The Healthy Cooking Coach

Jerk Pork Ribs

 I’m always looking for new ways to vary the way I season meat. I found this recipe in a pamphlet created by the National Pork Board that I picked up at The West of Western Culinary Festival here in Phoenix, AZ, in March of 2009. The pamphlet went into a file that I pulled out last summer, and again recently, when I was looking for ideas for cooking ribs.

I found the recipe straightforward. It requiring no hands-on, other than rubbing on the spices before cooking, uncovering, basting once, returning it the oven, then taking it out and slicing. So many of my favorite recipes are like that. I can start them cooking and go on to another recipe (or recipes) or focus on non-cooking tasks while the food cooks.

 Photo credit: Chef Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Cook once, eat thrice
On this particular morning here’s what I did between 7 and 8:15 am before turning on the computer and getting to work (at home):

• Season 3# of ribs and start cooking
• Season 4# chicken thighs, start baking
• Toss with XVOO and roast a head of garlic
• Rinse, halve, oil, and roast 2 artichokes
• Start a pot of Creamy Carrot Soup
• Marinate 2# Salmon Bellies (to cook later)
• Wash, drain, season 1# kale
• Wash dishes
• Make 2 thermos bottles of tea

From there I went upstairs to work. I would puree the contents of the soup pot with coconut milk in 30 minutes. I would freeze half of the soup, most of the chicken thighs, and some of the Jerk Ribs once they were chilled to refrigerator temperature. I would have brunch once the ribs and kale were ready (paired with a leftover sweet potato). The rest of the food would go into the fridge for future meals.

My plan
I planned to cook the salmon for an early supper (and freeze most of it). I would serve Salmon Bellies with a cup of Creamy Carrot Soup, a tossed green salad, a roasted artichoke, and maybe a piece of fruit. Some of the the roasted garlic would go into the salad. The tea I would drink throughout the day. The next day I would have great leftovers. The day after I might only need to make one or two new dishes. The leftover pan juices from the roast would be great for dipping the artichoke pieces into later.

Photo credit: Chef Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Spice it up
I keep a well stocked spice cabinet (at 50 or 60 different dried herbs and spices) and I’d just purchased three pounds of pork back ribs, so I had all the necessary ingredients on hand. I made a double batch of the spice blend so I’d have some to try on fish as well. I jotted down my departures from the recipe: replacing sugar with coconut palm sugar, refined salt with unrefined sea salt, and replacing onion and pepper with alternatives (to test this option for anyone with a food allergy panel that might have to avoid these foods temporarily or long term).

Easy assembly
True to the instructions, the recipe took only 10 minutes to prep. I preheated the oven while I mixed up the spices and rubbed them on the ribs. I made one and a half times the recipe. I popped it in the oven, and set a timer (if you’re not in the habit of doing this, start now, it can save you a lot of disappointment and wasted food).

Multitask in the kitchen and around the house
You can cook an a lot of foods at once making them ready for multiple meals. Strike while the oven's hot: If you're turning on the oven to bake or roast once dish, why not cook two or three others at the same time? Save energy and save time by cooking in quantity. You can also start foods cooking before you do your laundry, pay bills, clean the house, write letters, check and send emails, or do other work around the home. Be sure to set timers and gear the complexity or simplicity of the recipes to your schedule. Choose recipes that can be left unattended (with a loud enough timer that you’ll hear in another room) if you won’t be in the kitchen.

Photo credits: Chef Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Roasted kale?
I wanted to try a recipe for roasted kale (some sites call it Crispy Kale or Kale Chips, but mine never got that crisp all over, still it tasted great). The kale recipe, like the rib recipe, was easy.  I rinsed and de-stemmed the kale, spun and patted it dry (a step some recipes failed to mention), tore it into roughly 3-inch pieces, tossed with a measured amount of oil (I used avocado oil), sea salt (pepper optional), then placed it on a sheet pan in the oven for about 30 minutes, stirring part way through. My greens took longer because they weren’t as dry as the recipe required, something I made note of when I made the recipe again later in the week. Kale shrinks a lot: 4 cups raw will reduces to 1 cup cooked, concentrating the volume and nutrients.

For kale chip recipes, click here. 

Cook wisely
After the ribs cooked for 1 1/2 hours and I uncovered them, I turned the heat up to 375˚F and placed the pan of kale in the oven and let it roast with the ribs. I put a leftover sweet potato (from the previous day) in the oven (in a small baking pan, not directly on the racks) to heat. Lunch was ready about 30 to 40 minutes later. Cooking kale that way (in the oven on a shallow baking tray) saved time (I didn’t have to cut it into bite size pieces or stir and sauté). It saved energy (the oven was already on and the greens cooked along with the roast and the sweet potato I was reheating). Best of all, I had leftovers ready for the next day.

Jerk Ribs
Prep: 10 minutes      Cooking: 1 1/2 to 2 hours        Yield: 10 servings

This recipe from The National Pork Board requires very little hands-on time. It can cook while you do other things in or out of the kitchen. Leftovers reheat well in a toaster oven and also freeze well, for future meals if wrapped in parchment paper, then aluminum foil, and slipped into a zip locking bag. Alternatively, you can wrap in parchment and place in a Pyrex glass container with a lid in the fridge, making it ready to reheat while avoiding plastic containers.

Image right © National Pork Board  
   
Ingredients

• 2     pounds pork back ribs
• 2     tablespoons dried minced onion*
• 4     teaspoons ground thyme
• 1     tablespoon sugar (I used Coconut Secret palm sugar)
• 1     tablespoon onion powder*
• 2     teaspoons salt (I used finely ground unrefined sea salt: Redmond RealSalt)
• 2     teaspoons ground allspice
• 2     teaspoons black pepper
• 1     teaspoon ground red pepper (or additional black pepper)
• 1/2  teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon

Note: If allergic to onion, I suggest you replace minced onion minced fresh garlic and replace onion powder with dry mustard.
       
1. Place all ingredients except ribs in small jar with tight-fitting lid; cover and shake until well blended.     Rub dry mixture onto all surfaces of ribs. (You may have some leftover spice rub so don’t add it all at     once. Sprinkle it on a little at a time, and rub in with clean, dry hands.)
2. Select your cooking method.
    To Grill: Prepare grill with rectangular foil drip pan. Bank briquets on either side of drip pan for             indirect cooking. Place ribs on grid over drip pan. Grill, on covered grill, over low coals 1-1/2 hours or     until ribs are tender, turning occasionally.
    To bake in the oven: place seasoned ribs in an 18x9x2 or 14x9x2 baking pan. Cover pan tightly with     foil. Place in a 350˚F oven for 1 1/2 hours, then uncover, baste roast with pan juice, turn the heat up     to 375˚F and bake for another 30 minutes, until tender  and the meat easily pulls away from the bone     when cut (i.e., you can wiggle the bone from the meat).
 3. To serve, cut into 1- or 2-rib portions. Cover and refrigerate leftovers and reheat in a toaster oven at     300˚F or 350˚F for 15 to 20 minutes. Save the meat juices in a heat-proof custard cup. Heat in a             toaster oven and spoon over the roast or vegetables in a meal. This recipe also freezes well.

