Starting Keto? Meet the Meats!

The starring food in the Keto * Low-Carb way of life has been a staple food of the human diet like since FOREVER. When humans were hunter-gatherers, they hunted. And meat, poultry & fish are the perfect low-carb foods, because nearly all of them (except scallops and the like) are zero-carb foods. See, we low-carbers DO SO have ‘free foods,’ and they are not lettuce.

You can eat the following types of meat-poultry-fish: beef, bison, venison, pork, lamb, mutton, veal, chicken, duck, goose, turkey, pheasant, guinea fowl, Cornish game hen, cod, salmon, tuna, tilapia, crab, lobster, shrimp, trout, perch…. any kind of meat from an animal, bird or fish.

You can eat any cuts of meat— steaks, chops, roasts, ground meat, chicken legs, wings or thighs, ribs, neckbones, or any other cut of meat you can get from your local farmer, fisherman or grocery store. 

FAKE MEATS, as manufactured for the vegetarian population, do not count as meats because they contain carbs. They may also be heavily processed foods. The carbs in fake meat count as carbs. Some fake meats probably should not be eaten by any ketonian. 

PROCESSED MEATS are not a major part of our eating plan. Lunchmeats of various sorts may have carb-containing fillers and even sugar added. We do not eat that stuff. Read the labels on purchased meatballs and meatloaf— these foods usually have carb-containing additives we should not have. Bacon and ham, however, though processed, are generally considered a permissible food. Meat in little cans, often found next to the canned tuna in the store, may have carbs— even budget brands of canned tuna may have a carb or two, because they add a bit of ‘vegetable broth’ or even ‘modified food starch.’ Boycott those foods wherever possible. If you are very low-income, and you get given some of these canned meats, or Spam, the carbs are low enough that you can eat them, but it is better to stick to the zero-carb meats from the meat department when you can. (The advantage of the canned meats and Spam is that they don’t need refrigeration or, in many cases, cooking. Compare the labels when you buy to get the lowest carbs you can get, though.)

KOSHER and HALAL MEATS are fully permitted on Keto * Low-Carb. It’s not a dietary sin to keep kosher!  If you are Jewish but haven’t been religious before, it is perfectly ‘kosher’ to start keeping kosher when doing Keto * Low-Carb. If it makes you more aware of what kinds of things you are putting in your body, that’s a good thing. However, if you are not even Jewish or Muslim, and are considering going kosher just because you know other people from your church who are doing it, consider whether you can actually obtain the kosher foods you need. If there is a pastured-pork producer living in your county, and you have always loved pork, maybe you need to reconsider the kosher thing.

AFRAID OF SCARY-UNHEALTHY MEAT?

Read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. This author reviews a lot of scientific research on diet, and shows how the low-fat theory got going in spite of the lack of evidence. You may find that a lot of what you have been told about meat is not true.

If you have been vegetarian, especially if you are in poor health as a result, read Ketotarian by Dr. Will Cole. It is full of meat-free Keto * Low-Carb recipes, along with a few fish recipes (for pescatarians.) 

MY KETO-RELATED TWITTER:

https://twitter.com/nissaamaskatoj

If you are a Twitter user, please consider following me on Twitter. I follow (most) back.

Adventures in Meat Freezing

Recently I made a foraging expedition to Gary’s Market in Stephenson, upper Michigan, and bought a family pack of boneless pork chops, two rib eye steaks, and a package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. So I had to get busy packaging them for the freezer.

I have two freezers, really. The one on the top of my fridge, and an upright freezer on the back porch. Now, any book on food preservation will tell you that the freezer on/in your fridge is not great for food storage. It’s best to have a dedicated freezer for that. I’ve heard that upright ones are easier to use than chest freezers. If you are low-income like me, the money to buy a freezer may worry you. But you may be able to save by buying in bulk or direct from a farmer if you only have a freezer to put your meat in.

