Thoughts | Saul's Deli

Grass-Fed Adventures of a 100 + Seat Diner

July 15, 2009 – 1:15 pm

Two weeks ago, we were finally able to switch our brisket, steak, hamburger and cabbage roll sourcing to 100% grass-fed beef. From Marin Sun Farms. Extremely local.

Grass-fed brisket, butterball potatoes and riverdog chard

It’s so much more flavorful, the texture more real. It’s amazing. Higher in omega 3 fatty acids, beta carotene and CLA, another “good” fat, and Vitamin E. It’s leaner, so our kitchen is adjusting to new cooking methods. Our diners are advised that well-done might be too, well, done.

American had never tasted corn-fed beef until WWII. But now, most beef eaten the US is corn-fed, with a very different flavor profile and texture. Since grass-fed beef predates most of us, taste memories are made of corn-fed flavor. So it’s an adventure in revisiting and redefining authenticity, too.

What was the hold-up in going grass-fed? As a 100 seat diner, we source beef at a very high volume. Marin Sun Farms is now able to supply us at that volume.

And why not 100% grass-fed pastrami and corned beef . . . yet?

Pastrami and corned beef come from a small cut of muscle – the navel end of the brisket. Each cow yields just two briskets. And as a cut of meat with high fat content, corn-fed brisket has only a 40% yield of usable meat. So far, we can’t source that many grass-fed cows locally.

But we’re working on it. For the future of Deli.

In our Re-plating Pastrami post, we discuss the huge impact of beef on the environment – well over and above poultry, pork, and fish.

Indeed, grass-fed and local beef still has a much higher impact than other sources of animal protein, but is a significant improvement for environment and human health over grain-fed and grain-finished.

Grass-fed patty melt on grilled rye

Grass-fed cattle ranching is far more of a closed-loop ecosystem. Grazing helps sequester carbon. From the Rodale Institute via Treehugger:

. . . well-managed cattle can greatly enhance the growth and propagation of grasses. These grasses can sequester huge amounts of carbon annually, especially when grazing practices include high density, short-term exposure efforts with the cattle eating the grasses down and moving on to let the grasses grow back. On just one acre of biologically healthy grassland soil, there can be between 0.5 – 1.5 tons of carbon deposited in the soil annually.

Grass-fed cattle and pastured chickens live symbiotically. Chickens can follow up on cow patties, which are full of worms, pecking and breaking patties apart and spreading them, fertilizing the grass. Check out this entertaining video of Joel Salatin, celebrity sustainable farmer, on his process.

Michael Pollan – a regular customer to whom we owe many thanks for inspiration in our persistence and ongoing quest for grass-fed sourcing – described the beauty of grass-fed cattle ranching at Salatin’s Polyface Farms for Gourmet Magazine.

And we haven’t even gotten into the petroleum inputs demanded by grain-fed cattle ranching. The synthetic nitrogen fertilizing corn and soy monocultures used to produce feed, polluting our water supply and killing marine life. The food miles required to transport grain to centralized, massive feedlots. The energy required to drill and transport these oil-based inputs.

The costs of feeding cows, antibiotics, other cows, M & M byproducts . . .

Yes, we much prefer the taste of grass-fed, local beef.

Marin Sun Farms Delivery

By SaulsDeli | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Survival guide for the Jewish Deli: Re-Plating Pastrami

June 1, 2009 – 8:54 pm

In 1936, there were an estimated 5,000 delis in New York City. Today, only a few still exist.

The Jewish deli will not survive on nostalgia alone.

To stay relevant, Jewish deli cuisine cannot be frozen in time. Our culinary direction/choices must:

Value local commerce and local economies
Revive local food security
Provide for contemporary tastes: greater appetite for fresh vegetables, legumes, grains, and fruits
Acknowledge modern science: the relationship of food to health, and
Recognize food production’s impact on the environment
Humanely treat the animals we eat: know slaughter methods, quality of life.

These are issues to which we are accountable, even when upholding cherished traditions and cherished dishes. Our menus cannot continue be vast and unchanging year-round. Menus must respect season, time, and place.

Of course, tradition and social/environmental responsibility are not always at odds. Sourcing from local, small-scale food producers is one path to reclaiming our cultural roots, as we discussed in our post on authentic Jewish food.

But stewarding Jewish cuisine responsibly is more complicated than that. Beyond organic? Beyond local.

Beyond “the pastrami sandwich was THIS big!”

Meat, especially beef, contributes greatly to global warming.18% of global greenhouse gases come from livestock production. As ruminants, cows produce methane, 20 times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon. Livestock also plays a large role in water depletion and pollution, energy use, land degradation, oil demand/petroleum-based fertilizer use and biodiversity destruction. Americans eat about eight ounces of meat a day, about twice the global average, and growing global demand is expected to accelerate the damage. Click here for one of Mark Bittman’s hilarious and compelling rants against the amount of meat we consume.

What about grass-finished beef? Shockingly, grass-finished beef has the potential to generate as much as 50% more GHG emissions than grain-fed beef. Albert Straus of the Straus Family Creamery points out in this op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle that raising 100% pastured dairy cows isn’t always possible or sustainable even for small, organic family farms, depending on location and climate.

(Of course, there are still many environmental and health benefits to choosing grass-fed over grain-fed beef, and we are aiming for local and grass-fed as much as possible at Saul’s.)

And eating vegetarian has a lower carbon footprint than eating local meat – no matter how many food miles those veggies, soy, legumes and grains have traveled. Full study here.

