Foodish: Grease is the Word.

As I'm sure you've discovered by now...there are few things in life as wonderful to my tastebuds as a good hamburger.

Last Tuesday (that would be June 30), I went with my sometimes-vegetarian best friend Amanda to this new restaurant called the Burger and Cheesesteak Factory, on Prince Avenue in Athens. I did my research--Flagpole (the Athens independant paper) was not impressed, neither was a blogger who works at The Grit (a vegetarian restaurant).

But there were positive reviews as well.

I nearly had to get down on my hands and knees and beg Amanda to go--she heard the phrase "deep fried paradise" and nearly had a coronary--but I was fairly determined that I was going to try this place, and make up my own mind.

My first impression, upon walking into the restaurant, was that the decoration was quite minimalist. There were tables, booths, a counter, and a trashcan shaped like a Coke bottle. The place was very empty; it was me and Amanda, the workers, and a couple who probably should not be eating deep fried anything.

Most of the decoration came from customer-supplied remarks, Sharpie-fied on the walls, booths, and floor for all of eternity. We did not partake in that little venture.

So, anyway, you order at the counter. The menu is mouthwatering, with the front side listing 13 burgers, 9 cheesesteaks, and the beginnings of Deep Fried Paradise. Now, most of the deep fried paradise things I would probably never order; like the broccoli with cheese wiz or cheese stuffed jalapenos. The candy bars I'm still dying to try, though. The back menu hosts "more fun stuff," which is a list far more appetizing than deep fried stuff, as well as shakes and a kids menu.

*Side Note: When I return, I want to know what exactly a "scrambled dawg" is. And I want deep fried candy bars.

After much deliberation, stomach growling, and consultation, I ordered the burger topped with portobella mushrooms and Swiss cheese. I also added lettuce, because despite being a meatetarian lettuce is a hamburger staple, and an order of chili cheese fries. And a chocolate shake.

Amanda ordered a cheesesteak (I don't remember which variety...I want to say it was the portobella one as well but that might be a lie) and a rootbeer float, and opted to share the fries.

You'll have to eat there yourself to make up your mind, but my experience at the Factory was wonderful.

My burger arrived on a lightly toasted bun, with a foot long toothpick in it. There was an eensy weensy pickle atop that. You could literally see the shrooms and cheese melting all over the warm, juicy beef patty. And another thing...the burger was HUGE.

(P.S. Sorry for the sideways picture of the burger...it won't let me rotate!)

It is very, very rare that I don't eat all of a hamburger. Especially when said hamburger has cheese and mushrooms (my favorite vegetable) dripping all over it. But this burger was so intense, so massive, that combined with the plate full of fries, I could not eat the entire thing.

The bad reviews said the burgers tasted faintly like hot-dogs, but I did not see that. There was a lot of flavor in the burger: the tang from the cheese, the sauteed taste of the mushrooms, and the crisp lettuce, plus the very beefy taste of the patty itself.

My only qualm was the pepper mayo on the burger. Pepper is not a good flavor to me, so next time I'll know not to get that on it. Also, I do admit that the grease on the burger could be considered excessive. That part kind of reminded me of getting a good taco, where the juice from the meat kind of leaks out over your hands when you take a bite and the shell breaks. But that's kind of an irrelevant remark...so let's move on.

What probably ruined my burgerppetite, pepper mayo or not, was the rather large serving of deep-fried potatos absolutely drenched in chili and cheese.

Oh my word. This was truly a heavenly side dish. I probably would have been good with just the fries and the shake, it was such a big portion.

The fries were wonderfully greasy and mouthwatering. The chili would probably not win any fancy taste test award, but it had a strong flavor and was slightly chunky, just the way chili should be. Now, usually I'm not a big fan of American and Cheddar cheeses unless they're on a good burger, but it worked with the chili's flavor. Kind of a semi-sharp taste on its own, the cheese was mild compared to the chili, and was very complementary.

I would go back just for the fries, even if the restaurant stopped selling everything else.

I ate there, and I'm not afraid to go again. I do have some tips for your first time though:

1) Try the chili cheese fries, unless you're lactose intolerant, in which case you should skip the cheese

2) Get lettuce on your burger. I found that the crisp texture was very good when contrasted against the other, more tender ingredients. Plus, lettuce is healthy, right?

3) Come really...really...really hungry.

Now...you've heard what I've got to say. Go eat there yourself!

Meat Savvy: USDA Beef Grades

I mentioned in my last post how my meat knowledge has rubbed off on my mom, what with her meat thermometer and all. So here comes a newly inspired series of posts called "Meat Savvy." These will focus on shopping for and cooking meat, while the "Meet Your Meat" series is more to make you aware of what you're buying.

So, as I'm a huge fan of cattle dishes (in case you couldn't tell by that obnoxiously large hamburger), the most important first thing about being meat savvy is understanding how beef is graded by the USDA. There are two main scales, yield grade and quality grade. Now, it is important to note that unlike inspection, which is required by law, a harvesting or processing facility is NOT required to grade their meat. This is a purely voluntary thing because it costs the facility extra.

A yield grade is pretty much exactly as it sounds--the amount of usable, lean meat on a carcass, compared to the weight of the carcass pre-slaughter. There is a really complicated process and formula to determine a yield grade, which Texas A & M University provides here. (It might not be that complicated, but I get really overwhelmed with numbers sometimes!) Yield grades range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest. 1 has a higher yield of lean to fat than 5, and it honestly does not matter that much for the average consumer how much meat this particular bovine had on its body. The only way it probably would matter for a consumer is if you were buying a whole carcass to eat or freeze for yourself and you wanted to know how many meals it would get you.

