Seasonality...
Before the industrialization of food production, all of our foods were locally grown and supplied in their season, and people ate in rhythm with those seasons. Only since the post World War II advent of industrialized agriculture and mass transportation capacity have we begun eating food grown hundreds and thousands of miles away, and available year-round. Convenience and availability have trumped freshness and harmony with nature. But nobody doubts that the cost of this convenience is nutrition, taste and the old-fashioned celebration of the local harvest.
Livestock was no different than vegetables among the farming and dining connoisseurs. Besides the freshness that is maintained by buying locally, the meats are better when finished in the moderate weather of spring and fall - avoiding the severe heat of summer and the dreary conditions of winter. So our creatures are finished on the sweet grasses and moderate temperatures of spring and fall. The grasses are sweeter, and the creature is stress-free.
Our animals are fat and happy! And your food arrives at its peak - fresh and local.
Cooking Methods...
We do not attempt to expound on the many ways that our meats can be prepared. Those choices are as unlimited as the Food Network itself. Instead, we want to convey two premises related to your venture into clean, wholesome eating.
- In the natural meat community, there is a saying that you throw away your timer and find your instant meat thermometer. Heed the advice. As a general rule, our meats will cook more quickly than conventional. They are not so infused with fats and water as conventional cuts. Therefore you gauge the temperature of the meat to determine doneness until the reduced cooking times become familiar to you.
- As a start, limit your seasonings. This will let you taste the natural flavors of these meats that distinguish them from conventional meats. You will also discover that subtle changes are found in the meats depending on whether they were grown in the spring or the fall of the year. The vegetation that they consume changes with the season, and will change even depending on whether they were grown out in early or late spring, whether or not there was a lot or only moderate rain, whether the grasshopper crop was large or small, and so on ad infinitum. Savor these differences and celebrate the different tastes of the seasons on your table.
That being said, we do give these basic cooking instructions to get you started:
Chicken - Season the bird and wrap in aluminum foil. Include onion, garlic, celery, carrot, herbs if you wish. Place in a 400 degree preheated oven. This is important - place the breast side down, not up. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn on the broiler. Pull foil back, turn the bird breast side up, baste with its own juices and brown to the desired color. Remove and allow to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. Eat and be healthy.
Or, split the chicken in half and cook it stove top in a deep skillet. You may brown it first in a little olive oil, then lower the temperature to medium and cover. This will preserve the juices in your vessel. Again, let it breathe after it reaches a breast temp of 170-180 degrees with the lid off.
Or, the abolute best method for cooking this chicken is on a rotisserie - especially one where the heating source comes from the side rather than the bottom of the grill. (Bottom heat escites the juices as the bird passes the heat source, resulting in lost jices at the bottom of the rotation.) Side heat minimizes this loss. The bird should be on an upward rather than downward rotation as it passes the heat element. Depending on your rotisserie, this method could take as long as 3 hours, so plan ahead. But, it requires no attention on your part once it's started. And what a Sunday meal you will have!
Chicken Feet Soup Stock Recipe - Many of you have asked how to make the delicious chicken stock from the feet we sell at the Farmers' Markets. Here is Glen Boudreaux's recipe for a delicious chicken foot stock. This recipe is for one set of feet. (Double the water if you have two sets.)
Thaw you feet and clip off the toes. Rinse well. (I like to soak them in brine for say an hour.) Add 3 tablespoons of fine salt and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Next make a mirepoix, which all frenchmen use as a base in their soups. Minimum ingredients (add others if you like) are: 1 medium carrot, 1 stalk of celery, 1 small/medium onion. Chop these vegetables then use a food processor to mince them all together. Get them very fine. Add mirepoix to pot with 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of course sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. Sautee on low-medium heat until soft. Add one quart of water, and bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Add the chicken feet, return to boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to a low simmer for about 45 minutes. If you only have one package of chicken feet, but want 2 quarts of stock, just double the water and add 1 chicken bouillon cube.
When we make the soup we keep it pretty simple because you have this wonderful base. For instance, add a cubed chicken breast with some wild rice and eat it with crusty bread and wine. It doesn't get any better than that!
Salad Bar Beef - If you have an iron skillet, by all means use it. Cooking your ground steak is quick and easy.
Lightly coat your skillet with olive oil. Bring the skillet to medium heat, put in your steak. Do not cover. As the juices evaporate, add small amounts of water. We add a little butter in the last 10 minutes. At any rate, add some liquid to develop your natural gravy. Time depends on your desired level of doneness. (Use a knife to pierce the middle of the steak to check doneness until you become familiar with timing.) Again, let it breathe off the stove top before eating.
Pork Chops - Use the same method as for Salad Bar Beef above.
Tom Bacon's Easy Roasted Chicken or Turkey - Tom Bacon, a devotee of Jolie Vue Farm's meats, is also a former professional chef and remains an outstanding musician. Here are his fundamentals for preparing chicken or turkey.
If frozen, let it thaw in the fridge for a day or two. Or, for a turkey, probably three days depending on size. Preliminary quick clean - check inside and get rid of any little extra pieces of guts that might have been left in the cavity, and wash the bird quickly in cool running water. Shake off excess water.
Apply one of the following seasoning methods:
- Infuse it with a brine solution. This makes an incredibly juicy bird. A couple of hours in a brine solution for a chicken, 6-8 hours for a large bird. Do NOT use additional salt in the roasting if you have first brined the bird. Easy brine recipe: 1 quart of water, 1/2 cup of salt, 1/3 cup of sugar, herbs, spices, or other flavorings as desired.
- Marinade the bird with your choice of marinade. Many are available commercially, or design your own receipe.
- Liberally sprinkle the bird (inside and out) with whatever seasonings you want. It could be just salt and pepper, or any different combination of herbs, spices and other flavorings that appeal to your palate. There are many wonderful prepared mixtures available. There are seasoned salts (like Lawry's), or specialty mixes like Old Bay, and a new one that I like a lot is called Citrus Grill by Durkee. Or make your own mixture. Depending on your choice of herbs, you can give your bird a classic European taste, barbecue, Asian, Southwestern, or tropical.
Roasting - Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the prepared bird in an appropriate sized roasting pan, generally on a roasting rack to keep it up out of the grease and juices. Leave at high heat (450 degrees) for five minutes, then turn it down to 350 degrees to finish the roasting. Internal temperature should be 180-185 degrees when a meat thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the breast or thigh. (A small chicken will take about 75 minutes total. Turkeys, roughly 15 minutes per pound, if not stuffed, or roughly 20 minutes per pound if stuffed.
Here is a link to one of my favorite ways to roast a cut up chicken: http://www.hornplanet.com/food/chickrig.html