Precious Bodily Fluids
August 17, 2013 11:17 PM   Subscribe

Call me a cheater vegetarian. I love vegetables and grains, and I love the juice and rendered fat from meat. The meat flesh, eh, I can live without. Most of the meat flesh I cook I feed to my cats and crows. Got recipes? Got tips for extraction of meat flavors knowing that the meat may be discarded?
posted by maggieb to Food & Drink (12 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sounds like you might want to make trotter gear and just leave the meaty bits out.
posted by mumkin at 11:31 PM on August 17, 2013


If you can be bothered with the many hours of simmering, skimming and reducing, then sauce demi glace is one of the most refined essences of tasy meat flavour that there is.

Its main meaty component is marrow bones, and the other solids that go in are always discarded anyway, so there'd be no extra waste from not eating flesh.

If you do go to the trouble, it's worth making a big batch (having said that, you can't really make it in tiny batches) and freezing it in small portions - just a couple of ice-cube sized lumps can transform a sauce or soup into a meaty delight.
posted by protorp at 11:58 PM on August 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Extraction of meat flavors: Beef tea?

Take the leanest piece of bottom round you can find, and dice it fine. Heat a double boiler until the water is simmering, then put the meat and any juices into the top part. Cover and cook for several hours. I've never bothered stirring. After a while, you'll find that you've got some sad-looking beef (which should be strained out and discarded) and a pot of rich, intensely flavored beef tea. It's delicious as is, but could also be reduced and used to add beefiness to anything, I think. Though I've not tried it, I'd imagine that you could also do this with other lean meats.

If you're into bacon fat (and, frankly, who isn't into bacon fat?) call around and see if any of your supermarkets sell bacon ends. I've been lucky enough to find a supermarket that slice their own deli bacon, and they end up with a few inches near the end that's too small for them to conveniently use in their slicer, and they'll sell it to me very cheaply. This bit is almost always either significantly fattier or significantly meatier than standard bacon, and can be had at about half the cost. (If you specify a fatty bit, they'll probably give you a few to choose from--chose the one with the most white.) Take it home, line a deep-rimmed baking tray with foil, and cut the bacon into chunks. Bake it at about 300 until the bacon looks cooked/has gone crispy, which can take a good hour. There will be a substantial amount of fat on the foil, which you can then pour into a jar or whatever for later use. For meat-eaters reading this, there will also be really delicious, crunchy bits of bacon crackling. Keep them in the fridge and dole out in tiny quantities; I'm not responsible for your incipient heart attack.

Also, call around and see if any supermarkets or butchers in your area carry schmaltz, which is delicious, delicious rendered chicken fat. I find that it retains a much meatier and more delicious taste than lard, which is weirdly bland to me.
posted by MeghanC at 12:11 AM on August 18, 2013 [4 favorites]


You should be able to get various fatty trimmings cheap at a butcher counter for rendering into fat to cook with. I'm reminded of the tofu marinated in beef fat from Top Chef.

Have you tried seollongtang? It's a Korean soup made from bones that are simmered for 24 hours or longer, until the bones literally break down and turn the broth a milky white. It's rich and creamy.

You could try making posole with pig feet and/or neck bones, and discarding them when the broth is to your liking.

Duck fat is excellent, but if you're not going to eat the duck, it's easier and probably cheaper to just buy the duck fat on its own.

Confit vegetables in meat fat are nice. Try onions, garlic, leeks, tomatoes.
posted by WasabiFlux at 12:22 AM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


You could check with local butchers to see if they have bones around to make stock etc. Mine gives them to me for free.
posted by transient at 5:35 AM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Braise lamb in a very good (well, not "I cellared this for 6 years" good, but at the very least a Samuel Smith Oatmeal stout or something like that, no Guiness) very dark beer at a low temp for hours. Holy shit, the dark brown and flavorful liquid you will be left with. This is one of those simple ideas that's so good I made it and then immediately made it again the next week because it's so good I couldn't get enough.

You can throw carrot/thyme/onion in there too, but you honestly will get shockingly good results from just lamb + dark beer.
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:37 AM on August 18, 2013


A big investment but if meat essence (and other essences) is what you crave, it may be worth it.
Centrifuge is optional, but one would come in handy for other extractions. Sous Vide Rare Beef Jus
posted by snaparapans at 8:55 AM on August 18, 2013


Cooking with oil? Try lard instead.
posted by yohko at 8:58 AM on August 18, 2013


I love red beans and rice, and while I've had some pretty decent vegetarian and vegan versions, they go for spice flavor rather than savory umame and/or any hint of smokiness. Many if not most bean stews benefit from A) using Chicken stock for some or all of the liquid in there and B) Ham hocks. What you get labelled as a ham hock can vary from just the knee of the pig (which is all you need for stewing) to the ham shank, which is the knee plus the thigh-- either way it's smoked. The shank is all kinds of meaty, but the hock has a very small amount of meat inside, and it requires a little surgery to get it out. Typically you throw 2 (3 if small) hocks into your stew. The small amount of meat in there, maybe an ounce/hock at most, is fantastic cured pork, but it may not be worth the effort for your animals.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:20 AM on August 18, 2013


Bones. Your butcher will be able to give beef bones, and they'll cut them in half for you. Chuck the bone halves into soups, stews, anything in a slow cooker.
posted by colin_l at 3:47 PM on August 18, 2013


My used to be vegetarian mothers only weakness was bacon. She'd make me save fat from when I cooked bacon and use it to fry things in. Her favourite thing to fry in it was a piece of bread until crispy on just one side, but you could just as easily fry veggies etc in it, I do that when making pasta sauces. You could also look at using lard (basically rendered fat) to fry things in, this is reasonably easy to buy, try a Mexican grocery if you can't find it in your local supermarket. You can also render out your own pretty easily if you can't find any available.

Also I'd suggest adding chicken stock to veggie dishes to get that meaty umami flavour, there are some pretty good premade ones so you won't be throwing out meat. .

Potatoes roasted in goose fat is to die for, though again you may have to render your own.

Ham bones or bacon ends to make pea and ham soup (or any soup really) and then throw out the bones.

Probably not the meaty flavours you are going for but suet makes the most amazing pastry.
posted by wwax at 5:56 PM on August 18, 2013


Smoked turkey necks and wings are an awesome southern thing. Same with salt pork. Put them in a pot of collards, beans, stews, etc. The pieces of meat can then be removed and handed off to animal buddies.
posted by fontophilic at 6:41 AM on August 20, 2013


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