For that reason, we're going to focus on quality grades in this blog, because that SHOULD matter to you, as a meat savvy shopper. Quality grades basically determine how tender, juicy, and palatable meat is. There are eight quality grades that the Agricultural Marketing Service (ARS) gives for beef: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner.

Why is it so important to know what these grades mean? In my opinion, it's because if you don't know anything else about meat, you can understand the basics of what these eight grades stand for, and know immediately if that steak in your hand is worth buying or not. There are tons of factors that go into choosing the cut of meat for you, but this one is very very basic, because the USDA has done the job for you.

Prime grade, of course, is the top of the top. Why? Mostly because of the age of the animal that is slaughtered. The younger the animal (and by young, I'm talking under three years old), the more tender the meat. Prime meat only comes from steers (males who are castrated between 3 and 6 months of age) and heifers (females who have never been bred for reproductive purposes). It also has a TON of marbling. Marbling is intramuscular fat that gives flavor to the meat. If you look at a cut of raw steak, for example, prime steak has a lot of little white tissues running through it. That's marbling.

Choice is similar to prime, but is less marbled. Only certain cuts of meat from choice cattle are going to be as tender as the same cuts from a prime animal. Choice meat comes from heifers, steers, and cows under 30 months of age. A cow, if you didn't know, is technically a female that has had at least one calf before.

If you're at the grocery store and are not meat savvy at all, you're probably going to be looking for Select grade whether you know it or not. Select grade has very little marbling, so it appears to be leaner than choice and prime. However, it's that marbling that gives meat flavor, tenderness, and juiciness, so your Select graded cuts might require more spices, tenderizing, and marinating if you want them to taste similar to higher quality meats. Once again, 30 months is the maximum age an animal can qualify for being Select.

Standard grade is for cattle ages 30 to 42 months, and Commerical grade is for cattle (steers, heifers, and cows) over the age of 42 months. These grades are probably not going to appear on any label because they are not good grades and so a facility is not going to pay to have a label for them. You can still find them in grocery stores though, most likely sold as the store brand's meat.

The last three grades, Utility, Cutter, and Canner, are rarely sold on retail shelves. They're kind of the low point of the beef grades; basically used for process products and pet foods because the meat is definitely not marbled enough to be sold straight off the animal. I have heard before that these three grades provide the meat for many fast-food restaurants' hamburgers, but I want to research on that before I write about it...just to make sure.

The above grades were for meat from heifers, steers, and cows, in case you missed that point. The USDA's AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service) also has grades for bullock meat. Bullocks are males that are castrated after the recommended age of 3-6 months. By the time they are castrated, they have begun showing secondary characteristics of a bull (in humans, think of a bullock as a teenage boy), so their meat is going to be a little different than steer meat because of testosterone and other sex hormones in the animal. The grades for bullock meat are Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, and Utility; basically the qualifications are the same as listed above.

So before I continue with my last point, you can use these two Web sites (okay, so one is a PDF document, but whatever) to do more in-depth research about beef grading. This first site, the document one, is the United States Standards for Grades of Slaughter Cattle. It has all the technical requirements for grading, like how much fat an animal should have, the ages, that kind of thing. The second site I used, Inspection & Grading of Meat and Poultry, is probably the one you'll want to take a look at. It has images of the seals and explains the grading in terms of marbling and meat flavor, and also lists some uses for the different grades of meat as far as cooking goes.

Last point, as promised. I just want to reiterate something that I think might get lost in translation. Utility, Cutter, and Canner grades are the low grades and are not usually sold. This does not mean that meat with these grades is in any way unsafe for humans to eat. Remember what I said earlier about marbling = flavor, tenderness, and juciness? These bottom three grades of meat straight from the cow are not going to be good for meals as steaks and ribs. People might be able to buy them, but it would take (scuse my language) a hell of a lot of tenderizing and cooking to make those some likable steaks. So most facilities turn these products into processed ones, where the cooking and preparation is done for you before you buy it.

Oh and one more quick thing. You can also slaughter dairy cattle. Usually this is done when the cow is too old to have another calf or is not producing enough milk to satisfy the cost to maintain her in the herd. However, since dairy cattle are bred not for meat quality but for things such as udder size and milk production, the meat is not going to be as high quality graded as beef cattle.

Just wanted to clear those points up; and I think I will do some research on fast-food burger meats, now that I've got the idea stuck in my head...

Meatetarian Podcast

For the record. This final "for my advertising seminar class" post is probably going to be a one-time thing. We have to do a Podcast in order to get a good grade on our blog project.

I promise I'm going to keep writing Meatetarian after this post, but what I don't promise is that you'll ever see me post another Podcast. Not a particular fan...sorry.

In going with my previous post about the ADSC retail meat sales--and also helped along by my boyfriend's text message that informed me to "come over here and try one of these brats"--I decided to do my Podcast about how I wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating the meat my fellow students help put on the table. Granted...I interviewed my mom, who cooks all of the delectable dishes in which said meat goes, but my mom is a mean cook, and thanks to my great coaching, she knows her meat. She even uses her little Georgia Cattlemen's Association meat thermometer!

So, if you've never done a Podcast before, I think you just have to hit the link below in order to hear my wonderful (possibly very accented, I was really tired and when I get tired I tend to ramble and get twangier) voice. Here goes nothing!

