Meat

Those chicken breasts and thighs for sale in the grocery meat case might not be all bird, and consumer advocates say few shoppers know it. Processors have been injecting some fresh poultry with up to 15 percent water, salt and elements of seaweed in recent years because, they say, it makes the meat taste better and government regulators allow it. But critics say almost a third of the chicken Americans now buy has the additives, so it costs consumers more...

WASHINGTON -- A long-running clash over the marketing of meat and milk from cloned animals is coming to a head in Washington as the government prepares to make a ruling that would allow the products to be sold to consumers for the first time. Critics in Congress, including Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, are attempting to delay the action expected from the Food and Drug Administration, which could decide as early as this week to permit sales. These opponents are rushing to gain approval by Congress this week of a provision that would encourage the FDA to delay action until further studies are completed.

Put cooked ground meat in a colander, set the colander on a plate and press down on the meat with a spoon to drain off as much grease as possible. -- The Food Lover's TiptionaryPub Date: 03/07/99

EVERY SO OFTEN you do something right and you're not sure exactly how you pulled it off. That happened to me recently when I successfully grilled a leg of lamb.My prior attempts at grilling lamb had produced results that were not pretty. Either I undercooked the lamb, ending up with a slab of meat so rare it would scare cannibals, or I overcooked it, ending up with meat so tough that it could plug holes in the Constellation.But the other night the lamb was perfect. Crispy on the outside, pink and juicy -- but not cold -- on the inside.

Put cooked ground meat in a colander, set the colander on a plate and press down on the meat with a spoon to drain off as much grease as possible.- The Food Lover's TiptionaryPub Date: 12/27/98

Item: Trifoods' Spare the RibsWhat you get: 2 1/2 servingsCost: About $4Preparation time: About 2 to 3 minutes in microwave, 5 to 7 minutes on grill and 12 to 14 minutes in conventional oven (25 to 27 minutes if meat is frozen)Review: The rib lover at our house wondered why anyone would do away with the best part of eating ribs: the mess. But if you prefer clean fingers, these are a fair alternative. The sauce is mild and the meat -- though sliced, formed and shaped -- surprisingly retains much of its texture.

PEOPLE WHO might pop a bun into a microwave oven to make it taste fresh don't want their ground beef irradiated before purchase. Their groundless fear of eating radioactive meat is another example of Americans' mixed emotions about anything nuclear, even when its use promotes food safety.Accidents such as last month's salmonella poisoning of 750 people who ate at a St. Mary's County church supper make the irradiation of meat a sensible step. The Food and Drug Administration last week gave meat processors permission to use gamma radiation on raw meat as a means to kill bacteria.

This summer, we've seen the biggest recall of beef in American history - nine decades after a famous book led the federal government to start inspecting meat. If the author were still alive, he wouldn't be surprised that serious problems remain.Upton Sinclair's novel, "The Jungle," included sickening descriptions of Chicago meatpacking plants. Published in 1907, it jarred the nation and lifted hopes of major reform. But not for long.Later that year, "the lobbyists of the packers had their way in Washington," Sinclair observed.

There are many ways to look at barbecue, one of the best being looking down at the remains of recently devoured ribs.Lolis Eric Elie and Frank Stewart are familiar with this vantage point, but they have examined American barbecue from a few other views as well. Elie, a metro-page columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, and Stewart, a photographer based in New York, visited 50 barbecue joints recently, primarily in the South and Midwest.They ate the food but looked beyond the sauce and smoke, focusing on the folks who barbecue and on the communities they come from.

A NEIGHBORHOOD grocery that was closed by the city health department for selling bad meat has again raised the lid on the simmering feud between the Korean-American and African-American communities. The latest tussle occurred in Baltimore's Pimlico neighborhood, but it could just as easily have happened in any American city with those two groups.The targeting of Korean-American businesses by Los Angeles rioters following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 was in part attributed to black rage over the light sentence handed down a few weeks earlier to a Korean-American grocer who fatally shot an unarmed black teen-age girl suspected of shoplifting.

It isn't easy to love or cook pork tenderloin. But recently I did both. Long and lean, the tenderloin has little fat, the stuff that makes most pork dishes succulent and makes many pig eaters weep for joy. Moreover, this piece of pork is not loaded with flavor and is often overcooked, facts of tenderloin life that even its admirers admit. "If you braise it, it is going to dry out on you," said Bruce Aidells, who has written a 2004 paean to the pig, "Bruce Aidells' Complete Book of Pork."