Nature’s Garden Delivered to your door

Eat fresh, eat local, eat well
It’s no secret: fresher vegetables and fruits taste better. The closer to home they’re grown, the better... for you, your taste buds, your community, and the planet. If  organically or bio-dynamically grown, they get bonus points. To read more about the benefits of fresh, locally grown produce, pick up a copy of The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Matesz & Don Matesz (Planetary Press, 2004). You can order it online (link above). If you live in the Phoenix Metro area, you can buy it at Healing Pages Books, Changing Hands Books, Desert Sage Herbs, or Chakra 4 Tea House.

Photo right: Curt Granthen, Copyright 2004©

Convenient delivery
Can’t make it to your local farmer’s market for freshest produce? No problem! Nature’s Garden Delivers. That’s right, if you live in the greater Phoenix area you can have organic produce delivered to your door.

I previously shied away from produce delivery services and CSAs for several reasons: a) I like picking out my produce; b) I thought they’d give me too little of what I eat most and too much of what I don’t; and c) I thought it would be too expensive for what I would get. Then my friends Kenny & Brenna (FishHugger Salmon & Gras-sfed Beef supplies in Phx) told me about Nature’s Garden Delivered. They gave me some of the fruit from the big boxes they got. I was impressed. I decided to give it a three week trial.

This affordable organic food delivery service offers flexibility, fresh produce, a lot of it locally grown, and they follow eco-friendly practices. So far I like what I've experienced. The produce has been fresh and delicious and the staff has been courteous and helpful.

Customize your box
You can choose a vegetable box, fruit box, or combination box. Select which fruits and vegetables you are open to receiving and which ones you never want to see. If your trees are overflowing with lemons you can specify “no lemons.” If your kids are allergic to mangoes or pineapples, you can specify that you don’t want these, ever.

You can add additional items to your box for an added charge if you want more. You can make changes to your food preferences, box size, frequency of delivery, skip a week if you need to, or put your order on hold for vacation. They create orders on Saturday morning for the following week. You simply log in over the weekend. You can make up to three substitutions per week. There are no sign up fees, no membership fees, and you have the flexibility to cancel anytime. Best of all they offer reasonable prices and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

More than veggies and fruits
You can order fresh or dried herbs and spices (from garlic to Kenny’s FishHugger Spice Rubs), organic coffee and tea, extra-virgin olive oil produced in California or Arizona, raw honey from the Southwest, canned salmon, and frozen wild salmon and grass-fed meat (availability varies with the season), and many other items.

Environmentally-friendly packaging
One of the first things I noticed was that Nature’s Garden Delivered uses reclaimed boxes (not Styrofoam coolers) and non-petroleum green plastic bags made from non-GMO corn (cool!). They issue statements by email to save paper. They’re also open to suggestions for new vendors and new products. They also offer referral a bonus if you tell friends who sign up and use their service. Btw: If you decide to try them out, please tell them Chef Rachel sent you!

My first week’s box
The Tiny box is promoted as the perfect size for a busy professional or couple. Even though I’m cooking for one most of the time (unless I’m gearing up for a cooking class, cooking party, or other event), I ordered the next size up, the Small box, advertised as the best size for a small family of two or three. I eat a lot of produce. It makes up the largest volume of what I eat and I include fresh vegetables or vegetables and fruit at every meal. If I have a snack, it’s usually fresh or cooked fruit.

So here’s what was in my first box*   
Item                                Quantity
Apples                             3
Bananas                           5
BROCCOLI                        2 bunches
Bagged CARROTS              1 small bag
Greens COLLARD              2 bunches
Green CUCUMBER             1
Red Bore KALE                  1 small bunch
Red Romaine LETTUCE      1 bunch (2 small heads)
Peach PEACH                    3
Red RADISH                       1 bunch
Medium ZUCCHINI            2  small

Photo credit: Rachel Albert Copyright 2010©

* Note: The contents of your box wouldn’t be identical to mine even if you live in Phoenix and ordered the same size box, the same week. Here’s why: Your preferences would likely vary and you would probably make different substitutions. For example, I had a bag of oranges and a few avocados in the house so I didn’t want these in my box this week. I had pears to use up and I eat a lot of leafy greens so I subbed collards for some of the fruit that would otherwise have been in my box.

What would a box of organic produce like this cost? $35 delivered to your door. Yes, it costs more than buying the produce from a farmers' market, but you're paying for convenience.
Note: If you decide to try Nature’s Garden Delivered, please tell them Chef Rachel sent you!

Here’s what I made so far
With half the lettuce, half the cucumber, two-thirds of the radishes, and a few of the carrots, I made an Everlasting Salad (photo right; recipe courtesy of paleo and primal diet expert, Don Matesz), which will do me well for a few days. I can jazz it up with lemon juice, roasted garlic, olives, unrefined sea salt, pine nuts, raisins, or olives over the next few days. With half the broccoli, a third of the carrots, and the small bunch of kale I made a Parboiled Vegetable Medley (photo right) that I might toss with homemade cilantro pesto or Lemonette dressing.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert Copyright 2010©

Here’s what I plan to make this week
* Roasted zucchini or Creamless Cream of Zucchini Soup.
* Frozen Banana Delight or gluten-free banana bread for a treat next weekend.
* Twice Cooked Greens with the collards or Whole Boiled Greens (recipes from The Garden of Eating) as a bed for the grassfed Teriyaki Beef Short Ribs in my freezer.
* Have the apples for dessert or snacks
* Another Everlasting Green Salad in a few days
* Stir fried broccoli and carrots or more blanched broccoli and carrots.

Have you used this service or one like it?
Do you subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or other weekly produce service? Do you pick it up from the farmer or have it delivered? If so, tell me what you do, how long you’ve done it, and what your experience has been. Has it made it easier for you to eat more fresh produce? Made you

If you don't live in Phoenix, AZ, google CSA or Community Supported Agriculture and your locality and see what comes up. You can also look for co-op buying clubs in your area that include fresh produce. This is becoming more common.

Chicken in Spicy Asian Sauce (Nuoc Cham)

I love trying new products and new recipes. Different herbs, spices, rubs, marinades, sauces, relishes, and cooking techniques add a change of taste to so many foods. Recently I received samples of coconut vinegar, coconut nectar, coconut crystals, coconut aminos, and coconut flour from Coconut Secret. I’ve been trying them in different recipes and enjoying the results. Last week I made a marinade for chicken drumettes using several of the products. I liked the way the recipe came out. I like the products and I’ll post some of the other recipes I’ve made in the coming weeks.

About coconut vinegar
The flavor and color of coconut vinegar can vary widely depending upon whether the vinegar was made from coconut water (very common) or from coconut nectar. To read more about coconut vinegar on the Coconut Secret website.

About coconut nectar
To read about coconut nectar, how it’s made and what makes it different from other sweeteners.

About coconut aminos
If you’re looking for a soy sauce flavored alternative that doesn’t contain soy or bean lectins, coconut aminos may be just what you’ve been waiting for. It has a rich, savory, slightly meaty flavor that’s more mild and far lower in sodium than soy sauce, shoyu, or tamari. If you like the flavor but miss the salty taste, you can use more of it or add a little unrefined, mineral-rich sea salt (e.g., Redmond Real Salt or Celtic Sea Salt) to whatever you make with it. I’ve used it in cooking, marinating, and as a dipping sauce for sushi.

