Meat – FoodWatcher

DIY Corned Beef Is Cornier, Beefier, Better

We know how you got here—you want to know how to make corned beef. And so you will. But how did corned beef get here? Who thought to cure thick cuts of beef in salt and nitrates, and declare them ‘corned’?

According to Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt: …

We know how you got here—you want to know how to make corned beef. And so you will. But how did corned beef get here? Who thought to cure thick cuts of beef in salt and nitrates, and declare them ‘corned’?

According to Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt: A World History, the Irish began salting, spicing, and curing beef in the Middle Ages, finding that this process preserved the meat from spoilage (and particularly from the danger of C. Botulinum, the toxin-producing bacterium best known for causing Botulism...and Botox). The Irish, most likely, originally referred to this product as spiced beef (as they still do today). But when the British seized control of the Emerald Isle, trampling its fields with cattle and its culture with Imperial force, they dubbed the preserved meat ‘corned.’ The word corn, back then, was not yet associated primarily with the American crop, instead referring broadly to grains or small pieces. In this case, the ‘corns’ were likely grains of salt, or granules of potassium nitrate, known as saltpeter (also the name of my future celebrity child).

Our Favorite Spam Recipes Are Crisp, Meaty Heaven

Spam, that iconic American food product, is a versatile pantry staple with a history all its own, and devoted fans in countless countries around the world (especially in Asia). Whether you welcome its delicious, savory, meaty flavor with open arms or …

We happen to love it unabashedly, and gathered up our 11 best Spam recipes for hearty breakfasts, easy lunches, and quick, comforting dinners. That way, next time you pop open a can of the good stuff, you'll know exactly what to do.

How to Cook Filet Mignon To Absolute Perfection

With high demand and only about eight cuts per cow, filet mignon often fetches the highest price in the butcher’s case. When you’re paying upwards of $20 per pound, cooking these precious tidbits can feel a little like a tightrope walk. Don’t be intimi…

With high demand and only about eight cuts per cow, filet mignon often fetches the highest price in the butcher's case. When you're paying upwards of $20 per pound, cooking these precious tidbits can feel a little like a tightrope walk. Don't be intimidated. By paying attention to a few important details, learning how to cook filet mignon like you've been doing it your whole life is actually quite easy.

What Is Filet Mignon?

Filet mignon is a choice steak, indeed. To form it, the butcher makes a cross-sectional cut from the small end of the tenderloin, a long muscle with one narrow, pointed end which runs along the lower part of the cow's spine. The flesh there doesn't do much work, and is, therefore, very, very tender.

What Is a Charcuterie House? And Why Are(n’t) You Making One?

Listen, meat and cheese (and sometimes olives and jams and dried fruits) arranged artfully across a surface is a good thing. I like charcuterie boards. They’re endlessly customizable, nice to look at when done right, generally crowd-pleasing and pretty…

In recent years, we’ve watched charcuterie boards soar in popularity. They’re on restaurant menus, at dinner parties, on Instagram (in a big, big way) and, like any trend, they’ve morphed with the times: they’ve gotten bigger and more elaborate. But two recent charcuterations (that’s charcuterie iterations, mind you) are giving me pause.

Steak Street Tacos with Chipotle Lime Coleslaw

Here’s a satisfying street taco recipe that comes together in a flash. It’s topped with a tangy chipotle-lime coleslaw that provides flavor, spice and crunch to these satisfyingly savory street tacos. When Aristotle said the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, he was talking about tacos, right? Because these tacos are made […]

When Aristotle said the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, he was talking about tacos, right? Because these tacos are made up of some seriously good parts: thin slices of savory seared steak, toasted flour tortillas, a tangy chipotle-lime slaw, and a sprinkle of pickled jalapeños and fresh cilantro.

Four steak street tacos on a black rectangular plate, with limes, pickled jalapenos and chipotle slaw

The perfect taco hits all the right notes, combining spicy and sweet, soft and crunchy, salty and tangy.

And these steak street tacos do just that, with thin slices of steak browned to perfection, and topped with a bright and crunchy slaw made with a mix of Duke’s Mayonnaise, smoky chipotle, and fresh squeezed lime juice.

Closeup of the filling of a steak street taco, topped with micro cilantro leaves and pickled jalapenos

What makes it a street taco and not just a regular taco? The size, essentially.

Street tacos are generally smaller, about 4-5″ in diameter versus a more typical 6″ corn tortilla or 8″ flour tortilla. The handheld size makes them easy to eat standing in the street. We’ve found both corn and flour tortillas labeled ‘street taco size’ recently, and although we opted to use flour here, you could really use either.

Even better… warm the tortillas in the same skillet with all the flavorful fat and brown bits leftover from cooking the steak. Inspired in part by a drool-worthy binge-watch of the Taco Chronicles series (which I highly recommend checking out), specifically the episode on Suadero tacos. This particular kind of taco is made with seasoned beef cooked long and slow in a bath of its own fat (beef confit, essentially); the tortillas are also drenched in fat and toasted prior to being loaded up with the juicy, flavorful meat and simple toppings.

While our steak tacos are not even close to authentic Suadero tacos (the thin slices of steak cook in mere minutes, rather than slow cooking for hours as is traditional), we were certainly inspired by the preparation and especially the brilliant step of fat-soaking the tortillas.

Since we can’t exactly travel to Mexico right now to enjoy the real thing, this will have to do.

