The Conscious Carnivore

As a refresher, here’s the workshop description, straight from the website:

How to use the whole animal to promote sustainability, avoid waste, and dazzle your tastebuds.

Again, I wanted and expected direct tips & tricks and ideas. A set of maps to various cuts, with suggestions on what to substitute for what. Ways to cook kidneys or tongue or tripe1. Someone else wanted to know how to get ALL the internal organs. I have no idea what she was planning for the lungs or bladder, but I’m kind of curious.

There was very little (though not none) of these kinds of tips. (Okay, the only one I remember was the suggestion that sirloin flap is a good substitute for skirt steak.) There were definitely some comments on how to use (and store) a whole animal.… Continue reading →

Yes, We Can!

What a cute workshop name. Sometimes, puns are fun. This workshop was about a quarter useful and a half useless (to me) and a quarter, “Well, that would have been much more interesting had I signed up for THAT lecture, but now I’m just frustrated I didn’t get the lecture I signed up for.”

The day before, my twitter exchange with Gardner involved me asking how “hands-on” the class was going to be, and if I should bother bringing my computer. I figured that a specific kind of “how to” would not allow any time for good note-taking and/or tweeting. He responded that the main goal would be “laying concepts for year-round local eating1.” So I figured going in that I could tweet to my heart’s content, but would still get some useful tips and tricks for preserving food.… Continue reading →