 If you don’t find these new coconut products in your local natural foods stores, contact the company, Coconut Secret. They can tell you which chain stores will be carrying them and when. They may also have them available for mail order. In the meantime, make substitutions if you must. Here's what the recipe looks like on the right, served with an Everlasting Salad and (baked, then) Mashed Sweet Potato with butter and ginger.

In praise of dark meat
Although many people eat only chicken breast meat but I prefer to have a mix of white meat and dark meat in my diet. Dark meat chicken is more moist and a great source of iron and zinc, nutrients that are poorly supplied by breast meat. I also like to leave the skin on sometimes. It’s a great source of fat on a protein and produce rich diet. If you’re eating a paleo, primal, or low-carb, or low-starch diet, it’s particularly important to eat enough fat to provide a feeling of satiety at meal, to stabilize your blood sugar and energy levels, and ward off a rapid return of hunger.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Save that marinade
Although many people discard marinades after they’ve done the initial job of flavoring meat, I sometimes cook the meat in the pan juices or broil or grill the meat and boil down the juices to make a reduction, a thick syrup, and spoon them over the meat after cooking. Sometimes the meat pan juices make a great hot dressing for a salad served with leftover sliced meat. By reducing the juices I concentrate the flavors that would otherwise be lost. The recipe that follows (the meat marinated in the sauce), freezes well so consider making a full batch even if you’re cooking for one person. You can freeze the meat in single or double portions for future fast food.

 Chicken Wings, Thighs, or Drumettes in Spicy Asian Marinade

Prep: 15 minutes        Yield: 2/3 cup sauce

I found this recipe on the Coconut Secret website. It’s a traditional Vietnamese sauce called Nuoc Cham. You can use it as a marinade for shrimp, chicken, pork or beef prior to grilling or broiling, as a dipping sauce, or as a salad dressing when combined with olive or avocado oil. Coconut Aminos are less salty than tamari soy sauce so I doubled the amount I used and added some unrefined sea salt.

Notes: If you want to use the sauce as a salad dressing, rather than a marinade, reduce or omit the salt and leave out the chicken. If you don’t like spicy foods or you’re allergic to red pepper, you can reduce or omit the red pepper, substitute black pepper, or leave pepper out altogether. If you leave the pepper out, double or triple the garlic.

Sauce/marinade:
1/4 cup Coconut Vinegar or brown rice vinegar or raw apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons filtered water
1 2/3 to 2 tablespoons Coconut Nectar or Honey
2 teaspoons Fish Sauce (look for a gluten free brand in Asian markets)
1 teaspoon Coconut Aminos (double if desired) or wheat-free tamari soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely grated Lime Zest (outer peel, colored part)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 minced or pressed garlic cloves
1 to 1 ½ minced chili pepper (Serrano, Jalapeno, Bird's Beak, depending on desired heat), reduce or omit if you don’t like hot food or substitute about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (start with less, add more only if desired)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt, optional (my addition!)

Chicken:
2 1/2 to 3 pound chicken drummettes, wingettes, wings, or drumsticks, skin on


1. Combine vinegar, water, coconut nectar or honey, fish sauce, and coconut aminos or tamari soy sauce     in a glass jar. Grate lime peel using a microplane grater or fine holes on a metal box grater and add         along with 2 tablespoons lime juice. Peel and finely mince or press the garlic and mince the chili and     add. Whisk together or cover and shake. Taste, and adjust with sea salt if desired. 

2. Place chicken in a non-reactive bowl or baking pan. Pour on the sauce, cover and refrigerate for 6 to     12 hours. Before cooking, drain marinade and pour it into a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil,             reduce heat and cook until reduced to about 2 tablespoons.

3. Choose one of the following cooking methods:
    To broil: Place chicken on a broiler rack and cook on LOW or High broil for about 15 to 35 minutes,         or until pieces test done, turning them over after about 10 minutes or when the tops start to brown.     Exact time will depend on size of pieces and proximity to the broiler element.

    To grill: Preheat a grill on high. Place chicken pieces on the racks, cover the grill and reduce heat to     medium low. Cook until the juices run clear when pierced with a knife near the bone, turning pieces     over as they brown, after about 10 minutes.

    To bake: Place chicken and marinade juices in an oblong pan. Cover and bake in a preheated 350˚F or     400˚F oven until the chicken juices run clear when pierced with a knife near the bone or the meat         reaches an internal temperature of 170 to 175˚F. Exact time will vary with the size if the pieces and     temperature.

4. After cooking, spoon reduced pan juices over chicken and serve. Refrigerate leftovers and serve cold     or warm briefly in an ovenproof baking dish for about 15 minutes in a toaster oven at 300˚ to 350˚F.     Once cool, freeze what you don’t plan to consume within 3 days. (I use heatproof Pyrex or                     CorningWare containers with lids.)

Eggless Coconut Macaroons

Some of my cooking students and clients have food allergies or intolerances. Eggs often show up on their food allergy lists. Although they very nutritious, they are also among the top 10 most allergenic foods as you can see from the chart below (excerpted from The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces, published by Planetary Press in 2008).

Photos right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008©

Top 10 Most Common Food Allergens

1. 1. Nuts
2. 2. Eggs
3. 3. Milk
4. 4. Soybeans
5. 5. Wheat
6. 6. Peanuts
7. 7. Chicken
8. 8. Fish
9. 9. Shellfish
10. 10. Mollusks

  91% percent of adverse reactions in children are triggered by four major foods:

1. 1.  Nuts (43%)
2. 2.  Eggs (21%)
3. 3.  Milk (18%)
4. 4.  Soy (9%)

Source: Life Span Nutrition––Conception Through Life by Sharon Rady Rolfes, Linda Kelly DeBruyne, and Eleanor Noss Whitney. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1990.

Replacing eggs
Nothing compares to the nutrition profile, versatility, and flavor of eggs. There’s no single substitution that works in all the ways eggs do. However there are alternatives that can work for some applications.For people who cannot eat eggs, Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer works in some (but not all) recipes. This product contains potato starch, tapioca starch flour, leavening (calcium lactate from dairy-free sources, calcium carbonate, and citric acid), cellulose gum, and carbohydrate gum.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008©

The top photo is the eggless macaroon made with medium flaked coconut, potato starch and honey in late 2008. The next macaroon was made using a fine flaked coconut, arrowroot, and coconut nectar (recently). Recipe below. The size of the coconut shreds makes more of a difference in appearance than anything. The texture varies only slightly with the two starches and liquid sweeteners.

This product doesn’t work in all cases because eggs perform different functions depending upon what you’re making. For example, it doesn’t work in recipes where eggs serve as a main ingredient or provide a specific flavor, texture, or structure (e.g., scrambled eggs, omelets, quiches, meringues, macaroons, mayonnaise, angel food cake). In meringues, macaroons, and angel food cake beaten whites, which expand several times in volume, provide the structure egg-replacer can't match.

