The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat: How to Buy, Cut, and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and More

A Q&A with Authors Q&A with Joshua and Jessica Applestone

What inspired you to write this book?
Josh: My goal is for the book to act as a guide and to help people ease their minds when buying and cooking meat. We don t encourage people to eat more meat but we want them to have the freedom to make informed choices and eat better meat.

Jessica: I like the idea of busting myths like those surrounding wet aging, portion sizes and the idea that organic HAS to be expensive.

How would you describe what you do?
We run an old-fashioned butcher shop offering meat sourced locally, free of hormones or antibiotics, and full of real farm flavor.

You were both vegetarians, what caused you to become omnivores?
Josh: After about 6months of running Fleisher s it was our bacon that put me back on a meat eating track. My vegan/vegetarianism was an out growth of my beliefs about how horrible the factory-farmed meat industry is. Once I really knew where my meat was coming from and how these animals were treated and slaughtered I could feel comfortable eating meat again.

Jessica: I wanted to start eating meat again--just not the stuff that supermarkets were selling, and it was too much for me to buy a side of beef. Farmer s Markets were only open in the summer so it was out of my own desires that we opened Fleisher s so that I could get one perfect fresh lamb chop and the butcher could tell me how to cook it.

Favorite cut of meat?
Josh: Faux Hanger/Sirloin Flap

Jessica: Lamb Sirloin

Most under-rated cut?
Josh: Teres Major

Jessica: Lamb neck

Favorite preparation:
Josh: Raw

Jessica: Cooked

Favorite recipe in the book:
Josh: Pig Cheeks

Jessica: The Perfect Steak

What is your favorite type of customer/reader?
Joshua: a smart one

Jessica: an intrepid cook

A knife should...
Josh: Cut, hold an edge and be easy to sharpen with a hand steel and be comfortable in your hand in a number of different positions.

Jessica: Not be too expensive and NEVER be put in the dishwasher.

Favorite ingredient aside from meat:
Josh: Salt

Jessica: Garlic

Favorite side dish:
Josh: Potatoes any style as long as there s salt involved

Jessica: Noodles--pasta any type, any kind, any ethnicity--Obviously we are both carb freaks though we usually eat salad as a side dish.

Best offal:
Josh: Heart

Jessica: Sweetbreads

The best part of a pig is...
Josh: the cheeks

Jessica: the belly

A hamburger should...
Josh: be fatty and rare

Jessica: and covered in cheese (Jessica)

You can never have too many...
Josh: loyal customers

Jessica: Turkeys at Thanksgiving

The thing most people don t realize is...
Josh: The amount of hanger steak per animal is only one.

Jessica: that dry-aging is a form of controlled rot and that even natural nitrites like sea salt and celery juice are still nitrites.