Cooking Heritage Breeds

Hey all, just got back from Celebrity Dairy in Silar City, NC where I was cooking for a Slow Food USA picnic.

I met lots of great people, including Jenny from Slow Food USA, Shane from the area, Brit and Fleming from Celebrity Dairy (the hosts), Angelique from ALBC, and many others. This is a group of very passionate and dedicated folks, and I was honored to work with them.

We cooked some things that I had not worked with before. Buckeye Chicken was a wonderful fowl, reminiscent of fresh pheasant, it had long lean legs, flat breast, and rich color and flavor. We did a simple braise in rich chicken stock to accentuate it's natural flavor profile.

Pineywoods beef was wonderful, grass fed and very full flavored. We made a simple meat loaf from that, and it was marvelous.

Tennessee fainting goat was turned into meatballs with a cream sauce. The meatballs had goats milk and curd mixed in, which produced a tender and very flavorful product.

Black turkey was brined and roasted. the meat was nutty and juicy, much more flavor that supermarket birds.

Finally, we did a crisp with staymen apples, accompanied by goats milk ice cream, simply amazing.

Seek out and try some different meats in your area. Local harvest is a good source, or go to my web site for more links http://www.chefkurt.com/, you will be glad you did! Ciao for now, Kurt