Eggless macaroon made using the recipe below. Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008© >>

For more on using Ener-G Foods Egg-Replacer, refer to the package instructions or my most recent book, The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces).

Eggless macaroons: mission possible!
This required reworking the entire recipe, replacing the beaten egg whites with coconut milk and also adding starch to bind. When I write articles for Living Without, a magazine for people with food allergies and intolerences, if I include a recipe that requires eggs I am asked to offer an eggless variation. Although it usually requires multiple tests to produce good results, I find the challenge and the results rewarding. In the best case scenario, the eggless version is almost indistinguishable from the one with eggs. In the next best scenario, the eggless version is pretty close and my recipe tasters (still) devour the goodies, smile, and give it a thumbs up. The first macaroon was made with medium flaked coconut (2008); the second with fine flaked coconut (2010).

I’ve been a fan of macaroons for years. You’ll find low-sugar version of My Favorite Macaroon recipe here and in here and in both of my cookbooks,The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook and The Ice Dream Cookbook. My recipe uses a combination of honey and stevia so it contains less than half the sugar of the best health food store macaroons. Creating a satisfying eggless version was a great accomplishment. The recipe (below) first appeared in the February 2009 issue of Living Without Magazine. In the time since publication I’ve found I can get more cookies per batch (36 rather than 32).

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Baking with coconut nectar
I made a batch of these macaroons last weekend replacing the honey with coconut nectar, a sweetener tapped from the blossoms of the coconut tree and evaporated at a low temperature. This syrup is both low-glycemic and low in fructose (unlike agave nectar, which has a high fructose content). You can read more about this sweetener in my recent post about it and on the Coconut Secret web site.

By combining honey or coconut nectar with stevia I was able to produce cookies that contain only 1/2 teaspoon of liquid sweetener apiece. That's much less than any store bought macaroon or conventional recipe I've seen. This is the third recipe I've made with coconut nectar, read more here. It's a relatively new product so I don't know where you can buy it but you can contact the company to find out.

Who should not use coconut nectar?
Coconut Nectar contains 1.5% fructose, 16% sucrose, with the remaining 82% of sugars in the form of FOS, a prebiotic inulin found in small amounts in some fruits and vegetables that may feeds the friendly flora in your intestines. Some people have a lower threshhold of FOS/inulin than others and are very sensitive to it (i.e., they experience gas, bloating, or loose stools after ingesting even small amounts). If this describes your experience or you follow the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), you should NOT use Coconut nectar. You can make recipe below the way I make most desserts, by combining honey and stevia. If you follow the SCD diet, you’ll want to make my coconut macaroons that rely on beaten egg whites and do not include arrowroot or cornstarch.

To read more about the downside of FOS and inulin click here and here.

Chocolate Dipped Eggless Macaroons 
Yield: 36 macaroons
               
Supermarkets rarely sell unsweetened, sulfite-free flaked coconut. Look for it on the baking aisle or in the bulk foods section of natural foods stores, or buy it over the Internet. Look for Let’s Do Organics, Tropical Traditions, Wilderness Family Naturals, Coconut Secret, Aloha Nu, Selina Naturally, or Bob’s Red Mill brand. If you get medium- or large-flaked coconut, pulse it in a blender or food processor to create a fine powder, fluff it up with a fork, then measure out what you need. This recipe can be doubled.  If you don’t want the chocolate coating, you can leave it out.

Ingredients:
Virgin-pressed coconut oil or palm shortening to grease baking sheets 
1 cup unsweetenened, preservative-free canned coconut milk (regular not lite)
1/3 cup honey (raw, unfiltered) or coconut nectar (Coconut Secret brand)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or clear stevia extract liquid (Nu Naturals or SweetLeaf; do not use Stevia PLUS or any other brand that contains fillers or starches)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or alcohol-free vanilla flavoring
1/4 cup unmodified potato starch or arrowroot starch
3 cups unsweetened, sulfite-free, finely shredded coconut (Bob's Red Mill or other)
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened baker’s chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Liberally grease a large cookie sheet, line with unbleached parchment paper, or use a Silpat or Exopat nonstick bake liner.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl combine the coconut milk, honey or coconut nectar, stevia and vanilla. Whisk or beat until evenly mixed. Add the potato starch a little at a time, whisking or beating to combine. Fold in the coconut.
3. Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet(s) at least 1/2 inch apart. Using your fingers or the back of 2 soup spoons, press each mound of batter upward into a cone-like shape.
4. Bake in the center of the oven until firm and lightly brown around edges, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove macaroons from the tray by slipping a thin metal spatula under the edge of each cookie and sawing back and forth. Cool on wire racks.
5. Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat. When melted remove from heat. One at a time, spoon chocolate over half of each macaroon, dripping the excess back into the pan. Place each chocolate coated macaroon on a parchment lined plate or tray. Repeat with remaining macaroons. Refrigerate until set.
6. When cool, layer macaroons in a cookie tin or other container with a layer of parchment in between.

1 macaroon (36 per batch): I don’t have nutrition breakdowns for this. I do know each cookie contains only 1/2 teaspoon honey or coconut nectar.

Variations:

• Coconut Orange Macaroons: In step #4, replace vanilla with 1 1/4 teaspoons pure orange extract.

Source: Modified from The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by Rachel Albert-Matesz (Planetary Press, 2008)

Grilling: Is it safe? Is it risky? Part 2

My interview of Don Matesz about the risks of grilling stirred up more questions and more reflection, a good thing. I myself had some questions about how paleo man cooked meat. Before interviewing Don I thought that we must certainly be adapted to grilling and that cooking a carcass on a spit (sometimes referred to as roasting) must have been a widely practiced method of preparing dinner. Yet, I also recognized that a large body of research has pointed to the production of carcinogens in grilled meat.

Good questions
Some of you questioned the idea that paleo man could have baked, roasted, steamed, and boiled meat. Where was the proof for this? You wanted references for this claim. You thought it seemed more plausible that meat was cooked over a spit (granted, it could be considered roasting, but the meat gets the same "charred" outside). After all paleo people would not always have had access pots and pans to cook in. Who wouldn’t just build a fire at the most recent camp site after a hunt and start cooking.

Some of you thought our ancestors probably suspended their meat over an open fire with the proverbial pointed stick, which sounds pretty similar to grilling, right? Some of you wondered what I meant by grilling since people often use different terms for the same technique or the same term to mean something altogether different. Photo right: Rachel Albert, © copyright 2009.

Semantics?
I learned from one of my readers who used to live in the UK that what Americans call grilling (i.e. cooking over flames/hot coals), the English call barbecuing (perhaps other English-speaking countries like Australia do the same?). To further complicate matters, what Americans refer to as "broiling" (i.e. cooking under a heat source), the English call "grilling." So my post about the hazards of grilling confused one reader who thought I was referring to what we, in the U.S., call broiling. She had no idea what it meant! It also turns out that the book used by the person I interviewed for the original grill post (The Paleolithic Prescription) used the term "roasting" to refer to cooking over a spit.

