Whole Foods, Beyond The Store
Slow foods, whole foods? I’m Susan Allen stay tuned to Open Range in today’s program I’ll tell you why, "slow and whole" have nothing to do with a boutique grocery store nor a style of eating, but everything to do with what could become a “hot” grilling trend. It isn’t uncommon at some summer events to feature a pig roast but a steer? A whole darn cow! The logistic alone seem daunting and I have to admit not very appetizing but a guy named Jeff Bannister from South Carolina pulled it off and by doing so made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Bannister had apparently been “cooking up” this idea of roasting a whole steer for quite some time and time is what he needed to a construct a fourteen foot grill and concrete pit to accommodate the huge animal. He also needed six hefty friends to lug the beef from slaughter house to the barby. Bannister’s cook out, all stemed from a travel show where he once watched Argentina gaucho’s roast a whole steer for a village celebration. Their recipe called for "1 medium cow, butterflied, skin removed" and "one heavy block-and-tackle attached to a steel stanchion set in concrete." Yum, but easy enough right? Wrong, a whole beef with a variety of cuts is far more difficult to pull off then say a whole goat, lamb or pig Especially when the carcass erupts in flames and requires a garden hose to dose. Saying the beef was Char-broiled would be kind. Yet given all the publicity it garnered it ended up a success for Bannister while bringing new meaning the new whole head to tail cooking trend.championed by celebrity chefs. I’ll pass.