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Is Mortadella the Best Cold Cut? (Is That Even a Question?)

Mortadella is having a moment.

As a cured meat obsessive, I’ve always vaguely known about it—mainly as an element of certain sandwiches, like the muffuletta. But it wasn’t until recently that I started encountering it almost every time I went out to e…

Mortadella is having a moment.

Freeze-Dried Fruit Makes Any Meat Taste Better

Fruit and meat is a timeless combination. Cantaloupe and prosciutto, mango and chicken, cranberry and turkey, apricot and lamb—I could go on.

And while nothing beats the magic that is, say, a peak-season fig enrobed in salty, cured ham, there’s a pant…

Fruit and meat is a timeless combination. Cantaloupe and prosciutto, mango and chicken, cranberry and turkey, apricot and lamb—I could go on.

And while nothing beats the magic that is, say, a peak-season fig enrobed in salty, cured ham, there’s a pantry-friendly alternative to channel the fruit-and-meat concept year-round: freeze-dried fruit.

How Hunting My Own Food Taught Me to Cook Mindfully

Welcome to Living Wild by Danielle Prewett, a wild game cook and contributing editor at MeatEater. In this series, she explores what it means to eat consciously and live mindfully. For Danielle, that way of life relies on hunting, fishing, foraging, an…

Welcome to Living Wild by Danielle Prewett, a wild game cook and contributing editor at MeatEater. In this series, she explores what it means to eat consciously and live mindfully. For Danielle, that way of life relies on hunting, fishing, foraging, and gardening. Her stories aim to inspire you to live a life more closely connected to the earth and to celebrate its natural bounty in your kitchen.

It’s midsummer here in Texas, but I’m finding myself thinking back to spring, when the temperatures were steadily rising and the growing season was in full swing. It was time to pull the radishes from my garden, the first of many vegetables to mature. With my hands covered in dirt, I gripped the bundle of vibrant pink roots and smiled. My heart was filled with content over this simple joy in life—harvesting food directly from the earth.

simple, essential bolognese

The very first thing I cooked in our Inside Days was ragú bolognese. Previous to having all of the time in the world, I didn’t make it very often; we were too busy during the week and on the weekend, I preferred to be away from the stove. But that weekend! Our apartment smelled phenomenal as it gently bubbled on the back burner all afternoon, and I realized it had been way too long since we’d had the luxury of a multi-hour buildup to an anticipated meal.

I also remembered I’d been cheating on this site’s bolognese recipe for many years, and it was time to come clean. Previously, my go-to recipe was embedded in the lasagna bolognese, and to echo that recipe’s caveat: I think there are as many interpretations of Bologna’s famous braise there are people who make it — if you’ve found yours, I see no reason to veer from it. Marcella Hazan’s in The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking has long been what you could call an industry leader, but I loved Anne Burrell’s, a milk-free, red wine-forward version that put the utmost care into building base layers of flavors.

Spicy Korean Egg Roll Bowls with Kimchi

Bowls over rolls—everything you love in an egg roll, now in an easy-peasy bowl form! These satisfying egg roll bowls provide all the fantastic flavors of egg rolls without the hassle of wrapping and frying. Sautéed cabbage, carrot and ground pork with a punch of spicy kimchi, served over a bed of rice. For all […]

Bowls over rolls—everything you love in an egg roll, now in an easy-peasy bowl form!

These satisfying egg roll bowls provide all the fantastic flavors of egg rolls without the hassle of wrapping and frying. Sautéed cabbage, carrot and ground pork with a punch of spicy kimchi, served over a bed of rice.

Spicy Korean Egg Roll Bowls with a bowl of rice, pinch bowl of sesame seeds, and whole purple radishes on a dark background.

For all the chaos in the world right now, food is proving to be a safe haven for a lot of us. I’m trying to see a silver lining to all of this, and I have to say that seeing so many people staying at home for the good of their communities, and cooking food for their families is heartwarming. If we all come out of this with a little more confidence in the kitchen, and a more conscientious approach to food waste, I think we’ll all be better for it in the end.

In the coming weeks we’re going to try to keep sharing recipes as best as we can, focusing on practical recipes utilizing pantry ingredients and incorporating fresh produce whenever we can (because while one can feasibly live on dried beans and pasta, it’s certainly not satisfying).

In these bowls, for example, both cabbage and carrots will keep quite well in the fridge for weeks, as does kimchi. Paired with some steamed rice and frozen pork from the freezer (you could also use ground turkey or chicken), it’s a practical recipe that doesn’t sacrifice on flavor.

Closeup of Spicy Korean Egg Roll Bowls with rice and thinly sliced green onion

This particular recipe was inspired by our most recent CSA box from Caney Fork Farms, which arrived with a whole head of napa cabbage, beautiful fresh carrots, gigantic green onions and the most beautiful purple daikon radishes I’ve ever seen.

We sort of threw this together on a whim, stir frying that lovely produce with some ground pork and all the spicy condiments we happened to have in our fridge. The result was so good, so deliciously spicy, that we had to make it again to share with you. Served atop a bed of steamed rice it really makes for one heck of a meal.

(And, if you’re in the Nashville area and interested in getting your own CSA delivered right to your front door, check out Caney Fork Farms. And psst! Use coupon code LOVEANDOLIVEOIL to save $25 off your first share!)

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