Does a grill pan grill?
At least one of you wondered about the wisdom (and possible risk) of using a grill pan or griddle pan (i.e. where food is in direct contact with a very hot surface with little oil) on top of the stove. Are the risks the same as frying or as grilling/barbecuing? What about griddle pans with ridges that leave black stripes on the food?

I don’t have a definitive answer however I would think it’s less risky since it doesn’t suspending food on a rack above a fire, so there’s no risk of fats dripping from the meat, falling onto a fire and producing aromatic compounds that would rise up into the meat as with grilling. However, I think it’s still wise to control the heat to avoid excessive smoke, which you have to breathe if you’re using a grill pan indoors, and  blackening of the food. If your kitchen is filling with smoke, you probably need to turn the high down.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, © copyright 2009.

Perhaps producing grill marks (searing the surface), and then reducing the heat would reduce the production of harmful compounds. How black you let the food get, how done you cook the meat (remember well done is more risky), how often you eat this grill-marked food, and whether and how many colorful green leafy, orange, and yellow or red vegetables, and fruits you eat with it would also affect the level of risk.

How do you grill with a drip pan?
I received another question about in response to my mention of grilling with a drip pan. “How do you put a tray under the meat that you're grilling? If the pan is placed under the grate, then it's blocking the flames, right? If above the grate, you're not really grilling. Good question.

Direct heat
For this I referred to About.com. Here I learned that there are two methods of grilling. One uses direct heat, the other uses indirect heat. “Direct Grilling is the most basic and simple way to cook. Foods are cooked, or grilled, directly over the heat.” Whether you cleave the lid up or keep it down is but a variation on the theme. The author, Derrick Riches, says “Direct cooking is the oldest method of cooking. You can do it with a piece of meat, a stick and a fire. It is the direct exposure to the heat that cooks the food.” By this definition, cooking meat in a grill pan would be cooked with direct heat. For more on this, click here.

Indirect heat
Mr. Riches explains that “Indirect Grilling is more similar to baking than direct grilling.” For this you build a fire “off to the side of where the cooking will take place. If you think of a typical gas grill, imagine having the burner(s) turned on, on only one half of the grill. This is the heated side. You then place the food you wish to grill indirectly on the unheated side and close the lid.” Using this technique, the food is cooked by convection and radiant heat, rather than direct heat. “Since the food is not being exposed to direct heat from the burners it will cook more evenly and be less likely to burn on the exposed side. Of course this also means that it will cook more slowly.” To read more about this, click here.

“So what do you do if you have a small gas grill and only one burner. Well one of the tools you need for indirect grilling is a drip pan. This can be a heavy cast iron pan or a disposable aluminum pan. This pan sits under the cooking grate where you plan on doing the cooking. If you have a one burner grill then the drip pan should go in the middle with the food directly over it. The drip pan diverts the rising heat and creates the space you need for indirect grilling. The drip pan also catches all the drippings from the food and helps keep your grill clean,” says Riches.

Indirect grilling is particularly good for foods that will easily burn on the surface before they can cook through to the middle (e.g., cuts of meat more than 2-inches in thickness, such as thick steaks or roasts, poultry, roasts, etc.) Read more below about using a combination of direct and indirect heat.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, © copyright 2009.

Combination cooking: direct and indirect heat
Perhaps you've cooked chicken or fish over the grill, seared both sides, then moved it to higher racks, away from the fire, to complete the cooking. That would be an example of cooking first with direct heat, then with indirect heat. I've done that.

When I grill, whether I use only direct heat or a combination of direct followed by indirect heat, I preheat the grill on high (covered). Once I've placed the food on the grill, I reduce the heat to medium-low (I never leave it on high) and close the lid. It takes longer to produce grill marks and to cook meat to rare or medium rare and chicken until the juices run clear (for dark meat) or until the same color inside and out (for breast meat).

Sometimes, if the chicken, thick cut of meat, or fish is almost, but not quite, done I will turn off the heat and leave the lid of the grill closed, allowing the residual heat to complete the process; this last step would be an example indirect grilling. It saves fuel and reduces the amount of time the meat is exposed to fire.

On further reflection
I emailed professor Don Matesz to see how he would reply to the comments I received after posting the interview that contained his evolutionary perspective on grilling. He graciously considered the questions and pondered the issues. Here’s what he said:

“You all raise interesting points that make me think. According to Eaton and Konner's book The Paleolithic Prescription, baking, roasting (cooking on a spit is considered roasting), steaming (using green wood and leaves lain over coals, or water splashed on hot stones and coals), and boiling (using hot rocks to heat water in a receptacle) are the main cooking techniques among recent hunter-gatherers.

“I don't know with certainty which method H-Gs favored. I have read that Australian Aborigines cook wallabies by this procedure:

1. they make a fire in a depression in the earth and fill it with stones and shells, atop of which they place green branches.
2.  throw the carcass right on those branches to singe the hide for 5-10 minutes, after which they remove the fur
3. gut the animal, then cook the organs right on top of the stones and coals
4. put the carcass on the hot stones and ashes, fill the carcass with hot stones, cover it with paperbark and sand, and roast

“You see, they don't just put it on a stick over the fire. 

“Now, I didn't think of it this way before, but I now have to admit that steps 2 and 3 resemble grilling and will impart to the meat a flavor similar to grilling.  So I was misled by Eaton and Konner on that point.  However, the cooking on coals occurred only briefly.   As I stated in the interview, the risk associated with grilling seems most tied to grilling to well-done.

“I think holding meat over a fire on a stick would apply much less intense heat than a modern grill, since the flame is open, not enclosed in a receptacle with a lid and a flue that allows the food to be cooked over a fire while in an enclosure. Using pit cooking as described above, as soon as the meat was covered, the fire would smolder due to lack of air, creating a much lower temperature than grilling on modern grills.

“Holding over an open fire on a stick strikes me as more like smoking than grilling, where temps might only reach 150 to 250 degrees F, especially if there is wind. Also, realize that if you put meat on a stick (wood) you can't hold it as close to the fire as you can with a metal grill because the stick could catch fire.

“The other evidence still seems to point to adverse effects of grilling, especially the finding of higher amounts of mutagens produced by grilling in cancerous tissues. However, I do think it is possible that other aspects of the H-G lifestyle protected them from what little exposure they had to cooking by-products, particularly sun exposure.

“Those who think I gave misinformation about grilling by-products can look at the links provided. 

“Thank you all for your comments and know that they will stimulate me to think this problem through again.  Like many people, I like the smoky flavor of grilled meat, and eat grilled food several times per month.  Perhaps I missed something else and will update my views if I find I have made other mistakes.”

How’s that for thorough? If you have more questions or comments about this, please post your comments below. I read and consider all of them. If you have ideas for other topics you’d like to see me cover, send your ideas my way. I look forward to reading them. If you want to read more of Don's evolutionary perspectives on diet, nutrition, and health, check out his blog.