ADSC Meat

Arguably my favorite part of being an Animal Science major is that at some point during my four-year college career, I will actively participate in every single aspect of the life cycle of livestock, from artificial insemination to gestation to finishing to slaughter. And then, of course, eating the food the animal produces.

Obviously, since I like about 10 vegetables, I definitely am a fan of the eating part. But like most people these days, my family is talking about how important it is to know where your food comes from. Now, this doesn't necesarily mean that you should check your milk to see if it comes from happy cows in California, but to me it means that it's important to promote local and sustainable agriculture. I'll do a researched, factual post about this topic later, because I think it plays a vital role in the future of agriculture in the US.

Tonight is totally my opinion on my favorite place in Athens to get truly local food-- the Animal and Dairy Science department retail meat sales. There is no question where the meat came from and how it was raised. All of the beef, pork, and lamb sold at the retail meat sales are raised and harvested exactly according to USDA standards on UGA-owned land by students and faculty.

Because there is so much research being done at UGA's three campuses to determine genetics for carcass quality, the meat is extremely high quality. Obviously since I haven't done a post yet about how to choose your cuts, I won't go into much detail here, but from experience everything I have tried from the meat sales is delicious. I've had a couple of different cuts of steak and bacon, currently, but my family has also tried some meats and now keeps hounding me about how I need to go to the sales every Friday before I come home and get them this, this, and this.

The availability is kind of iffy, because slaughter is scheduled around classes, so during the summer months pickings have been comparatively slim in the lamb and tenderloin steak departments. The freezer of pork products--ranging from hams to about four different types of sausages--looked pretty full on this past Friday when I was there. Lamb, I heard from the manager, will start being on the shelves probably around September or October.

That kind of makes sense because all of UGA's sheep lambed at the same time this year thanks to a test-run of a new estrous synchronization process.

Also...if you're down for choosing meat based on price over quality, you REALLY need to check out the retail meat sale at least once. The prices are really good-- as in, $11.99/lb tenderloin steaks good. And it's definitely a better cut than what you'll find at Kroger or IGA. I say that because my TV is constantly showing Kroger and IGA commercials for their meat prices, and from shopping at the eastside Kroger in Athens (whose meat choices, by the way, are slimmer than an anorexic person), it is not at all the same caliber you're going to find at UGA.

I actually am planning to do an article on the retail meat sales for the Red & Black at some point. My freshman year I had done interviews for it and everything, but never figured out the right angle to go at it from. One of the questions I asked was where the money from the meat sales went. The answer? Right back to the department, where it is distributed all the way from office supplies to gas for the vans that take students to their labs off-campus. So, by spending $42.35 on Friday afternoon (on 3 pounds of bacon, close to 5 pounds of tenderloin, and 2.5 pounds of bratwurst), I just bought myself some academic benefits somewhere down the line.

I don't think that the retail meat sales sale Kosher or Halal meat, because the slaughtering facility is so small compared to other industrial operations; and the meat is NOT organic, natural, grass-fed, or free-range (that's like grass-fed for pork, just FYI). All the animals harvested at UGA are owned by UGA, and the facility is operated like one that's actually in the industry. So all the inspectors and certifiers are there, and every record is kept according to USDA regulations.

I think I've done enough blabbering for the night. As a journalist, I really really really like having sources, so just talking my opinion bothers the bejeezus out of me, but there you have it. Here are the details if you need them, and if you get any meat from the sales, shoot me a comment/Facebook/Twitter thing and let me know what you think.

Location: Edgar C. Rhodes Animal Dairy Science building on River Road in Athens, Ga

Time: Fridays 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. (Yes, this means every Friday, except for holidays. So July 3 = no meat sale y'all...)

They take cash, checks, and credit/debit cards. Up until like 3 weeks ago they only took cash, so I basically victory danced outside the meat science facililty when I saw that sign. I never have cash, for some reason. But there is a big sign pointing to exactly where in the building the meat sales are so you don't get lost, which is pretty easy to do if you're not an ADSC major.

Oh--and one last thing. I only took one of these classes so far, but if you are interested in learning more and participating in the actual harvesting process (and eating) of livestock, here are some classes you might want to check out:

• ADSC 1050: The Meat We Eat; 2 credit hours; fall semester
• ADSC 2010-L: Introduction to Animal & Dairy Sciences; 4 credit hours, fall & spring (The first part of the class is meat production. I definitely got to butcher a pig. It was so cool.)
• ADSC 3010-L: Meat Merchandising; 2 credit hours; fall semester
• ADSC 3180-L: Meats Judging 1; 2 credit hours, fall semester
• ADSC 3190-L: Meats Judging 2; 2 credit hours, spring semester
• ADSC 3200-L: Evaluation and Composition; 3 credit hours, fall semster (This one is also lovingly referred to as Live/Dead)
• ADSC(FDST) 3650-L: Introductory Meat Science; 3 credit hours, spring semester (Definitely taking this in the coming spring. Can't freakin wait.)
• ADSC 3890: Animal Products in the Human Diet; 3 credit hours, fall semester
• ADSC(FDST) 4140-L: Advanced Meat Science; 3 credit hours, spring semester
• ADSC 4890: Advanced Meat Science; 3 credit hours, spring semester

The two Advanced Meat Science classes have different prerequesites. You can check out all the ADSC classes on the UGA bulletin.

MMM...SPAM!

Celebrations of food abound in the United States: in Vidalia, Georgia, they have the Vidalia Onion Festival; in Atlanta, it's the Great American Dessert Experience; in Cordele, they celebrate watermelons. In New York City, there's an annual Pizza Fest. Texans celebrate barbeque and jalapenos.

