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