Month: September 2024
8 hour Lamb/Hogget/Mutton shoulder
Ingredients:
- Whole shoulder of lamb/hogget/mutton
- carrots diced
- onions/shallots whole/quartered
- celery diced
- beetroot/parsnip/turnip as optional vegetables
- Dash of white wine
- lamb/vegetable stock
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- garlic
- rosemary
Recipe
Prepare the shoulder of lamb by inserting slices/chunks of garlic into the meat, seasoning with salt and pepper and covering with sprigs of rosemary. Fry gently in a crock pot/slow cooker pan to brown the meat. Remove meat from the pan and brown the vegetables of your choice which will make the gravy. Return the meat to the pan, add a splash of white wine (optional) and some lamb/vegetable stock to cover the vegetables. Place in the oven at a low temperature for 8 hours, basting the meat occasionally, or place in slow cooker until tender. Remove the meat which should simply fall off the bone. Use the vegetables to make the gravy – remove any excess fat and mash the vegetables in to the remaining juices – add additional water from the kettle or any vegetables you are cooking to go with your meal. So easy and absolutely delicious.
Beef Casserole
Ingredients:
- Beef short ribs/chuck/stewing beef/brisket
- Celery – chopped in chunks
- Shallots/onions – whole or quartered
- Carrots – chopped in chunks
- Bottle of red wine/beef stock
- Flour
- Herbs, salt and pepper
- Turmeric (optional)
- Garlic (optional)
- Oil/butter for frying
Recipe:
Roll the meat of your choice in seasoned flour (plain flour, mixed herbs, turmeric, salt and pepper) and gently fry to brown in the slow-cooker/crock pot. Remove from pan and fry the chopped vegetables to brown then add in any remaining seasoned flour to cook out (this is to thicken the sauce). Add the meat back into the pot and cover with a bottle of red wine and/or beef stock. Make sure that the liquid covers the contents of the pan. Bring to the boil and then put the slow cooker on and leave for 8 hours or so or until the meat is tender. I find that this will do several meals. I tend to make a pie with suet crust pastry from the remaining meat, veg and juices once we have had our fill of stew with dumplings or mash. Enjoy – you can use any of your favourite vegetable to substitute for those in the recipe above. Trick is to cook it for a long time so that all of the connective tissues melt into the liquid and give you all the available nutrients and a deep rich flavour.
Norwegian Hen Fricassée
From Agnete Samdahl’s Norwegian Great Grand-Mother
Ingredients:
- Stewing Hen(s)
- Parsnip
- Celeriac
- Carrots
- Butter
- Flour
- Parsley
In a stock pot, cover the hen(s) in water and bring to boil. If the vegetables have their tops on, cut them off and tie together with string, put the bunch in with the hen(s) for added stock flavours. Gently simmer for at least two hours – longer if ‘tough old birds’.
Prepare vegetables and cut into bite-sized pieces. Anything goes but we have always used parsnip, celeriac and carrots. Add parsnip and celeriac into the pot when about 30 minutes cooking time left and the carrot about 10 minutes before.
Remove birds from water and skin them while still hot – otherwise the skin sticks(!). Discard the veg green tops if used and give the skin to a worthy dog. Pick the meat off the bones, keeping the pieces as large as you can (we always keep the legs unboned).
Make white sauce: melt butter and whisk the flour in. Add a little stock at a time while whisking to avoid lumps, until the sauce is fairly thin (usually use all the stock). Add meat and vegetables and to bring up to heat – it can stay on gentle heat until you’re ready to eat.
Add plenty finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste before serving.
Serve with boiled potatoes. (I love to mash my tatties on the plate to absorb the maximum amount of sauce) .
Doing your bit for the NHS
by Georgia Wingfield-Hayes
Part 1 of a 2 part series
Have you ever tried eating only one of two types of foods, day after day? Your favourite food perhaps? Avocado on toast or chocolate? Soon you become so sick of those foods, that you can’t stand the sight of them. This is because our bodies are full of intelligent feedback mechanisms that tell us that we need something else, we need variety. If you’ve been overloading your liver with rich foods, for example, you will, if attuned, crave dark green leafy vegetables and other bitter foods that help the liver decongest.
Animals are exactly the same. Animals that grow up on a wild diet, learning what to forage from their mothers, are highly attuned to the foods in their environment and know what they require to maintain optimal health; they also self medicate with specific foods when necessary. Plants high in tannins like willow, for example, help combat intestinal worms.
Feedlots v 100% Grass-Fed
It is easy to assume that because we see cows and sheep in fields, that these animals spend their entire lives outside. But almost all cattle and sheep, unless certified 100% grass-fed, are fattened on grains before going to market. This change in diet might only be for a few months, but it dramatically changes the nutritional profile of the meat.