In Hawaii, they have the Wakiki SPAM Jam.

By SPAM, I don't mean the kind that clogs up your e-mail inbox. I'm talking about the kind of SPAM Hormel makes--the variety that comes in a can and is completely edible. It's a delicacy in Hawaii, apparently, worth celebrating with food tastings, entertainment, and (of course) shopping.

In the continental US, sadly, SPAM is considered something of a joke, a food eaten only by Deep South rednecks. As someone who has grown up with a father who survived his childhood solely on hotdogs, PB&J, and fried SPAM, this is a very depressing thought. As an example of how people generally react to SPAM, here's a video that some of my classmates did as part of a project for our advertising seminar on social media. The basis of this project was how advertising "fails" sometimes because it involves "spamming" (as in the electronic kind).



A lot of this misconception comes from the fact that people don't actually know what SPAM...is. Basically, it's canned meat--but not canned "meat" like people think. SPAM is, in actuality, pork shoulder and ham pieces. Yes, edible parts of the pig, people. Personally, I find the thought of consuming liver way more disgusting.

Hormel first started making SPAM in 1937 according to their Web site. The "SPAM History" page is incredible; if you're at all involved in marketing or advertising you seriously need to check out how much Hormel did to market this product. It was originally pushed as convenient meal idea, since it could be eaten cold. SPAM went overseas to support American troops during WWII, and it even had a 60-women dance group that traveled the country to promote Hormel's products. Nowadays, the Broadway musical SPAMALOT attracts huge audiences. Oh--and like Oscar Meyer, SPAM even has its own tour bus! (I'm a dork...I think the Oscar Meyer Weiner car is basically the coolest thing on the road these days, so I'm impressed. Wonder who had the idea first?)

Okay, so back to how you go from pig to can. The pork shoulder and ham come into the processing plant still on the bone. Machines trim the shoulder and the ham is hand-trimmed. The trimmed meat is ground up, flash cooled, and blended together. Salt and sodium nitrate, the two typical other ingredients, are added during the blending stage. The blended mixture is pumped into cans, vacuum-sealed, and cooked. Once they're washed and cooled, the cans are labeled and shipped off to stores.

Just an FYI--sodium nitrate is added to preserve the color of SPAM. It's extremely similar to another color preservative, sodium nitrite, that is also used to cure processed meats. Sodium nitrate has been shown to prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum bacteria that cause botulism (paralysis), and sodium nitrite to prevent against the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes that cause listeriosis (diarrhea, convulsions, flu-like symptoms...basically all-around suckiness).

*Side note: HowStuffWorks (the show from the Discovery Channel) mentions in this linked page that nitrates/nitrites are possible carcinogens. The site linked to "sodium nitrite" above, however, (Meat Safety) says the complete opposite. Meat Safety looks like it's a lobbyist group, or at least a special interest group, and since I couldn't find any governmental studies (or even from a University, for that matter) about the link between SPAM and cancer, I can't go either way on that. I would advise, however, to eat everything in moderation. Even too much fiber (veggies!) can be harmful if that's all you eat.*

So, savvy meat shoppers, you can buy SPAM in either 12 ounce or 7 ounce cans. Since its inauguration onto food shelves, it now comes in different varieties: Classic, Lite, Less Sodium, Hickory Smoked, with Bacon, with Cheese, and Hot and Spicy. Besides canned SPAM, you can also find these nifty products: Oven Roasted Turkey, Classic Singles, Lite Singles, Spread, and Hot Dogs. The difference between Lite and Less Sodium is that the Lite variety has less fat and calories than Classic, and Less Sodium is just...less sodium.

I've actually had the lovely occasion to taste fried SPAM in the UGA dining halls. I was a little unsure at first (the fact that the SPAM was in a casserole was iffy...not a big casserole fan), but it was...good. It tasted like ham. Duh...that's what it is, but still. Different texture, but definitely good.

My verdict on SPAM? It should be embraced! I know this sounds like a huge endorsement by Hormel, but it's not. I probably wouldn't eat it straight out of a can (or with a spoon, as my classmates did with the video), because it's kind of meant to be sliced like bologna. And since I'm kind of weird and I don't really like "cold" ham (out of a can or not) I would at least heat it up on a microwave and throw it on a sandwich. Be adventurous, people. I mean, you never know until you try it (the only exceptions to this rule are certain unnamed green things, and I'm not talking Dr. Seuss).

Even if you can't make it to Hawaii...you can at least eat as if you're there!

Bovine Somatotropin: The Myth and the Message

Take a look at the Shatto Milk Company advertisement to your right. Now, Shatto, which I had never heard of (considering I have never been to Kansas), is clearly advertising hormone-free milk to its consumers. This is cool by me, I checked out their Web site and it seems to be a smaller family farm that does not use growth hormones in their dairy cattle.

So what's my issue?

Cows naturally have growth hormones.

I'm not sure if you knew that, but they do. Therefore, there's an issue with saying ANY milk is hormone free, because it probably isn't, unless you have some crazy genetically engineered cows (if this ever happens, please expand research into genetically engineering women to skip the whole menopause thing, I beg you). Plus, you kind of have to have hormones to HAVE milk in the first place. These naturally-ocurring hormones include thyroxine, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, a whole list of others, and GROWTH HORMONE.

Here's what you, as a savvy animal agriculture shopper, need to understand. When Shatto Milk Company (and a host of others) say they're selling you hormone-free milk (or other dairy products), it means they're not putting additional growth hormones into their dairy cattle.

