QuestionGeoff,
Thanks again for your info and experience. Your approach makes intuitive and now experiential sense to me and now I'm doing more organ meats and less muscle meats (and like you, dairy didn't end up being helpful for me). (Ofcourse I'm talking about everything raw).
Bone marrow has been most delicious and feels deeply nutritious to my body. Do you know off-hand what kinds of fats and other substances are in raw bone marrow? Considering that cooked bone marrow soup is considered an elixir in Chinese medicine it stands to reason that raw it would be off the charts--
But here's my more important question: about what you call "ox tongue". Is that the same as "beef tongue"? I bought some beef tongue at the farmer's market and due to your suggestion tried it. It tasted great--better than muscle meat--but most of it was so tough that it was difficult to eat. A small part of the entire tongue was fattier and this part was tender and extremely delicious. But how do you eat the rest of it? (The fattier part is lighter in color and the tougher, harder part is deep red.) The red, muscle part tastes great but is too hard. What do you do? I'd love to make tongue a staple for me--
Also, I tried sweetbreads, like the taste but the fascia (is that the word?--you know, connective tissue) is almost unchewable. Is there a way to cut the outer, hard tissue off? Or am I just not chewing enough or what? Please advise--
Last question: I know you and A.V. give the thumbs up on cerviche (marinated chicken or fish) but what about "pickled" meat, poultry or fish. I've heard that there are Korean (and other) foods such as kimchi that do a lactic acid fermentation (like sauerkraut") but meat is added to ferment--any thoughts on that?
Actually, one last question: your answers are clear, concise, and thorough. Has your intelligence been enhanced by eating raw brains? I think I could use some!
Thanks,
Alan
AnswerHere area couple of pieces of info re what makes up bone-marrow:-
Look up under "marrow" on the USDA nutrient database,
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
click "submit", you'll find a listing under "caribou marrow, raw", click in the circle next to it, click "submit", click "submit" again, and you'll find the relevant table.
Here's another article re bone-marrow fat percentages:-
http://tinyurl.com/22tgh
Re tongue:- When I first started out, my teeth were too weakened from dairy consumption to handle things like ox-tongue, so I would leave it out of the fridge(but covered against insects) for a couple of days, to soften it up. Once my teeth became stronger, I was able to eat most of the ox-tongue except for the dark-red stringier bits, but nowadays I actually like those bits too - I particularly like the tip of the ox tongue, precisely because it takes so long to chew.
In your case, I'd suggest only eating the lighter-coloured parts of the tongue for now, until you get used to the whole of it(took me 3 years to get used to eating the whole tongue). If you have a problem with any of it, just bolt it down. From my own experience and that of others, bolting down raw food after some minimal, necessary chewing actually improves the digestion of it in the stomach(not so with cooked food, which must be chewed) - though, of course, due to force of habit over decades, I still usually chew my raw food quite a bit beforehand.
(You could also go for pigs' tongue instead which is softer, or put the tongue through some sort of mincer).
Oh, and there is a difference between ox and beef meat. Here's the standard Internet definition(I ought to mention that ox-meat is slightly tastier than beef):-
"The castrated male is called a steer until it attains
its full growth, and then, an ox; but if castrated
somewhat late in life, it is called a stag. The male, not castrated, is called a bull. These distinctions are well established in regard to domestic animals of this genus. When wild animals of this kind are spoken of, ox is often applied both to the male and the female. The name ox is never applied to the individual cow, or female, of the domestic kind. Oxen may comprehend both
the male and the female."
Re sweetbreads:- Yes, they do have some tough inedible connective tissue, I just use my teeth, or sometimes a meat-knife, to separate it from the rest, and spit it out.
Re fermentation:- I've experimented with fermentation, partly because I wanted to see if I could handle raw veg or raw dairy better in a fermented state. It wasn't a success. The trouble with fermentation is also that it requires a lot of salt for the process, and that's not too healthy for the body in the long run, at least I've found it so. Obviously, if you're going to try it, I'd suggest doing it yourself, as most pickled, fermented products out there are filled with additives etc.
I do eat raw brains, but can't get any from grass-fed organic cattle, due to the post-BSE hysteria. I can get organic pigs' brains quite regularly but they're fed on grain, unfortunately, so are not ideal.
I think that there is a little truth in the old adage that if you eat a healthy animal heart, your own heart will improve in health etc. It stands to reason that each organ-meat from a properly-fed animal will have the right nutrients needed by your own particular organ or gland to properly function. Can't reliably state that I'm more intelligent as such from eating brains, but this rawpalaeo diet has certainly helped greatly to increase related things like alertness, concentration levels, etc.
If you want something that will really help to increase your brain-power, I'd suggest trying Aajonus' "high-meat" recipe(found in his 2nd "recipe for Living Without Disease" book. This can be quite problematic, as many people can't stand the taste of meat aged for a whole month(I can only handle aged ox-heart or aged ox tongue/kidney with ease, with other kinds of aged meats tasting too foul for me to use, but others, of course, instead prefer aged raw eggs or aged muscle-meats etc.))
Geoff
- Prev:Primal Diet/Health
- Next:Strategic Weight Gain