The lamb had been tethered in our yard for days in advance of Candice’s visit, peacefully keeping our grass down. A southerly breeze carried the fragrance of lanolin across the yard that drove my brother’s dog mad. Candice was a new friend about to graduate from college in Brooklyn, and the lamb would play an important role in her graduate thesis.
The lamb had been tethered in our yard for days in advance of Candice’s visit, peacefully keeping our grass down. A southerly breeze carried the fragrance of lanolin across the yard that drove my brother’s dog mad. Candice was a new friend about to graduate from college in Brooklyn, and the lamb would play an important role in her graduate thesis. There are no written recipes for how to take another animal’s life in the process of bringing food to our plate. The experience is personal, the details are always different, whether hunting alone in the woods or raising a pig or sheep in the backyard or a muddy sty. Two important things to keep in mind: no animal wants to die, so be ready for a struggle, and respect the sacrifice that has been made for your meal. If you are mindful of both these things, you will eat a meaningful meal or series of meals made from an animal you had a chance to know, even if only for that brief period of time when a life is taken away. This was the basis of a final thesis project I took part in three years ago with Candice as she was about to graduate from art school. Her goal was to honor the life of the lamb that was brought from Chilmark in the back of my white Dodge Dakota to be cooked for her classmates, family and friends in a large space now used for art in a run-down section of Brooklyn known as Bushwick. The gentle process of slitting the lamb’s throat was carried out with a sharp knife by her confident hands while I assisted in keeping the animal calm and contained. Two weeks later, my truck was packed with firewood, a spit, one lamb and an extra tank of gas to supplement our supply in case my calculations were off in trying to compensate for my broken gas gauge. The truth of the matter is that the truck, which I bought for $500 months earlier and came with no seats in the cab, should not have been taken off Island to mainland roads or highways. But I was younger and foolish (compared to myself now, older and still foolish), and we headed south on Interstate 95, stopping for gas what felt like a dozen times along the way to Bushwick packed and ready for a lamb roast.
The concept of having a personal relationship with our meat is not new, but our society has made it into a novelty and an understandably infrequent act due to the logistics of modern life, the availability of cheap animal protein in most any supermarket and the difficult and complicated act of processing a live animal to make it fit for consumption. With chickens there is the painstaking task of plucking. Pigs need scrubbing and hair removal, plus they are pound for pound as strong as any animal. And sheep, deer or goats need to be skinned and ideally hung. No matter the circumstance, it adds up to a long checklist of supplies, steps and manpower, not to mention time, leaving the average consumer happy to sort through cellophane packages at the market, saving time and often money.
The most common question I get when roasting an animal whole is how long it will take. I always respond that the animal will be done when it is time to eat. There is no exact formula for cooking over an open fire; a cold northern wind can change everything, as can a blue sky or unseasoned wood. Experience is the only common denominator. And on this occasion all normalcy was thrown out the window when we were asked to leave the alleyway where we had decided to cook an hour and a half before the meal was to be served. Permission had not been granted to have a fire on the property, an oversight by Candice in her planning. After extinguishing the small fire we had just lit and wasting precious time, we marched the already-skewered lamb two blocks down the road to a space where we could cook the animal in a building where it seemed anything was allowed. The building looked like an airplane hangar with enormous garage doors. The inside was cavernous and filled with building materials, old cars, musical instruments and various people lounging on sofas, their faces illuminated only by laptop computers. In the lot behind this giant workspace was a gravel area with trailer home after trailer home pushed impossibly close together. Extension cords were stretched everywhere to provide power to the lucky few in the hierarchy of what I learned was a squatters’ wonderland. I set up in a corner spot in the gravel area next to a pressure-treated deck; the only thing needed to prep the spot for cooking was to clear the debris and garbage from the area. The place smelled like old beer and I was lucky not to burn it down with my fire.