A growth hormone is literally exactly what it sounds like--a hormone that increases either growth or production in an animal. According to the Food and Drug Administration, taking growth hormone from the pituitary gland (that's in the general brain area) of cattle and injecting it into dairy animals increased the amount of milk produced. With the use of recombinant DNA technology, it was suddenly possible to mass produce this hormone for use in dairies, and a phenomenon was born. In American dairy cattle, the growth hormone bovine somatotropin is an injectable known as Posilac. Up until 2008, Posilac was produced by the pharmaceutical company Monsanto; now it is produced by Elanco, the animal health division of Eli Lilly and Company. It is not an antibiotic or any other type of medication.

Numerous studies have studied the effects of Posilac on pretty much everything related to dairy animals, and they've all come to similar conclusions that many consumers still do not believe. Basically, when approved amounts of bST are injected into dairy animals, it increases their milk production. From a dairy standpoint, this means that it takes fewer head of cattle to make the same amount of milk a facility produced before the use of Posilac. Below is a direct quote from the studies FDA did in order to decide whether or not to allow the production and use of Posilac by Monsanto:

FDA believes that the available data confirm that biologically significant amounts of rbGH are not absorbed in humans following the consumption of milk from cows treated with rbGH. Oral toxicity studies of longer duration are not necessary because rbGH at dietary levels found in the milk of rbGH-treated cows is not significantly
biologically available.

What does that mean? The studies (and others done by the USDA, WHO, AVMA, etc) show that you can't "contract" growth hormone from drinking milk from cows that have been injected with Posilac. The hormone is not active in the oral state, only in the injected state where it gets into the bloodstream. Plus, even if you do for some bizarre reason absorb some bST into your bloodstream, it does not make a difference, as the FDA showed the levels of bST in milk are not enough to adversely affect consumers.

Now, here's something the FDA also talked about in the same document. Posilac was shown to somewhat increase levels of mastitis (bacterial infection of the udder). Mastitis is usually treated with injectable antibiotics, which are not allowed in the human food chain. These treated cows cannot have the milk produced by their infected quarters sold for a certain period of time following treatment,so that could mean decreased profit in some cases depending on the size of the herd.

Those are the scientific facts that lots of groups tend to ignore about the use of bST. Personally, I don't care if you drink non-bST milk or not, because half the time you're not going to know unless the bottle is labeled. I just hope you're making that choice for the right reason, and not because you are misinformed about the use of Posilac. A lot of the misconceptions come from animal rights groups and lobbyist groups, who take the FDA study's discussion about mastitis/antibiotics and exploit it to show how horrible bST is.

*Just a side note, until today I thought the Center for Food Safety was an actual government organization, since I hear it quoted in a lot of news stories. Sadly...it's more of a lobbyist organization, and does not appear to be affiliated with the US government in any way. Looking at the Web site, it seems to ignore and purposely misconstrue research, and instead play on consumers' fears and marketing schemes of hormone-free milk*

My suggestion to you is to do some research of your own on this issue...which actually shouldn't be an issue. The CFS is making a mountain out of a molehill, in my opinion. Do a little experiment. Try some hormone-free milk (one that is clearly labeled as such) and some that is not labeled that way...and see if you can taste a difference.

Meet Your Meat: Kosher and Halal

I'm fairly sure you've seen the word "kosher" on food products (kosher salt is a common one). Halal, not so much. So, with the help of my Muslim friend Aliya, I have compiled some information on the two fairly similar terms as they relate to meat production.



Interesting point numero uno--kosher food does not have to be blessed by a Rabbi in order to become kosher. Kosher actually comes from the Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) in the Torah. The Torah is the holy book of Judaism, for those who have not heard of it. There are 8 main laws in the Kashrut, but here's the basic breakdown:



1. You can eat any land mammal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud (ruminants, like cows, for example); any marine animal with fins and scales (fishies, but no shellfish); and any bird not on the Torah's forbidden birdie list. Note that this means you CAN'T eat any product that comes from forbidden animals (no animal fat from pigs, no eggs from birds, etc).

2. The meat you eat must be slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. The particular ritual is known as the shechitah. It is performed by a practicing Jewish man who is an expert in Kashrut. During the shechitah, the animal's jugular vein and surrounding blood vessels are slit so quickly that there is not enough time for the animal to feel pain. The process also allows blood to drain from the animal.

3. Because animal blood is believed by Jews to contain the life of the animal, it cannot be eaten according to Kashrut. So...it either has to be drained out, broiled, salted, or soaked out within 72 hours after slaughter. Oh, and eating eggs with blood spots in them is way non-Kosher (I had the unfortunate experience of watching my mom crack a bloody egg onto a frying pan once; it was bizarre, and it's probably not very sanitary anyways to eat it whether you're Jewish or not).

4. Certain fats and nerves are not allowed to be eaten, the chelev and the sciatic nerve. In order to get around this, most Kosher butchers cut them out or sell the parts containing them to non-Kosher butchers.

5. Don't eat fruits and veggies that have bugs on them, or that have had bugs on them. Six-legged beings are not Kosher, though God would probably forgive any Jew who was forced to live off of bugs if stranded on a desert isle somewhere.

6. Dairy products and meat should not mix: not at the same meal, not on the same plate, not eaten with the same utensils.

7. So, Kosher applies to kitchen materials as well. Like the mixing dairy and meat rule, you shouldn't use the same dishwasher/towel/utensils to cook/clean stuff that is non-Kosher as you do with stuff that is Kosher.

