various ethnic groups.

Breeding or buying baby animals to raise them to harvest size is an attractive alternative for rural people. Rabbits can even be raised indoors in a small city apartment without too many organizational problems. I'm not talking about the landlord here!

Of course, you have to slaughter and process those animals  before you can put that meat on the table. I think that is a good thing. Too many city people nowadays seem to think that steak grows on trees and no longer make the connection between the living, breathing animal and that neatly styrofoam-packaged piece of meat in the store. Raising and slaughtering your own food connects the end-user to the animal and that creates more understanding, more respect for the circle of life.

2.1. Raw Meat - intro

All raw meat recipes are gathered together in this chapter, regardless the source animal.

Raw meat dishes are popular around the world. Many are considered signature dishes for their country of origin. (see: bonappetit.com)

There are a lot of concerns about food safety problems,  especially here in the USA for mass-produced ground meat which combines the meat of thousands of animals. It takes only one careless cut to contaminate an animal during butchering. That one animal will then contaminate the entire batch of hundreds of thousands of pounds of ground meat with E. Coli, salmonella, etc.  If you intend to make any of these raw meat dishes, buy a large quality roast and grind it yourself.

See also the comments in DIY Ground Meat.

Raw beef can be served ground (filet Américain,) shaved (steak carpaggio,) minced (Steak Tartare, Carne Apache,) and even cubed. (gored gored) Condiments are usually added to diversify and enhance the taste of the meat.

Raw pork dishes are mostly ground meat preparations (Mett) or dried sausages.

Regions where sheep and goats a.o. are  common also have raw meat dishes for those animals. Those are not included here. as I have not prepared them.

 

Sub-categories

A further division by cooking method may be implemented in each of these 8 categories

  1. dry-cooked
    • roasts
    • steaks
  2. moist-cooked
    • pot roast = larger pieces
    • stew = near bite-size pieces
    • boiling  = soup meat
  3. 'specialty' cuts
  4. offal = various organ meats
  5. cured = treated with a salt solution

Raw and ground meat preparations have their own chapters.

Wherever applicable, the remaining cooking methods will return in every chapter, not necessarily in that same order. Boiling will mostly be referred to Part 1 - Soups

There may be some overlapping when a combination of cooking methods is used, e.g. beef tongue is usually boiled first, but can also be pan-fried afterwards.

Recipe page links

Chapter 2.1. RAW meat Preparations

Chapter 2.2. Ground meat

Chapter 2.3. beef

Chapter 2.4. pork

Chapter 2.5. poultry

Chapter 2.6. lamb

Chapter 2.7. rabbit

Chapter 2.8. other meats