LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels. | 102 comments (102 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 2)

It's a tricky one. I like my food, and cooking and offering taste experiences to others is an important part of my life. But since I went semi-Montignac, I've made a lot more veg dishes. With a full collection of spices, it's possible to make a huge range of dishes. I'm currently experimenting with new ways of serving spinach.

My meat or fish portions tend to be very small - but sort of indespensible - except for sushi where a slab of fresh caught salmon tends to disappear rather quickly.

I also buy a lot of pulses from the Indian shops in Helsinki.

I had a client making soy chunks a couple of year ago and tested a lot of different recipes using their product. But I found the texture really hard to handle. I still occasionally test new recipes but I've ever been happy enough to offer soy chunks to my guests.

Milk I'd find hard to be without. The perfect cup of tea, for me, needs a splash of milk. Other that use that I maybe use 500 ml max a week of dairy products in sauces etc.

I guess I could really cut down on meat, but I don't regard myself as a major offender.

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by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 04:56:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

500 ml. a week?

wow. Let's see - about 2 l. of milk, 250-300 ml of cream, 350g. of butter and 1.5 kg of cheese.

Meatwise - 1-1.5 kg, including seafood.

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:04:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

No butter for me - just rape seed oil. I've moved off olive oil since I've tasted virgin canola (made in Finland). However I do use Ghee in my Indian dishes.

Meatwise about the same for me, but not counting guests.

BTW I use 7% fat cream and low fat yoghurts, buttermilk and Quark - whatever that mght be in English.

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by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:19:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

How do you cook with 7% cream? I tend to use 'heavy' cream which is I think 30-35%. and isn't rapeseed oil completely tasteless?

btw quark - roughly cottage cheese.

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:23:27 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 0)

I use this stuff. mixed with other dairy - usually plain yoghurt (remember to add at low temperature).

Virgin rape oil is very tasty!

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:37:20 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 0)

I guess it must be all the vowels they put in it.

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:43:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

"Vowels for the Bowels"

Did you not know this is the Finnish motto?

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by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:45:50 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

Quark ;)

by Sassafras on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:25:37 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 0)

I just don't cook with cream very often, but on those odd occasions I tend to find the richest organic farmhouse cream I can. Likewise with butter - we haven't had any in the house for weeks now, but I try to cook with the best I can find when I do. What's the point otherwise?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:26:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 3)

Cream and milk in cooking I find quite easy to substitute with soy or oat based substitute products. Good for the lactose intolerant guests too. Though I have yet to find any that works when the cream or milk is a central piece - say milk and cereals, or something or another with whipped cream. Then the nuances in texture and taste matters. But in cooking you can compensate more and after some experimenting and learning, it works just as good.

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by A swedish kind of death on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:26:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 0)

Cream and milk in cooking I find quite easy to substitute with soy or oat based substitute products.

soy based cream sauces? ugh.

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:29:15 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 0)

That just triggers my "make something else" alert. Like soy proteins (or whatever they use) pretending to be meat.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:39:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

It is quite easy to substitute in a spicey dish. You are mainly going for texture, thickness and moistness with these dishes when you add other creamers rather then the specific taste of the cream.

I like to use a lot of yoghurt in marinades and in mongol cooking (long and slow and sealed)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:51:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

But isn't yoghurt more-or-less authentic for mongol cooking? Assuming you don't have a herd of horses handy.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:55:49 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

It certainly can taste original with yoghurt - but you need the ghee. The main benefit of yoghurt is in how it breaks down the meat fibres, rather than the taste.

I got an old Danish iron casserole at the flea market, that has a perfect seal due to the weight of the lid. And though I cook on ceramic, it is easy to get the mongol pot to simmer minimally. It is an excellent type of coooking for those chefs whose sense of time may become distorted.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 06:07:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 2)

If I cook Thai I use coconut milk, not cream. When I cook traditionally olive oil based stuff, I use that, not butter. But cuisines were developed on certain ingredients. You simply can't make French or northern Italian without butter and cream. Similarly it would be a bit difficult to make Chinese butter and cream based - you could try, and perhaps fiddling around you might make something edible, but why?

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 06:04:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

I ALWAYS forget to buy the coconut milk. I fool most people by tossing in some dessicated. I probably wouldn't fool you, though ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 06:20:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

It's not that hard to make if you've got the dried stuff at home - or so it seems from what I've read, I honestly just always have a can or two around.

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 06:22:44 PM EST
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Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

For some reason, coconut is not a big hit in Finland - but turmeric they can't get enough of. Ever since I heard that strep throat was almost unknown in India, and that turmeric has been identified as specific, it gets into a lot of my cooking. I don't think I've ever served white rice to my guests - thought might also be pink due to Sumach.....

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 06:35:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 2)

You know, I find soymilk foams more easily for making capuccino than real milk does. And ripe avocado spreads more easily than butter and tastes better.

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by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:53:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (none / 1)

haven't tried foaming it myself, I have tasted soy lattes from a friend - rather different taste. Avocado - fine for some things but in general I prefer butter. I generally eat avocado with bread on its own, or sometimes with butter ;)

by MarekNYC on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 05:57:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 3)

Soy milk is an inexcusable culinary tragedy.

Rice milk is the perfect substitute for cereals. Unfortunately I've never seen a rice cream. (Do they even exist?)

I buy organic milk for tea, and very occasionally organic cream. But I think dairy production is a relatively minor distraction from intensive meat farming.

If you have a dead cow someone might as well eat it. It's when you have millions of dead cows being farmed, killed, cut up, processed and shipped around the world that you have to start asking questions about efficiency.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Apr 16th, 2008 at 09:19:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels (4.00 / 4)

I find soy milk neutral in tea. If I now put dairy milk into tea, I find it has a strong "cow" flavour.

Modern dairy farming is very intensive and polluting. (It also feeds the meat market, most of the cheaper supermarket cuts being dairy cow or heifer).

Yet I'm not suggesting people should boycott cows' milk and derived products (unless for personal health reasons). What is objectionable is the amount of marketing/advertising/packaging/shelf space devoted to small volumes of low-quality milk turned into various yoghurts and other more or less fermented products, creamy desserts, and intestinal stimulants, sold at high prices : industrial dairy production feeding straight into a marketing-based food industry sector. I don't know what the ratio of raw material to abusively "manufactured" added value (the marketing, ads, packaging, merchandising) in the cost price is, but the continuous pressure to bring down the price paid to the dairy farmer leads directly to increased intensification and the debasement of the product. Better-quality producers and products, such as traditional cheeses, are increasingly marginalised (even in France).

But, as with meat, the marketing works. It's not easy to see how to turn the situation round.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Apr 17th, 2008 at 04:15:25 AM EST
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LQD: Monbiot: Meat a worse crime than biofuels. | 102 comments (102 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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