Westcoast Cooking

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Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Northwest Essentials has transformed into West Coast Cooking!

In the coming weeks we will introduce a Restuarant Blog, and we'll be adding more recipes to provide you with ways to incorporate local foods into your daily meals.

This week, we’re making the ultimate hamburger. We’ll start with “sustainable” beef. As far as we’re concerned the best option is organically raised, grass fed beef. And we’ll wrap it all up in a homemade hamburger bun.

To be labeled organic, beef must conform to strict guidelines established by the USDA. Essentially, we’re talking about cattle that are fed either natural grass or organically – grown grain; they cannot be given hormones or antibiotics. (Incidentally, antibiotics are routinely given to beef cattle to help them put on weight, not necessarily to cure them from any infection. One big problem with this practice is that it promotes antibiotic-resistant bacteria.)

“Sustainable” has become a buzzword that has only relative meaning. Clearly the current method of factory farming beef is not sustainable. It is too petroleum dependent and we all know that oil is not a renewable resource, so sooner or later, this form of animal husbandry is going to change. It might move in the direction of grass fed beef.

Before World War II, almost all beef in America was grass fed. But the conversion of munitions factories to chemical fertilizer factories allowed for a new way of farming with chemicals and hybridized grains that meant a glut of grain, especially corn. And farmers found that by feeding cattle the new cheap corn at a feed lots or “Confined Animal Feeding Operations” they could put a lot of weight on the cattle in short order and consumers just loved the richer beef which was higher in fat than traditional grass fed beef. By applying the principles of mass production to farming, we entered the age of factory farming, essentially fulfilling Eisenhower’s warnings about the military industrial complex, but since everyone was making money, no one seemed to mind. But problems started to arise.

Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grain and when they are force fed grain, they develop health problems. So the farmers were instructed to start added prophylactic (preventative) antibiotics to the feed and they discovered that the steers gained weight faster so this became standard practice. Look for grass fed beef at a local farmer’s market from Skagit River Ranch, or check out the web site of the guy I buy my beef from. It’s Mountain beef dot com. Mark and Amy Ramsden come over the mountains a couple of times a year and you can set up an order with them off their web site.

Organic doesn’t necessarily mean grass fed. It does mean that no chemical pesticides or herbicides were used to produce the grain, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the cattle were spared the horrors of the Confined Animal Feeding station.

As far as the economics go, we have a couple of options. One is eat less meat, the other is buy in bulk. A third option might be both. For the last few years, I have been buying beef in bulk. I buy grass fed steers form a guy in eastern Washington and because it’s kind of expensive, we treat it with more respect.

Grass fed beef has less fat, so you have to use a little oil when you’re cooking it. Not long ago, I developed what I thought was the perfect recipe for meatballs, but we made them with commercial, factory farmed beef, freshly ground chuck and they were so fatty that they fell apart.

I wish I could show you my technique for shaping the buns. The dough is fairly simple bread dough, but to get the shape right, I make a coil of dough and tie it in a knot tucking each end of the coil under to form a classic Kaiser shape. They’re awesome.

Try out The Ultimate Hamburger
Make your own Hamburger Buns