Veal to Love, Without the Guilt (from NYT, Dining section)

[Guest guest]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/dining/18veal.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin

Chefs are serving veal once more, finding the grain-fed meat more flavorful. Il Buco’s chop, above, has a rosemary and bread crumb crust. Humane Veal.

 

By MARIAN BURROS

Published: April 18, 2007

 

THE most successful animal rights boycott in the United States started more than 20 years ago and had nothing to do with foie gras.

 

 

 

 

Related

Recipe: Dijon- and Rosemary-Crusted Veal Chop With Dandelion and Lemon-Anchovy Vinaigrette (April 18, 2007)

Recipe: Slow-Roasted Shoulder of Veal With Spring Vegetables (April 18, 2007)

 

Enlarge This Image

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Slow-roasted veal at Telepan on the Upper West Side.

When photographs of formula-fed veal calves tethered in crates where they could not turn around appeared across the country, sales of veal plummeted. They have never recovered. In the 1950s and 1960s Americans ate four pounds of veal a year on average. Today per capital consumption is around half a pound a year.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that some farmers finally got the message and changed the way their calves were raised.

Some returned to the old-fashioned method of putting them out to pasture with their mothers. John Holloway of Misty Morning Farm in Cherry Tree, Pa. was one of them. “Unfortunately I was a sinner,” he said. “I did raise factory veal — all the chemicals, antibiotics, steroids I used. We wouldn’t let our friends eat what we used to raise. For our own use we were raising humane veal.” Now all of his veal is pastured and organic.

Others got rid of the crates but kept the calves in barn pens, letting them mingle with other calves and giving them room to walk and turn around. Calves raised this way are still separated from their mothers, and most still get a milk-replacement formula, not mother’s milk. But some also get grain along with the milk replacement.

Those changes on the farm have led to corollary changes in the kitchen — a culinary serendipity that is just beginning to be recognized. Veal from calves fed sufficient grass or grain as well as milk has real character and flavor. For anyone who knows only the bland old-fashioned veal, it is as if a brand-new ingredient has been discovered. Tasting this new veal is not unlike biting into your first heirloom tomato from the garden after a lifetime of eating supermarket tomatoes bred for durability.

Even Stanley Lobel of the fine-meat purveyor Lobel’s of New York — where veal from crated formula-fed calves was once valued beyond all others because of its “cut it with a fork” tenderness — says the new veal is better. “Veal becomes more flavorful if it’s allowed to walk around,” he said.

Unlike the formula-fed veal — prized for its whiteness, which comes from a lack of iron — almost all grass- or grain-fed veal raised outside crates not only is rosy or pink, but has a delightfully clean, subtle beef taste. The names it is sold under reflect the changes: meadow, red, rose, pastured, grass-fed, free-range and suckled. Not all of it can be cut with a fork, but an ordinary dinner knife works fine.

In a tasting of 20 samples raised by the newer, more humane methods, the tastiest veal was from animals raised on grass or grain, or both, along with milk. The samples — from producers, restaurants and grocery stores — were from calves four to six months old. Those fed formula only, even under the more tolerable living conditions, were not as flavorful.

Chefs who once refused to serve formula-fed veal because of its blandness are now delighted to have the newer version.

“I just never liked it because it didn’t have a lot of flavor,” said Bill Telepan of the old-style veal. At his restaurant, Telepan, on the Upper West Side, he now serves veal whenever he can get it from Duane Merrill’s farm in upstate New York. “This tastes like something very much like mild beef. If veal is on the menu it sells, and people like it.”

In a sentiment repeated by other chefs, Mr. Telepan added, “People are more hip to eating things that are raised right, and they trust I will get something that is well taken care of.”

At Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wiener schnitzel from humanely raised veal is the third most popular item. “If we feed the animals better, treat them better, we will have a better product and a healthier product,” Mr. Puck said in a telephone interview. He recently announced that he would serve meat only from humanely raised animals.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance, a meat industry lobbying group, says that Mr. Puck has surrendered to “groups that would prefer he not be serving any animal products at all. “The alliance says its members follow animal welfare guidelines.

 

 

1

2

3

Next Page »

Next Article in Dining & Wine (1 of 20) »

 

 

[Guest guest]

Ugh, I was cringeing while reading this article. " Without the

guilt " ?? I mean, it almost made me sick to read these culinary

descriptions - " Veal becomes more flavorful if it's allowed to walk

around. " They actually call the living calf Veal! I guess it's no

problem to eat an animal if you simply think of it as walking food...

