Humans eat meat because, unlike plants, we cannot synthesize some kinds of amino acids and must ingest them. Our country’s recent appetite for large portions of cheap protein has driven the beef industry (not small sustainable farmers) to find ways to repurpose connective tissue, fatty toss-offs and  inedible scrap traditionally used for pet food and cooking oil.  Remarkably, this butcher’s waste is turned into 60-pound frozen blocks of additive filler called Boneless Lean Beef Trim (BLBT).  Banned in the UK for human consumption, this questionable product extender is found in low-end beef patties at ball parks and in school lunches across America but has somehow managed to avoid being identified as an ingredient.  

Beef Products International in South Dakota achieves this magic via mechanical separation in a centrifuge resulting in a mash that is passed  through a tube in the presence of ammonium hydroxide, raising the pH and (usually) killing off potentially high levels of harmful bacteria.  The notable point here is NOT the use of ammonium hydroxide (a common leavening and pH control agent in baked goods, caramel and condiments) but the dangerous and potentially lethal levels of Salmonella and E. coli  in the industrial feedlot product being processed.  One need not look far to discover the recent history of recalls and contamination events.

70% of  US ground beef sold contains  BLBT (affectionately called “pink slime”).  15% of a hamburger may be comprised of the stuff without acknowledgement of its presence.  While McDonalds, Taco Bell and Burger King have discontinued its use, The US Department of Agriculture recently signed up for 7 million more pounds for the school lunch program.  

The Food Insight website notes : “Ammonium hydroxide can be used as an antimicrobial to control pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, which may be present in beef. In the treatment, naturally occurring levels of ammonium hydroxide in beef are increased slightly to create a pH that eliminates harmful bacteria.” 

The fact they don’t tell you is that the bacterial counts in the acidic intestinal tracts of grain-fed feedlot beef are 315 times higher than in grass-fed pastured animals with more alkaline (high pH) internal conditions. Starch-based diets enable the animals to fatten quickly in confined environment absent of their natural forage but reduce the health of the animal and create meat that is amazingly unhealthy for us.  The absence of plant roughage from their feedlot diet decreases saliva production that contains an valuable acid-buffering enzyme.  The result is acidosis, ulcerated stomach walls and liver abcesses.  Some feedlots utilize “by-product feedstuffs” that may include stale gummy bears, french fries, rotten potatos, pasta and the ground & cooked floor scrapings of poultry confinement growing operations (Univ. of Wisconsin study). Hungry yet ??

A University of California – Chico study comparing the intestinal flora of grass-fed vs. grain-fed animals noted that the bacteria present in the feedlot beef is much more likely to survive the acidic conditions of our own stomachs to persist and bloom. We evolved gastric juices to kill these things present in carrion and spoiled meat eaten by our distant ancestors.  Much of the repurposed trim used to make the pink blocks of BLBT comes from the outside of the animal and the perimeter of the abdominal cavity and would have a high likelihood of contact with this source of contamination.

Manure is a blessing when spread out over the land but too much of it in one place becomes a problem. Feedlots are filthy places where animals are continually standing in manure with elevated bacteria counts often developing foot problems that need treatment with antibiotics.  In dry conditions they are dusty places with high level of fecal particulate matter in the air.  This dangerous manure gets in lungs, on hands and cutting tools and into the foodstream given the volume and scale of the major processing plants killing more than 100 animals per hour.

In sharp contrast, the stomachs of grass-fed animals have a much higher pH level and vastly lower bacterial counts. Grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fats and calories, 3-4 times higher in good Omega-3 fatty acids, 5-8 times lower in bad Omega-6′s, with buttery yellow fat high in B-vitamins, Vitamin E and beneficial CLA (conjugated lineolic acid). 

 The animals are grown at a density matched to the carrying capacity of the land that supports them. Their manure enhances the organic capital in the soil beneath their feet and they trample the grass they don’t eat down into their hoofprints increasing humus production and water-holding capacity. If they are grazed in rotational fashion, the rested paddocks regrow incredible high-value forage in 30 days.

