Happy and Healthy Animals Always Taste Best

Have you ever seen a chicken’s “fingers”? or a pig’s “bacon”? I find it curious that we transform the meat we eat on a regular basis to look like anything but the actual animal we are eating. Whether it’s a natural defense against the ugliness of eating something that was once living, or simply something people have grown up with not questioning, I can’t say. 

We aren’t eating Babe, 
the cute little pig with the rest of his life rolling in mud and making friends with other barnyard animals ahead of him, 

we’re eating “pork”; uniformly sliced and packaged for a convenient stir-fry, streaky smoked bacon for breakfast, and thick cut pork chops for the grill. But none of these products look like a pig. Maybe the closest we get to actually recognizing the animal is when we leave the skin on the roast, but even then it’s not called skin, it’s crackling.

It wasn’t until I saw the reaction when a contestant on Masterchef roasted a pig head that I realized not everyone thinks about where their food comes from. The entire week prior to air, the commercial showed the roasted head being pulled out of the oven with ominous scary music in the background! Pigs aren’t scary. Roasted meat isn’t scary either. But I could feel the unease the moment Australia saw that roasted pig head, and the pig looked back. Because there’s no avoiding the image of Babe when his head is roasted and served on a platter at your dinner table.

And that’s exactly the point I want to make (aside from letting you in on the secret that the best part of the pig is its cheeks and jowl). I am against people forgetting that what they eat everyday actually was a living thing, which is what happens when we go to the grocery store and pick up carts full of dismembered, chopped up, and neatly packaged meat. Because it’s at this moment that people stop caring about the product they are buying. It’s easy to forget that that coq au vin was once a chicken when its feet are taken off and its legs and neatly arranged and cling filmed.

I don’t agree with vegetarianism as a means towards the end of animal cruelty. Because as poetic as it sounds, spending the rest of your life eating vegetables isn’t going to keep the billions of cows out of the slaughterhouse. Talk is cheap. What you need to make a difference today is money. The power of supply and demand is a force to be reckoned with. And as a consumer, you have a lot more power to control that force than you might at first think. It’s all about who your dollar supports. And if you are against cruelty to animals, then you should be supporting the hundreds of farmers doing meat farming the ethical way. It may be a little more expensive, but you reap the benefits not only in supporting a sustainable and ethical meat farmer, but in the intense flavor of the meat! That is what meat is supposed to taste like! I check up on this website at least once a week. Check it out: <http://www.sustainabletable.org.au/>

The website has got a great list of ethical butchers in Sydney and Melbourne. And the best part about shopping at one is that they’re always really friendly, and ready to share (or trade!) tips. When you ask for something maybe not on display, they go to the back, bring out a forequarter of an animal, and show you the piece they are going to cut! Really cool.

Sunday’s Southern feast was a special request by Nick. Creamy mac ‘n’ cheese, collard greens, jalapeno corn bread, delicious. 
But the big star? Slow Roasted Beef Brisket! Oh my, it was amazing. Crunchy “bark”, tender meat, sticky sauce. But the best part? This tasted BEEFY. Thanks to my butcher’s ethical, hormone free, beautiful, and delicious meat I feel good about buying and eating. Especially eating… I may not have a smoker (or even outdoor grill) at home, but I make a MEAN slow roasted brisket :D

Brisket comes from the breast of the cow. It is a thin sheet of muscle that has a lot of fat on one side. For the most part the whole cut of meat follows one grain, so that when you slice it thinly you don’t have to worry about which way to cut. You cook it low and slow to ensure the collagen in the meat breaks down and turns into gelatin resulting in tender meat that practically melts in your mouth. And the best part of this kind of cooking? Brisket is so cheap! Feed up to 8 people for $25? Yes thank you.

Slow Roasted Beef Brisket

Go to your local (ethical) butcher and ask for a beef brisket. They will show you the piece and you get to choose how big you want them to cut it!

Dry Rub:

½ c brown sugar

¼ c paprika

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp celery salt

1 ½ tbsp. onion powder

1 ½ tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tsp dry mustard

½ tsp cayenne

PLUS: One bottle of your favourite BBQ sauce. Or use your own recipe! Mine is kinda special and I’m not ready to share it on the internet just yet :D

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle liberally over the brisket, making sure you coat everywhere. Place the brisket on a rack over a roasting pan and cover with plastic wrap. 

Refrigerate the brisket at least 4 hours or overnight. This process initially draws moisture out of the meat. But let it sit long enough and the seasoning as well as the moisture will work it’s way back into the meat leaving you with a perfectly seasoned piece of meat all the way through. If you don’t have time to do this, skip the step all together. Salting the meat for any time less than 4 hours will only serve to draw moisture out of the meat.

Now time to cook. Bring your brisket out to room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 100C. Pour one bottle of beer into the bottom of your roasting pan (you want the beef to sit on the rack without touching the beer). Seal the pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Don’t move the brisket, or open the door for the first 4 hours. After 4 hours, take the brisket out of the oven and baste it with a thick layer of BBQ sauce. Cover with foil again and cook for 30 minutes. Repeat this process until the brisket has had 6 hours of cook time. At 6 hours, depending on the size of your brisket, you have to judge if it needs more time (up to 8 hours total). You want to be able to put a fork in the middle of the brisket and for it to break apart without much force. Not as “fall apart” as a pulled pork, but definitely tender and soft.

So, after 4 hours baste every 30 minutes with BBQ sauce keeping the brisket covered with foil until the last 20 minutes of cooking which is done uncovered to ensure the BBQ sauce caramelizes nicely.

Once cooked, remove the rack and brisket to a board to rest covered in a foil tent. Pour all those delicious drippings into a pot with a little more BBQ sauce. Stir together and bring to the boil to serve alongside the brisket.

Once the brisket has rested 20 minutes, thinly slice against the grain. Move your knife in as few long, and fluid cuts as you can manage so as not to damage the now delicate and tender beef. Transfer to a platter, pour over any juices that may have come out during resting and cutting, and serve! AH-MAZE-ING. 

I hope I inspired you to at least look into investing your dollar in ethically produced meat. It just tastes better, and you’ll definitely feel better about eating it too!