Just one reason you should consider buying grass-fed meat.

There are probably countless reasons you could site for buying grass-fed (a.k.a. “naturally raised”) meat, but consider just this one: “Cattle that were fed grain had 106-fold more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed hay” (Grain Feeding and the Dissemination of Acid-Resistant Escherichia coli from Cattle Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, et al. Science 281, 1666 (1998); DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5383.1666).

Just in case you missed that, 106-fold = 1 million times the acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed grass.

Chew on that for a while!

Bon Appetite,
Mr. Carnegie, Scavenger Gourmet

Diez-Gonzalez, et al.

Pemmican – Part 2

This is Part 2 of THIS post.

When I last wrote on the topic, my meat drying was approximately 50% complete.  The next afternoon the elk and a few honey-dates were nice and dry and ready for pulverizing!

This is what the elk looked like right out of the drier (a.k.a. toaster-oven).

Because of the underwhelming power and quality of my food processor, I decided that it would be prudent to cut up the larger strip into smaller pieces. This worked, but overall my food processor just didn’t cut it. 😉 It worked out in the end, but the texture ended up a little too coarse for my liking…although still very tasty. Continue reading “Pemmican – Part 2”

Are we there yet?

(Find part 2 of this post here!)

Just a quick post today.  I’ve been looking for a simple kitchen “doneness” chart that uses realistic food temperatures, and not the USDA’s overly strict, cook-everything-until-well-done guidelines.

I’d rather have mainly safe chicken than dry tasteless chicken, and because I shop at a local butcher who knows his animals and their farmers, I feel that my risk is reduced anyway.

So, unable to find what I was looking for, I’ve started developing my own quick-reference chart.

(The sub-text says: These temperatures are ideal peak temperatures. Meats should be removed from heat 5 to 10°F (2 to 5°C; more for larger cuts) lower and allowed to rise during resting.)
Continue reading “Are we there yet?”