The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain [59]
One of the best online resources for locating healthy, naturally produced, grass-fed meats is my friend and colleague Jo Robinson’s Eatwild Web site: www.eatwild.com. Jo’s Web site is an incredible cornucopia of information that will help you locate a reliable producer of grass-fed, natural meat in your local region. Eatwild’s Directory of Farms lists more than 1,300 pasture-based farms, with more farms being added regularly. It is the most comprehensive source for grass-fed meat in the United States and Canada. For your convenience, Jo provides customers with contact information of suppliers who will ship their products to you.
Wild Game Meat—at a Gourmet Store Near You
In the United States, it’s illegal to harvest wild game meat for commercial use. This means that the game meat you can buy from specialty suppliers (some are listed below) didn’t come from the wild, but from a ranch or a farm—where these animals graze freely in large fenced or open areas. Most game animals are raised in free-range conditions. Like its wild counterpart, this game meat is quite low in fat and maintains a healthful balance of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids.
You can find buffalo and sometimes rabbit meat in many supermarkets—especially the upscale or health-oriented ones—and more exotic fare in specialty meat and butcher shops. Your local butcher may be able to order game meat as well, but be prepared—it isn’t cheap. If you are a hunter (or if you know someone who is, who would be willing to help out), you can save a lot of money by acquiring wild meat yourself.
Like all very lean meat, game meat is a bit tricky to cook. It’s also easy to ruin so that it loses its texture and appeal.
It also helps to rub the meat thoroughly with olive oil before cooking and keep basting it as it cooks. If you grill game meat, keep it on the rare side, baste it often with olive oil or marinades, and it will be tender.
The secret to making game tender—and not rubbery or leathery—is to cook it very slowly over low heat in a covered dish with a bit of water
If you’ve never tasted game meat, you may be in for a big surprise. Some game meats, like buffalo and elk, taste a lot like lean beef, but with a sweeter, richer flavor. Others, like antelope or sage hen, can have a distinctively pungent flavor—the telltale “gamey” taste. This gamey flavor is actually a good sign; it results from the increased levels of omega 3 fats in the meat, plus various wild plants in the animal’s diet. It also indicates that the game meat you’re eating is healthy, with a good balance of omega 6 and omega 3 fats. If you’re not used to game meat’s distinctive flavors—or if you never want to get used to it—overnight marinating can do wonders.
Here are some mail-order suppliers that specialize in the sale of game meat:
Game Sales International
P.O. Box 7719
Loveland, CO 80537
Phone: (800) 729-2090
Fax: (970) 669-9041
www.gamesalesintl.com
Exotic Meat Market
130 Walnut Avenue, Unit A-18
Perris, CA 92571
Phone: (951) 345-4623
http://exoticmeatmarket.com
Hills Foods Ltd.
Unit 130 Glacier Street
Coquitlam, British Columbia
Canada V3K 5Z6
Phone: (604) 472-1500
www.hillsfoods.com
Grande Natural Meat
P.O. Box 10
Del Norte, Colorado 81132
Phone: (888) 338-4581
www.elkusa.com
Mount Royal Game Meat
3902 N. Main
Houston, TX 77009
Phone: (800) 730-3337
www.mountroyal.com
Polarica (West Coast)
105 Quint Street
San Francisco, CA 94124
Phone: (800) 426-3872
www.polarica.com
Broken Arrow Ranch
3296 Junction Highway
Ingram, TX 78025
Phone: (800) 962-4263
www.brokenarrowranch.com
Exotic Meats USA
1330 Capita Blvd.
Reno, NV 89502
Phone: (800) 444-5687
www.exoticmeatsandmore.com
Southern Game Meat (Kangaroo)
Unit 1/5 Stanton Road
Seven Hills
NSW 2147 Australia
Phone: 61-2-8825-8350
www.sgm.com.au
Fish and Seafood
Nutritionally speaking, fish and seafood are a lot like humanity’s original staple food—lean game meat. They’re high in protein, low in total fat, and typically