Epicurious bans beef

[Mike Nolan]

Epicurious will no longer feature recipes or articles on beef. One less place I need to check.

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• This topic was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[BakerAunt]

None of their recipes, of late, has appealed to me--too many strange ingredients.

[cwcdesign]

The only time I tend to use it is when I'm looking for an old Gourmet recipe - doesn't happen too often.

My sister uses it a lot but the change won't bother her as they don't eat meat anyway - mostly chicken and fish.

I wonder if part of what went into their decision was the data on recipe searches - maybe there were fewer meat searches, so they thought it could be a good decision. Who knows

• This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by cwcdesign.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, the Wall Street Journal said Condé Nast was doing it to 'help save the planet'. But dairy products are still OK, I guess. Wait until they look into chicken and egg production issues! (We hear a lot about both of those because Iowa and Nebraska are major egg production states and Costco has recently set up some broiler chicken production facilities in this part of Nebraska.)

[BakerAunt]

Yes, people who want to save the planet by giving up all beef will also need to give up dairy and leather.

We do not eat a lot of beef, and that was partly by preference as we prefer chicken, turkey, and some pork. Beef is on our menu as an occasional food--in my Mom's hamburger stroganoff or in stew, and in the latter, I double the vegetables and liquids. As we both need to watch our saturated fat intake, we have not explored more beef recipes.

I've noted that some of the cooking emails I get--some might be Epicurious--are big on "plant milks," but I have looked at the list of ingredients on plant milks, and I would not consume them. If people want to be vegan, that is their choice, but some of the workarounds that I've seen to make alternatives that are vegan strike me as less healthy, and perhaps also have negative impacts on the planet.

I am in favor of "saving the planet," but I wonder if the writers of Epicurious have looked at some of their other non-food habits that are likely more detrimental to the planet. Whenever Epicurious does a review of kitchen tools, etc., I often shake my head at their recommendations.

[Mike Nolan]

Condé Nast is a company dedicated to killing trees (to make paper), isn't it?

[Janiebakes]

Baker Aunt, you are so right about those "vegan workarounds" Even the founder of "Impossible Meats" has expressed doubt about how good for you those meats might be. I don't have the exact quote but it was something like : these meats are a purely chemical process made in a lab. When the pandemic hit, we discovered a local farm where they breed the cattle, raise the feed and grass the cattle eat and sell just from their farmstore. I feel like that is the best way for us to go. The prices are not nearly as cheap as the grocery store so we buy less meat but enjoy it more.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't tried an Impossible Burger yet, and I'm not really in a big hurry to do so. They're far more processed than anything else on the menu and I'm not sure they're any better for you based on the nutrition label.

I'm sort of curious to try one of those lab-grown steaks, but I'm not sure where I'd get one yet, and for the price I could buy certified Piedmontese beef. (That's where I bought my last batch of beef shanks and bones.)

[navlys]

I haven't enjoyed BA for a few years now. I think their recipes are strange.

[BakerAunt]

I'm not sure about the relationship between Bon Appetit and Epicurious. An email from Bon Appetit this evening is full of beef recipes. I assumed both magazines are owned by Conde Nast but perhaps operate independently from each other?

[Mike Nolan]

They currently have separate editorial teams, but that doesn't mean that BA won't be 'encouraged' to follow suit.

[BakerAunt]

Mark Bittman weighs in. This is an article and also has a recording of an interview he gave on All Things Considered:

https://www.bittmanproject.com/p/epicurious-and-eleven-madison-park?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMTAxMzQwNywicG9zdF9pZCI6MzYyNTQ1NzYsIl8iOiJyRklVMCIsImlhdCI6MTYyMDc0MzYyOCwiZXhwIjoxNjIwNzQ3MjI4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTc1MzY2Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.oQ78cQuerHOcpdacYgmAIZwWYPcujyjG6Ws5u8HPonA&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#play

[Mike Nolan]

Agriculture on a scale large enough to be economical and feed the world is going to create large-scale environmental issues. How these are addressed and at what cost is going to be a major challenge.

I read yesterday where corn prices have doubled in a year, part of the reason for that is that 40% of the corn is being used for biofuel production (eg, ethanol.) And of the corn that is used for food, less than 5% is for human consumption.

You can't get all the essential amino acids from corn, in fact I don't think there are any cereals or grains that have all the necessary proteins. (Combinations of foods, like rice and beans, can have all 8 essential amino acids.)

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