So two days ago on the CBC, while I was washing floors for the billionth time, I was very interested in the story of what was happening in regards to fallout from Jamie Olivers showing of just how meat scrapes are processed off in large factories, and I was quite amused that the person defending it, was sure to just call it “Recovered Beef” and that it was very important that consumers understand that .
Now before I get to some thoughts on this, I would very much like to point out that according the Wikepedia Pink Slime page..
Pink slime is not permitted in Canada. In a statement, Health Canada stated that: “Ammonia is not permitted in Canada to be used in ground beef or meats during their production.” Such products also may not be imported, as Canadian law requires that imported meat products meet the same standards and requirements as domestic meat.
Canada does allow Finely Textured Meat to be “used in the preparation of ground meat” and “identified as ground meat” under certain conditions.
This really got me thinking about meaty bones, which has lead to this post.. when I have my lambs done, I don’t have him clean my bones, they are just cut clean and left that way, this means that the lamb/hoggot bones that I get back are very much like any meaty bone I would have from my own home self-butchering..
Lets look at some typical meaty bones, now I could have gotten a bit more off with time and a good knife but this is typical for the shoulder bones, they don’t come of near as clean for me as does other bones.
So would you want to “throw this much meat away” I know I would not, when I boil off a cooked chicken, I typically get at least a cup or two of chicken bits, same with duck and even more with turkey, when I do a leg of lamb, typically what is left on the bone is enough for a big! pot of soup to be made..
While I don’t want Pink Slime, and I do totally understand that meat scrapes in a big butcher shop should not be compared to the meat scraps that I get from my own small butcher but! this would be a amazing amount of wasted meat if it was just taken out of the system as a whole..
So what do I think should be done!, I think we should have a “use the bone” socal media blizt, and by this I mean if the bloggers and twitter folk can have this huge effect on getting the news out that “We don’t want Pink Slime” I say Awesome!
However, I don’t want to see those meaty bones going to waste, and I don’t believe that the meat left on a bone after the process is dog food (sorry Jamie, but If that is true, then I have been eating “dog” scrapes for my whole life), so I say.. lets start our own grassroots movement.
Lets all post about meaty bones and just how awesome they are! and give recipes to back our claims!
There are a couple choices on how to use those bones, you can make soups and stews in which case you do a slow simmer on the meaty bones, drawing out all the marrow goodness and cooking till the meat falls off the bone, and its excellent eating that way but its not the only choice you have.
You can also roast your meaty bones with a bit of broth or water till the meat is fork tender pull of, and it can be used for sandwhich’s, potted meats, or anywhere else you would typically use cooked meat for, after you have taken the meat off, don’t forget that those roasted bones will still make you excellent bone broth for later use!
Lamb Soup with Greens
- Half a cup to a cup of cooked diced roasted lamb bits off the bone with one Onion diced and two cloves of Garlic
- Diced and add two cups worth of mushrooms and one green pepper(or a handful of dried green pepper diced from the summer)
- eight med potato’s peeled and diced
- six cups of lamb stock Cook the above till done
- Then add in 3 cups whole milk, heat
- Add 2 tbp of corn starch with a bit of water to mix and then add to the soup to thick’n
- Once hot and thick, add two cups mixed greens just to wilt and serve with a sprinckle of cracked pepper and salt to taste.
So what say you? Do you use your meaty bones in your kitchen? What is your favorite recipe? If you do blog about this, please come back and link it up to the post, I look forward to hearing what you come up with?
Just another Day on the Farm 
No bone goes unused around here! Chicken bones get boiled for their broth to be used in many recipes including Chicken Noodle Soup and Rice. I used to ask my butcher for Pork bones that he was just discarding, then boil them up, remove the meat and make a ‘mean’ pork stew. All bones boiled, with about a tablespoon of vinegar, become the most flavourful broth….
Hats off to Bones!!
Not quite sure how to link our posts , so here it is http://grammomsblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/chicken-noodle-soup-for-the-soul/
Looks wonderful, and you did just great posting your link on the comment section, I love chicken noodle soup as well.
I just left a nice long comment, and it got lost when Word Press tried to get me to log in. ARGH!!!!!!!! This happens all the time now with Word Press blogs – and it’s INCREDIBLY frustrating!
But yes, I always used bones to make stock, and use the meat from them for different things – chicken/turkey soup, of course, and I recently blogged about making pork soup (http://myoldnewhouse.blogspot.ca/2012/03/independence-days-challenge-week-4.html) and a beef hash (http://myoldnewhouse.blogspot.ca/2012/03/i-admit-it-im-peasant-at-heart.html) all from “free” meat!
Hi K.B,
I’m sorry about losing the long post, but I so hear you on this issue, I have problems with wordpess at times but blogger will only even let me post half the time, the only advice I can give is to do the same as me, if I write one or two line replies I will risk it, but if I write out a long post, I will right click and copy what I have written and then try sending, the one time I lost the same try four times on doomer, but because I had saved my reply, I was able to go back a couple times though the day till it finally let me post it.. Often have to do that with Callies site as well.
But Thank you for taking the time to write again! and for the links!
No one gives away bones for free around here anymore. I buy”soup bones” sometimes from one of the big grocery stores. For some reason, from time to time, they are meaty bones rather than the totally bare marrow bones. About $3 of these bones have, several times, fed 3 of us very nicely in stew :-). I always make broth with bones and use it where ever I can in soup and risotto etc. I never have enough to do everything I would like and sometimes resort to buying chicken carcasses from the free range butcher.
While I certainly think they should have a reduced cost, I don’t think that meaty bones should be given away, they should have a good reasonable priced value.. Its interesting at the local grocery stores, the “soup bones” have been cleaned and are white with marrow, but at the new Asian supermarket, the soup bones (of which you can get different kinds and choices) are all meaty bones and the sad thing is that the asian market is charging you less for the meaty bones then the regular meat departments are for the bare bones..
The last time I was at the asian store, I got meaty pork neck bones, Meaty Beef Neck Bones, a lovely Ox tail, 2 Pork Hocks, and 2 Cut up Pork feet, and it didn’t even cost me 15 for all of it, each package made at least 2 dishes of at least 6 to 8 servings per dish.bringing my meat costs to about 6 cents per plate or bowlful..
I think using every last bit is a valid practice, however, cleaning it with ammonia suggests to me that something has gone wrong in that process – that’s my pink slime complaint. We have frequently made our own stocks here at home and there is something deeply satisfying about using up every bit and not relying on the market version that has been dehydrated and loaded with salt.
Hi Little Sis,
I agree totally, I don’t want pink slime either but I don’t understand why they need to take that “bit” off the bone, and make it into something that is ukk when they could instead create a market for meaty bones, instead of hamburger, reteach folks how to use Meaty Bones, and get rid of the need to make the pink slime in the first place, make the hamburger from trimming the way it should be made and keep the meaty bits on the bone for other uses.
So many of our nutrition problems are rooted in lost domestic knowledge. I appreciate your post and am encouraged to see so many other folks trying to re-claim all the babies that got thrown out with the bath water over the last century or so.
I always use the bones to make soup, such a silly waste not to! If I can’t get to it in a reasonable amount of time they go into the freezer until I can. I actually prefer pork bones, and using a nice meaty one from a cured ham is divine. Next time I do it I shall make a post! 🙂
What a great post.I didn’t see the Jamie Olivers story, but the story of pink slim kept crossing my pc news. To tell you the truth I was one of the people saying , stop pink slim, maybe it was calling it slim, instead of meet on bones. We get a side of beef and always ask for the bones. funny if you don’t ask they keep them to sell. 🙂