When the right animals with strong genetic potential to finish well on grass are grazed in this fashion for a long enough time to reach 1100 pound slaughter weight you can produce truly remarkable grass-fed & dry-aged beef.  Rhode Island producers of quality grass-fed beef include Watson Farm, (www.historicnewengland.org), Windmist Farm (www.windmistfarm.com) and Beaverhead Farm (401-932-8698) on Jamestown, Aquidneck Farms www.aquidneckfarms.com) in Portsmouth, Treaty Rock Farm (www.treatyrockfarm.com) in Little Compton and New England Grass Fed (www.newenglandgrassfed.com) – contract grazers based in South Kingstown.

Respecting the Protein, PMB

The overnight Hong Kong market was trading hotter than a hoecake on Grandma’s griddle.  Mike Reppucci realized that the little baby sleeping in the next room was far more secure than the Brazilian reals he had leveraged with gold and hedged with oil futures.  During the quiet hours spent guarding his client’s portfolio against one of those nasty seven-digit swings, the Brown graduate decided to step off the corporate treadmill and pour his efforts into a different kind of liquid asset.  He would start making whiskey.  The good stuff.  Right here in southern Rhode Island.  For the first time since Prohibition.  Heck, the guys in Newport were producing rum based on a free-booting pirate.  Drawing courage from a band of visionary men who led our forefathers out of tyranny, Mike founded Sons of Liberty Spirits Company in 2009 and started the Uprising.

Rhode Island’s collective appetite for quality local produce is a strong and growing bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy.  If you can differentiate from your mass-marketed competition you can find yourself, in the words of retired Ben & Jerry’s president Chuck Lacy, “at the head of the right parade”.  Rhody wool and honey command premium prices from discerning buyers.  Why not something else to take the chill off a winter evening ??  Mike heeded the drumbeat at quick-step.  Considerably uptown from some no-account sour corn mash tasting like NASCAR country and smelling like a campfire, Mike’s signature hooch would resemble uisge beatha from the Scots Gaelic.  Made from a sweet brewed barley water, the proper dram would be reminiscent of the great single-malts enjoyed in London pubs (usually) after economics class.  The War of Northern Aggression rages on.

Applying the same thorough approach that guided him to worthwhile investments, Mike began learning all he could about the “water of life”.  Sons of Liberty would specialize in seasonal small-batch bottlings popular among so many of the micro-brews identified with local food movements.  Determined to do this thing right, Mike retained the services of Dave Pickerell, retired master distiller from Maker’s Mark in Kentucky, who taught him the mantra “All whiskey starts as beer”.  Sprouted barley is roasted to accentuate the flavors and arrest the production of maltose sugars converted from starch.  Gently cooked with water and yeast, the mash bubbles away for a few days until the alcohol level becomes toxic to the living culture therein.  The brew is then boiled off in a process called fractional distillation.  Vapors containing the “spirit” or essence are alternately evaporated and condensed at different levels of the still becoming increasingly purified along the way.  The small-batch method enables the distiller to isolate the desirable “heart” of the run from the the thin, apple-flavored “heads” and the oily, astringent “tails” that are often included in the output of bigger commercial operations.

Dave consulted on the start-up and oversaw construction of a fifteen-foot tall copper pot still.  They converted an old empty manufacturing space in the Peacedale Mill Complex, installing stainless steel tanks, sanitation lines and a deionizing water filtration

system.  With a large amount of seed capital and family support, the place resembles a chemistry lab more than a moonshiner’s cabin.  Federal distiller’s license and permits from the state liquor control board took more than a year to acquire.  Finally, in September 2011, they were deemed good to go.

