Love Me Tenderloin
America and Meat. The two go together like heart attacks and cholesterol. Clark Gable and misogyny. Mitt Romney and meh.
And now there is an art project and forthcoming handsome coffee table book at the nexus of these two great institutions called, appropriately, Meat America. We’re not running for office during this primary season (so please stop begging, republican party brass), but if we were, we’d have photographer and food stuffs designer Dominic Episcopo make the posters: we are thinking maybe a “Heart and Chuck” platform, just so Sarah Palin could ask us, “How’s that hearty chucky thing working out for you.” Our answer, as usual, would be a satisfied belch.
"Elvis Tenderloin" by Dominic Episcopo
‘The Table Comes First’
Adam Gopnik calls the table “the thing we ride down the river of our existence.” He explained to Charlie Rose this week that the title of his new book, “The Table Comes First,” came out of something that Chef Fergus Henderson of St. John once said to him in full Brit pique:
Now tell us that’s not just about the best name you’ve ever heard for a book about food.
Pizza Is Not A Vegetable: Sign The Petition
The DNC is leading a very simple initiative. It’s calling on the American people to sign a petition addressed to the House telling them that pizza is not a vegetable. Yes, they are doing it to be dicks, in the same way that Republicans passed a resolution reaffirming “In God We Trust” as out national motto after President Obama stated E Pluribus Unum was the motto — just to be dicks.
This is stems, of course, from the passage of a school lunch bill in the House that had a provision reaffirming that a slice of pizza with two tablespoons of tomato paste on it would count as a serving of a vegetable. Obama signed the bill, but Dems are not having it.
We all know that tomatoes are a fruit, and so, pizza should obviously be considered a fruit. And what about a Hawaiian pizza? Well that’s two servings of fruit. And also a serving of vegetables if we get our way and meat is considered salad.
Anyhow, the DNC’s approach is considerably more sober than ours. The petition reads:
Dear House Republicans,
Pizza is not a vegetable.
Sincerely,
America
Sign it here.
Jack White and The Art of the Contrived Collectible
The Black Belles, an all-girl goth-rock band and the latest from producer Jack White, just played a trio of east coast dates in support of the act that would be the Butcher Blog’s house band if we, you know, had a house: Les Butcherettes.
In releasing the Black Belles self-titled debut, M. White and his Third Man Records are doing something that tickles the heart of our inner 14-year-old: talking up an offensive “banned” original cover. Yes it reminds of the Geffen Records ploy on Guns ‘N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction, which came complete with famously banned-for-being-offensive album art. Admittedly the Axl-approved robot rapist was actually pretty offensive.
The Belles are keeping their own banned-for-being-offensive album art under wraps until a show and album release party at Third Man Records’s record store in Nashville on Friday (where it will be available on “absinthe vinyl” no less — talk about your manufacturing of a collectible). Until then we can only marvel at the artwork on the single “Honky Tonk Horror”:
And the also banned-for-being-offensive video for the same single in which lead singer Olivia Jean repeatedly screams “I’ve been a bad girl” between footage of the girls a-going a-hangin’ (yeah, guess that could be misconstrued):
Burger at Tiffany’s
Feeding a Foie Gras Fancy
Kudos to Plate, a magazine for food professionals, for going on an all-out foie gras onslaught today, posting recipes for twists on the divisive delectable that range from wrapping it in jerky to creative confections (foie gras cocoa Napoleon, anyone?) to an over-the-top cassoulet.
The recipes come from Simon Purvis of the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Pichet Ong on Pong in New York, and Mark Hopper of Bouchon of Vegas (where else would you get a foie gras cassoulet?), respectively.
Come on California chefs, get on it. Time’s a-ticking.
Wondering What the Staff at El Bulli Ate? [Video]
If you were wondering what the staff at El Bulli ate during family meal, well the answered in the video teaser for Ferran Adrià’s new book, The Family Meal. And the answer is basically the same odd goulash and stews familiar to anyone who’s eaten a staff meal at any restaurant, except since this is El Bulli, we’re talking about fish heads (without the eyeballs, which would be served later on gold-leaf flakes later on or something, of course) and the like serving as the base.
The Tall Tale of How Chris Got Its Ruth’s
What’s in an apostrophe? And how much history can one of those little marks encompass?
For anyone who’s familiar with how Mario’s Italian Restaurant became Jim’s Mario’s on Taxi, or how, say, a tiny babershop in Dobbs Ferry, NY, long known as Tony’s became Gino’s Tony’s, you’ll have an inkling as to how the now pervasive Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse got its additional possessive.
But just an inkling.
And this is because we’re talking about a New Orleans tale. And the full tale is told in The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak (University Press of Mississippi), written by Randy Fertel, whose mother, Ruth, founded the steakhouse and whose father, Rodney, once ran for mayor of New Orleans on the platform that the city’s zoo needed a gorilla.
Roy Blunt, Jr said of the memoir, “Lots of New Orleans history in this family story, which is wilder than the gorillas and almost as juicy as the steaks.”
