The Shameless Carnivore

I recently finished this book I’ve been reading, The Shameless Carnivore by Scott Gold. It was a fun read and often left me craving that foie gras, or a nice juicy steak or any number of exciting and often exotic carnivorous endeavors. To give you an idea, I found his description of the secret goose pie especially exciting,

“After letting it cool, Julia cut the pie into large square segments and carefully laid them on our plates, the steaming, fragrant filling oozing out the sides of the crust in a gooey mess of meat, vegetables, fruits, fungi and God knows what else. My first bite was a marvel, a three-ring circus of different flavors dancing around my palate: sweet pears and apples; dark, fatty goose meat; heady Armagnac; earthy mushrooms; crisp, buttery crust; and a variety of others that I couldn’t quite place, given the staggering variety of tastes that were now playing around with each other like children in a school yard.”

The book opens with a dream of Beowulf, feasting after battle, “magnificent racks of lamb and legs of mutton, dripping with fat; whole sides of slowly roasted beef, the tender meat almost falling from the bone; massive flanks of wild oxen; smoked loin of venison; suckling pig brought right from the fiery spit; a host of broiled foul- plump and juicy turkeys, chickens, guinea hens, pheasants and peacocks; goat and yak meat cubed and skewered; mountains of plump sausages; a dizzying variety of strange and exotic animals- snake, alligator, ostrich, even llama- all served succulent and steaming.”

While this was excellent, I was worried the whole book might be one big call to arms against vegetarians and in favor of consuming vast quantities of flesh in whatever form. I would no doubt have put down the book had this been the case, and I was happy to see that while this carnivore might be shameless, he was at least discerning, and was want to discourage phenomena like Hardee’s 15lb cheeseburger, known as the Belly buster- a quality over quantity kind of guy. He highlights this with a description of your typical fast food burger:

“That sickly, artificial, alien substance so cheerily handed out to us represents everything, in my mind, that is wrong with meat in America. Set something like this before me and expect me to eat it, and you might as well be giving me a good, hard slap across the face. This stuff, which I have had the misfortune of eating in the past, only vaguely tastes like meat at all, as it’s full of hydrogenated fats, preservatives, binding agents, artificial flavorings, and other chemicals. And the meat itself is probably “mechanically recovered,” meaning that the “patty” has been formed of little scraps of flesh that were stuck to the bones after all the more tasty, commercial cuts had been removed- after these scraps have been separated from the pulverized bone meal in a machine that is, for all intents and purposes, a super-high-pressure meat sieve. What’s left over is a liquid mash known as “meat slurry,” which is later combined with the vertiginous variety of additives listed above and shaped into what eventually becomes the final product. Sounds really appetizing, doesn’t it?”

He begins this “manifesto for meat lovers” by undertaking a “month of meat”, his goal being to eat 31 different animals in 31 days! I was happy to note that I had had about half of the animals he had on his list. So as he explores the meat spectrum from ostrich to rattle snake to goat to kangaroo, he intersperses the chapters with anecdotes, ethical questions and asides. It was exciting to learn a little bit about myoglobin and how this protein affects the color of the meat; and about that iridescence, or rainbow appearance sometimes seen on roast beef, which occurs as light encounters the myofilaments of the muscle, similar to what happens when light passes through a prism.

He also gives recipes. His “best meat marinade in the world”, is one I am eager to try!

1.5 cups vegetable oil
.75 cup soy sauce
.25 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons dry mustard
2.5 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
.5 cup red wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
.33 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and place over low heat until simmering lightly (not foaming), then cool completely. Marinate meat in zip lock bag in fridge for at least 4 hours.

I did enjoy the book, although I really don’t know how I feel about the author. His personality permeated the text in an obnoxious way, with an intensely juvenile sense of humor that just made it seem like he was trying too hard. I don’t like to judge, but I get the feeling he’s not the kind of guy I’d like to spend a lot of time with- I hope it’s not because of things in him I see in myself.

There was a point in the book, however, where I felt he was truly authentic. A breath of fresh air in between the less than genuine persona he seemed to put on for the writing of this book. That came when he traveled out to a farm help in the butchering of one of their cows. His descriptions of the day were poignant and reminded me of the first time I helped butcher a pig. He realizes what it actually is to take the life of a living being to nourish ones self. While from the beginning he claims to be at peace with the fact that meat = death, it seems at this point he finally understands it in a deep way, that gives him more reverence as he goes on, at least for a bit.

I think I most enjoyed the end of the last section of the book. After his month of meat he undertakes a tour de boeuf examining the many ways to enjoy cow. Part of that, of course is sampling the offal, all those organs and parts that are not skeletal meat. There is something exciting about these things for me. I loved his writing about liver and head cheese, and brains and sweet breads. It is a real shame that here in the US, there are so few that prepare these things. I guess it’s largely a mental thing, because the tastes are often exquisite. It is important that all parts of an animal be used, why should it make a difference eating a steak or eating a tongue salad? -in both cases the animal had to die, one should honor that and not waste.

I’m taking away from this book a number of things, regardless of the author’s personality. I’m excited about trying new offal, and different animals- guinea pig sounded fun; but I’m also taking away a new consciousness with respect to meat, or perhaps a renewed awareness, and a new determination to be educated about the meat I consume. It is so important that the disconnect that occurs in the grocery store is overcome and we who eat meat accept it for what it is and be grateful in the appropriate way.