 

:-(

Jolene

 

 

 

, " zurumato " <zurumato wrote:

>

> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/dining/18veal.html?

_r=1 & oref=slogin

> Chefs are serving veal once more, finding the grain-fed meat more

flavorful. Il Buco's chop, above, has a rosemary and bread crumb

crust. Humane Veal.

> By MARIAN BURROS

> Published: April 18, 2007

>

> THE most successful animal rights boycott in the United States

started more than 20 years ago and had nothing to do with foie gras.

> Related

> Recipe: Dijon- and Rosemary-Crusted Veal Chop With Dandelion and

Lemon-Anchovy Vinaigrette (April 18, 2007)

> Recipe: Slow-Roasted Shoulder of Veal With Spring Vegetables

(April 18, 2007)

> Enlarge This Image

>

> Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

> Slow-roasted veal at Telepan on the Upper West Side.

> When photographs of formula-fed veal calves tethered in crates

where they could not turn around appeared across the country, sales

of veal plummeted. They have never recovered. In the 1950s and 1960s

Americans ate four pounds of veal a year on average. Today per

capital consumption is around half a pound a year.

> It wasn't until a few years ago that some farmers finally got the

message and changed the way their calves were raised.

> Some returned to the old-fashioned method of putting them out to

pasture with their mothers. John Holloway of Misty Morning Farm in

Cherry Tree, Pa. was one of them. " Unfortunately I was a sinner, " he

said. " I did raise factory veal — all the chemicals, antibiotics,

steroids I used. We wouldn't let our friends eat what we used to

raise. For our own use we were raising humane veal. " Now all of his

veal is pastured and organic.

> Others got rid of the crates but kept the calves in barn pens,

letting them mingle with other calves and giving them room to walk

and turn around. Calves raised this way are still separated from

their mothers, and most still get a milk-replacement formula, not

mother's milk. But some also get grain along with the milk

replacement.

> Those changes on the farm have led to corollary changes in the

kitchen — a culinary serendipity that is just beginning to be

recognized. Veal from calves fed sufficient grass or grain as well

as milk has real character and flavor. For anyone who knows only the

bland old-fashioned veal, it is as if a brand-new ingredient has

been discovered. Tasting this new veal is not unlike biting into

your first heirloom tomato from the garden after a lifetime of

eating supermarket tomatoes bred for durability.

> Even Stanley Lobel of the fine-meat purveyor Lobel's of New York —

where veal from crated formula-fed calves was once valued beyond all

others because of its " cut it with a fork " tenderness — says the new

veal is better. " Veal becomes more flavorful if it's allowed to walk

around, " he said.

> Unlike the formula-fed veal — prized for its whiteness, which

comes from a lack of iron — almost all grass- or grain-fed veal

raised outside crates not only is rosy or pink, but has a

delightfully clean, subtle beef taste. The names it is sold under

reflect the changes: meadow, red, rose, pastured, grass-fed, free-

range and suckled. Not all of it can be cut with a fork, but an

ordinary dinner knife works fine.

> In a tasting of 20 samples raised by the newer, more humane

methods, the tastiest veal was from animals raised on grass or

grain, or both, along with milk. The samples — from producers,

restaurants and grocery stores — were from calves four to six months

old. Those fed formula only, even under the more tolerable living

conditions, were not as flavorful.

> Chefs who once refused to serve formula-fed veal because of its

blandness are now delighted to have the newer version.

> " I just never liked it because it didn't have a lot of flavor, "

said Bill Telepan of the old-style veal. At his restaurant, Telepan,

on the Upper West Side, he now serves veal whenever he can get it

from Duane Merrill's farm in upstate New York. " This tastes like

something very much like mild beef. If veal is on the menu it sells,

and people like it. "

> In a sentiment repeated by other chefs, Mr. Telepan added, " People

are more hip to eating things that are raised right, and they trust

I will get something that is well taken care of. "

> At Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills, Calif.,

Wiener schnitzel from humanely raised veal is the third most popular

item. " If we feed the animals better, treat them better, we will

have a better product and a healthier product, " Mr. Puck said in a

telephone interview. He recently announced that he would serve meat

only from humanely raised animals.

> The Animal Agriculture Alliance, a meat industry lobbying group,

says that Mr. Puck has surrendered to " groups that would prefer he

not be serving any animal products at all. " The alliance says its

members follow animal welfare guidelines.

> 1

> 2

> 3

>

> Next Page »

> Next Article in Dining & Wine (1 of 20) »

>