Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Kill it, Cook it, Eat it

I've been fascinated by this series of four programs on BBC3 which started on Monday night. Each instalment examines how a particular type of animal is raised, slaughtered, butchered and cooked - cows, lambs, pigs and chickens consecutively.


Over the past few years I've become much more conscious of my own meat consumption. My first move was to cut down. Later, when I moved to the UK, I started trying to make sure that any chicken or pork I cooked was free-range (and preferably organic). I don't bother so much about lamb or beef because they are not so intensively raised.

Lately I've been thinking of cutting back to just chicken and fish. I can see many good reasons for doing so: the environment, my health, animal rights and perhaps most importantly, the amount of resources that go into producing red meat in a world where many people don't have enough food to eat.

Since I'm now usually only eating my own cooking (because of being coeliac) it wouldn't be hard to do. I'm just wondering where this is going to stop. Am I on a slow path towards vegetarianism? Do I just enjoy denying myself stuff?

In the meantime I have an unanswered question. My local supermarket has an abundant supply of free-range organic chicken breast and thigh fillets but what happens to the rest? I want organic wings!

4 comments:

Jean said...

This is a bit off tangent, but I think given your cooking talents, you consider running cooking classes.

I've had such a disastrous week with attempting to cook that I've since put an order on Amazon for the 'Simple Chinese Cooking - Kylie Kwong' cookbook. At least this is an improvement on my M&S-meals days ;)

Joe said...

Such flattery! You have to eat here more often!

Seriously, it's just practise and patience.

Let's hope Kylie Kwong saves the day. I'd love to see the book when you get it. We've got her 'Recipes and Stories' book but things in it are a bit fiddly.

Iqbal Khaldun said...

I've recently discovered the joys of turkey - cheap and very low in fat, and cooks even quicker than chicken!

Joe said...

Yeah - it can be a bit dry but if it's in a curry or something wet then it works really well. I've been meaning to try out turkey mince (though free range turkey mince might be as hard to find as the chicken wings!).