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

Joshua Applestone (Author), Jessica Applestone (Author), Alexandra Zissu (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 7, 2011

There is a food revolution sweeping the nation, changing the way Americans think and eat, and meat is at the heart of it. The butcher has reemerged in American culture as an essential guide in avoiding the evils of industrial meat—which not only tastes bad, but is also bad for one’s health and for the environment. Joshua and Jessica Applestone, a former vegan and vegetarian, are trailblazers in this arena. They run Fleisher’s, an old-school butcher shop with a modern-day mission—sourcing and selling only grass-fed and organic meat. The Applestones’ return to the nearly lost tradition of the buying and nose-to-tail carving of whole animals—all humanely raised close to their shop in New York’s Hudson Valley—has helped to make them rising stars in the food world.
           
The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat is a compendium of their firsthand knowledge. This unique book—a guide, memoir, manifesto, and reference in one—shares everything one needs to know about well-raised meat, including why pastured meats are so much better than conventional ones and how to perfectly butcher and cook them at home. Readers will learn which cut of steak to look for as an alternative to the popular hanger (of which each steer has only one), how to host a driveway pig roast, and even how to break down an entire lamb (or just butterfly the shoulder)—all with accompanying step-by-step photographs. Differences among breeds and ideal cooking methods for various cuts and offal are covered, and the Applestones’ decoding of misleading industry terminology and practices will help consumers make smarter, healthier purchases that can also help change what’s wrong with meat in America today.
           
Complete with color and black-and-white photographs, illustrations, and more than a dozen recipes, The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat is the definitive guide to eating great meat—responsibly. 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

Review

“By learning about meat and where it comes from, we become more competent and responsible cooks and carnivores. In this tribute to farmers and animals, the Applestones and Ms. Zissu have put together a compelling guide to local and sustainable meat and poultry. In an honest, irreverent, and funny primer, we learn which are the best cuts for a given dish, how to cook (and serve) a perfect steak, and what to expect when buying a turkey. This charming and informative reference is sure to influence irreversibly the way we buy, prepare, and appreciate meat.”
--James Peterson, author of Meat and Cooking

“If you like eating meat but want to eat ethically, this is the book for you. From the hard-headed, clear-eyed, and sympathetic perspective of butchers who care deeply about the animals whose parts they sell, the customers who buy their meats, and the pleasures of eating, this book has much to teach. It’s an instant classic, making it clear why meat is part of the food revolution. I see it as the new Bible of meat aficionados and worth reading by all food lovers, meat-eating and not.”
--Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, NYU, and author of What to Eat 

“I love the way The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat explains the world of meat in straightforward, no-nonsense language by folks who learned from trial and error. It is great to see a perspective from butchers selling meat raised in a non-industrial manner. It is clear that the Applestones are folks who care about how the animals are raised for the meat they sell and are willing to explain why doing so is very important to them. There are hard-to-find recipes for making your own prosciutto, bacon, and bresaola.” 
--Bruce Aidells, author of The Complete Meat Cookbook

“…clear, useful instruction on dealing with cuts of beef, lamb, pork, and poultry, interesting meditations on sustainable dining, and a dozen or so recipes thrown in for good measure.”
--Publishers Weekly 

“The new bible for conscious carnivores.” – Bon Appétit 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (June 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307716627
• ISBN-13: 978-0307716620
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Meat, Poultry & Seafood > Meats
  • #84 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great story, great overview, not comprehensive August 22, 2011

By Corvidae

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I recently switched my diet and lifestyle to "paleo" (lots of meats, veggies, good fats; no grains or processed sugars). Paleo highly, highly, highly encourages eating locally raised, grass-fed meats, which I have started easing myself into. However, I have found myself coming across the stumbling block of not knowing what to *do* with all these fancy (and expensive) cuts of meat, as well as not really understanding the differences between them. I started thinking that I needed to take a class or something so someone could sit me down and tell me all the things my parents never taught me (or apparently knew) about meat and how to understand it. Then, out of the blue, a friend of mine recommended this book to me and I figured this was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for

Although I was looking for technical information, I highly enjoyed the discussion and anecdotes about the owners' journey and learning curve. There are little glimpses of their love and dedication to their work (and each other) scattered throughout the book that make it very pleasurable to just read-through. There are also beautiful pictures (photos and pencil illustrations) that really help hammer home the point that working with such good quality meat is as much art as it is necessity.