Grassfed Beef & Taco Night

All week I looked forward to Saturday night. Not for a date... but for a dinner engagement with my friends Kenny and Brenna, and their three kids, Zane, Kaleb, and Murphy, known in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Ahwatukee, and Chandler, AZ, Sante Fe, and Albuquerque, NM as The FishHuggers. I’d been to their house on many occasions for wild caught fish, grassfed beef, beef fat, honey, and dinner. This would be my fourth Taco Night in the past 18 months and likely our last dinner together for the next six months.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

The last supper of the season
In late April they would head north to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Kenny would spend a few months before heading to Kodiac, Alaska, to harvest wild salmon and Brenna and the kids would spend the entire summer and early fall with her family, gardening, dehydrating food, cooking, eating, relaxing, reading books, and selling their 100% grassfed beef, wild salmon, and raw honey at farmers’ markets.

I knew dinner would be great and we’d have a fun time talking about the food we were eating, about cooking, nutrition, health, farmers’ markets, grassfed meat, fishing, child rearing, home schooling, what we were learning, and the interesting people we met through our mutual lines of work: Kenny and Brenna selling wild, grassfed and cultivated paleo foods and me teaching, cooking, writing, and coaching people in the areas of diet and lifestyle.

Tacos, coleslaw, and chocolate
Kenny and Brenna would provide the tacos and topping. I would provide salad (coleslaw tossed with olive oil and lemon juice tonight, inspired by my friend Heather who brought coleslaw for the last Taco Night ) and a special dessert. I wanted to make something I’d never made for them. They’d already tasted many of my homemade coconut milk Ice Dream and sauce flavors during the recipe testing stage and beyond. They’d enjoyed my Squash Pudding Pie two or three Thanksgivings in a row. They’d eaten my Coconut Fruit Cocktail Cake during the recipe testing stage and for my birthday and they’d eaten my Apple Compote, Poached Pears with Raisins & Turkish Dried Apricots, brownies, blondies, and cookies I’d created for my dessert book and magazine articles.

They love chocolate and honey so I settled on a dairy-free chocolate silk pie with nut crust from the Healthy Indulgences blog. I made one of Lauren’s sugar-free chocolate pudding tarts for  the 4th of July last year and it came out great. I replaced peanut butter in the crust and the ganache (topping) with almond butter to make the recipe more paleo. Since Zane, one of their kids, reacts to nuts, I poured a portion of the filling into a special heart shaped mold on the so he would feel special and could enjoy the tart without side effects.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

FishHugger GrassFat Beef
When Kenny and Brenna and their kids eat beef, it’s 100% grassfed and grass-finished beef raised on irrigated wheat, rye, and bermuda grasses on their New Mexico Farm. Their cattle are born and raised on the same farm their entire lives, about 3 years eating all grass all the time. Their meat is truly grassfed, unlike cattle raised on grass and then fattened on grain in a feedlot. FishHugger Beef comes  from cows that never eat grain and never set foot in a feedlot. They’re grass-fattened, which creates a slightly yellow-colored fat rich in carotenes, CLA, and other antioxidants and cancer-protective compounds you can read about in The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook and on Jo Robinson’s site. FishHugger cattle are butchered at a small, Mennonite family-owned and operated, USDA- inspected facility about 25 miles from their farm, then dry aged 21 days. You can buy their beef (sold frozen) from them at farmer’s markets and by appointment. Visit the FishHugger web site for a schedule of markets in your area or call them to ask about having the meat delivered to your door.

What, white beef?
This season, Kenny and Brenna discovered that beef from a particular cow (traced by a lot number) was light, almost the color of pork. The ground beef and steaks looked more white than red, so the dubbed it White Beef, the other white meat! The White Beef had a more mild and mellow, less grassy flavor than the characteristically red 100% grassfed, grass-finished, grass-FAT beef.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

Brenna told me about it a week or two before and I was excited to try it. I love grassfed beef and I’m accustomed to the stronger flavor and fragrance it has compared to conventional grain-fattened beef. Still sometimes I enjoy a more mild tasting meat. The taste of grassfed beef can vary with the breed of cattle, the season in which it is butchered, the kind of grass(es) it ate during it’s life and just before slaughter, the way it’s handled and how long it’s aged so it’s rarely homogeneous like supermarket beef.

They had no idea what made that particular cow produce a pale colored meat. The cow wasn’t anemic or sickly. If any of their cows get sick they’re immediately removed from the herd. The geneticist they spoke with didn’t know what would have created the white flesh. They didn’t have an albino animal (none of their cattle had the characteristic white eye). Whatever the case, they had an anomaly: one or two sides of slightly white beef. Compare the white beef above with the regular grassfed beef right.>>

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

Steak tacos
Since Kenny and Brenna were temporarily out of ground beef, they cooked steak for our tacos. They rubbed two White Beef ribeye steaks and two (regular red) strip steaks with FishHugger Spice Rub and cooked them in a cast iron skillet in rendered lard, warmed corn tortillas on a cast iron griddle drizzled with additional lard, and set out bowls of chopped green onions and parsley, a bowl of Salsa for Wimps (that’s the name of it, really!), spicy hot roasted and chopped jalapeno pepper, and micro greens (basil and another flavor), and a pitcher of tangy homemade lemonade mixed with home brewed Kombucha. I set the table and added my homemade coleslaw.

The tacos were great, even without guacamole, which we usually have for this meal. We enjoyed an engaging conversation and followed dinner with freshly brewed camomile tea and the Chocolate Almond Butter Silk Pie (photo right), which turned out great. I would definitely make it again. I left them with a quarter of the pie for the next day and took home a piece for myself and a piece to share with a friend. We had a great time. Although I don’t eat grain on a daily basis, I do enjoy corn tortillas on occasion and plan to have some weekend taco night treats of my own in their absence. I’ll wait for another occasion to make the pie for a group. Let me know if you try it and make any modifications.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

If you don’t eat nuts, you could make the pie without a crust. You could omit the ganache or replace nut butter in the ganache with raw coconut butter or additional coconut oil if you tolerate coconut, or with butter or non-hydrogenated palm shortening. Let me know if you try any other variations on the recipe.

FYI: Don't fret if your crust comes out lighter in color than mine. I inadvertently added the cocoa powder to the crust ingredients, realized my mistake, scooped out as much as I could. I also added a wee bit more egg white to the dough than was called for (to bind the extra cocoa in the mixture) so I added a bit more almond flour, which gave me more crust than  the original recipe. It tasted great, so no harm done!

Photos right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010

Dairy-Free Chocolate Almond Butter Silk Pie

Total hands-on: 45 minutes    Cooking: 30 minutes        Serves: 8 to 10

I found this recipe and another like it on the Healthy Induglences blog last summer. The original recipes called for peanut butter; I replaced it with almond butter. I increased the honey slightly to fit my conversions of xyltiol or erythritol to honey. (I’ve used xylitol and erythritol cup for cup to replace sugar. I usually figure 1 cup of sugar is equal to 3/4 cup honey. Lauren uses different ratios in her recipes on her blog.) I also refined the instructions because I prefer numbered steps and my students usually want more detail than most recipes provide.

Note: To powder xylitol or erythritol, use a spice-dedicated coffee grinder or Magic Bullet, pulsing the machine for a couple of minutes to make a fine powder.

