(Not) Fun with Alcohol

[proudft]

Bison is awesome if you are careful about cooking it.  If you cook ground beyond medium or steaks beyond medium rare it gets really gamey-tasting, and there is a real fine line there (I think it's because since it is so low in fat, there is not much of an error margin).

But once you get the hang of it it tastes pretty much exactly like beef and is much better for you.

[Sand]

I would argue Bison actually HAS a taste, versus corporate produced beef which does not.

[DraconianOne]

Not that I want to let facts get in the way but:

Sirloin steak from Bison - 6g of fat per 100g
Sirloin steak from Cow - 6g of fat per 100g

(That's figures for seperable lean meat, obviously - i.e. after trimming the fat from the steak)

[ghost]

I think there's a wider variety in beef. 

[Cheddar]

Complex Vitamin E has changed my life.

[MuffinMan]

Switched from a B vitamin to an E?

[Nebu]

Complex Vitamin E has changed my life.

What is complex vitamin E?  I'm dead serious in asking.

[JWIV]

if this is becoming the vitamin thread, I'm a huge fan of SAM-E

[Cheddar]

Complex Vitamin E has changed my life.

What is complex vitamin E?  I'm dead serious in asking.

Sonufabitch.  Meant B.  Seriously, this really has made a huge difference in my life.

Long story short - by 1pmish I would feel so damned fatigued it took intense amounts of willpower to stay focused and communicate effectively. 

Gone.  Another side effect is I am sleeping better then ever.  Vivid dreams have toned down in last week, but the feeling of a refreshing 6-7 hours sleep is so freaking nice its eerie.  Also, I used to wake up at 2pm like clockwork.  No longer, I sleep through the night now.

[Nebu]

B complex is a wonderful thing.  B vitamins are vital for so many key metabolic processes and RBC production and maturation. 

Glad that you're doing better!

[Xanthippe]

Other tip... Replace all meat with Turkey, chicken or lean pork.

Don't forget fish! I'm still a bit hesitant in my explorations under the sea, but I grew up on fresh trout and can get a pretty decent (albeit fatty) slab o steelhead trout from the local fish shop. But I haven't ventured beyond the basics: shrimp, cod, halibut, salmon, scallops. I did have some mussels or similar bivalve at the good local restaurant and really liked them as well.

Sanddabs are probably my favorite fish.  They're a type of flounder, very delicate.  (Don't want to cook them long at all - dip in flour (little salt/pepper in there), then panfry a minute or two (depending on size) on one side, no more than a minute on the other).  These can generally be found from the Sea of Japan to northern California so I'm not sure where else one can buy them. 

If you have a good fishmonger nearby, you can ask what's good today and how to cook it.

I don't like beef much.  Grew up eating chili con carne and hamburger, and just don't like the taste of beef.  I do like a good ribeye about once a month.  Can take or leave anything else, like sirloin or flank steak or tritip or whatever.  Pork is ok (not counting bacon - bacon is fantastic).  I love poultry and fish though.  (Duck and goose are particular favorites but not cheap nor easy to come by).

Peas are vegetables! So they might be high calorie vegetables. If I have to eat celery instead, bah, no thanks, I'd rather take the caloric hit on peas.

Lately I like roasting vegetables (except peas).  Carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli, squash even summer squash.  Light toss in good olive oil (domestic, not imported, if you want real virgin olive oil - the imported is likely not virgin), salt/pepper, roast for 15-20 minutes on a foil covered cookie sheet at 425.

Oh and those diets designed to help people live forever?  Fuck that.  Have you been to a nursing home lately?  If I make it to 80, I'm going to buy a carton of Camel filters, and a case of Sierra Nevada Pale ale, and smoke and drink beer to my heart's content.  I don't want to do what my mother-in-law is doing, which is to have a very healthy body and no mind left at all.  Better for a quick death at 75 than a slow one beyond 88.

[Xanthippe]

Yeah.. why not stick to the meats you can easily get in the Midwest when offering suggestions.   That means pork, chicken and beef.  Even finding ground turkey can be a chore where I'm at.  (Though If I'm willing to spend almost a quarter tank of gas to drive to the north end of town I can find it easily as that's where the more progressive folks are holed-up.)

My mom just gave me her old meat grinders (they're heavy metal manual things).  I bet you can find one at a goodwill or antique or junk store.  And grind your own turkey.