There was just one problem.  No product.  Whiskey drinkers can be a particular lot, set in their ways with a favorite brand, favorite shape of ice cube and favorite pair of socks to enjoy it with.  They revere barrel-aged spirits and old family recipes.  Mike and his crew could not afford to wait 8 years to cash their first check.  Rather than attempt to make a new company look old, they chose to embrace the truth.  They would build the best young oak-infused whiskey from a premium stout beer and sell it to a younger demographic with a bottle and label that speaks to a modern industrial techno-aesthetic.  Thus was born The Uprising.

The best floor-malted English barley available is mixed with dark roasted barley to give Sons of Liberty’s first release grain-forward flavor with distinctive chocolate and coffee notes on the back end.  Lightly touched by wood, the elixir spends a month resting on convection-toasted Minnesota oak staves before bottling.  Subsequent batches will be aged in charred oak barrels near the ocean to explore the effects of moist salt air, the coastal “terroir”, on the golden drop.  Ask Mike to set one aside for you.

The pot of Bolivian was mostly gone.  Stephanie resembled a whirling dervish cleaning the windows of the coffee shop for the second time this morning.  Someone had been assigned to watch her but apparently that didn’t happen.  Husband Mark Additon, artisanal coffee roaster savant, was plying his dark art, a modern-day Merlin hunched over a yellow enameled steel Ambex roaster muttering backwards incantations.  Checking time and temperature, he was inspecting the beans with a jeweler’s loupe and clearly did not intend to be disturbed.

And so it goes on another happy morning at Updike’s Newtowne Coffee Roasters, a cheery spot to linger over a truly great cup of joe on Post Road in North Kingstown.  The couple specializes in roasting and blending single-origin coffees grown in accordance with best environmental practices approved by Rainforest Alliance and purchased through recognized Fair Trade channels.  This is an important distinction for consumers interested in responsibly acquiring a product that hails from remote locations in third-world countries specializing in deforestation and human atrocity.

Small-batch roasters draw their passion from the same well as the vintner.  Coffee is a complex beast, containing over 600 organic compounds, only about 1/3 of which have been identified.  The coffee-geek tribe teases taste and body out of a bewildering array of African, Southeast Asian and Latin American beans.  Mark manually monitors the roast, makes small adjustments effectively and achieves nuance unavailable to large computerized commercial roasters.

The honest folks at Updike’s sell you coffee made from 100% single-origin arabica beans.  Everything in the bag comes from that place.  You might be surprised to learn that a premium national brand rhyming with “Cars and Trucks” legally sells estate labeled coffee that is only 10% comprised of the named origin bean.  The balance is made up with far cheaper robusto beans delivering high caffeine along with their burnt flavor.  You decide which is better.

Mark’s light roasts feature fruity and floral notes of the more delicate beans and higher caffeine levels than their darker siblings.  His signature Dahlia Dark Roast combines buttery Colombian smoothness with the spicy, rustic rough edges of Papua New Guinea Kimel “A”, a bad boy that you can’t bring home to Mom.  The Rwanda Coopac Fair Trade is acidic and lemony with woody, earthy undertones arising from the volcanic mountain soil.  You’ll find Honduran Conquistador with rich chocolate tones and Guatemalan Finca La Espina packing robust aroma and satisfying espresso-like taste.  Ask for the El Salvador Santa Rita peaberry, a baby bean loaded with nutty caramel flavor.  For your after-dinner cup, consider My Dad’s Decaf, Swiss water-processed rather than chemical processed and leached through gooey petroleum products.

Stephanie encourages people to “know your roaster” and enjoy coffee at its peak quality.  The incredible flavor derives from volatile oils that disappear like the last days of summer soon after the beans are fractured.  The realities of scale and distribution require the national brands to sell you coffee that is six months to a year old (usually in a 12 oz. package that we think of as a pound).  For best results, grind your coffee just before brewing or keep a pound on hand and use it within two weeks.  You don’t need to freeze it.  If the good stuff sounds a little expensive, consider the opportunity cost of a daily stop at “Cars and Trucks” and your full pound of Bali Blue Moon looks like a bargain.