This book is a nice addition to the debate around meat in
general and all that goes with it.
There are several issues around meat that need to be
properly addressed sooner rather than later.
1
We eat far too much meat. The result is a diet rich in animal fats
generally that damages the circulatory system.
A proper diet should look something like this: One portion fatty red meat (pork or beef), Three
portions fowl, Six portions fish. All
for a total of five meals per week. The remainder
of our needs should be satisfied with vegetables and modest grains. Also we should fast two separate days in
order to manage out gross weekly caloric intake. The above is tentative but is close to what I
generally attempt. That is still
arguably way too much meat and the fact remains that we can and many do without
any meat whatsoever in the diet.
2
Industrial farming has biased the system toward high
fat husbandry rather than leaner meats.
A lot of this has to do with the huge demand for meat and the inability
of consumers to establish food value in a sensible manner. Changing this will become the preserve of
organic farming and general premium husbandry for now. It is noteworthy that in Canada
3
Wild herbivore populations have been rapidly expanding
and can provide an excellent source of high quality of range developed meat
products. These stocks need to be
actively owned even and culled every fall in order to bring this under
control. I include all deer and wild
turkeys.
The take home is that wild husbandry
and utilization is badly in need of a general overhaul and I have thought as
much since I was a kid. The rules were
put in place in a world of small farms and thirteen old boys packing rifles. I never saw a deer but once in twenty years. None of that is true any longer.
Killer cuisine: Can hunting help us make better
food choices?
15 MAR 2012
9:56 AM
People tell me,
“I don’t think I could do it.” The good news is that you don’t have to. But if
you want to feel what it is to be human again, you should hunt, even if just
once. Because that understanding, I believe, will propel a shift in how we view
and interact with this world we eat in. And the kind of food we demand, as
omnivores, will never be the same.
We spoke with
Pellegrini recently about the book, the role hunting can play in rural food
systems, and the gender dynamic she experienced out in the field.
Q. What made you want to tell these
stories about hunting?
A. I am a chef, so I look at it
all through the lens of food. I grew up living off the land, with honeybees and
chickens, and I fished and foraged a lot. But I didn’t hunt until after I
became a chef. While I worked at Dan Barber’s restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone
Barns [located at the Stone Barns Center for Food and
Agriculture], we were really hands-on with the ingredients — we did
everything from collecting eggs, to working in the greenhouse, to killing
turkeys.
Killing the turkey was sort of my watershed moment; it sort of woke up
a dormant part of me. So many horrible things happen in our industrial food
system and I wanted to explore what it meant to step outside the traditional
way of procuring meat, and really go back to the way we used to do it. I wanted
the experience of participating in every single part of the process — from the
field to the plate — and to make sure that there was no suffering, that every
part of the animal was used and used with integrity. I wanted to pay the full
karmic price for the meal. Your perspective as a chef changes so much when
you’ve had to work hard for every ingredient. I think the food tastes a lot
better that way.
Q. Can you say more about what you mean
by “pay the full karmic price” of the meal?
A. There were times before when
I’d go to the meat aisle in the grocery store and pick up a boneless, skinless
chicken breast wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam, and not really think much of
it.
[Since I started hunting], I decided that if I was going to be a meat
eater, I really wanted to internalize what it means to be an omnivore. And I
really do, it’s emotional, spiritual, intense. And I’ve become a more conscious
eater, a more awake human being.
Q. Do you think that’s the case for
most people who hunt?
A. I do. The truth is that
there’s something about spending countless hours out in the woods,
contemplating the rhythms of it all, that’s very calming. And for me, what I’ve
seen is that all of the hunters want to bring their food home and feed their
family. And they really respect it; they use all of it.
While I was writing the book, I’ve also been able to teach the folks I
went hunting with how to prepare the meat they catch so that it tastes
delicious. Wild game is not as fatty as most meat because wild animals are
essentially athletes. So it’s harder to cook. But there’s such a great range of
flavor out there that we don’t experience otherwise; we’re used to all beef and
chicken tasting exactly the same because all the animals have the exact same
diet and live in the exact same conditions. But wild game tastes very different
depending on what it eats, and where it lives.
Q. What kinds of tricks of the trade
have you shared with these hunters?
A. For one, it’s really important
to age meat. It tastes so much better when it’s aged. It allows the collagen
and muscle tissue to break down, which makes it more tender. I have a chart in
the book that shows people which animals are good aged and for how long.
Brining is also important because it helps dry cuts of meat retain
moisture, while marinating is more about tenderizing.
Q. In Girl Hunter, you talk about the fact that in certain parts of
rural America, hunting is one of the best — if not the only — ways to access
meat that isn’t industrially produced. Do you want to say more about that?
A. A lot of people who hunt do
it as a way to feed their family [because] the alternative is Walmart, which is
15 miles away.
One of the most inspiring aspects of working on this book was seeing
places in this country that are sort of forgotten, but have so much soul and
such fantastic food cultures, because they don’t get to go out to eat, so the
only way to share a meal is to invite people from the community over and cook
for each other. So a lot these people have become really wonderful home cooks.
Q. Were you ever afraid of any of the
larger animals you were hunting?
A. I think the most dangerous
scenario was when I was hunting a wild boar with only a knife. It was a
300-pound angry boar with very sharp tusks, and I was with a group, so it was a
lot of commotion and chaos. But at the same time it was a really interesting
experience to have because that’s how we used to get our food. When we all
lived in the woods, all you had was a sharp object, and it was a risk.
But generally no, I haven’t been afraid of the animals. I think you
should be more cautious about the people you’re hunting with than the animals.
When you’re out there, you also want make sure you’re with someone you trust.
Q. What was it like to hunt as a woman,
with men who were generally more experienced?
A. It was really mixed. I really
don’t fit the typical profile of a hunter, but they were definitely pretty cool
to me when I got out there. When men see a woman participating in what they
have done for many hundreds of years, they get quiet. They’re sort of thrilled
by it. I think it’s intriguing to them that I would share such an interest.
There have been a few moments when certain men get agitated or annoyed that
their paradigm is being invaded by a woman. But that’s not ever the focus of
the outdoors. When we’re out in nature we’re all just humans. Something wakes
up in you and the whole gender thing sort of disappears.
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