What’s more: Pastrami and corned beef come from a small cut of muscle – the navel end of the brisket. This cut of beef is __ pounds on average, and each cow yields just two briskets. At this rate, a single deli potentially requires 10, 20, 30 cows a day.

Oy, Gevalt.

What is Saul’s doing? Redefining “Jewish Cuisine”

Pastrami not the centerpiece of Saul’s or Jewish cuisine: More chicken, turkey, seafood, legume and grain-based dishes. Poultry are not ruminants, and do not have as severe an impact on climate as cows. Poultry production is also more efficient, because of reproductive cycles and grain conversion to meat. Substituting all beef production for chicken would cut meat’s projected carbon footprint by 70 percent, according to a recent study. Responsibly farmed seafood is a more efficient source of protein than all meat, both in terms of reproduction and grain conversion.

Reasserting Jewish cuisine’s rich vegetarian history: 1930’s Poland gave rise to more vegetarian dishes. Sephardic influence emphasizes vegetables, legumes, grains and seafood.

Offering smaller sandwiches: Not the traditional ten or eight ounces of meat on a sandwich – instead, six or four. Though we are purchasing less pastrami and requiring fewer cows, more sandwiches are being served. More Saul’s customers are enjoying and sharing the pastrami experience. Images of towering pastrami sandwiches may dominate the popular deli imagination. Many might argue that mountains of pastrami define authentic deli. But Saul’s is re-plating pastrami. We are sheparding a new presentation for pastrami. We are reducing authenticity’s carbon footprint.

Offering grass-fed beef where possible: we serve Marin Sun Farms grass-fed brisket and ground beef – hamburgers and cabbage rolls. We serve Niman Ranch pastrami and lamb, which is also significantly more sustainable than factory farmed.

Surviving: We want to be a cultural home for years to come. We want to stay viable as a business and a member of the local and global community. To continue serving Jewish cuisine, we seek culinary inspiration from many sources: our shared roots, our history; classic dishes; diasporic influences; the tastes and demands of our customers; social and environmental responsibility; public health . . . . . and the revelations of an evolving food consciousness. We take what is relevant from the past to the future.

To survive through the growing food revolution, Jewish diner cuisine cannot continue to be a purely nostalgic cuisine.

By SaulsDeli | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Carbon footprint of food, food security, local economy, local foodshed, sustainable meat | Comments (1)

The Authentic Jewish Deli: Reconnecting Jewish cuisine to its roots

March 30, 2009 – 8:51 pm

What is an authentic Jewish deli? At Saul’s, we believe it is much more than a mountain of pastrami. Saul’s is engaging in a larger story than one generation’s mid-20th century New York experience, which is only one stage in the evolution of our cuisine.

Saul’s connects to our Jewish roots all along the timeline of that evolution. The recipes of Old-world kitchens grew out of pre-industrialized food supply systems, local economic partnerships, community self-sufficiency, resourcefulness and hearty pragmatism. Our immigrant cuisine of the late 1800’s, which gave birth to the American Jewish deli, owed its robustness to these cultural mores. While we all might have different opinions of exactly how this or that classic Jewish dish should taste or look, the core of authentic Jewish cuisine can be traced to these roots.

In an effort to reconnect to these mores, Saul’s partners with local organic producers wherever possible, avoids industrial pre-processing, and embraces sustainability as the ultimate pragmatism. This is how Saul’s holds true to the hearty, authentic culinary traditions of Jewish culture.

This is our Jewish restaurant and deli. This is Saul’s.

Because Jewish culinary history is so rich, because there is so much work to be done to return authenticity to our food system and cuisine, Saul’s mission is quite ambitious.

We are a resource for shared culinary traditions, taste memories, and progressively, ethically
sourced and influenced dishes. We strive to re-establish the food systems of our roots,
and we are a place where diverse and intimate community congregates to eat a familiar and vital cuisine.

**********
For the record, the nostalgic “New York style delis” of more recent memory came to represent radical changes in Jewish food values mirroring changes in American food production generally.

To name a few:
Factory-produced rye bread replacing old-world style rye from artisanal local bakeries each with their own ingredient sources and special variations in texture and flavor.

Intensive, confined feeding operations and routine use of antibiotics and hormones for smoked and cured meats.

The consolidation of the soda industry, from hundreds of small-batch, regional and local soda alchemists in the New York area alone, to just one brand recalling that era and those flavors.
Dr. Brown’s– which originated as a small producer — is now sweetened with high-fructose
corn syrup and owned by Canada Dry, which is owned by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, a unit of Dr
Pepper Snapple Group.

All this centralization brought more food miles, more fossil fuel inputs, and diminished the integrity of the neighborhood deli experience. Close relationships between local purveyors, restaurants, and customers were lost, existing more in memory than in the present.
No wonder delis conjure so much unapologetic nostalgia, so much searching to re-live memory and re-assert shared experience.

By SaulsDeli | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Authentic Jewish Deli, Eastern European food, local economies, local economy, NY Deli, sustainable economies | Comments (0)

Inaugural Bash at Saul’s

January 21, 2009 – 8:49 pm

We knew hosting this party would be exciting, but were overwhelmed by what an emotional/amazing experience it became as the day unfolded.

We were packed, standing room only, guests sharing tables with new friends and not-so new friends, to watch President Obama’s inauguration together. We wove through the dense, ecstatic crowd to bring food to tables, an absolute blast.

We broadcast the celebration and analysis all day long. Cheeseboard Collective partied across the street – DJ and dancing. Our next door neighbor, Masse’s Pastries, was in D.C.

How incredible to spend this day with so many friends/customers and colleagues. Words can’t express how much it brought the community – and Americans across the nation – together.