With so many neighbors getting together to purchase whole carcasses from local meat CSAs, area food educators have stepped up to offer courses in “nose-to-tail eating.” What’s the deal, and why should you care? Omnivores, read on.
So, What Do I Do With This Pig’s Head?
The phrase “nose-to-tail” was coined by London chef Fergus Henderson in his instant 2004 classic, The Whole Beast. But the philosophy hearkens back to the days when much care and passion went into preparing meat dishes and not one juicy bit was spared.
A good example? Porchetta, the unofficial darling of the Portland foodie crowd, is a traditional Italian preparation. You can find porchetta sandwich interpretations at food carts (Lardo, The People’s Pig), or you can learn to prepare it on your own. It’s the entire body of a pig, deboned, carefully taken apart and stuffed (herbs, meat, fat, vegetables), then put back together in its original shape and roasted on a spit. Whew. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
And maybe it should. That’s what nose-to-tail enthusiasts say.
“Using every part of the animal not only honors the life and death of the animal and encourages a no-waste mentality but from a nutrition perspective, this truly satisfies a philosophy of whole foods eating,” says Tressa Yellig, of Salt Fire & Time. “All parts of the animal are intended to be eaten in the course of its breaking down, because in collaboration they digest better. The fats, proteins, enzymes, and minerals are all in different concentrations in different parts of the animal, and are [all] needed to finish a complete protein profile.”
Nose-to-tail eating not only offers greater nutritional integrity and a broader range of flavor, but it engages the chef in a more holistic cooking experience.
“As people learn more about whole animal butchery, they are exposed to just that, the whole animal,” says Portland’s own Berlin Reed, The Ethical Butcher. “Scrambled brains and pâtés, learning to use caul fat, creating the perfect bone broth—these are all techniques one picks up along the way.”
Watch his site for announcements of upcoming dinners, classes, and events, part of his Bacon Gospel and Heritage Breed Supper Club series, and consider one of the following offerings from Portland’s whole-animal experts.
Portland Meat Collective
Founder Camas Davis learned classic butchery techniques from a family of traditional butchers in France, then brought the art home to Portland. PMC is a self-billed meat CSA and “traveling butchery school,” offering a wide variety of classes all over the city. Choose from: Lamb Butchery & Cookery, Ladies Only Butchery Class, Basic Pig Butchery for Home Charcuterie, Sausage Making, and something called French Seam Butchery (coming up on March 16) which is a traditional European method of breaking down animals according to their muscle seams (American butchery tends to cut through muscle).
$125-$300
Various Locations
info@pdxmeat.com
Salt Fire & Time
To cover nose-to-tail cooking skills within the context of a balanced dietary philosophy, consider SFT’s four-day Traditional Foods Cooking Intensive, “a hands-on crash course... in all the tools needed to embrace this style of eating as a lifestyle change.” Learn to prepare organ meats and pastured meats, fermented dairy and pickled vegetables and more, in addition to the basics of seasonal eating and menu-planning.
At Yellig’s Portland kitchen: April 7-10, 10am-5pm, and in Austin, TX May 19-22
$950/person
(See website for a full list of other courses)
1902 NW 24th Avenue
Portland, OR 97210
pdxcsk@gmail.com
503.208.2758
Kookoolan Farms
Learn to humanely kill and butcher a chicken in your own backyard, just like grandma used to do. How to Butcher Your Own Chicken gives you the “opportunity, but not the obligation, to actually kill a chicken.” BYOC (bring your own chicken) or butcher one on the farm. As of press time, there were two seats left in the March 12th class. Spaces are available for the May 14 class.
$50
15713 Highway 47
Yamhill, Oregon 97148
503.730.7535
Portland’s Culinary Workshop
It doesn’t get much more direct than Snout to Tail (lamb, pig, or chicken) a basic course coming up on March 19th. Or consider Mind your Meat Mistress, and learn basic animal anatomy for the benefit of both your plate and your wallet. As the Workshop hosts put it, “if you know how it’s put together, you can take it apart with ease.” Or impress your friends with the poultry equivalent of porchetta, Turducken:Part 1.
$65-$95
807 N Russell Street
Portland, OR 97227
503.512.0447
Hmmm….What If I Don’t Want to Do It Myself?
Not ready to invest in a class?
“Grab some books, read some good blogs and watch YouTube videos, grab a few sharp knives, and jump in,” says Berlin Reed. He recommends Primal Cuts by Marissa Guggiana and the new national organization of butchers, the Butcher's Guild. Also check out Nose to Tail at Home, one man’s chronicle of preparing everything in Henderson’s cookbook.
For the flavors of nose-to-tail without the commitment to DIY, visit Chop Butchery for offal (organ meats), The Country Cat for porchetta as part of the Hog Plate (four different cuts from different parts of the animal,) and Laurelhurst Market for sit-down dinners and award-winning butchery.
Melissa Reeser has been a vegetarian/pescetarian for 15 years, and found herself seriously tempted while researching and writing this piece
ummmm. uh-huh. nice photos, ken or heather or whomever. i like eating and that eating sometimes involves things about which i'd rather not think, because when i do, my sentiments get all wobbly and i think about old pets and wonder, "what if my old dog was considered delicious and someone wanted to eat her?" which shakes my resolve a little and makes me sad, but, then again, what if, in fact, she was delicious? and then i think that pigs are cute. filthy, but cute and adorable and smart and delicious. and then i look in its eyes and now i'm sad again. or hungry. i'm not sure. i don't know what to think. it's like eating the delicious animals that were not harmed in the making of this film. nice story though about honoring that which is sacrificed. arresting photos, too.
I saw people roasting and eating dog while in Viet Nam. I didn't have the urge to try it. However, I have tried Zebra, Emu, Gazelle, Crocodile, Antelope, Ostrich, and Hartebeast—all raised on a ranch, not taken from the wild.
I think nose to tail is a great concept. If we are going to take the life of an animal for food, then we shouldn't let anything go to waste. While the pictures may make one feel uncomfortable, I think it's important to make the connection between the food you eat and it's source. That connection has been mostly lost with the packaged cuts you buy at the store. It's good to be aware of where your food comes from.
Since we use *all* of the animal, somehow the slaughter is justified. Since we farm them ourselves, or butcher them with hands over machines, somehow it makes the intimacy more of a scapegoat for the fact we are killing for vanity.
We are murdering billions to satisfy a perverse, ignorant palette that proves our own fate is at hand. This blog article does nothing more than prove how out of touch Portlanders continue to be when it comes to progression vs. kitschy, campy conservatism.
I hope NN emphasizes truly progressive, sustainable articles in the future.
Having sat on both sides of the fence in my life, I can hear where Scott is coming from and also understand that there is no proscriptive answer to "to-eat-or-not-to-eat-meat" that could fully satisfy. Ultimately, the decision is a complex interweaving of values-- cultural, economic, ethical, religious-- and personal health factors.
When I was vegan, I saw through vegan-colored glasses. When I caught, prepared, and ate a fish for the first time in my life, it opened my eyes. It was an extremely emotional experience. There is no getting around the reality of eating an animal-- except when we are removed from the process entirely, as is often the case today. This is why I am encouraged by the renewed interest in connecting to the source of what we eat, and wasting as little as possible.
It's important, yes, to strip the superficial veneer from the experience (privilege?) of eating meat-- the "vanity" as Scott puts it. It's important to respect the animal, to make conscious choices throughout the process, and to understand the privilege entailed in having a choice at all.
But it's also important to respect our differences and acknowledge the full complexity of a decision which each person must work out for herself. For me, it's a lifelong conversation and an ongoing learning process, with few answers and lots of questions.