Almond Butter Crust:
1/4 cup creamy unsweetened, roasted almond butter, at room temp (I use Trader Joe’s or Maranatha brand)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or non-hydrogenated palm shortening, at room temp (I like Spectrum Organic and Tropical Traditions)
2 tablespoons beaten egg (I used reserved egg white)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup xylitol, powdered* or 2 tablespoons raw honey (I used honey)
1 cup blanched almond flour, packed (I use Honeyville or Nuts Online brands)
1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon good-tasting pure stevia extract powder with no fillers (I use Nu Naturals or Widsom Natural Brands)

Chocolate Silk Filling:
1 (14 ounce) can unsweeted coconut milk (I used Whole Foods 365˚ brand)
1/2 cup erythritol, powdered* or 1/4 to 1/3 cup raw honey (I used honey)
1/8 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I use Baker’s, Ghirardelli, or Sharffenberger)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, non-hydrogenated palm shortening, or organic unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon (scant) pure stevia extract powder with no filler (I use Nu Naturals or Wisdom Natural Brands)

For the crust:

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F if using xylitol in the crust; preheat to 275˚F if using honey in crust. Combine the almond butter and butter in a small saucepan over very low heat. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the egg, vanilla, and honey or xylitol. Add the almond flour, baking powder, sea salt, and stevia to form a dough. It may be sticky, but will come together.
2. Moisten your hands with water and press the dough up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan or pie plate, greased and lined with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom. If using a springform pan  line the sides with parchment as well and press the crust about 1 1/2 inches up the sides.
3. Place tart on middle rack. Bake for 20 minutes if using honey (15-20 minutes if using xylitol) or until slightly browned around the edges. Turn off oven and do not open the door. Let crust remain in oven while you prepare filling. Chop the chocolate and set your coconut milk heating.

For Chocolate Silk Filling:

1. Heat 1 1/4 cup coconut milk, erythritol or honey, and sea salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Combine the remaining coconut milk with the cocoa powder then add.
2. Pour 1/2 cup of the warm coconut milk mixture over the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the warm coconut milk mixture in the saucepan, whisking constantly. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring until mixture coats the back of a spoon (click here for a visual). Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in the vanilla, coconut oil, shortening, or butter, and stevia. Whisk until smooth and the fat has melted.
3. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Pour the warm coconut milk mixture through a fine mesh sieve onto to chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts and mixture appears smooth and glossy. Briefly puree in a blender for a silky smooth texture.
4. Pour into tart shell, almost to the brim. (If using a springform pan the filling will not fill the pan.) If you have filling left over (if using a tart pan or pie plate), you can pour it into muffin cups or custard cups and freeze for snacks.
5. Cool tart uncovered in the freezer until the top becomes firm, then transfer to the refrigerator and cover with parchment paper and a dinner plate (or plastic). Before serving, top the pie with the smooth, candy inspired dairy-free topping (below) if desired.

Nutrition content: ~8g net carbs per 1/10th of a recipe (using honey in the crust and erythritol or xylitol in the filling; I used honey in the filling but don’t have the nutrition numbers for it)

Almond Butter Ganache:

• 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened baker’s chocolate, coarsely chopped (I use Baker’s, Ghirardelli, or Sharffenberger)
• 3 tablespoons creamy, unsweetened almond butter (I use Trader Joe’s or Maranatha brand)
• 1 tablespoon non-hydrogenated shortening (Spectrum or Tropical Traditions), virgin coconut oil or unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons erythritol, powdered or 1/4 cup xylitol, powdered
• 1 tablespoons raw honey, optional
• 1/8 teaspoon good-tasting pure stevia extract (I use Nu Naturals or Wisdom Natural Brands)

1. Melt the chocolate, almond butter, and shortening, coconut oil or butter in a small saucepan over very low heat. Stir in erythritol and stevia until smooth, glossy, and free of lumps. Taste and adjust sweetness as needed with honey.
2. Spread ganache over pie filling and smooth with a spatula. Let topping firm up in the refrigerator, then the cover tart again for storage.

Nutrition content: ~1.3 net carbs per 1/10 of a recipe for ganache made w/out honey.

Grilling: Is it safe? Is it risky? Part 1

One of my friends, who lives in the Pacific Northwest emailed me last week to ask if I knew of any grills that would be less likely to create cancer-causing byproducts and what I know about this issue.

I had read in Debra Lynn Dadd’s book, Home Safe Home: Creating a Healthy Come Environment by Reducing Exposure to Toxic Household Products (page 310), that something about grilling made it more risky than broiling:
"For some unexplained reason, broiling with a gas flame or electric coil above the meat produces no benzo(a)pyrene.” Her conclusion was “So slather on the barbecue sauce and stick your meats under the broiler."

She mentioned that “University of Hawaii researchers have found you can reduce the danger of carcinogens in grilled meat by eating lots of green vegetables---the chlorophyll in vegetables binds with the carcinogens during digestion, limiting their absorption."

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright© 2008.

The link
I knew that the association between grilled foods and cancer is related to HCAs (heterocyclic amines) and benzo(a)pyrene. Scientists believe that cooking temp, type of food, and fat content affect the amount of these compounds formed during grilling. Grilling (aka barbecuing) fatty foods at the highest temps and closer to the flame produces more of these compounds than does lower temperatures or cooking food farther from the flame. There is also evidence that cooking meat to well done produces more cancer producing compounds than cooking it to rare or medium-rare.

These things I knew, but I wanted to get a second opinion and additional information from someone I knew had done more research into this than I had. I wanted to know how accurate this information was. I wanted to know how risky eating grilled meat was relative to other dietary practices and what we could do to minimize the risks when we do grill.

For answers to these and other questions I consulted with my colleague Don Matesz, a nutritionist, herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, paleo and primal diet expert, and adjunct nutrition professor at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM) and Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) in Tempe, AZ. Don was also my co-author who collected and synthesized all the nutritional information for the award-winning book we co-wrote, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook (Planetary Press 2004).

The questions below are mine. The answers are Don’s.

Q: How risky is grilling?

A: First, I put this in evolutionary perspective. Neither prehistoric people nor contemporary hunter-gatherers had equipment for grilling. Paleo people used baking, roasting, steaming, and boiling, not grilling.  This means we have not had any time to adapt to the by-products of grilling.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright© 2009.

I think that we have good evidence that HCAs (heterocyclic amines) produced in meat cooked at high temperatures are carcinogenic, and several studies have found them in higher concentrations in cancerous tissues of humans: see this study and this one.

The epidemiological evidence also implicates grilling. Click here to learn more. The relative risks reported range from 2 to 5 times, which makes these findings significant.

Q: Do you think it's really risky to eat grilled meats?

A: Yes, if you do it frequently and especially if you grill to well-done.

Q: Do you think people should limit or avoid consuming grilled meats?
 
A:  If they want to avoid unnecessary exposure to carcinogens, I advise them to avoid eating grilled food as a general rule.  I think you can have eat grilled food occasionally without concern, but eating it daily presents an unnecessary risk. 

Q: I’ve read that marinating meat, fish and poultry in citrus juice or vinegar with herbs or herbs and spices, particularly rosemary, oregano and garlic reduces the production of HCAs. According to this study, the polyphenol antioxidants and other compounds in herbs and spices block production of cancer causing compounds. What do you know about this?