[lamaros]

What about steam soy beans, still in the pod (but not eating the pod, blech)?

Probs shouldn't eat soy beans straight. Not especially good for you.

[MuffinMan]

Nor good for others.

[Ingmar]

What about steam soy beans, still in the pod (but not eating the pod, blech)?

Probs shouldn't eat soy beans straight. Not especially good for you.

Er, what?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edamame

[lamaros]

Soy beans have lots of phytoestrogens compared to other foods, and should best be consumed in a fermented product (tofu, japanese soy sauce) or heavily soaked and cooked (quality, non-isolate, soy milks) as they have traditionally have been.

Edamame are young soy beans and as far as I know have the same health concerns.

Or at least this was the knowledge of the topic last time I looked.

Raw = bad, cooked = better, heavily cooked/fermented = best.

[Simond]

Soy beans have lots of phytoestrogens compared to other foods

And?

[Sand]

Not that I want to let facts get in the way but:

Sirloin steak from Bison - 6g of fat per 100g
Sirloin steak from Cow - 6g of fat per 100g

(That's figures for seperable lean meat, obviously - i.e. after trimming the fat from the steak)

And how many people you know come home and trim the excess fat from a beef steak before cooking it? Because I don't know of anyone who does, most people I know eat the fat.
So I would argue that the cut of bison is inherently leaner since it doesn't have that extra surrounding fat rim.

[Lantyssa]

I do!  I also prefer 93/7 ground beef.

[proudft]

Not that I want to let facts get in the way but:

Sirloin steak from Bison - 6g of fat per 100g
Sirloin steak from Cow - 6g of fat per 100g

(That's figures for seperable lean meat, obviously - i.e. after trimming the fat from the steak)

Reducing calories is where I (and I would argue most people) can make the healthiest dietary changes, and bison is much less than beef for a given steak.  As was already pointed out, the beef cuts usually have more fat on 'em, but even in this both stripped-down-lean example, the bison is 7% less.  In practice when you include the cow fat the difference is much more drastic.

Of course you can eat chicken or fish or vegetables or whatever, but sometimes I get that MUST HAVE BEEF and bison can sub in fairly seamlessly.  It ain't cheap, but can't have everything I guess.

Ostrich is also pretty beefy-flavored but is even more lean and even more of a pain in the ass to cook but not overcook.  It is also even more pricey, so I am usually too afraid to bother with it.

[DraconianOne]

Not that I want to let facts get in the way but:

Sirloin steak from Bison - 6g of fat per 100g
Sirloin steak from Cow - 6g of fat per 100g

(That's figures for seperable lean meat, obviously - i.e. after trimming the fat from the steak)

As was already pointed out, the beef cuts usually have more fat on 'em, but even in this both stripped-down-lean example, the bison is 7% less.

Can you talk me through your maths there? What are you looking at to get that figure of 7%? (Genuine request - I can't see what you're looking at.)

The figures I linked to are is from about the only source I can find that could be considered independent. Most of the other sites that I looked at seem to be promoting or selling bison products so I don't trust them as unbiased sources.  Also, my usual sources of nutrition info are all UK-centric and don't have bison as we don't happen to eat a lot of bison here. Sure you can get it in some specialist butchers but not where I live.  The predominant red game meat we have is venison which has considerably less fat than either bison or beef (Data sheet here for 100g of loin cut, seperable lean only to provide fair comparison.)

For balance I should say I know nutrition data is only a guideline - the fat content of beef, for example, changes depending on their diet and breeding conditions (grass-fed cattle are generally leaner than grain-fed cattle).

[proudft]

Set both dropdowns to 100g:

100g bison = 171 calories
100g cow = 183 calories

171/183 = 0.9344262 or 93.4% of the fat of the cow  (I cheated a little and rounded off).


Yeah, bison in the UK I would be leery of.  Even here in California it's a little far from Bisonland.  I've ordered frozen from South Dakota/Iowa/somewhere in the plains, and it's packed in dry ice, and I still got one order that was soft and lukewarm.   Ate that one a little faster than planned!  (I blamed UPS for that, not the company, since the tracking showed it taking quite the tour of the state).

That particular supplier had venison too, and I like that as well, but back when I was ordering, there was some mumbling about BSE or the equivalent in venison (and elk).  It's probably been figured out by now, I should look into that again.

