Customer Reviews

Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat

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When my roommate decided to buy a side of grass-fed beef from a co-worker 10 years ago, she came home with a single sheet of paper in her hand.
"What is it?" I asked, holding the sparsely typed page gingerly, noting where we were to indicate our preference for steaks or roasts or ground beef.
"The farmer says it's a cut sheet." she shrugged, "I guess we fill it out." She pulled down the old Joy of Cooking from above the fridge, saying, "This book has some diagrams in it, maybe it will help."
We struggled with the cut sheet for a few hours before coming to any decisions. We also bought a second-hand freezer as well, because we thought it might be a good idea to have some extra room for all of that beef. It was a very good idea. We didn't know what we were doing, but after tasting the quality of the grass-fed meat, we were hooked.
Ten years of buying sides and shares of beef and lamb, CSA shares of pork and whole chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks have passed since then. I'm married now, with a growing family to feed, a second freezer and yet I still struggle with filling out a cut sheet.
Thrilled I am, indeed, to find Deborah Krasner's recent book, "Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat". In this book, what was perennially intimidating has been laid out for me, in one book, clearly and with lots of diagrams - just the way I like it.
Ms. Krasner has organized her book into sections dealing with each animal, how to source them, what cuts come from which primal, how to ask for what you want, and how to cook the cuts you get to the best advantage. Diagrams, color photos and clear instructions lead each chapter, even before the recipes begin.
The recipes I tried were delicious. My husband said of the Sirloin Steak with Red Wine, "This tastes like something you'd get in a restaurant!" What home cook doesn't secretly want to hear that! For lamb, I loved the Merguez Sausages, saving half the recipe for the freezer to put into a cassoulet later. Black Bean Soup with Smoked Hocks and Sherry introduced me to this wonderful cut. As a result, I'll always have some on hand in my freezer.
From the Poultry section, our favorite has become the Roasted Cardamom, Oregano and Garlic Chicken Thighs. So aromatic, I think there is nothing more lovely than the smell of this chicken floating through the house.
For those who do not eat meat, Ms. Krasner has also included a large section on eggs and other side dishes, among which the Vermont Cheddar Souffle and the Clementine, Fennel and Olive Salad are standouts.
Even beyond the increasingly important issues of grass-fed vs. commercial meat: nutritional, environmental, good animal-husbandry, etc., the book reminds those among us who eat meat to look with honesty and clarity at where our meat comes from. She gives us the tools to access this world without too much stress. I know this for sure, thanks to "Good Meat", I'll never be anxious about filling out a cut sheet again.

A lot of people, myself included, are uneasy about eating supermarket meat because of the way the animals are treated and for health reasons. This excellent book shows you how to create a whole new relationship to meat. First, Deborah Krasner confirms the health hazards and inhumanity that go into industrial meat, but then she shows you how 100% grass fed, humanely raised meat is actually a nutritious, health giving food that helps restore both our environment and our relations to farmers. In other words, you can have your meat and eat it too.

Changing to grass fed meat turns out to be relatively easy. Krasner shows you how to find grass fed meat either locally or on the Internet. She also shows you step by step, with illustrations and diagrams, how to fill out the sometimes intimidating order form, called a "cut sheet," if you're ordering a quarter, half, or whole animal. This means you get the cuts you like and don't wind up with 200 pounds of hamburger!! As far as I know, there's no other book that does this.

But it doesn't end there. As other reviewers have mentioned, the book is full of delicious recipes. Anybody who tells you that grass fed meat is hard to cook or tough should read this book and hang his/her head in shame. My personal favorites include the braised beef shanks, which came out amazingly tender and full of flavor, and the pork loin stuffed with Armagnac and prunes--just luscious.

One more-- There's a recipe for popcorn with bacon fat, bacon bits and maple syrup that is truly an addictive substance.

Finally, this is a beautiful book, large and lavishly illustrated with gorgeous photographs of animals and what appears to be the Vermont countryside. Combine the visual appeal with the great information and superb recipes and you've got a sure winner. Treat yourself or your friends and family to a copy of this book. It might just change your life, and it will definitely give you a lot of good eating.

Full disclosure: I know Deborah from having spent one amazing Autumn week at her cooking school in Vermont. From the terrific food we made then, I knew this book would be amazing. It is. The Salt-Seared Burger with Red Wine Reduction Sauce provides a new way to really amplify burgers. Pig Candy has become a family and friend favorite, creating a smile before even tasting! Deborah's thoughtful writing brings you very close to the animal -- from living being to the meal on your plate. I am delighted to see a huge range of recipes, from beef to lamb, rabbit, pig and poultry. The two that are tempting me next are: Marinated Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate Molasses, Tomatoes and Fresh Mint and Char Siu Bao, tiny pork stuffed buns. That picture alone just make my mouth water! Also included are many recipes for homemade spice blends. We used some of these at the school and we smelled all of them while perusing the spice drawer at Deborah's!

Whether you're already consuming sustainable meats like grass-fed beef, or you're heading in that direction, it's important to understand that meat raised on grass cannot always be prepared in the same way as conventional meat. Grass-fed beef is much leaner so there is little to insulate it from the heat source, making it important to cook with lower temperatures. Also because of the lack of insulation, the meat will cook about 30-50% faster! I'm embarrassed to admit how many grass-fed roasts and steaks I've ruined because I didn't know how to properly cook them!

