So I know about pastured beef... what about lamb and pork?

[BetsyPage]

A couple of friends and I are hoping to join a meat CSA and start getting pastured chicken, pork and lamb. I'm really excited about it! But I mostly hear about the benefits of pastured beef. Does anyone have any general info or cooking tips or great websites to share for preparing pastured pork and lamb in particular?

Also, I believe we would be getting about 9 lbs of meat per month... like how many meals could I expect to get from that? I would expect it would be 3-4 different "cuts"...

Thanks!

[ursusarctos]

Well I don't know about pork, but we mostly eat lamb nowadays. You can pretty much use it anywhere you would use beef. It's definitely more flavorful and the fat can taste a bit overpowering, but overall it can be used in almost exactly the same ways. Especially if you get it ground. We often get "tougher" cuts like shoulder and make stews. A pound of bone-in shoulder with some root veggies and a side dish gets me two meals for two - but that's not including the broth I make out of the bones and then use for a soup or two.

[FernG]

Pastured pork is much more marbled than factory pork. The extra fat adds tenderness and moistness and flavor. It's much easier to cook than factory pork. I trim off outside fat to save and render. I also save the meat juices for sauces or broths and skim off any fat for frying other things. You will probably be very happy with the pork.

[Brown Lioness]

Pastured pork is SOOO flavorful and moist. I love it!

[mamadelbosque]

Pastured pork is great stuff Mostly we eat pork as bacon & red/green chili, but yeah.

I've never heard of lamb being marketed as 'pastured'... I suppose you *could* keep them penned up and fed corn/hay/whatever, but I don't think its done (or at least, not all that much). We get our lambs from friends locally. Its great stuff!! Lamb burgers are GREAT! otherwise, we tend to grill the legs & chops lightly and just eat them like that. I think we may have made a stew once or twice which was yummy, but mostly we just grill it

[BetsyPage]

LOL good point about the lamb! I've only cooked it once or twice, that would be a new adventure for me. But I have eaten it in restaurants and love it.

I used to get pastured pork bacon and it was awesome. I tried some recently from my farmer's market and it wasn't tasty, then I realized doh it was not cured. Think I saw something about brining uncured bacon on a blog, need to find that link again!

[hjrowan]

No advice on the pork because I don't eat it but you may want to try British and New Zealand websites for lamb recipes!! We eat much more lamb than Americans and our lamb is never corn-fed In fact I was shocked when I found out that lamb is often corn-fed (or at least corn-finished) over here.

Roast leg of lamb is always a winner, lamb steaks (yum) and ground lamb made into Shepherd's Pie, Mousaka, meatballs - double yum!

Have a look here for some recipes:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1...borlotti-beans

This NZ site has some info on cuts and cooking techniques
http://www.nzlamb.com/content/recipes.html#key

Happy eating!