Schmaltz and soy
While on a recent whirlwind trip that included a stop in Seattle, I purchased a copy of Meatpaper at my favorite newsstand hard by the Pike Place market. I always grab a copy of this magazine whenever I’m in Seattle because I can never find it anywhere else. Today I finally broke down and subscribed.
The quarterly Meatpaper was founded by a couple of vegetarians who made the conversion to meat eating a few years back. (The founders say that when vegetarians cross over to the meat-eating dark side, bacon is the most common conversion food.) It’s a difficult magazine to pigeonhole. One would think it would revel in meat eating, and, in a way, it does. But it does it in a daredevil sort of way, much in the way a magazine on skydiving might portray the thrill of that sport while still noting that certain death is only a chute failure away. My take is that the writers and editors believe that meat-eating is a perilous undertaking, but one that many people choose for the taste despite the risks involved. As anyone who had read this blog for anytime knows, my beliefs don’t quite fall that way.
The most recent issue contains a couple of articles I want to tantalize you with. One that describes an almost unbelievably scrumptious food that I’ve yet to eat, at least knowingly, and another article I find deeply disturbing.
First, to the scrumptious.
In “Schmaltz Redux,” Daniella Cheslow briefly describes the history, disappearance and resurgence of a staple of Jewish cooking: schmaltz. For those of you who don’t know what it is (and I was in that category until I read this article), schmaltz is basically chicken lard. Small pieces of chicken fat are cooked slowly until they resolve into an oil. Throw in a few pieces of onion during the process, and you’ve got schmaltz, which can be used much as lard or duck confit.
To give you an example of what I mean about daredevil writing focusing not on just the delicious and nourishing virtues of schmaltz, but on the risks (non-existent, in my opinion) of consuming it.
“I love schmaltz. But it’s very unhealthy, it’s all saturated animal fats. I stopped eating schmaltz when my grandmother died in 1972,” said Susan Rosenthal, 59, a physician from East Brunswick, New Jersey. “I have a master’s degree in nutrition [a dead give away that the woman knows almost nothing about nutrition], so if I would have given my children schmaltz, that would have been shameful.”
Shameful indeed.
I’m sure this enlightened woman would have no qualms about giving her children all the olive oil they wanted. But according to the USDA nutrient database of foods, olive oil contains 14 grams of saturated fat per 100 g whereas chicken fat contains 20 grams in the same amount. But 100 g is 3.5 ounces, and since schmaltz is used as a cooking oil, I suspect most people don’t eat much more than an ounce at a time, which would mean the schmaltz would give the children a little over 5 g of saturated fat while the olive oil would contain 4 g. A difference of under two grams. Not a huge difference in my opinion. And since the schmaltz also contains a lot of both monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat, it can’t really be characterized as “all animal saturated fats.” But such misinformation is what comes from a master’s degree in nutrition.
The article goes on to detail a little more of the history of schmaltz and its resurgence but, at the end of the piece, once again the specter of early death from eating schmaltz rears its head.
To bring her article to a close, Cheslow offers a quote from David Sax, author of Save the Deli:
There’s something these days that’s sexy about it [making food from scratch]. I think [schmaltz] is coming back for that reason, and also people appreciate the taste, and they realize that it’s going to provide a richer experience. Literally, figuratively, tastefully, and spiritually, it’s a heart stopper. [my italics]
Jesus wept.
I have elicited a promise from MD that when our brutal travel schedule over the next month and a half comes to a close, she will make us some schmaltz, an event I will dutifully record photographically. Until then, however, you’ll have to make do with photos and instructions I found online. The schmaltz in the photos in this blog post look great, but the uses the blogger makes of the schmaltz are not my cup of tea.
Now to the disturbing.
When you think Argentina, you think beef. The Pampas, gauchos and endless herds of cattle. For years Argentina has been one of the great beef reservoirs of the world. But unless things change, that all may be coming to an end because the cattle are being displaced by a more profitable commodity: soy.
“Plowing the Pampas,” an article written by Nicholas Kusnetz, describes how many Argentinian ranchers are hanging up their bolas and picking up a plow. Why? Because soybeans are a vastly more profitable use for the land than raising cattle.
Kusnetz spoke about the switchover with scientists at a government research station in the Pampas.
Five years ago, one of the researchers told me, I would have been surrounded by pasture. Now, nearly all the cows were crowded into feedlots. The land was a tricolored patchwork as far as the eye could see: thousands of acres of deep green corn leaves, lighter green soybeans, and the straw-colored stubble of cornstalks that had been sprayed with Roundup to ready the field for soy.
