Meat

The scrapple education of Marshall Green began in earnest three years ago, maybe a little longer. It was a mysterious meat to him, the great-grandson of the operator of a Jewish deli, Abe's by name, which eventually begot Murray's, the Bala Cynwyd fixture. Green had opened his own place, Cafe Estelle, on a hidden stretch of Fourth Street, south of Spring Garden. And soon it became known for extraordinary brunches (the "Spring Scramble" last week featured fiddlehead ferns, English peas and asparagus)

Question: A friend of mine sent me an e-mail about something called "meat glue. " The article talks about how it is used to glue together scraps of meat to make them seem like more expensive meat cuts like filet mignon. How dangerous is this stuff? Shouldn't it be illegal? — C.S., Philadelphia Answer: Gluing together pieces of meat, fish, chicken, or pork sounds like the bastardization of food, but "meat glue" can be used both for good and for evil. To be precise, meat glue is a naturally occurring enzyme (transglutaminase)

Question: What do you think about the use of "pink slime" in ground beef? ?Answer: With a name like "pink slime," it seems like "lean finely textured beef" has a serious image problem. I've seen the video of food chef and critic Jamie Oliver where he tosses scraps of meat into a washing machine to illustrate rather poorly the meat separation process, followed by the dousing of household bleach on so-called pink slime to make a dramatic point. This is simply not accurate. What is finely textured beef?

FATIMAH Ali has many valid points in her recent op-ed on what we eat. But the justifications fail to work for all. I know plenty of vegetarians who are fat and unhealthy - who smoke, do yoga and drugs. I know many vegetarians who are skinny and stay sick because they just cannot find the proper diet for their particular body types. On the other hand, I also know many meat-eaters (myself included) who are healthy and vibrant, who have skin that glows. It's still an individual choice whether you consume animal products or not. (Thank God for that.

To give the authors of "Eat this steak!" (Op-ed Feb. 5) due credit, they got one thing quite right - the federal Food Guide Pyramid heavily suffers from industry taint and poorly serves the public-health interest. However, quite contrary to Michael and Mary Dan Eades' assertions of grain bias, it's the politically well-connected dairy, meat and egg industries whose clout dominates and skewers the 9-year-old Food Pyramid. For starters, its release was delayed one year until April 1992, and its contents diluted, under intense pressure from animal agribusiness interests.

The March issue of Changing Times discloses that the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposes permitting meat processors to decrease the fat content in frankfurters and add an equivalent amount of water. Is the department becoming more concerned about the public's health, or about greater profits for the processor? Some time ago the Agriculture Department adopted a similar proposal allowing injection of water into fresh hams, thus forcing the consumer to pay meat prices for water.

An old-fashioned butcher back in Grandmother's day was a cook's best friend. It was sometimes a good idea to keep your eye on his thumb, or so I'm told, but he was the one you went to for all kinds of information about meat. Every kind of question from "What should I have for dinner?" to "How do I fix it?" were commonly asked of the butcher back then. But in the early 1940s, he gradually began to disappear. In many places, he first retreated behind glass panels that enclosed ever more sterile-looking cutting rooms.

Aside from the smell of fresh sawdust on the floor and the sight of a cooler full of Prime beef aging to perfection, one of the best things about being a butcher in an old-fashioned meat market was the opportunity it provided for exchanging ideas (and recipes) with customers. I got some of my best ideas that way. Your cards and letters have made writing "The Butcher" column just as satisfying for the same reason. Keep them coming. I enjoy hearing from you. Hamburger - ground beef - continues to be the subject of much correspondence.

The supermarket I patronize regularly recently upgraded its meat department, adding a more or less old-fashioned butcher shop, where the assorted cuts are set out in a glass-fronted case without benefit of Styrofoam trays, absorbent liners and enshrouding plastic. Actual people can be seen on the other side of the counter. They ask you what you want, cut it for you if necessary - the whole nine yards. "Try our homemade turkey sausages," read a sign posted near this beguiling facility.

Even before it was hung, "Meat: Art at the Broiling Point" at McNeil Gallery stirred spirited discussion. Some charged that the group of independent artists that calls itself Meat was selling out. The basis of this allegation was that Meat had made a reputation in the last few years while circumventing the regular gallery system but suddenly had reversed itself and was exhibiting within the system. I don't see it that way. Today, public relations is just as important as creativity to the success of an artist, and Meat is particularly adept at self-promotion.