8. There is such a thing as a Jewish grape. Don't say I'm being sarcastic, because I'm not. Kashrut says Kosher grapes are grapes made by Jews. Think of all the wine references in the Old Testament/Torah and you'll understand the religious significance.



Kosher, obviously, is the Jewish dietary restriction. Halal, which I didn't know existed until I lived next door to two amazingly wonderful Muslim girls last year, is the Islamic version. There are 6 Do Not Eat restrictions in the Qu'ran (Islamic holy book):



1. Pork, horses (teach your kids that eating glue is NOT Halal), rabbits, and anything that's genetically similar. In other words, animal fat and gelatin are out of the question.

2. Organs containing blood.

3. Animals that have not been sacrificed in the name of Allah

4. Animals that have been stunned before being slaughtered (that's a USDA regulation, so it's a serious issue when buying meat. Pretty much anything that is not certified Halal or Kosher has been stunned)

5. Animals that have not bled after being slain (so, this one gets me--I guess you shouldn't eat things that died of natural causes, poisoning, rabies...)

6. Animals offered to religious idols (Aliya: idols = polytheism = worshipping more than one God = not Islamic)

Exceptions to the above are liver, spleen, seafood, and grasshoppers (exception or not, I am highly unlikely to ever eat a grasshopper).



Aliya found me this information on Halal slaughter. It's a lot like shechitah in that the person slaughtering the animal should be a practicing Muslim who is an expert in food laws. The big difference is that unlike Kosher meat, Halal meat must be blessed by saying "Bismillah" right before the animal becomes meat. "Bismillah" means "In the Name of Allah." Like the Qu'ran states, the animal cannot be stunned, so the actual slaughter method is very similar to shechitah. A sharp blade must sever the trachea, esophagus, and main arteries/veins in the neck.



It's up to you and your religion, obviously, if you follow either of these food guidelines; and I know you can eat Kosher foods if you're Muslim as well. But I know from living next to Aliya and Amina last year, finding Halal meat is pretty difficult in areas with a small Islamic population. So, in honor of these two ladies, here are a very few Halal/Kosher approved things to eat:

• Sour Patch Kids. They are gelatin free. Aliya lived off of these last year. It was awesome.


• Five Guys Burger and Fries. Kosher hot dogs for everyone!!


• Oriental Grocery on Prince Avenue in Athens...never been there, but I've driven past it so I know it exists (the link here is to a huge Halal database...just FYI)


• Hebrew National: hot dogs, deli meats, sausages, and even condiments

Okay...so basically that's all I could find. But Google Halal or Kosher meat, and you'll come up with a lot of sites that are more than willing to ship you some. It looks like Atlanta has a lot of places to eat with Halal and Kosher meals...Athens and Augusta, not so much. That's honestly not a huge surprise!!

Cattle Castration Controversy

As I've mentioned before, I'm an Animal Science double major, which means I get hands-on experience doing all sorts of awesome animal raising and handling procedures, and I get to learn why we use these methods. A lot of what this blog is about comes straight from my lecture notes, so I can't really link to them. All of the pictures shown here are of me castrating in my lab class; they're up to demonstrate the proper method of surgical castration we use.

Lots of animal rights groups have a heck of a lot of issues with castration in the first place. Why? Mostly because the majority of cattle operations castrate in the first place (PETA refers to it as mutilation), and also because the preferred methods are done without anesthetics. These groups usually take one or two facilities who do not follow USDA guidelines and put up marketing campaigns against them. Thus, the press (of which I am also a part, as an Ag Com major as well) generally grabs hold of PETA's stories instead of taking account for the rest of the industry.

Why castrate? The simple reason is that generally most farms do not play God and genetically engineer the sex of their calves. So, if you've got a few testosterone-filled bulls running around in a pasture with some heifers/cows (females), you'll probably end up with some unwanted pregnancies. In large operations where most females are bred to calve at the same time, having babies born year round due to unintentional insemination is bad, bad news. It's horrible to have calves born in the colder months of the year when the farm is not prepared for it (usually cows and heifers that are close to calving are kept together in pastures closer to the farmhouse so the farmer can check on them easier). Plus, cattle are herd animals, so if you've got just one pregnant female in that close pasture, you've got trouble. They don't like to be alone any more than you or I.

Animal rights groups have an answer for that, too--keep your bulls in a separate pasture! Wow, smart move--since they're against dehorning (we'll talk about that in a later post), that is just asking for aggression, fighting, injury, and danger for both animal and handler. That's the more complicated reason for castration--the behavior and meat part. Steers (castrated males) have less testosterone, so they are less aggressive and easier to handle. They also grow better and at a faster rate than bulls would when fed the same diet.

Castration should be done when the calf is as young as possible, preferably 2-3 months. This makes sure that there is the least amount of pain possible. Of course, there is going to be some pain, but the current research has shown no benefits to using anesthetics and painkillers like Lidocaine, because they are injected into the spermatic cord which is being removed. So, as soon as the cord is gone, pain again. When you're castrating older calves though (against the USDA research), you probably should go ahead and use the Lidocaine, because more pain and stress have been documented the older the calf is. There are three main methods--surgical, emasculatome, and banding.

Banding is also done on young male lambs (for both castration and tail docking), and it should only be done on the youngest of calves. There is a special tool called the elastrator that stretches the band out. It must be placed around the scrotum as close to the body as possible, prongs against the skin, before it is released. Once the band is in place, it is gently rolled off the prongs. Banding basically cuts off circulation, and the testicles fall off after a couple of weeks. It sounds weird, but it's a lot like cutting the umbilical cord in infants. The reason why banding should only be done to young calves is because it's very easy to be inefficient--as in, it's really easy for the spermatic cord to not lose circulation, and for sperm to still be produced.