As someone who knew very little about cooking until 10 years ago, I tend to depend a lot on cookbooks (truth be told, I'm a "cookbook junkie") for guidance and instruction. That's why I am so thrilled about a new cookbook designed specifically for sustainably raised meats. This is not just a 400 page cook book with over 200 recipes (weighing in at 5 pounds)! It's a complete educational resource. My favorite part is the section on "Cow Anatomy" where she breaks down where each cut of meat comes from and how to communicate a cutting order to the butcher. When I first started buying meat directly from the farmer, nothing was more intimidating than getting that call to say "Your beef is ready, time to get your cutting order to the butcher!" Yikes! I had no clue what was I doing.

Krasner's cookbook not only does this for beef, but offers the same great information on lamb, pork, rabbit and poultry! If you're like I was and the only thing stopping you from buying a whole side of beef, pork or lamb is not understanding how to find it and order it, this is for you. The book is packed with beautiful full-color photographs, thorough explanations of cooking techniques and, for those of you blessed with a little acreage, she even discusses the economics of raising meat in your own backyard.

I agree with another reviewer that this book is tremendously helpful to people who buy animals whole or in shares. The explanations of the choices of cuts available for each animal are invaluable in filling out cut sheets. The book is just as useful for those who buy their grass-fed meat by the piece and want to understand better how to choose and prepare different cuts. While the book includes recipes for the unusual cuts you get when buying a whole animal, there are many more recipes for the cuts you are most likely to find and purchase individually.
I know Deborah Krasner and was a recipe tester for this book, so I have already had a chance to make many of the recipes. I have been most impressed by the variety of recipes and the thought that went into writing them. Krasner's love for the food of the Mediterranean shines in recipes like Sicilian Chicken Thigh Stew with Capers, Middle Eastern Lamb Meatballs with Cinnamon and Cherries, and Rabbit and Prunes Marinated in Red Wine. But Asian influences abound - one of my favorite recipes is Ants Climbing Trees, a Szechuan noodle dish that has entered my regular dinner rotation. Krasner's location in Vermont is unmistakably present in recipes such as New England-Style Slow Pork Butt Roast, and in the beautiful photographs of happy farm animals at home in lush Vermont pastures. This is my favorite kind of cookbook - highly informative, full of recipes I want to make, and written by someone with a passion for good food. I'm sure that I will enjoy reading it and cooking from it for years to come.

I, too, must confess having taken a cooking class with Deborah. Highly recommended. This book is terrific, really explains the tension between "corporate", mass production meat and locally produced, pastured meat. And by "meat" she includes poultry -- good for my wife and I who don't eat red meat.

It is also a great cookbook. I cooked one of the slow-roast chicken recipes and its the best chicken I've ever had (if I do say so myself).

Great book

I have a lot of cookbooks, and many of them are specifically about cooking meat, so I don't buy new ones to add to the collection on a whim. This came highly recommended by a friend who is even foodier than me. The explanations and background from the author are outstanding. The book is beautifully illustrated and laid out, and the recipes are very interesting. As I buy whole animals straight from a rancher, the recipes for all the different parts of the animal, including ways to use the fat - as well as scientific information on why it's healthy to eat the fat - are very useful to me. I look forward to cooking from this book.

This book is my "go to" cookbook. The ingredients are easily found, the recipes are easy to follow, and the results are exceptional. We raise organic grass fed beef and this book is the absolute best source we have found to feature our product.
I have tried over 20 of the recipes and my family and friends have raved about each and every one.

James Beard award-winning author and certified culinary professional Deborah Krasner has a fantastic new book called Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat to help you find the healthiest cuts of meat to serve yourself and your family and then offers tips on how to cook these sustainable meats. She shares her 30-year "by accident" food writing career, why she became so interested in local, sustainable sources of meat, her attempt to raise meat for her family, what would happen if everyone bought "good meat" from their local farmers, why people seem to settle for grain-fed meats, how we can get the message out there to people who need to be purchasing grass-fed meats, what "cage-free" and "high omega-3 eggs" mean on a label, why purchasing from a local farmer is ideal, specific questions to ask farmers regarding the food you are purchasing from them, what "grass-fed, grain-finished" beef is, why red meat is so vilified by the media without any distinction between grain-fed and grass-fed, the economic reality of our current times that can be overcome, the ease of finding farmers in your local area through web sites like EatWild.com and online retailers, why we have an "obligation" to eat the entire animal, why she includes a recipe for every part of an animal, why Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders who wrote the foreword to her book and the efforts he's made to promote local food, her favorite low-carb recipe in her book, what she thinks about meat CSAs (community supported agriculture), the "Decision Tree" in her book to help people know how to select the right steak cuts, whether brining free-range heritage turkeys is necessary, and her "cooking school" culinary vacations in Vermont and Italy. If your knowledge of meats is what you find in your local grocery stores, then let Deborah Krasner educate you on finding and cooking the "good meat."

I absolutely love this book and can't wait to start using some of the recipes from it. This book is very informative and I am happy to add this one to my BBQ library.