meatblog is moving…

The meatblog has moved to it’s new home at meatblog.fishinnards.com. Please update your links.

“Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler”

Mark Bittman provides a concise overview of the environmental problems and issues surrounding industrial meat production and increased meat consumption in a New York Times Week in Review piece titled, “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler.”

Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years, encouraged by growing affluence and nourished by the proliferation of huge, confined animal feeding operations. These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world’s tropical rain forests.

Just this week, the president of Brazil announced emergency measures to halt the burning and cutting of the country’s rain forests for crop and grazing land. In the last five months alone, the government says, 1,250 square miles were lost.

The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over that period. (In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years.) World meat consumption is expected to double again by 2050, which one expert, Henning Steinfeld of the United Nations, says is resulting in a “relentless growth in livestock production.”

[read the whole article

The article first caught my eye when I saw a blog post screeching that Bittman was again in hysterical vegetarian mode, advocating that the eating meat be outlawed. I can’t find the post now, only a few hours later, and guess it was deleted by the author.

Bittman is not a vegetarian, nor is he advocating for people to became vegetarians.

Fishinnards and I are fortunate enough, both economically and in terms of proximity to good markets, to buy free-range, sustainable meats. It’s unfortunate that this remains a privilege rather than a right. (We tried the free-range potatoes, but they just weren’t as good).

Meat Shake

This journey down MeatShake memory lane courtesy of the Tsock Tsarina, who has also promised to future guest posts about some of her meat-tastic adventures.

blog365

The meatblog is participating in blog365. Alas, if there’s a way to customize a wordpress.com site to include badges and widgets I haven’t figured out what it is. I can’t even get the badge to display within a post.

Thanks a lot, wordpress

It’s nice that it’s very easy to tag posts on wordpress.com. I just wish they used some different examples, because when you post on a meatblog their examples can make you a little queasy:

“Tags (separate multiple tags with commas: cats, pet food, dogs)”

weirdmeat

We have an ever-growing roster of guest bloggers lined up to share their dining experiences around the United States and the world. We wouldn’t want to give short-shrift to rodents, reptiles and insects that our readers might find tasty.

Besides, weirdmeat.com already has non-Western dining covered so very well.

Oddly enough, I encountered this site while searching for snacks made out of bees. I happened upon their post, “Baby Bee Larva”, which was quite interesting. They have a master list of meats they’ve blogged about, for those who wish to read selectively.

Those with weak stomaches or strong ethnocentric food biases might want to steer clear of this site.

As an additional note: We will not ever advocate or condone the killing, smuggling or consumption of endangered species.

Korean Marinade for the PORK!

An all purpose seasoning for pork meat that was taught to me by our friend Jia. It can be used for pork stir fry (twaeji bokkum) and grilled pork (tweajigogi). The meat should be thin slices of pork meat. You could even use pork belly (yum!).

1/4 cup gochujang (korean hot bean paste)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine (mirin)
6 T of sugar
1 T seseme oil
1 T roasted seseme seeds
1 tsp. black pepper
1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup of mashed (or chopped) garlic
1/2 cup chopped green onions (scallions)
mix everything together in a bowl. Take each piece of thinly sliced pork and dip into the marinade and layer dipped slices into another bowl neatly. This will allow you to remove them easily without breaking them, which is important especially if your grilling them. Should be enough for 1 1/2- 2 lbs. of meat.

oink!

Here I Am!!!

I’m so excited about a year of meat. Even more excited that I get to be in on the ground floor. Because I know when this thing catches on, everyone’s going to want to play.

Happy Year Of The Meat Blog. That’s what the Chinese are calling it. Right?

Our Year of Meat

Like all good ideas, Meatblog was conceived while drunk.

Eric and I feel that the meatblog (or mlog) is the Next Big Thing. Or at least the silly thing we’ll be doing for the next year.

Also, we can’t stop saying mlog.

Happy New Year!

Let there be meat.