I do sometimes use the freezer compartment in the fridge to store some meat and veggies I am actively eating. But I worried about the temps— some ice cubes melted and then refroze in there (just when I needed them for a smoothie.) I got a pair of freezer/fridge digital thermometers which not only tell the current temp, but the high and low temp. I put one in each freezer. The freezer compartment is temperamental, in part because I often accidentally pull it open when closing the fridge door. 

The thermometers came in pairs and I didn’t need four, so for my fridge I put in one of the thermometers I use in my egg incubator (I make my own baby poultry at home.) I find that when I set the fridge to the cooler temp I prefer, it makes an unholy racket from time to time, usually at 3 am, and so I fear that my fridge will need replacement soon.

FREEZER PACKAGING

There are many ways to pack food for the freezer. I use canning jars to freeze single portions of soups/stews/curries. For meat, I use plastic freezer bags. I get gallon and quart freezer bags at the dollar stores, and pint freezer bags, which are harder to find, at Gary’s Market. 

I put a single portion of meat into the smallest bag it will fit in, and put several bags of the same type of item (pork chops, beef steaks, bison meat patties) into a bigger bag, often a gallon bag. I write the DATE and type of food on every bag. ALWAYS DATE YOUR FROZEN FOOD! Frozen food doesn’t last forever and you don’t want to eat something you should have thrown away in 2004.

USING FROZEN MEAT

Be sure and regularly USE your frozen meat. Every evening at bedtime take out the amount of meat you will be using the next day, and put it in the fridge. You might put a bit of vinaigrette dressing on some of the meat as a marinade. I use the vinaigrette recipes from Dana Carpender’s 500 Low-Carb Recipes (2002.) I’ve been grilling my meat most days on my George Foreman grill, using the Baking Pan for the bottom plate so I won’t lose any of the healthy fat I pay good money for.

BUYING MEAT IN BULK?

The next move for me is to buy some meat direct from a farmer, in whatever quantity I have to buy. I’d want some beef— grass-fed if I can get it. I also might get one of my lambs butchered if I can find out where to go with it. (I think my Serbian-American friends who have butchered for me before might be getting too old for it, and plus they don’t cut it up enough or package it well. Though they DID do it for free when they did it, and they have also been known to give me free frozen venison or pork.)

I never used to be a big meat-eater before I went low-carb— I was too busy being addicted to carbs to learn to cook meat— but I’ve found I really enjoy some of the meat I cook— even more than I enjoy Rice-a-Roni, and I used to eat that stuff all the time. 

Using a George Foreman grill on Keto * Low-Carb

Let’s face it: the George Foreman table-top grill is pushing a dietary approach that is the opposite of ours: reduce fat, reduce fat, reduce fat, and ignore the harm done by carbs. But I love my George Foreman grill and use it often— to make low-carb, high-fat food!

MY GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL

There are different models of George Foreman grill. Mine is called ‘The Next Grilleration G5’ and has removable grilling plates. It also has a lever so you can change the position of the grill from tilted (so the fat drains off) to level (to keep the healthy fat you paid money for.)

It has a top plate called the Steak Plate and a bottom plate called the Grilling Plate. But you can also use a different plate called the Baking Pan to cook steaks, chops and the like without draining off the fat. Keep the Plate Position Lock Lever in the back position. 

I DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO COOK MEAT

I could do a lot of cooking things— from making cookies to baking bread— but I never learned to cook steaks or chops or any kind of meat before I got my George Foreman grill. The grill’s instructions has a list of the kinds of meat, poultry, fish and other foods it can cook, the temperature (high, medium, low), and the number of minutes to cook. I always set the timer for this, so I don’t under- or overcook.  The grill cooks on both sides at the same time, so it cooks more quickly. The food is tasty, as well. 

I also use the instruction booklet when I am cooking steaks or chops in a frying pan— I use the time indicated as the time to cook on each side. 