The preferred European method of castration uses the emasculatome, which is a way to crush the spermatic cord. We did not do this in my class, but we were shown how to use the tool. It also in essence cuts of circulation to the testes, but instead of making them fall off, the testes dry up and the scrotum recedes. My professor said it could be inefficient if the cords were not properly crushed. Since my class was mostly novice castrators, we would probably have been VERY inefficient at using the emasculatome!

Now we get to surgical castration, which was what my class used. It's the most common method in the US because it is the most effective and efficient--you're positive you got the testicles and spermatic cord removed. You can either use a Newberry knife or a scalpel (we used the scalpel). The process is fairly simple. Situate the calf in the chute--his head should be haltered and held, and his tail should be held straight up--and situate yourself so that you're not going to get kicked in your face. Feel around to make sure both testicles are there and have fully dropped. Hold the scrotum between your thumb and fist (make a fist with your thumb on the outside), and remove the portion of the scrotum that is right above your thumb with the scalpel. Throw the scrotum outside the chute and grab hold of one testicle and pull it straight down. When the spermatic cord appears, weave it between your fingers and keep pulling. The cord literally rips off, and the scalpel should be used to jagged cut the remainder off. This type of cut makes for a faster healing rate.

Meet Your Meat: Grass-Roots Movements

One of the biggest grassroots trends in the production animal industry is literally a grass-root trend.

If you get meat at the vast majority of grocery stores and restaurants, chances are you're getting meat that has been industrially produced. No, this doesn't mean your meat is grown in a factory, it just means it's mass produced, but we'll get into that later. What I want to talk about today is the meat served at "specialty" restaurants and supermarkets (and for some stores, their "specialty" sections).

I'm pretty positive you've all seen evidence of the trend, unless maybe if you're a recluse who lives under a rock and eats dandylions for sustenance, but then I don't know why you'd use the internet. Anyway. Most of the issues with organic and natural production are based around crop production--that's fruits, veggies, and fiber products--that are grown without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, and lab genetic modification. Animal agriculture has its own version of the trend too.

According to the Agricultural Marketing Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (AMS and USDA respectively), organic livestock production has six main standards: animals must be raised in organic settings from the last third of pregnancy and from the second day of life for poultry; feed must be 100% organic, but vitamins and minerals may be supplemented; dairy animals must be managed organically for at least 12 months before their milk can be sold as organic, and during this 12 months they may be given fodder from fields in the third stage of organic transition; no growth-producing hormones and absolutely no antibiotics; vaccines and other preventative measures must be used to keep animals healthy, but those that appear on a list of prohibited medications may not be used; and animals must have access to the outdoors unless they are sick, in certain production stages, or if there are adverse affects on soil and water quality.

That looks like a lot of stuff, but basically (in laymen's terms) what organic animal production does is raise animals rather like pioneers did. Feed them a diet of grains and silage that has not been treated with chemicals (because pioneers didn't have chemicals, and they probably didn't know about vitamins and minerals either), growth hormones and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet, and call in a vet if something is seriously wrong. The whole organic field/environment requirement means that if your animals are supposed to be organic, your pastures must be too. That requires a three-year transition period from modern to traditional methods, and the reason it's important is because a lot of fields used pesticides before the organic movement really started picking up.

Now that you have a basic idea of how to grow organic animals, say you want to sell them. The AMS has labeling protocols for organic products (we'll go into marketing scams in a later post), that imply for "organic" labeled meat products, your pastures and methods must be certified organic. Unlike the processed organic foods, you can't have a "70% organic cow" and list the non-organic ingredients. A possible exception to this could be some pre-packaged meat meals (frozen foods, hamburger patties stuffed with cheese and other goodies, etc), but in general when you are just selling some brisket...yeah, it's either organic or not.

After organic, we've got "grass fed" meat claims. Grass fed is actually different from organic. For organic diets, your animals can be fed pretty much anything to give them their nutrients, as long as the "anything" is organic. Grass fed, especially beef, means you cannot feed your animals ANYTHING besides grass, legumes, browse, or pre-grain cereal crops (like wheat, but before the grains develop on the stalk). Hay and silage (fermented grasses), vitamins, and minerals are also "acceptable" foods for the grass fed claim. Note, too, that grass fed can also be referred to as "forage fed." 

The third grassroots movement (slightly less grassrootsy than "grass fed") is the claim of natural or naturally raised meat. This term is commonly confused with organic, but it takes organic a couple of steps further--offspring are raised with their dams, and no animal products or byproducts can be used in animal fodder. It seems to me like this is more of a marketing claim than the other two, because this one is not yet recognized as an official standard by the USDA.

This post is already hugely long, but I think it's extremely important for consumers to realize what type of meat they are buying. I'm going to do more posts about different marketing claims that take advantage of consumers' ignorance (most of these are in the poultry industry), and I hope that ya'll will be able to make more informed choices about the types of meat you're getting.

BBQ = Not a Verb

There has never been a day that I don't remember not liking barbeque. In my Southern household, barbeque is a delicacy not to be taken lightly. It is a cause for a special occasion--an outing with Nanny (my grandmother), a birthday celebration, the Fourth of July, and other holidays. If we don't have barbeque when we're traditionally supposed to, it's practically an apocalypse.

In my TELE 3010 class last fall we watched this hilarious video that is oh-so-true about barbeque, and that--and Garden Mum--inspired this blog post.