For a taste of the tale, watch this mini-doc created by the University of Mississippi:
Feeding Frenzy
A couple of weeks ago, our friends at The Whole Beast, which specializes in cooking whole animals, took on the task of feeding the hungry hordes at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park (which regularly brings out up to 500,000 people). John Fink and his crew prepared lamb gyros of whole lambs they cooked in the park in the massive undertaking. One onlooker described Fink as pushing through like “a B-17 bombardier” — a bombardier who butterflies lambs for hours on end.
Here are the final numbers for The Whole Beast’s weekend:
28 whole lambs
1,000 lbs of potatoes for french fries
350 lbs of Mangalista (or “Wooly Pig”) fat rendered into lard
70 gallons of yogurt for sauce (which came donated in individual 6 oz packages)
40 lbs of porcini mushrooms
4 festival staffers to help lift the grilling rig onto the truck’s hitch
3 all-nighters to prep
The line for The Whole Beast's Lamb Gyros
This is real. You can drink this. If you’re a fucking asshole.
Too bad about Leib Family Cellars marketing staff burning in hell.
The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee said it best when she said, “This is real. You can drink this. If you’re a fucking asshole.”
My God, Sizzler, What Have You Done To Our Food?
We are not going to take the bait in the Sizzler “Steakfest” commercial. No, the fine cuts of “tri tip sirloin” look like New York strip steaks, we’ll give them that. We discovered long ago that “tri tip” was a term made up by westerners to make an inferior cut sound palatable. Fine. And fine that what the man in the commercial is cutting is no way in hell tri tip we’ve ever seen. It’s a commercial. It’s Sizzler. We’re comfortable with all that.
If you go to Sizzler “Steakfest” you know what you are getting yourself into. But holy fuck, look at the size of that acocado the guy is cutting. We were undecided about GMOs until right now, but Jesus H Fucking Christ, that avocado (at :13) is the size of a watermelon. Unless, of course, the chef cutting it has very, very small hands and is using a very tiny knife. Perhaps it’s a paring knife shaped like a chef’s knife. (But when you went to the trouble of substituting NY strip for tri tip, why would you use your midget chef/model?) Sizzler was unavailable for comment.
Check it out at :13.
The Great Pulled Pork Debate
We’re not afraid to tackle the big questions here at The Butcher. Just such a question has recently arisen over what exactly is Pulled Pork? There are two sides that have been taken in this debate, and the arguments are below. We’ll be appealing to some higher powers for a definitive answer, but in the meantime please feel free to consider, contemplate and weigh in.
Pulled Pork is BBQ. End of Story
Occasionally at The Butcher, we come across folks who are grossly misinformed about meat and its provenance. We found ourselves in just such a position this past weekend when we were confronted by an individual who made the specious claim that (to paraphrase) “pulled pork need not be barbecued, it simply must be pork that is pulled from any cut of the pig prepared in any cooking manner.” To wit, went this argument, “pulled pork” is not a cooking technique involved in barbecuing a pig, but instead is a method of preparing any pork cut.
Our bile was up at this suggestion as it is our contention that “pulled pork” is barbecue—end of story. And yes, there are any number of pretenders to the “pulled pork” genre and Paula Deen will happily tell you how to make pulled pork in a slow cooker. But this is no more accurate than calling sparkling wine from the Finger Lakes region of New York, Champagne. All sparkling wine is not Champagne just because it has bubbles, and all pork that is pulled is not pulled pork strictly because it’s been pulled. Sabe? Then there are people who will just call any old artificially carbonated white white champagne (they’ll even drink the stuff). But don’t get us started on Sandra Lee.
Pulled Pork is NOT Necessarily BBQ
I sense that over the course of this debate, I have somehow become positioned as a dilettante of barbecue. Admittedly, I am no expert in this arena, but as one who certainly appreciates the tender juicy goodness of slowly cooked pig, I feel that I am entitled to assert my humble opinion. It’s true that in some circles in the South Eastern United States, pulled pork is synonymous with barbecue. I just don’t think the story ends there.
I’d also like to state that the act of pulling or shredding pork (or any other meat) is dependent upon the cut of the meat as well as the cooking technique employed. Obviously, grilled pork chops don’t lend themselves to being pulled. Besides, why would one want to violate a perfect package of meaty goodness? But, I digress…
After a fair amount of contemplation,I have realized that the root of this contention lies plainly in the semantics of the term barbecue. The term itself can be used in a variety of ways: as a noun to refer to the meat, the cooking apparatus itself, or to a party that includes such food or such preparation methods. The term can also be used as an adjective to refer to foods cooked by this method, or as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner. With all the flexibility of usage, it’s no surprise that this type of debate crops up from time to time.
Bottom line: It is completely reasonable to say that pulled pork is barbecue. Moreover, it is reasonable to say that pulled pork does not have to be barbecue. It is pork that is pulled apart prior to being served. There are many traditions around the world that employ the technique of slow cooking various cuts of meat by braising, or by traditional or convection baking, or by utilizing a slow cooker whereby the meat is pulled apart before it is served. I shudder to think of the reaction by any persons of Caribbean or Mexican heritage if referred to as “pretenders” of deliciously and authentically prepared dishes such as Pork Carnitas, or Ropa Vieja.