ADDING FAT

When you are using the Baking Pan for the bottom plate, you can use avocado oil or other healthy oil on the plate to keep food from sticking and to add fat. Also you can use a fat-containing sauce or add a bit of sour cream to the finished food. 

RIBEYE STEAKS

I got some decent ribeye steaks and I marinaded it in a plastic bag with low-carb vinaigrette dressing (from 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.) I cooked them on the grill, set to High, with the Baking Pan and the Plate Position Lock Lever  in the back position. I used EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil) on the grill to prevent sticking and add fat. It turned out really tasty.  I intend to cook some boneless pork chops in the same way (except the booklet recommends the Medium setting and a shorter cooking time.)

BACON

I like my bacon crisp. Not quite as crisp as my mom does, who tends to like hers a bit cremated, but still…. Bacon cooked in a pan in its own fat isn’t quick to get crisp, so I use the grill with the Grilling Plate and with the Plate Position Lock Lever to the front position and a clean drip tray in place. 

After cooking the bacon, I pour the hot or warm fat through a coffee filter into a canning jar and save the fat for various cooking uses. I’ve even made mayonnaise with bacon fat!

GRILLED ONIONS

A yellow or white onion of 2.5 inch diameter is 10 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber, so plan your portions accordingly. I slice mine about 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle it with Himalayan pink salt and/or Spike or Vegesal, Use the Baking Plate and the Plate Position Lock Lever set to the back position, and use EVOO or other healthy fat on the plate. Cook for the recommended time of 2-3 minutes on High, or go as much as 4 minutes. I used to be a big eater of onion rings, mainly because of the high carb batter, but I like these plain grilled onions very well. 

CHICKEN THIGHS

I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, and actually cooked it 2 minutes beyond the 7 minutes recommended, and it still was a bit under-done. I ate it with a tablespoon of low-carb Hoisin Sauce (recipe from 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.) Heavenly, and the bone went in the freezer bag for chicken bones, to become part of some chicken bone broth some day. 

I did some searching online about cooking bone-in chicken, and the only useful suggestion I read was to beat the chicken thigh down a bit with a meat mallet. I don’t own a meat mallet, but will cover a heavy aluminum ice crusher in a plastic bag and smash the chicken with that next time.

CLEAN UP

The grill needs to be unplugged and cool down before you remove the removable plates for washing. Sadly, these plates have to be washed by hand. I use my biggest dishwashing pan and fill it with soapy water. I use the gentle sponge that came with the grill— never use scouring pads on the non-stick finish. I understand, from doing some research, that the dishwasher-safe plates meant for a newer model also fit my current grill. When I get a working dishwasher in the house, the new plates are a planned purchase.

The base of the grill must never be immersed in water. Wipe it with a soft cloth or sponge, and dry with a dry cloth. 

If you hate kitchen clean-up as much as I do, get in the habit of cleaning your grill promptly instead of letting it sit there dirty, getting harder to clean. 

Do you have a George Foreman or similar indoor grill? Have you used it for Keto * Low-Carb cooking yet? What have you cooked on it so far? 

How Raising Grains Harms 'The Planet'

Ever had vegetarians, vegans and other space aliens bug you about eating more grains? Sometimes they base it on bad diet-and-health information, but more and more lately they whinge about ‘the planet.’

But what’s really good for the land? Grain and soybean farmers tear up their fields every spring for spring plowing. This allows the topsoil to wash away in some circumstances.

Most farmers use loads of chemical fertilizers on grain crops. They may know no other way, or they may not be able to get farm loans if they are not good fertilizer users. This chemical bath also runs off and ends up in the water supply.

Some farmers have the wealth to ‘go organic’ and get organic certification. They dump animal manure on their fields, which also does no good things to the water supply. Others plant ‘cover crops’ and plow them in, leading to more land damage and potential topsoil loss.

Pesticides and herbicides are so usual that farmers can buy genetically engineered corn and soybean seed which can take bigger doses of herbicides. These also can run off the fields and into the water supply.