In terms of the actual information, the book is definitely just an overview. I got the sense that the owners sat down and made a list of all these random tips and tidbits they wanted to convey, and somehow edited them together into a book. These tips and tidbits are useful, don't get me wrong, but except for some large chunks, there wasn't a good sense of organization and flow. While I generally liked the easy, approachable tone of the main author, there were at least two or three points in the book where he used some unexpected sarcasm and lighthearted wording that confused the point he was trying to make (it sounds nitpicky, I know, but I am a science writer by profession so I spend quite a lot of time thinking about how to convey complex concepts as straightforward as possible while remaining accurate). Still, there are good discussions of the different cuts of meat and what they mean, best ways to cook one type of cut over another, some great recipe suggestions, and so on. The authors also won me over personally by discussing a few different breeds of each type of meat animal. I know from experience that people so are disconnected from where their food comes from that the idea that there are different *types* of cow makes people stare blankly. Also, everytime they made the case for keeping the fat in the meat or using fat for other cooking I mentally high-fived them.

Technical content aside, I think the book works well as a discussion of what factory farming actually looks like, from hoof to table, and how it is directly affecting our lives. I mean, you can see lists of statistics or even photos of large-scale farming operations, but for some reason it never quite struck me as hard as it did when the author of this book discussed seeing black, clogged, and diseased endocrine glands in the meat of factory-farmed pigs, and how the pasture-raised pigs don't look like that. This book really drove home the point to me that the way most Americans are getting their food these days is Wrong, so so Wrong. Wrong for the animals, wrong for the farmers and workers, and wrong for us the consumers.

In summary: a good book, good story, great summary of the field, but if you want more specific details or more depth on some of the topics you will probably have to branch out into other sources.

EDIT: I still recommend this book, but for those who read it and want something with more detail, or want to go straight to something with more detail, I recommend The River Cottage Meat Book

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious! June 14, 2011

By H. Grove TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat: How to Buy, Cut, and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and More is by Joshua and Jessica Applestone (owners of Fleisher's Grass-Fed & Organic Meats) and Alexandra Zissu. Since doggedly making their sustainable butcher's shop work against all odds, the Applestones have helped teach others to make it work for themselves as well. And whether you're looking to get into the butchering business or simply want to know how to prepare, cook, choose, and eat good meat at home, this book does a fantastic job of providing truly useful (and delicious!) information.

Although the information on sourcing well-raised animals might be important primarily to the butchers themselves, I learned an awful lot as a consumer. Hands-on information makes it much easier to understand why it can be important to buy good-quality meats. I really like knowing the practical, factual information on how the various practices of animal raising affect both the quality of the meat and the quality of life for the animal. All of that is included in here, in very concrete terms. Some of the information provided can make it easier for you to recognize good quality meats at the store or butcher's shop, and the Applestones are happy to tell you what questions to ask your butcher as well. There's even an explanation of various terms you'll find on labels, and what they mean--or DON'T mean.

Each type of meat gets its own section--beef, lamb, pork, poultry. In each you'll learn about the issues particular to that animal, the various cuts of meat on an animal and where they're located (and how they can vary from butcher to butcher), why sustainability means that you should learn which cuts will do the same job as more trendy ones and consider buying those instead, recommended cooking methods for pretty much every part of the animal you can imagine (including offal), suggestions for things you might practice if you want to try your hand at butchering, and of course recipes. The authors convinced me to give pork another try, and I'm glad I did--I discovered that while I still prefer beef, well-raised and properly cooked pork has a noticeably better flavor than your average grocery store meat.

There's also plenty of information on their own background, "the art of butchery", and a number of techniques and tools (accompanied by drawings and a few photos, not to mention step-by-step instructions for storing, wrapping, brining, etc.). The text is written from Joshua's perspective, and his personality comes through clearly. This makes the text fun and interesting without detracting from its usefulness.

As always when I review a book with recipes in it, I made several of them. And oh, my. The flavors in here are delightful. The spice mix for the lamb meatballs looked like it would be too heavy on smoked paprika, yet the balance was perfect for the meat. The spice paste for a butterflied lamb leg made the meat taste divine: plenty of flavor, without covering up the natural goodness of the flesh. Without fail, the cooking methods and flavors in here delivered succulent, perfect food every time.

[NOTE: review book provided by publisher]

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars if you eat (anything) you must read this book! June 7, 2011

By JoJoStar

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am lucky enough to be able to shop at Josh and Jessica's shop, and after reading this important book I realise that I am privleged. If you care at all about the food you eat and where it comes from this is a must read. Informative, funny and most importantly, honest. We should all care as much about the inside of our body as we do the outside. This will be a classic.