If it wasn’t already apparent from recipes and mentions on this here blog, as far as mealtime meats go, I’m far more partial to pork and seafood than I am beef or chicken. Just typing that, I already know I’m turning into my mother. She was the same way: pork chops and broiled fish graced our dinner table far more than sirloin steaks or grilled chicken ever did. Sure, we had the occasional grilled steak now and again, but knowing my mother’s palate as I do now, I think she preferred the mildness of the other white meats. Chicken? I think that was just too boring for her.

Recently though, Joe and some of his co-workers went in together on part of a cow. Have you heard of these awesome programs? Actually, the concept and practice of animal/meat sharing has been around for a while (see one this very early VMAC + Cheese post), but I still think it’s great. If you have enough room in a freezer, you, individually, can purchase part or all of a farm-raised animal, thus eliminating the need for a middle man (your grocer), thereby lowering your cost on high quality meat and giving you a freezer full of cuts to use over the course of a year or so. More logical for us big city folk without garages and extra freezers is to share part of an animal with friends (or co-workers). So that’s what we did. We invested in part of a 98% grass fed* steer, and were able to bring home a bunch of ground beef (which I turned into burgers, meatloaf and meatballs), sirloin steaks (steak salads, tacos), stew meat (obvious) and a large tri-tip, which the processor had labeled as London Broil.

[*NOTE: Why 98% grass fed? (more…)