When herbivores (sheep, cattle, etc.) are fed 100% on wildflower rich meadows with access to hedge and tree fodder, their meat mirrors the complex nutrient profile of their forage. When we eat this meat we receive these nutrients, densely packed in muscle and organs.
Omega 3 and 6, for example, are two very important fats or lipids in the human diet. Omega 3 makes up around 35% of the human brain, a lack of which causes depression and impairs cognitive wellbeing. While both these omegas are essential to health, what is key is their ratio to each other. Too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3 leads to inflammation in the body – the precursor to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and all else that falls under the umbrella term – metabolic syndrome.
A healthy ratio of Omega 3 to 6 is deemed to be between 1:3 and 1:4. The same ratio is found in 100% grass-fed meat. Grain-fattened meat, on the other hand, contains a ratio of between 1:15 and 1:55. The higher ratios being seen in beef animals fattened on dried distillers grains.
Omega’s: the tip of the iceberg
A herbivore’s gut microbiome adjusts to its diet from an early age, so one can only imagine the shock that it, and the animal’s digestive system, liver, etc. receive when shifting from grass to grain. Animals lose their freedom of dietary choice, and movement both of which can cause a deterioration in the nutritional quality of the meat. Expert in ecological medicine, Dr Jenny Goodman is of the opinion that such animals will verge on pre-diabetes and be more prone to infection.
The problem in part, is that meat generally has never been considered much more than a source of protein, iron and vitamin B12. All meat still gets lumped together on our supermarket shelf and in our consciousness. But grass-fed beef and lamb take meat as a food, to a whole other level. Apart from omegas 3 and 6, there are much greater levels of the health-giving conjugated linoleic acid (CLA); long chain saturated fats; vitamins C, E, K, niacin, folate, and B12; and finally, phytonutrients.
Phytonutrients compose of a vast array of compounds that are directly acquired from plants and absorbed into the body. These have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and are essential in preventing and fighting chronic diseases including: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, all types of infections and neurological diseases. When we eat the meat of animals fed on a diverse, natural diet then we receive these health-giving properties in a highly absorbable form.
The 3 leading causes of death in the UK are: dementia, heart disease and stroke. All strongly linked to diet, in particular the omega 3:6 ratio and phytonutrients, both essential in preventing these diseases.
Joining up the Dots
Addressing our environmental crises; our society’s physical and mental health; the cost-of-living crises and the struggling NHS, requires us to join up the dots between these issues. Healthy eating is about enabling passionate small producers to reach customers, in order that people get back in touch with where food comes from, and the fantastic taste and quality of food produced in non-intensive farming systems. Health is a by-product of such a relationship.
Countries like Finland and Brazil see feeding their children a free school lunch made from wholesome produce every day, not as a cost, but an investment. Food habits, be they in humans or herbivores, are developed when we are young. Our microbiome is shaped to fit the foods it meets in its development. If those foods are highly processed and high in sugar, then that is what we will crave. Whole foods, made into delicious meals on the other hand, create a health-giving relationship between body, microbiome and food, and we will crave what we need, rather than what we have become addicted to.
The cost-of-living crisis and the NHS would be greatly alleviated if the British government made free, wholesome school meals a priority. What’s more, if they followed the Brazilian model, 30% of that food would be sourced from local small farms.
Alleviating the stress of the cost-of-living crisis might also help save the NHS on its current biggest cost – mental health and stress-related illness. Connecting small producers with consumers, creating more intimate relationships between land, food and people would do much to aid the epidemic of loneliness. Nearly 4 million people in the UK are reported to experience chronic loneliness. Social isolation, loneliness and poor social relationships are understood to create a 50% increase in the risk of developing dementia, a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke. Add into this equation the nutritional quality of food, and it’s no wonder we have the health crises we see today.
While politicians might be slow to join up these dots, here at Primal Meats we are doing what we can to bring the super-nutritious grass-fed meats of passionate small producers to conscious consumers such as you. Please check out our individual farm pages to learn more about our producers and THANK YOU for your support!
References
Health-Promoting Phytonutrients Are Higher in Grass-Fed Meat and Milk
Nutritional Comparisons Between Grass-Fed Beef and Conventional Grain-Fed Beef
Effects of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Brain Functions: A Systematic Review
Is Grassfed Meat and Dairy Better for Human and Environmental Health?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6434678
Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions
Facts and statistics about loneliness
Stress-related illness the biggest health expenditure in the UK
School Lunches in Brazil: From Local Farms to Children’s Plates