The first thing to note about barbeque is that it is specifically meant to talk about a certain way of preparing meat. BBQ can refer to the barbequed meat (usually pork, but chicken, beef, and turkey also) and the sauce used. Don't believe Webster's or any other dictionary that tells you otherwise. If you come to the South, "a barbeque" does not exist. Yankees tend to confuse the words "barbeque" and "cookout." Not the same thing...trust me.

There are four main types of BBQ in the States (http://www.scbarbeque.com/History.html): vinegar, mustard, light tomato, and heavy tomato. The YouTube video also mentions Memphis dry rub and Alabama mayonaise sauce, but these four are definitely the most recognized and most common. I have had occasion to taste most of these. Probably my biggest favorite are the tomato-based sauces; I'm not a fan of the vinegar or the dry rub, and I've never been to Bama to taste the mayonaise. The mustard sauce is decent, but I've only had it from one restaurant in South Carolina, Bobby's Barbeque.

In the Augusta, Georgia, area there are three main BBQ restaurants I've grown up with. Sconyer's, of course, is the best by far. The atmosphere of the restaurant combined with the tender, juicy pulled pork and the sweet sauce is like Heaven to this meatetarian. The Christmas lights to the right are at Sconyer's. Edmund's is a little different; it's more of "fast food BBQ," I suppose. The sauce is cooked into the meat, making it super flavorful but at the same time it kind of hides the pork flavor. I still love it though, and make a point to go to one of the two restaurants whenever I'm home. Mott's is my least favorite. Like Sconyer's, the meat is not cooked in the sauce, but I do think the meat has a different flavor that I'm not partial to.

Now, whenever you get BBQ, there's a couple of sides that are pretty much requirements. First--sweet tea. Hash and rice are a must--that's what's in the bowl in the top picture. Potato salad as well, but I'm not a big fan of that so usually I opt for extra hash and rice. When we have BBQ at the house, usually someone makes deviled eggs (which I also don't eat much of) and baked beans (yeah, not a fan of those either). So take your pick, and for kids you can always get bread and chips.

Hopefully this video will work but if not, I'll post it later. Here's the URL just in case it doesn't work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY

Beefeaters, Indeed.

Let me explain the picture.

I went to England in 2006 and it was absolutely the best experience of my life. Obviously, if you pay any attention whatsoever to soccer/football, you will no doubt remember that 2006 was the year of the most recent FIFA World Cup. As you can see, England was quite supportive of their team.

World Cup Mania followed us from Brighton to Wells (swear to God, Wells is the size of a postage stamp) to obscure little tea shops to London. When we were in Canterbury (I think), I had the wonderful experience of eating at a quaint little Burger King, the outside windows of which were decorated with flags and David Beckham's face.

Customers could even purchase table soccer games. Since I was on my last leg of poundage for the trip, I forced myself to buy only the fast food necessities of a hungry American meatetarian--a Whopper, medium fry, and medium Coke. Or Pepsi, I actually don't remember. But you get the gist.

This fast-food experience taught me that All Fast Food is Not Alike. We all knew that (in America) McDonald's fries were far better than Sonic and Wendy's fries, and Chick-Fil-A had the best, but England's fast food was something out of a foodie fairy tale.

The Whopper, overflowing with meat, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and lettuce (the only vegetable I willingly put on a burger), looked precisely like the Whoppers in Burger King commercials. There was no squished bun--it was fluffy and seasame-seedy. The meat was juicy and tender and cooked precisely to the correct temperature. The lettuce was crisp and that emerald green that lettuce is supposed to be...none of the opaque iceberg lettuce you get on most American fast food burgers. And the fries!!

These fries were intense. They were golden, succulent fried potato crisps of the perfect width and length for popping into the mouth, seasoned with the precise amount of salt and oils to procure the best fries I had ever gotten out of a cardboard container. I must say, I was ravenous at the time--but Lordy did I savor that meal. I have never had a similar fast food experience anywhere (by anywhere, I mean the Southeastern US). Five Guys Burger and Fries is the closest, but I'll write about that later.

So excuse the pun of the title--I couldn't help myself, really, it was just too good to pass up. That Whopper was a welcome respite from the stewed tomatoes we were served for breakfast one morning (let me assure you, I went hungry on that day), and I will always remember it was one of the best (cheap) meals I had while in the country!

Meet the Meatetarian

Two of my best friends are vegetarians. One chose to give up meat for a healthier lifestyle, and thank God that she is one of those people who actually balances her diet of lettuce and edamame with protein sources and carbs. The other became vegetarian because she lives on a college budget and meat is very expensive to buy all the time when you're not on the University meal plan.

I, on the other hand, am full-on meatetarian. Nope, the word doesn't exist according to spell-check (but then again, neither does "edamame"), yet here you have me. My name is Dallas; I'm 20 years old and a rising pseudo-senior at the University of Georgia where I double-major in Animal Science and Agricultural Communication.

As an Animal Science major, I learn how production agriculture should be done according to USDA standards. I learn how animals should be treated, how they should be handled, and how the meat we eat ends up on our plates. We students have a hand in the entire life cycle of a farm, from the management practices to genetics and breeding, from record-keeping to nutrition.

This blog--written primarily because I'm an Ag Com major and this is what I do for class credit--is going to be a big culmination of meat-related topics. I'll throw in some anecdotes about my classes, but the two main points are for you readers to learn about the meat industry (industrial, organic, natural, etc), and how you can maintain a healthy lifestyle that involves eating meat.

Alright, folks. This southern belle is peacin' out to go find ya'll something good to write about next!