Stormy Saturday

It's cold, wet and windy here today. The remains of a hurricane are moving through coastal New England but it's a good excuse to cook and nap the day away. Lucky for me my Brother-in-Law brought down our share of the side of beef we got from the farm. If you've never bought meat farm-fresh, you ought to try it. They're from small farms not giant corporate ones. You know who is slaughtering and cutting your meat, their family eats it too so they have a vested interest in cleanliness. You pay by hanging weight not cut, so while it might be per pound pricey for ground and chuck it's VERY cheap for steaks and roasts. The cows are free range and organic. They get to be happy cows while they're growing and you know what's being fed to them. The meat is cut and packaged to your specifications. Hate making roasts they'll grind them, want a prime rib they'll leave the bone-in, only cooking for 2 and they'll pack in small portions. We get pork this way as well.

One of the best parts of buying meat this way is you get EVERYTHING. That includes the fat, suet, organs and we take some of the bones as well. The organ meat goes to the old-timers in the family who have trouble finding heat and tongue nowadays. Grandma always wants the pig's feet, I say yuck but she's and old Italian and she misses having them. The beef suet gets rendered and made into some of the best soap on earth for hubby and laundry and the fatback from the piggies I brine into old fashioned salt-pork a must have for baked beans as well as lard for pie baking and soap. My sister handles the sausage making and does up some hot dogs as well. Waste not, want not is a big motto around here and there is something to be said for hanging on to traditional skills.

Now for what's in use today, the bones. I got a nice sack of meaty joints delivered into my hot little hands Thursday and they went straight into the oven to roast for stock. If you've only every had beef stock from the store, you have no idea what the real thing is like. Real stock makes a rich, thick and out of this world stew like nothing else. It's a little time consuming but worth the effort. Older cookbooks usually have stock making directions so go hunting at the library but it's pretty straight forward. Roast the bones and some onion, celery, and carrot. Dump in all in a pot with cold water and simmer for oh 8 - 24 hours and skim it every so often. Then you strain it simmer it and maybe repeat depending on how you'll use it. When it cools, if you've done it right, you have a clear, brown jelly-like substance that freezes well and has a million uses.

Today I made beef stew. Doesn't it look yummy? Real stock also has some extras that store stuff just can't say. It's fat free, you skim and skim and then when it's cool the fat makes a solid disk on top that you lift and toss. There's calcium and other minerals from the bones that we mostly take as vitamin pills. It's loaded with natural gelatin, remember that stuff they always told you to eat for nice hair and nails, it's in there. Plus it tastes wonderful. You also get the satisfaction of knowing you minimized a lot of waste and utilized every bit of the cow who died to feed you and your family and the knowledge that it was well treated before it hit your plate.

There's another recall from one of the super-farms today on ground beef. I never have to go hunting to see if something i got at the market is going to kill one of my family members. I know exactly where everything came from and who handled it. My suggestion, buy a deep-freeze for your basement or garage and try buying meat direct. It's well worth the time and effort.