Meat with Bones
A Zimbabwean student of mine some years ago was living with a community of monks in Boston whose meals were, if restrained, otherwise typically American. "No bones!" Joshua complained with a chuckle, "the meat has no bones".
The lament was aesthetic, to start with. Joshua was used to the experience of taking a piece of chicken or goat or whatever and engaging with it over more than a few seconds, as a serious exercise in extracting flavour and nutrients. The boneless chicken breasts and diced pork of Star Market fridge displays were a far cry from the opportunity and necessity presented by meat in an agrarian society.
In a recent article in the Melbourne Age's Good Weekend magazine, restaurant critic Terry Durack made some similar points about the flavour, and the honesty, of bones. Apart from the added flavour - his main point - Durack notes that eating this way "also seems more honourable, paying more respect to the original animal".
Meat with bones is much to be preferred to keeping the eater so far removed from the origin of their meal. Remembering my Zimbabwean friend, it is worth noting that other societies eat less meat, as well as being unashamed of what they are doing.
As a devotee of the slow cooker I have a clear preference for the chops, legs and other bony portions that impart flavour, and a reminder that these have come from a real animal. Eating less meat with greater savour and appreciation would have benefits related to ethics as well as aesthetics.
The lament was aesthetic, to start with. Joshua was used to the experience of taking a piece of chicken or goat or whatever and engaging with it over more than a few seconds, as a serious exercise in extracting flavour and nutrients. The boneless chicken breasts and diced pork of Star Market fridge displays were a far cry from the opportunity and necessity presented by meat in an agrarian society.
In a recent article in the Melbourne Age's Good Weekend magazine, restaurant critic Terry Durack made some similar points about the flavour, and the honesty, of bones. Apart from the added flavour - his main point - Durack notes that eating this way "also seems more honourable, paying more respect to the original animal".
Meat with bones is much to be preferred to keeping the eater so far removed from the origin of their meal. Remembering my Zimbabwean friend, it is worth noting that other societies eat less meat, as well as being unashamed of what they are doing.
As a devotee of the slow cooker I have a clear preference for the chops, legs and other bony portions that impart flavour, and a reminder that these have come from a real animal. Eating less meat with greater savour and appreciation would have benefits related to ethics as well as aesthetics.
Comments
In 2000 I lived for two months with an Aftrican family in Thouyandou, Venda Province, South Africa, near the Zimbabwe border. Very occasionally we had chicken (big, long-boned "adult" chicken, no added hormones) and I was re-educated regarding the value of bones. The meal and conversation went longer. Their teeth were brighter and stronger than mine. I converted. Now I happily crunch through at least the cartilaginous ends of bones (think of all that calcium saving us from osteoporosis!) and I hope to teach my children to do the same (an to see meat at the luxury it should be). Dean Spalding, Monbulk.