Somehow it worked. The squatters pitched in and brought me cheap beer, and someone showed up with doughnuts from a dumpster. It was the most unlikely place to produce a succulent spring lamb in a mere hour and a half, which was then paraded back to the feast in the back of the truck, carried on its giant skewer all the way to a carving table fashioned from old pallets and plywood. But somehow it fit into the drama of the evening and in my mind served as a symbol of how we eat today. The meat was cooked quickly, with a desirable char on the outside, while the loin was tender and moist. Every bit of the animal was consumed, but most of the guests only saw the finished product.
Recipe for Spicy Yogurt and Cilantro Marinade
This is perfect for lamb or all grilled or roasted meats.
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, washed with stems left on
2 or 3 jalapeno peppers, depending on your tolerance for heat
1 cup plain yogurt
Juice from half a lemon
Salt
Recipe makes enough for about one normal sized leg of lamb. In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients so you have a nice green sauce. Do not blend for too long as the cilantro will oxidize and turn brown and bitter.
Rub marinade all over lamb, you can also reserve some for a sauce when serving, and leave in fridge for at least 12 hours.
Recipe for Garlic and Rosemary Marinade for Lamb
Equal parts:
Garlic, fresh and peeled
Rosemary, preferably fresh and plucked from stem
Anchovy filets, packed in oil or salt with spines removed if needed
A pinch of chili flakes
Olive oil
Quantities vary depending on amount of lamb being served. Preferably in a mortar and pestle and working in batches, but more efficiently in a food processor, combine the garlic, rosemary, anchovy and chili flakes to form a rough paste. Taste for saltiness (anchovies vary in salt content depending on their source and preserving technique) and season if more salt is needed. Give your lamb a light coating of olive oil and then rub marinade all over with your hands, massaging it into the meat. Allow to sit for at least 12 hours. Marinade is perfect for grilled or roasted lamb.
Comments
I guess somebody has to say
Michael West Vineyard HavenI guess somebody has to say it, so it might as well be me. Killing animals for food is unnecessary, unhealthy, unsustainable and barbaric. A plant based diet has uneqivocally been proven healthier. The expense of resources in raising and slaughtering animals is not long-term sustainable and contributes to global warming. Finally, there is no kind way to slit an animal's throat that has trusted you and dociley awaits the knife. Ok. I know very few people will agree. Maybe someday.
Chris is an excellent writer,
Holly Nadler Oak BluffsChris is an excellent writer, but I wish writers and editors alike would show some humanity for the vegans and vegetarians among us who find this kind of glamorizing of animal slaughter truly repellent. It's not at all sweet and quaint and rural that this poor lamb was staked in a family's garden and that its throat was "gently slit." And please no gags about a plant screaming when you yank it from the ground; there is no comparison. There is probably not a single soul among us who doesn't love stories about a baby seal that's returned to its mother, or a turtle helped across a busy road. Pictures are taken and everybody goes "Aww!" Then nearly everyone goes home to a meal of dead animals. Eating animals is casually cruel, and also insanely unhealthy, and it's clobbering the hell out of the planet.
An excellently written and
robert skydell Granada, NicaraguaAn excellently written and thoughtful piece, thank you Chris.
To those that posted before me;
The world is not going to become a planet of vegetarians, ever. While I do agree with many of the benefits of a largely plant-based diet I believe that we have a responsibility to understand where our food comes from, how it is produced and at what cost to the environment.
Our modern world has succeeded in completely separating the finished product from its source and this has allowed, even promoted horrible abuses in the way animals are raised, slaughtered and processed into food.
Chris's piece is valuable in showing those who have chosen to eat meat what it means to take an animal's life (as people have done since the dawn of time) and consume it.
To claim that he is insensitive to those who choose to be vegetarians is utter nonsense. Holly, no one forced you to either eat the lamb or read the piece.
Never is a long time, Bob.
Michael West Vineyard HavenNever is a long time, Bob. Raising and slaughtering animals for food is damaging to the planet and a significant contributor to global warming. Even if we bury our heads in sand about that one, it is hard to ignore the direct, causal link to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's from eating meat and dairy. You can read about that in the China Study or on Nutritionfacts.org if you care about your health.