[DraconianOne]

Set both dropdowns to 100g:

100g bison = 171 calories
100g cow = 183 calories

171/183 = 0.9344262 or 93.4% of the fat of the cow  (I cheated a little and rounded off).

Okay - I see what you did but can I point out an error in your methodology? According to the nutrition data on those pages, 100g of either beef or bison contains 6g of fat which works out at 54kCal* of fat (there being 9kCal in every 1g of fat). The discrepancy in calories comes from the difference in protein amounts - beef has 31g of protein per 100g, bison has 28g. 4 kCal in every 1g of protein means that 3g difference has a calorific value of 12 kCal - which, as you observed, is what the difference is.

Bison has 7% (6.6%!) less calories because it has less protein than beef, not because it's got less fat.


*On the linked pages, it actually gives the calories from fat as 52 for beef and 51 bison because the actual fat amounts are 5.8g and 5.6g respectively. So pedantically speaking, bison does have less fat than beef in that cut by 0.2g.

[Sky]

And how many people you know come home and trim the excess fat from a beef steak before cooking it? Because I don't know of anyone who does, most people I know eat the fat.

I do if I have to, but it's usually trimmed at the butcher. I like buying my meats from the guy who carves it up.

[Sand]

Interesting article/opinion piece in NYT two days ago on the Cooking versus Junk Food debate.
Takes into account cost and time involved.

Findings according to the author: A) real food is cheaper and B) if every average American has an hour and a half to watch television every night then they can find time to cook.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&smid=fb-nytimes

[Hawkbit]

The issue really comes down to time spent.  My family's cooking is better than almost any restaurant.  It's the time required to cook in our busy lives that is the issue.  That's where our family falters, roughly twice a week. 

Their note about roasted chicken, though, is a good one.  That's a recipie to learn: Whole cleaned chicken on top of root vegetables, with maybe a nice bread... that's one we do almost every week.  Takes 15min to prep once you learn how to do it.  (hint: work together, one cleans the bird, the other cleans the veggies).  It is a meal that makes me feel both full, and good after eating it. 

[Sky]

Time to cook is silly. My week-night meals never run longer than a half-hour, and that's a rarity. Usually fifteen minutes from walking into the kitchen to putting food on the table. Takes longer to drive to a fast-food joint and pick up drive-through or wait for a pizza delivery.

Cook a lean protein (grill it three seasons), steam some veg and whole grain rice it up. You can swap the specifics, but it's still around fifteen minutes for almost any permutation.

[Hawkbit]

What are you, a Spartan?  Some of us need some variety in our food. 

[Furiously]

Chicken, turkey, pork and fish leave a lot of options.

[Sky]

Chicken, turkey, pork and fish leave a lot of options.

And we throw in lean beef a couple times a month. I mean, that covers a whole lot of territory. Use spices and sauces to change things up, you can have chicken three days in a row if you have it prepared three different ways.

[Paelos]

Sauces, ppl. Sauces.

[Furiously]

Sauces, ppl. Sauces.

I tend to go for spices instead.

[Hawkbit]

We do some quick meals like that. 

1. Clean boneless chicken breasts. 15min marinade in 1 part balsamic, 1 part olive oil, salt, pepper.  As you throw it on the grill, sprinkle with Herb de Provence.  Grill.  Serve with chevrie or other goat cheese.  Sides as desired.  Goes good with artisan bread. 

2. Clean boneless chicken breasts. 15min marinade in chopped fresh rosemary, crushed fresh garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil mix.  Grill.  Slice thinly.  Place on warm pita/flatbread with veggies.  Chicken gyros...mmm.  If you can make a quick tzatziki sauce, all the better.  We usually don't go that far and use a little greek yogurt instead. 

Both those meals go great with baked, wedged, Yukon Golds.  Drizzle them with olive oil, a touch of butter, salt, pepper, garlic, maybe rosemary. 

Fresh green beans with a little lemon butter.

I'm seriously sick of living like a bachelor right now... I need to get moved in with my wife again soon.

[Lantyssa]

It's not the cooking I hate so much as the cleaning up.

[Selby]

My diet is practically Sky's.  Either veggie "meat" or chicken\turkey, veggies, and maybe some rice.  5-15 minutes for dinner and done.  Do dishes while I'm cooking food so that when it's done all I have to do is eat and wash the plate.