Cooking Meat

I learned to cook in natural foods stores and vegetarian restaurants, so I never learned much about cooking meat, although I do eat it from time to time. I eat meat because it's a basic part of so many culinary traditions and such an important part of who we are as gastronomical animals. I say this even though I've written and published 2 vegan cookbooks, and I strongly believe that our survival as a species could very well depend on our changing our diets to include less meat.

Lately I've been growing convinced that the best way to encourage people to incorporate more plant foods into their diets isn't necessarily to lobby in favor of a strictly vegetarian diet. I've come to this conclusion after many years of operating a farmers' market booth offering vegetarian food, and interacting with countless customers who are unwilling to even give my food a chance because it doesn't happen to have any meat in it.

I've been thinking recently that I'm ready to shift my emphasis a bit, and perhaps take on some new projects that include meat in sensible, sustainable ways. So I've been experimenting and cooking lunch for my staff. I'm starting with ground beef, because it's so easy to work with, and soon I'll work my way up to pre-cut pieces like stew meat, and eventually to larger cuts. I'm finding that it's much easier to achieve fuller flavors than with the vegetarian ingredients I'm used to using. One of my employees compared my recent experience to learning ride ride a bike without training wheels.