At the station, two soil specialists showed me where they experiment with different crop rotations. They have found that their most productive “rotation” is just the opposite: all Roundup Ready soy, all the time. They don’t know why, they tell me, but it grows well. They don’t see any reason to grow anything else.
“If I were a farmer,” I ask, “and I came to you for advice, what would you tell me?”
“Pure soy,” they say. “The more soy you have, the better your profits will be.”
The article goes on to describe how the economic realities are driving the ranchers to become soy farmers. I don’t have a problem with this; you’ve got to expect that people will follow the money. What does trouble me is that a crop with such a disastrous effect on health could be more valuable than cattle, which have been providing humans food for millennia. But the herds are shrinking, and soon, if things don’t change, in a few years Argentina could become an importer of cattle. An almost unthinkable proposition.
Should this disastrous end come to pass, I wonder if the grand ranches of the Pampas will still raise a few cattle along with thousands of acres of soybeans. And will these few beef grazing in a small lot allow the farmers to continue to refer to themselves as ranchers despite the vast majority of their income coming from soy? Probably. I’ve seen it happen in Arkansas.
The delta lands east of Little Rock are made up for the most part of vast soybean growing operations. The farmers who own and farm the land were descended from cotton farmers. Cotton farming was the tradition, but economics won out, and most of the cotton fields were replanted in soy. But old traditions die hard, and most of these farmers still keep a small patch of cotton on their land, and if asked what they do, they reply that basically they’re cotton farmers but they grow some beans on the side.
I suspect that if things continue in Argentina, many self-proclaimed ranchers will be growing a few beans on the side as well.
Sad. Very sad.
I would encourage you to subscribe to Meatpaper to keep up with what’s new and edgy in the world of meat. I have no affiliation with the magazine nor do I get any click-through income if you subscribe. I just like the idea of former vegetarians writing a magazine on meat and making a go of it. And I want to help.
I’m going to start a new tradition with this post. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I read a lot. People often ask me what I’m reading, so I’m going to start putting my current reading list at the bottom of the posts so those of you who are interested can keep up.
Survival of the Fattest by Stephen Cunnane
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. (This isn’t a reread. I’ve never read the thing, so I figured it was about time.)
The Plague by Albert Camus (I’ve never read this one either, and it’s taking me forever to get through it. But I’m almost finished.)
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
The Genius in all of Us by David Shenk
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieig Larsson (This one won’t be available in the U.S. until May 25. A friend who visited me from the UK, where it has been available for months now, brought me a copy.)
Forgive me but posting this here to get some feedback.
I’m starting a primal/protein power based lifestyle change and I’m wondering if I’m running the #s correctly.
I’m a short 5’4″ male at 215 lbs (interestingly enough people are shocked I way that much. I’m in and out of the gym so I have a good amount of muscle mass).
My lean body weight is 140 (should be less but like I’ve said, I’ve been in and out of the gym).
I want to get to 150-160 range. This is where I’ve been the most comfortable (not looking too thin or stocky).
Using the BMR calculator and Harris Benedict equation (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/) my daily calorie needs is slightly over 3000 (3069). I want to drop it down to 2000 with diet and exercise.
The way I’ve broken the #’s it seems as if I’d need to consume 140g of protein, 50g of carbs and 138g of fat (the fat seems high to me).
140g of protein = 560 calories
50g of carbs = 200 calories
138g of fat = 1242 calories
560 + 200 + 1242 = 2002 calories
1242 is 62% of my calories! Is this correct? I honestly have no problem consuming 138g of fat, I just don’t want it to impede any weight loss.
So, Dr. Eades, am I working the #’s correctly?
Thanks for your time.
You are indeed working the numbers properly. I got exactly the same numbers when I ran the calculations. Don’t worry about percent fat – it’s a nonsense number anyway.
I also have a subscription to meatpaper. For anyone who’s wondering where to find it, if you don’t want to subscribe, I bought single editions at Barnes and Noble for months before subscribing. I must say I agree that it is hard to pigeon hole. Don’t we all just love to put things into categories! I think the magazine is written from the viewpoints of conscious eaters. The contributors are always thinking about the significance of what it means to be an herbivore, and the symbolic nature of eating. It’s an endless metaphor to be explored via research in the world, or for a means of artistic visualization/writing.