Question: A friend of mine sent me an e-mail about something called "meat glue. " The article talks about how it is used to glue together scraps of meat to make them seem like more expensive meat cuts like filet mignon. How dangerous is this stuff? Shouldn't it be illegal? — C.S., Philadelphia Answer: Gluing together pieces of meat, fish, chicken, or pork sounds like the bastardization of food, but "meat glue" can be used both for good and for evil. To be precise, meat glue is a naturally occurring enzyme (transglutaminase)

The scrapple education of Marshall Green began in earnest three years ago, maybe a little longer. It was a mysterious meat to him, the great-grandson of the operator of a Jewish deli, Abe's by name, which eventually begot Murray's, the Bala Cynwyd fixture. Green had opened his own place, Cafe Estelle, on a hidden stretch of Fourth Street, south of Spring Garden. And soon it became known for extraordinary brunches (the "Spring Scramble" last week featured fiddlehead ferns, English peas and asparagus)

Craig LaBan: Mike Klein and I popped by this adorable little cart, Spot, to try their house-ground burgers, and cheesesteaks. They butcher the meat themselves from a big top round, pretty impressive for a place that's 6 feet long. They've got the system down pat, with someone taking orders beneath the shade of a red awning on the yellow cart, with a grill-master inside sizzling away at warp speed. You know they've got ambitions with ingredients like "mire-poix" (for the meatloaf) and an "Umami" signature burger (excellent, with pickled daikon, mushrooms, and gochujang)

WHAT EXACTLY is Steak-umm? In his ruling, Judge Lawrence Stengel describes it as made "from chopped and formed emulsified meat product that is comprised of beef trimmings left over after an animal is slaughtered and all of the primary cuts, such as tenderloin, filet, and rib eye, are removed. . . . The emulsified meat is pressed into a loaf and sliced, frozen and packaged. "

HIS OWN lawyer was worried that Michael Lane - a saucy, outspoken South Philly man - would curse on the stand. It's not as if Lane didn't have cause. To begin with, Lane, owner of the local restaurant chain Steak' Em Up, never thought the lawsuit against him would make it to federal court. In fact, he thought it was a gag when he received a cease-and-desist letter from the owners of Steak-umm, a brand of thinly sliced frozen steak based outside Reading. The letter threatened Lane with a trademark-infringement suit if he didn't change the name of his chain within 24 hours.

FUNNY THING about the lists of "helpful planet-saving tips" that show up as Earth Day (Sunday) approaches: They rarely include, much less spotlight, the daily action that could have the most impact: cutting down your meat and dairy consumption. The United Nations has repeatedly stated that we must drastically change our eating patterns, given that somewhere from 18 percent (if you credit the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization 2006 estimate) to 51 percent (Worldwatch Institute's estimate, 2009)

Upscale veg­an eateries in the Philadelphia area have a dirty lit­tle se­cret: "I'd say at least two-thirds of our cli­en­tele are not veg­e­tar­i­an," says Ross Olchvary, chef-own­er at New Hope's Sprig & Vine . "I think most of them are just looking for some­thing dif­fer­ent. " Rich Lan­dau, chef and co-own­er of Center City's Vedge , with his wife, Kate Jacoby, has observed a sim­i­lar pat­tern. "With so many celebrities like Bill Clin­ton, Mike Ty­son, and El­len De­Gen­er­es talking about eating veg­an, peo­ple re­al­ize that it's not just some cleanse, and it's not some hip­pie-dip­py diet of steamed beans and len­til loaf.

Question: What do you think about the use of "pink slime" in ground beef? ?Answer: With a name like "pink slime," it seems like "lean finely textured beef" has a serious image problem. I've seen the video of food chef and critic Jamie Oliver where he tosses scraps of meat into a washing machine to illustrate rather poorly the meat separation process, followed by the dousing of household bleach on so-called pink slime to make a dramatic point. This is simply not accurate. What is finely textured beef?

TIME WAS, a chef could do one thing exceedingly well and make a name. But chefs and eateries in Philadelphia are starting to take pride in their versatility, adapting their cuisine to specialized needs. And yes, a big one is plant-based eating. Derek Davis, whose restaurant, Derek's, is a fine-dining fixture in Manayunk, told the Daily News earlier this month: "When I look at my menu, I see we're lacking things that are strictly vegetables, without any dairy, without any animal fats.

SINCE 1985, the beginning of spring has served as an opportunity to spotlight meatless food for one day. The Great American Meatout, created by the Farm Aminal Reform Movement (FARM), is a collection of more than 1,000 outreach events nationwide occurring around March 20, the day everyone is encouraged to spend meat-free. Whether or not FARM's efforts are responsible, meat consumption in the U.S. is decreasing: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Daily Livestock Report notes: "USDA's December forecasts indicate another sharp drop in U.S. domestic meat and poultry consumption is coming in 2012.