But look at the animal grazers— both the ‘grass-based’ ones that finish their animals on grass, and the ones who use grain fattening. Even the grain-fed animals gain most of their weight during their months on pasture. And grass-finished meat is shown scientifically to be nutritionally superior to humans, as well as avoiding that nasty grain-growing habit.

Rotational grazing is most often practiced, so the animals are always getting fresh grass at the peak nutrient level for grazing. Grazing land, no matter what grazing method is used, is far more rarely plowed up and replanted, and fewer chemicals are used.

In addition, much of the land used commercially for livestock grazing is not suitable for plowing down and grain planting. It’s too hilly or too dry or too wet in places. Livestock grazing produces much human food from land which could not produce grains or other vegetarian food. 

Livestock grazing is more gentle on the earth, and more natural. Long before humans herded domestic livestock in North America, vast herds of buffalo fed off the land, providing meat to American Indian hunters and their families.

Grain and soybean consumption are the practices which hurt ‘the planet.’ They also hurt humans by replacing their natural diet, rich in meat, with a cheap high-carb substitute which is making so many fat, diabetic, and unhealthy.

Keto-foraging at a rural grocery store

Being keto in a rural area has its difficulties. Low-carb specialty products don't really appear at the rural grocery store--- not enough demand.

Gary's Quality Foods of Stephenson, MI is a cut above. In season they have a little produce from local farms. They were known for their meat department, though now the exciting meats are at the related Gary's market in Wallace, MI.

Gary's in Stephenson is now the sole grocery in town. Their rival went out of business years ago. But now two dollar stores have opened in town, both with a lot of processed food, crappy carbage, and other not-really-food junk.

Gary's only has a small fresh veggie section, but it does carry fresh veggies (and fruit, which is a matter of indifference to me.) It doesn't have the more exotic ingredients, but it does have the basics. Even some KETO basics. And sometimes they surprise me--- they regularly carry fresh ginger root, for example.

Cauliflower, that keto mainstay, is not always a given in their fresh produce department. Last fall I know they had some from the local Jandt's Farm, which was a real prize. I always prefer to buy locally-grown veggies when I can.

The goal of this foraging expedition was, first of all, cauliflower. I wanted to make up some cauli-rice (cauliflower rice, steamed riced cauliflower) in bulk and freeze most of it, so I could just pull out some and heat for easy meals.

My luck was in. They did have some Dole cauliflower--- since the local cauliflower isn't ripe yet. As you can see in the picture, they also had broccoli and brussel sprouts, neither of which were on my purchasing plan for the day.

My next stop was in the meat department. There is a recipe for West African stew that I was itching to try. I found it in my recipe book More-With-Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre--- a Mennonite cookbook with an emphasis on economy, and saving the world through a more vegetarian diet. It was written by a large number of contributors, though, most of whom added meat to their recipes.

What the recipe called for was beef, but since it called for 2 pounds of it and I'm not made of money, I decided to buy a pack of pork steaks and cut them up for stew meat. The bone, of course, got frozen in the 'pork bones' bag for future bone broth cooking. (You CAN make bone broth from pork!)

The recipe calls for tomato paste also. I could have used real tomato paste--- perhaps using a little less than called for--- and I imagine the carb count would still be acceptable. But I have on hand some Walden Farms calorie-free ketchup, which is also carb free. I bought this at Gary's market also, though I'm not sure they still carry it, it's an older bottle. I used 1/2 cup of it in the recipe to partially replace the tomato paste.

My foraging expedition was a success. My freezer has a batch of packs of cauli-rice, and my Crock-Pot®️ is busy cooking the West African stew. Future blog posts will include more about how I make cauli-rice, my stop at a local farm stand for zucchini, and eventually my own version of the stew recipe, once I refine it.

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This is the recipe book I've mentioned. It's one of only two regular-diet, carb-filled cookbooks I turn to all the time. Mostly to find recipes to tweak. It's really worth owning in spite of the lower-meat-consumption emphasis.