Tender Belly Blog
No Butts About It
Notice anything new at the butcher shop or grocery store meat case? The meat may look familiar but some of the labels probably don’t. To make it easier for consumers, the National Pork Board and the Beef Checkoff Program recently changed the names of a lot of cuts when they updated the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards. Many pork cuts now match the names for … Read More
Small Heritage Pig Farms Are under Attack
Fans of great pork are upset at government efforts to make it harder for small farms to raise heritage breed pigs. It started last year when the Michigan Division of Natural Resources (DNR) issued an order intended to eliminate feral pigs, which, like other wild animals, can carry diseases and trample crops. Officials in nine other states are considering similar mandates. The Michigan order outlaws a … Read More
Why is Animal Welfare Important?
It’s an old saw –nobody wants to know how the sausage is made. We get it. But the way animals are treated is important. We may not talk about it or even think about it, but most of us want to believe that the meat we enjoy comes from animals that have been well treated. The world’s major religions even decree that righteous people take … Read More
Do you care where your meat comes from?
Lots of people don’t. That’s why the quality of the pork, chicken or beef you buy at the grocery store or wholesaler can vary so widely. And why the price of a pound of meat is so different from store to store. The reason is simple: it’s pretty easy to get meat to market cheaply if you don’t care how the animals were treated. It … Read More
The Biz on Heritage Breed Pigs
Celebrity chefs, contestants in TV cooking challenges and food bloggers all seem to be sold on heritage pork. They rave about the taste, texture and nutritional content of heritage meat as compared with the chops, ham and bacon you can buy at any grocery store. Just what is a heritage pig? It’s a good question. You’ve probably eaten heritage (or heirloom) tomatoes, which are not … Read More
Denver eateries turning to Tender Belly’s pampered pigs
Date: Friday, November 18, 2011, 4:00am MST View photo gallery (2 photos) Kathleen Lavine | Denver Business Journal Tender Belly owners Erik and Shannon Duffy eat Carbonara a la Panzano Tagliatelle with house-cured pancetta, Grana Padano and cracked black pepper topped with a fried egg. The dish is made with pancetta from Tender Belly. At right is Panzano’s executive chef, Elise Wiggins. Tender Belly’s business … Read More
Where’d you get that pork?
Food journalist Mark Bittman recently pointed out how important it is to know how pork is raised. In a cooking segment with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today Show, he said it’s easy to tell by the taste where pork comes from. “There’s a huge difference between factory raised pork, what you could call industrial pork, and sustainable naturally raised and, local in some cases, pork,” … Read More
Worried about what you’re serving – or eating – this holiday season?
You’ve probably heard some scary things about pork this week. Researchers at Consumer Reports(1) found that 69 percent of pork samples from around the country contained bacteria that can cause fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Even worse, the bacteria were resistant to antibiotics, probably because a lot of pork farms feed the animals low-dose antibiotics. And 20 percent of the pork contained a drug that’s … Read More
What Makes Berkshire Ham & Pork So Good?
Berkshire hogs, prized around the world for their tender, juicy meat, have achieved near-legendary status. American chefs demand the meat for their high end restaurants. Japanese consumers prize it so highly that they gave it a special name – kurobuta, or black hog – and willingly pay premium prices for it. Why is Berkshire pork and ham so delicious? Some say it started back in … Read More
New Tender Belly Website!
We’re excited for our new website! Have a look around. We’ll still be tweaking things here and there over the next week or so, so check back often! -Tender Belly