Clean meat, mystery meat

Yesterday I had the unusual experience of seeing the path two different meats--one lamb, one beef-- travelled on their way from the slaughterhouse to market. The two businesses must be at the farthest ends of the spectrum of food safety and traceability. Opposite ends.

I am chef de cuisine at a restaurant that purchases whole lambs from Cattail Creek lamb, with pastures in the Willamette Valley. Yesterday we received a 65# whole lamb, just like we do every Wednesday. Two hours after it arrived Nick butchered it, cutting rosy chops rimmed with a band of clean white fat. The meat fairly sparkled, evidence of its freshness.

Later, at home, I read a story in the New York Times was about an e.coli outbreak in 2007 traced to hamburgers mixed and sold by Cargill. Among the victims was a 22 year old woman whose reaction to the e.coli was so severe that she developed permanent paralysis.

At the top of the ingredient list in the Cargill burgers was simply "beef." Yet that was not the whole story. Cargill purchased trim from multiple sources, including a plant that takes fatty trim, warms it, centrifuges off the fat, treats what remains with amonia, and repackages it as lean beef product. That ground burger meat was a geographic mish mash, too. Logs show it contained beef from Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Uruguay. It's unclear which plant was the source of the e.coli outbreak.

My head swam as I read this account, which attempted to trace the path of the e.coli.
My point is not simply to share a horrifying story about unsafe food. Rather, read this article to understand the makings of the hamburgers we serve nationwide in fast food joints, schools and retirement communities.

I know most people would consider it atypical to be able to cook fresh meat like the lamb from Cattail Creek, which I have seen grazing on ample acreage of lush, green grass. Yes, safety first, especially in food. But what I love about Cattail Creek lamb is how rich and herbal it tastes. I don't have to worry about whether it's safe. That's the kind of traceability I wish for all our food.