nose to tail

I tend to 'savour' my Good Weekends. In other words I don't get to them because we are usually racing around 'doing stuff' on the weekends or I'm tending to the kids.

This morning I read the best edition: the Food Issue dating back to February 2012 and it was every bit worth waiting for!

I've added the following blogs to the right hand tab: Whole Larder Love, Lemonpi and Noodlies. Check them out.

Charlotte Wood's article 'The Whole Story' detailing her week eating a cow from nose to tail was compelling.  She quotes Matthew Brown (author of Food & Philosophy) who says that picky eaters "choose a narrow, ignorant path through life." He says that "picky eating is a wilful closing of the mind, denying the possibility that an unpleasant experience might at another time prove bearable or even pleasurable."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

To cordon off particular foods simply because one doesn't "like" them, he says, promotes the idea that obstacles should be avoided rather than overcome, and prevents a person's growth into an open-minded, generous, fully rounded human being.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

To cordon off particular foods simply because one doesn't "like" them, he says, promotes the idea that obstacles should be avoided rather than overcome, and prevents a person's growth into an open-minded, generous, fully rounded human being.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

Wood suggests that not eating 'nose to tail' in our society comes from being able to choose what we eat. In places around the world people eat 'nose to tail' through necessity and because of our choices we generate a ridiculous amount of waste, burden the planet and; are somewhat detached from the animal sacrificed. Committing to 'nose to tail' is a commitment to ecological sustainability.

Over a week Wood cooks parts of the cow I wouldn't 'touch with a stick.' I like the idea of her discussion and it raises important issues but I don't think I could do it. At one stage Wood considers vegetarianism for the first time in her life. I must say that I have considered it myself.

From an ethical perspective how can I deliberately eat meat knowing that the animal was raised to be killed and cut to pieces only for me to choose perfectly fashioned cuts wrapped up by the butcher while the remainder of the animal is... what does happen to the rest of the animal? Is it burned or thrown in to a pit with other carcasses? I have heard of the belief that for a body to rest in peace it must remain intact.

Wood's week of cooking and eating the animal is confronting from the cooking smells, to the textures of the cuts and the tastes of the animal for example, the kidney. She can never quite forget the smell of cow urine from preparing the kidney as she eats it.

It leaves me with a dilemma. I won't be eating offal anytime soon so how can I justify my habit of meat eating?