When you eat steamed crabs are you a dipper, a swiper or a sauce-maker? A dipper removes the crab meat from the shell then drops it in a bowl of liquid, usually apple-cider vinegar or melted butter. A swiper rubs the crab meat quickly over the bits of seasoning clinging to the shell. A sauce-maker combines ingredients, usually mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup, then drags the crab meat through this creation. There is also another option: None of the above. That is, just eating the crab meat as soon as it pops out of the shell.

At Eddie's market in Roland Park, cuts of beef beckon behind glass like a jeweler's gems. Behold the rib roast - upright and regal, luxuriously marbled. As for the tenderloin, the store displays only tiny, tantalizing pieces - the whole roast, the cut of kings, is ensconced somewhere behind the counter. Beef is an exclusive commodity indeed. But in a recession, a roast topping $20 a pound seems almost gauche - if not outright out of reach. According to a Consumer Reports poll, 76 percent of those surveyed vowed to cut back on holiday spending this season.

Some things should never make a comeback: the Yugo, Celebrity Boxing with Tonya Harding and Danny Bonaduce, the lime-green pantsuit Hillary Clinton wore on her first campaign swing through Iowa. I put Spam on the no-comeback list, too. Yet now comes word that Spam - the pink slab of pork and ham that comes in a can from Hormel, not the junk mail in your inbox - has become wildly popular again in this staggering economy. At a little over two bucks a can, it's a cheap way to eat something that looks like meat's illegimate cousin, but is, in fact, actual meat.

You may feel like the new Clementine in Hamilton is deja vu all over again in a good way if you enjoy the SoBo Cafe in Federal Hill. After all, Winston Blick, who is chef and the owner of Clementine along with his wife, Cristin Dadant, headed SoBo's kitchen for a decade. The restaurants look somewhat different but have much of the same feeling: a neighborhood gathering place where kids are welcome, but also where you'll get grown-up food. Clementine, so named to suggest both the Southern nature of the food and its French and Spanish influences, is stylishly done up with dark blue walls, wooden chairs and tables, a pressed tin ceiling, revolving ceiling fans, terrazzo flooring, and an attractive charcuterie case in back.

At Baltimore's largest kosher grocery store, meat manager Chaim Fishman has learned to order twice as much poultry from his chief supplier as he used to. He knows that however much he orders, the company will ship half. Three weeks after federal immigration agents raided the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, and detained almost half of its work force, Baltimore's kosher markets and caterers are finding ways to satisfy one of the nation's most dedicated clienteles. "I'm ordering much more because I know they're going to halve me," said Fishman, sitting in an office above the Seven Mile Market in Pikesville.

WASHINGTON - The government plans to close a loophole in meat inspection rules that led to the record recall of 143 million pounds of ground beef this year, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said yesterday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will bar meat plants from slaughtering any cow that can't stand and walk on its own at any point after it arrives at a plant, said Schafer. The rule would eliminate existing provisions that allow meat plants to send sick, or "downer," cows to slaughter if they fall ill after passing an initial inspection and subsequently pass a second inspection.

Finally, an answer for that age-old question: What part of the chicken does the nugget come from? Answer: maybe not from a chicken at all. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering a $1 million prize for laboratory-produced meat that tastes like fried chicken. Of course, there's a lot of fried stuff that tastes like chicken, but PETA is quite firm on the laboratory bit. They expect scientists to grow the meat in vitro - without killing any animals.

There are few more satisfying dishes than a souvlaki. Roughly translated from the Greek as "little swords," souvlaki are sold on the streets of Athens as hand-held snacks, according to the Greek cookbook The Olive and Caper by Susanna Hoffman. The cubes of meat - pork, lamb or beef - are marinated in lemon juice, oregano and olive oil, then cooked quickly on a grill. In Baltimore, souvlaki often appear as a sandwich, with the meat wrapped in toasted pita bread, mixed with sliced tomatoes and onions and lubricated with a generous portion of tzatziki, a sauce made with yogurt, garlic, cucumber and sometimes dill or mint.

Meat in the middle. Soul on the edge. Pork belly inspires thoughts like that for me. Maybe it's just the fat rushing to my brain. But when I introduce someone to pork belly - to soft meat surrounded by fat that is meltingly tender on the inside and crisp on the outside - what I usually hear (through the moans) is, "That is to die for." "Yes," I reply cheerfully. "And with that in your arteries, it won't be long." Pork belly, of all things, has become a food-world darling. Wait - isn't pork belly the stuff that's traded as a commodity on Wall Street?