As someone who has vegetarian tendencies, but has decided to eat meat, I find the magazine to be intriguing and informative. I highly recommend it!
~r.
Thanks Dr. Eades!
My mom is Korean and ever since I can remember, she’s made a very spicy full-skin chicken wing stew that is so delicious that it’s well nigh impossible to quit eating.
Toward the end of the eighties, as the saturated fat hypothesis of heart disease started to kick in, I remember looking at the hardened state of this dish at room temperature with dismay, thinking that I was harming myself by eating it. Some of this information gives me delicious pause….
I’ve been a big fan of low carb fan for a while, but not because I have a weight problem. I have adhd and I’ve found that if I excise grain carbohydrate and excessive glycemic loads from my diet that I need far less medication and can sometimes do without any. I learned this from my father; he has adhd and deals with it by eating very low carb (fish, meat, berries, nut butters, veggies, and dairy) and by hitting the gym military-style every morning at 5:00am. But low carb is the key: if we eat too much carb the “mental fog” and imparied attentional abilities ensue. Also, when we eat high-carb we both become emaciated and lose musculature. (I say “we” because the similarities in our metabolisms are strikingly similar, and this seems to grant credence to some kind of phenomenon going on here.) We have pictures of my dad during the eighties when his diet was very bread-centric and he weighed about 160 lbs at 6’2″. Now, on a low carb diet, he’s about 220 lbs of solid muscle . I’m the same way: at 6’2″ if I carb up I’ll lose musculature and weight to about 165, and if I carb-down I’ll get up to about 190 lbs of muscle. Got an explanation for this? In your book Protien Power you cite an example of a runner who was emaciated on a high-carb long-distance running regimen, ballooned after he quit running (from hyperinsulinemia), and then looked far better and fuller on a low carb diet with and without body building. What I’ve seen from my father, though, is an example of someone who will never become insulin resistant and “ballooon” regardless of carb intake (he’s 65 and strong and healthy as an ox; I’m 37). The effect of carb on him–and myself–is simply emaciation and impaired mental and emotional stability. This may sound extreme but it’s true: If I eat a bunch of rice or sweets or God forbid, bread, on a given night, I’m laid waste the next day and feel like I’ve been poisoned. It’s the absolute difference between a good and bad day. Because of this, I’ve been EXTREMELY interested in your books. I’ve seen strong personal anecdotal evidence of the superiority of a low carb diet not just for the subset of the population that has ‘syndrome X’ but for–seemingly–others as well (I did find out that I”m celiac, but even accounting for this, the high-carb effect is extremely detrimental to me on numerous fronts.)
I’m a chemist and so I love the biochem reasoning in your books…would love to hear your take on this.
You and your father are interesting cases. It’s difficult to know what’s going on for sure, but if I had to guess, I would say that the carbs you eat – maybe not the pure carbohydrate, but the form they come in, i.e., wheat – cause a low-grade (maybe in your case a little more than low-grade) inflammation. As the body mounts a defense against inflammation, it uses protein (amino acids, particularly glutamine), which come from muscle, the protein reservoir. Over time this gradual depletion leads to a loss of muscle mass. If you were a patient of mine with this complaint, that’s the first line of inquiry I would start down.
Dr. Eades,
How can I make an appointment with you at your clinic?
thanks for your help.
Unfortunately, we are not currently in practice. We have taken a sabbatical to get more involved in nutritional research and other projects.
I was surprised that no one thought that the soy might be for biofuels (biodiesel) http://green.autoblog.com/2008/02/19/study-finds-argentinian-soy-biodiesel-an-artificial-business/.
In addition, planting all GMO soy, soy after soy, is a recipe for disaster as pests become resistant (both insects and weeds). http://webs.chasque.net/~rapaluy1/transgenicos/Prensa/Roundupready.html –after reading this, my earlier thought that the cattle could come back (as someone pointed out above), is likely to be more complex a task than leaving them there to begin with.
I just spent 6 days in Poland, where their version of schmaltz is excellent. Our hosts spread it very thick (much thicker than I’ve ever seen butter spread) on rustic brown bread, but since I don’t eat bread anymore, I ate mine with a spoon…
Mmmm. Sounds great. I still haven’t tried it. Too busy with travel.
AS is good, not great; glad I read it once. Fountainhead far superior IMO (for her advocacy of love of greatness), and also her non-fiction work “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology” – it’s short but dense and well worth your time. If more people read that there’d be a whole lot less crazy in the world today.
