The Ethical Meat Handbook, Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition: From sourcing to butchery, mindful meat eating for the modern omnivore

by Meredith Leigh

A delicious alternative to the status quo when it comes to how we farm, cook, and eat

Nutrition, environmental impact, ethics, sustainability - it seems like there's no end to the food factors we must consider. At the center of the dietary storm is animal-based agriculture. Was your beef factory farmed or pasture-raised? Did your chicken free range, or was it raised in a battery cage? Have you, in short, met your meat?

Most efforts to unravel the complexities of the production and consumption of animals tend to pit meat eaters and vegetarians against each other.

In this 2nd edition of The Ethical Meat Handbook, Meredith Leigh argues that by assuming responsibility for the food on our fork and the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. This new edition covers:


Integrating animals into your garden or homestead
Step-by-step color photos for beef, pork, lamb, and poultry butchery
100+ recipes for whole-animal cooking
Culinary highlights: preparing difficult cuts, sauces, and extras
Charcuterie, including history, general science, principles, and tooling up
The economics and parameters for responsible meat production.
Eating diversely may be the most revolutionary action we can take to ensure the sustainability of our food system. The Ethical Meat Handbook 2nd Edition challenges us to take a hard look at our dietary choices, increase self-reliance, and enjoy delicious food that benefits our health and our planet.

Meredith Leigh is a food and farming specialist who has worked as a butcher, chef, teacher, and homesteader, all in search of realistic solutions for sustainable food. She lives in Asheville, NC.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2015

About the author

Over the past thirteen years, Meredith Leigh has worked as a farmer, chef, teacher, non-profit executive director, and writer, all in pursuit of sustainable food. She has developed a farmers cooperative, catalyzed non-profit farm ventures, raised vegetables, flowers, and pastured meats, owned and managed a retail butcher shop, and more. Currently, Meredith spends some of her time teaching, handling sheep, cooking, and doing outreach at Living Web Farms, a non-profit education and research farm in Mills River, NC. She is a mother to two boys, many plants and fermentation projects, and lives in
Asheville, NC.

Reviews

[Pam Dawling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meredith Leigh has given us a wonderful book, recently revised and updated. The trifecta of practicality, politics and poetry. “You need food. What everyone will not admit is that you should love it too. If you don’t love good food, put this book down. Now.” “The key is to honor the process, the pursuit of good food.” Ethical meat is that from an animal which enjoyed a good life, was afforded a good death, the meat is butchered properly, then cooked or preserved properly.

The new edition includes step-by-step color photos for beef, pork, lamb, and poultry butchery and over a hundred recipes for whole animal cooking. There are tips on preparing difficult cuts, sauces, and extras. Meredith has written a whole book Pure Charcuterie, but the second edition of The Ethical Meat Handbook also includes a history of charcuterie, as well as the general science and math principles of it, and “tooling up”.

Her book combines practical information on how to butcher beef, lamb, pork and chicken step by step; make sausage and smoked meats; raise livestock humanely and successfully make a living doing so. The second aspect includes the politics of animal farming. Meredith says “I am not a meat-crazed woman. I detest dietary dogma.” The third aspect of her book is her poetic way of sharing her observations and feelings. The trifecta of a good book: Practical info, Politics and the Personal.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to understand how cuts of meat are created, this is your book! The only downfall is photo quality in black and white print.
If you're getting into the meat business or are selling/buying meats, you should own this book. Especially if you're looking at nose to tail.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Grandfather is a butcher. He would love this book.