There were practical reasons for the primitive roots of killing animals, but today's sustainable organic farming produced more than enough protein and minerals for a superior human diet. The food and drug industry doesn't want you to know about this and promotes the view that eating animal products is desirable and essential for your health. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Bob Skydell, since the "dawn
Holly Nadler Oak BluffsBob Skydell, since the "dawn of time" people have also made slaves of other people (and in today's world there are twice as many slaves as we had in America pre-1863), and have also waged wars (now more than ever), so I hardly see "dawn of time" thinking as a rationale for eating animals. And, sure, Chris Fisher, describes how one may slaughter one's own meat mindfully, but this only drives home the fact that we live in a schizo world where parents read their kids stories about Pooh & Piglet, then serve them their daily burger. And, right, Bob, no one will force me to eat lamb, but I rather resent, as someone whose conscience tells her that we'll all be healthier and happier and our planet in vastly better shape if we turned to a plant-based diet, that a whoppingly huge majority refuses to take even a moment to consider the issue with the "better angels" of their beings. Finally, you are also correct that no one forced me to read Chris's article (and I submit again that he's an excellent writer; I've noted to his dad, Albert, that I see him as the next Michael Pollan), but the blandly beguiling title and its placement as one of the editors' top choices, led me to peruse it until the "gently slit its throat" part threw me into turmoil and I stopped. Mr. Skydell, so many of you top chefs, including the redoubtable and hugely entertaining Anthony Bourdaine, are positively vicious when it comes to the subject of vegan / vegetarian cuisine. What makes you all so angry? Could at least some of you try some V.V. recipes -- for starters I recommend Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. If even a few of our Island chefs could manage even a couple of these as main dishes instead of tossing a frozen, pre-fabbed vegie burger on the griddle for the random vegetarian diner whom you all seem to frantically resent, you might begin to see that all good cooking need not involve a dead animal.
Having experienced both sides
Cheryl Burns Oak BluffsHaving experienced both sides of this issue, I know the futility of getting anyone to change her mind through a rational-intellectual discussion. I share the story of my own conversion to vegetarianism as a way of each side better understanding the other.
Well into adulthood, I loved the smell and taste of meat and ate it rare, including organ meats. There are few game meats I have not tasted. I fished with my father every summer and shucked little necks and scallops every fall. I was unkind to my vegetarian friends and presented evidence to them of the sensibilities of plant life after reading "The Secret Life of Plants," I think to justify my meat eating.
My first attempt at vegetarianism was during the summer of 1971, motivated by health reasons. When the growing season ended, I went back to eating meat. In 1982, I was living alone and bought a puppy. He became my family and my source of support and comfort when my parents were dying. I began to be sensitized to what I was eating. As my consciousness shifted and my desire for meat continued, the growing schism between my beliefs and my habits became unbearable to me. One day while commuting to work, I read the bumper sticker on a passing car. It read "Love animals, don't eat them." I burst into tears. An agnostic in those days, I said to no one in particular, "Please remove this burden from me." Several months later in 1988, upon awaking, I literally felt a heavy weight lifting from me and I knew I would never again eat meat and I never have. It still smells good to me. I still remember the taste. Despite this, I have no desire for it. This time, the decision was not arbitrary. It was made from the inside out, not from the outside in. It was not so much a decision as it was a transformation. A butterfly does not and cannot go back to the cacoon.
I see things differently now. Although I fished as a little girl, I felt compassion recently when I saw 2 little boys run down the beach dangling a fish which was still alive and flailing about on the end of their line. I asked them if they knew that taking a fish out of water was the same as someone holding their head under water. I still remember the look of awareness on their faces as they ran back to the water's edge and let the fish go. And yes, I get upset at the slaughtering of my fellow creatures. But, then again, I did in my meat eating days. Perhaps it is true that if everyone had to slaughter their own food, there would be more vegetarians.
Add new comment