[...] featured Meatpaper before on MDA. This week Michael Eades shares his thoughts on a couple great meatpaper articles: Delicious, sexy schmaltz, and soy as agriculture’s [...]
Just thought Id let you know that the whole Larson Millenium trilogy has been made into a group of really awesome Swedish movies. Best movies Ive seen in a long time.
Just saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with MD. Had to wait ’til she finished the book before I would take her, though. Great movie. Highly recommended. I would read the book first, however.
Schmaltz is good stuff! My favorite thing to do with it is fry the chicken skins out of the stockpot on stock-making day. Put a glop in the frying pan, heat it up at medium heat, put the chicken skins in, fry till crispy, and eat by themselves or over vegetables. Wonderful!
I’m slowly coming to adopt this life plan, kicking and screaming both at myself and those who have led me down a treacherous dietary path for too many years.
Having said that, I read ALL the comments here. I didn’t realize how much I have missed insightful conversation since moving to the sticks, Thanks Everyone, You are All My Teachers.
People say lard’s high in saturated fat too. Clearly none of them have read the label. Butter is higher in saturated fat than lard is, gram for gram (waayyyy higher), yet lard is perceived as being less healthful (people will at least use butter for holiday baking, but there is NO popularly-perceived seasonal use for lard), even though well over half a serving of lard is mono-unsaturated fat.
Jesus wept.
The story of the Argentine ranchers only points up the necessity of food production being as democratized as possible. No, I don’t mean a top-down socialist imposition, telling us all what to grow or raise, but it’d be nice if we at least had an allotment system here in the U.S. like they have in the UK. And we have more land so there’d be more room for things like critter-raising. Plus we could change laws in the cities to make it easier there too. Some locales already allow chicken coops and bee hives. Pygmy goats don’t need much more space than a half-acre lot, I don’t think (I could be wrong). Stuff like that.
Waiting for some Big Rancher to get his head out of his posterior region and switch back away from soy is rather like waiting for the government to quit recommending six servings of grain a day. I don’t understand why some people trust big business, or even any business other than their own, more than they trust the government–in either case it’s you outsourcing your personal power to someone else.
K, enough of the soapbox, gotta fix lunch for my kiddo.
I have to add my 2 cents worth! I had a mother of German descent and what I called “bacon grease” went into everything! She always had a big pot of it and used it every day. She fried with it, sauteed onions and celery in it, and even used it in her version of spaghetti with pieces of bacon. Her hot German potato salad was to die for and of course, it included bacon grease in the dressing! For years during the low fat craze I thought she meant to kill us all (9 kids) but now I know I’m healthy because of the fat! LOL!
[...] featured Meatpaper before on MDA. This week Michael Eades shares his thoughts on a couple great meatpaper articles: Delicious, sexy schmaltz, and soy as agriculture’s [...]
What? You are a physician and you hadn’t read “The Plague” yet?! (Sorry, I just had to make that joke)
My favorite way to make ‘cracklings’ which is how you get ‘schmaltz’ (not a Jewish invention) is to put diced chicken skin in a skillet and cover with water. Cook down so that the water evaporates and then the fat starts to leak out. Cook in that fat until crispy. Save the fat, eat the ‘cracklings’.
I’d love to see an article about the ‘Israeli paradox’ – that is, an article about how the Mediterranean countries have pretty much a similar diet in many ways, resulting in better health. That is, until you get to Israel. Then you just throw away the book on the Mediterranean diet because they have every problem we have, with our ‘atrocious’ diets!
Could have something to do with their religious views that prohibit the consumption of meat and dairy within hours of one another. The Israelis use a huge amount of margarine and other fake dairy products that are loaded with trans fats so they can pursue a meat and dairy diet without actually eating real dairy. Just a thought.
Here is another book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” that talks about the CSPI Coconut Oil scare
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7226/clip0170.mp4
http://heathbrothers.com/madetostick/chapterone.php
I read your books. began your diet/food and added to my Atkins diet. I lost weight, but I seem to be losing bone and energy. I need your reply to me so I can see what I may need to change.
dr eades:
have you heard of dr. jan kwasniewski? the polish doctor who came up with optimal nutrition. i think his saturated fat proportions are much higher than yours, but i am not sure what yours are exactly.
http://homodiet.netfirms.com/
go down to delancey street in manhattan. beeline to russ and daughters and order up some of their chopped liver. shmaltz, eggs and chicken liver.