So there you have it readers. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Can You Identify This Offal?
A reader has written with a request. His research, he assures us, is of an academic nature. He is looking for help identifying a piece of meat being served in a scene in the classic Easy Rider.
In the scene, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are sitting down to a meal in one of New Orlean’s fine dining establishments after their friend George is killed in rural Louisiana. A piece of what looks to be organ meat is held up to a torch, and then the dish is served to the Fonda and Hopper slathered in a creamy sauce.
Your help is greatly appreciated. Helpful responses will be eligible for a vaunted “Meat Team” badge, which would make you a member of an elite squad similar to the A-Team, but without the shitty Tony Scott movie.
View the entire clip in context here (hit play to jump to the restaurant scene):
Talking Turkey About The Cargill Salmonella Outbreak
Your friendly neighborhood agribusiness conglomerate Cargill has a big problem on its tentacles.
So let’s get this straight, first of all:
Meat produced and packaged in Arkansas by a company based in Minnesotta has killed one person in California and struck ill 76 others across 26 states causing a massive recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey.
Let that sink in. Do we really need to say anything more? Does anyone?
Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business, certainly did. Quoth Mr. Willardsen, “Given our concern for what has happened, and our desire to do what is right for our consumers and customers, we are voluntarily removing our ground turkey products from the marketplace.”
This is the man apologizing for a company that basically, according to the CDC, accidentally created a nearly invincible antibiotic-resistant super-strain of salmonella that it then shipped all over the country and has been making people sick since March. When the outbreak finally kills someone, what’s his response? “Oops.”
Now we are not trying to being cynical, but the oft repeated refrain “Too big to fail,” comes to mind, except in this case deaths, not bankruptcy result. How big? Well, let’s do some fun math:
The recall is for 36 million pounds. There are 2,000 pounds in a ton. Cargill sent out 18,000 tons of possibly tainted ground turkey.
Here is a list of the states that have reported cases of human salmonella resulting from ground turkey originating from the Arizona plant operated by Cargill (followed by the number people who have gotten sick in that state) according to the CDC.
AL (1), AZ (2), CA (6), GA (1), IA (1), IL (7), IN (1), KY (2), LA (1), MA (1), MI (10), MN (1), MO (2), MS (1), NC (1), NE (2), NV (1), NY (2), OH (10), OK (1), OR (1), PA (5), SD (3), TN (2), TX (9), and WI (3)
As you can see, the outbreak has gone not only from sea to shining sea, but stretched from Texas to Minnesota. Now think about that.
Forget for a moment the killer bacteria in the ground turkey, and just ponder the methods that Cargill must use to produce that volume of ground turkey. This thought should be enough turn your stomach as if you had just had a heaping spoonful of raw turkey that has been pressed through metal strainers bones and all and is teaming with infection.
Update: Our friends at Mother Jones have calculated the size of the mound of tainted turkey that Cargill has recalled (if it were all gathered in one place). We are talking about enough ground turkey to fill the Empire State Building six times.
Forgive Us, Weber, For We Have Sinned
Mistakes were made. We are the first to admit it. In a new place for a temporary period, we went in search of a grill and strayed from the path of Weber. It won’t happen again. Expecting our stay at Chez Boucher Ouest to last no more than six months, we thought a budget model charcoal grill would suffice. It would barely need to last one grilling season, we reasoned. We bought a 22″ UniFlame model. For $35 we could afford to let it rust when we departed this Valhalla for points east.
This was September. It’s now July. The ash catcher rusted completely off the mounting in June. It’s rare for the cheap wire brush you buy on the same day as a grill to outlast the grill itself. That’s what happened here.
Now, we are not going to argue that the UniFlame is anyway comparable to the Weber. We never thought that. The flame control on the UniFlame leaves much to be desired. The flimsy stamped aluminum lid feels cheap, but does not affect the lack of control nearly as much of the constant airflow through the poorly thought out design, full of seams and holes (the two for the top rack are especially troublesome). The grill does not have the simple, stable design of a Weber. No grill does. By October our UniFlame already listed badly. We’ve had decade-old Webers held together with electrical tape and twine that tipped less.
Two grills enter; one grill leaves
The design flaws are glaring. The four legs of the the UniFlame could never compare to the holy trinity of legs on the Weber. The internal mechanism (three simple and cheap aluminum blades) lasts forever (and that’s a mighty long time) and performs its job perfectly.
The external sliders on the wind-inviting ash-catching tin cup attachment which serves to both receive falling ash and control airflow on the UniFlame could feed an inferno even when battened down tight, and rusted through in months (until the slide attaching it to the grill rusted right through).
Head-to-head, there is no comparison. The Weber gives precise control of the heat and intensity of the flames coming from the briquettes. The UniFlame worked okay for a while and then fell apart. The price difference might be easily made up in the cost of the extra charcoal that the UniFlame burns. In fact, after it was a month or two old, nearly all the charcoal left in the UniFlame after cooking was done and the grill shut “tight” burned out into ash.
We now have a 18.5″ Weber that cost twice as much as our UniFlame, which, it must be said, now makes a fine base for our fire pit.
Forgive us, Weber. We won’t stray again.