A:  In that study, the Caribbean marinade produced the greatest decrease in the total HCA content (88%), followed by the herb (72%) and Southwest (57%). So the effects clearly and markedly depend on the ingredients in the marinade.  Still, none of them eliminated the HCA production.

In addition, some research actually shows increased levels of some carcinogens when rosemary is added to grilled foods.  For example, this study found that "rosemary extracts (2%, 5%, 10% and 15%) apparently enhanced the total amount of HCAs measured in beef Shawerma."   

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright© 2009.

Since the research appears inconsistent, effects are highly dependent on marinade ingredients, and we only know to look for the carcinogens we already know about, I don’t feel very confident that using marinades reduces the risks of grilling reliably enough to put it into the “safe for regular use” category.

Q: How risky is ingestion of grilled meats relative to other foods and dietary factors? If people are eating a whole foods diet, particularly a paleo or primal diet, is the risk of eating grilled meats that significant?

A: Grilling produces carcinogens that initiate cancer.  Other dietary factors like vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates provide conditions that suppress immune function and fuel cancer growth. Both are risky behaviors. One can even argue that grilled food does not belong in a paleo/primal diet since paleo people could not grill foods and certainly did not use Caribbean marinade. Given that, I maintain that eating grilled meats regularly presents a significant deviation from a paleo/primal diet and the evidence indicates that it presents a significant risk.

Q: So if people do use oil in marinades, am I right that the best choices would be oils rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, such as olive or avocado oil and that people should avoid consuming vegetable oils (at any temperature), including corn, canola, safflower, canola, cottonseed, peanut, Wesson, Mazola, or anything labeled "vegetable" oil because they are rich in PUFAs (polyunsaturated oils) and are very unstable and easily damaged by light, oxygen, and especially heat. Is that right?

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright© 2009.

A: Well, I would definitely rank primarily monounsaturated oils like olive and avocado as better for this application than corn, etc., but they still sustain damage by exposure to high heat. I think the best marinade would contain no oils, or instead use a rub containing a primarily saturated fat like coconut oil or butter.

Q: Do you think the link between grilled meat and cancer is a distraction from other more risky dietary choices/behaviors, such as eating a high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diet, and consuming liberal amounts of polyunsaturated vegetable oils?

A: No. The scientists who study this don’t do it to distract anyone from other issues. In fact, I think too few people understand the risks of grilling. This may especially apply to novice paleo dieters, who might not know of any way to prepare meats other than grilling. 

Q: I’ve read that the association between grilling and cancer applies to meat but not vegetables and that grilled vegetables and fruits are safe to eat because they don’t produce carcinogens. Do you think that’s correct?

A: No, I don’t. High heat treatment of carbohydrates can produce carcinogens, and vegetables and fruits also contain small amounts of protein and fat that could get converted to carcinogens when grilled. Plus, people often coat the vegetables with oils before grilling, leading to formation of toxic lipid by-products. Finally, grilling vegetables and fruits usually produces some degree of crust, which contains toxic materials. 

Q: I’ve read that when grilling marbled or fatty meat or poultry with the skin on, if you place a drip pan under the meat this will prevent flare ups of fatty juices and the production of HCAs. If you prevent meat juices from hitting the coals or gas and rising up through the meat, then do you think it’s safe to grill more often (provided you also cook the meat rare or medium rare and eat it with at least twice as much vegetables or vegetables and fruit)?

Photo right: Stacy Maxwell, copyright 2006.

A: Yes, I agree. The majority of carcinogens get produced when juices hit the flames, which converts components of the juices into aromatic compounds that then get lodged in the meat, so a drip pan will reduce this effect.

Q: What do you think people can realistically do to reduce their risk of developing diet-related cancers?

A: I think people can risk the risk of developing diet related cancers by avoiding these things:

1. Cooking techniques with high temperatures for long times with direct exposure to flames.
2. Processed vegetable oils.
3. Refined sugars.
4. Cereal grains, particularly gluten-containing grains (wheat, barley, rye, and spelt, etc.), and cereal grain products cooked at high temperatures (e.g., dry cereals, crackers, puffed and extruded snack foods, French fries, potato chips, pizza, crusty Arisan breads, and deep fried grain products).

People can also reduce the risks of developing diet related diseases by eating these foods:

1. Vegetables and herbs
2. Fruits
3. Nuts
4. Meats cooked briefly with gentle heat (baked, roasted, steamed, boiled, stir-fried)

Q: I’ve been seeing a lot more articles about the importance of maintaining adequate vitamin D levels for preventing cancer. You wrote about this in The Garden of Eating but at the time the book came out the issue wasn’t given much press. What are your thoughts about this now?

A: I still recommend that everyone get adequate sun exposure or take a vitamin D supplement to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D (40-60ng/mL). You can get tested inexpensively through Grassroots Health.

Q: How much meat do Americans really eat relative to grains and starchy foods? Is the risk of eating baked, fried, and toasted starches on a daily basis, which contain high levels of acrylamide, a probable carcinogen, far more risky than eating grilled meats.
 
A: In 2005, grains and starchy foods supplied 23% of energy in the U.S. food supply, sweeteners 17%, and plant-sourced oils and fats 23%, whereas meat, fish, and poultry altogether contributed only 15% of daily calories. 

This means that Americans probably do get exposed to more acrylamide than HCAs, but it doesn't mean that we should ignore HCAs as a danger. If like a typical American you eat lots of processed grain products containing acrylamide, your risk would only go up by adding grilled meats, since the more carcinogens you consume, the more likely you will reach the limit of tolerance. If you eat a paleo diet and have grilled meats every day, this would present at least as much risk as eating toasted bread every day, if not more.

Q: What actions are within our control and which foods do you think are the most hazardous and pose the greatest risk for cancer and why?

A: Most of the time, we control what we eat and how we prepare it or have it prepared. I think that meats grilled well-done present a significant risk for carcinogenesis. Grain products cooked at a high heat also present a risk due to their contents of acrylamide. Also, heated gluten is "quite mutagenic" so most foods made from wheat, barley, or rye are carcinogenic.

High heat simply is not a good thing to apply to food on a regular basis. Mutagenic activity starts forming at temperatures of 100 degrees C (212 degrees F). The crust of heated food has the most mutagenic activity. Thus avoid forming or eating crusts.

Q: So which cooking techniques do you recommend most and use most at home?

A: Boiling, steaming, poaching, braising, and stewing w/o previous browning produce undetectable levels of mutagenicity. Roasting and baking produce low to intermediate levels of mutagens. Grilling and frying produce high amounts.

I eat a fair amount of my grass-fattened meats raw, prepared in marinades, like steak tartare. When cooking meats I prepare by stewing, roasting rare, or minimal broiling, which is safer than grilling because the heat source lies above the food, so no juices drip into it. Vegetables I prepare raw or by baking, roasting, boiling, steaming, or brief stir-frying.

Q: Do you think consuming acrylamide from starches cooked at high heats is a bigger risk than grilled meat?

A: In equal quantities and frequency I think they present equal risk. 

Q: What do you suggest your patients and nutrition students do to reduce the risk of harmful compounds that might be produced during grilling and other forms of cooking?

A: Don't grill often, and when you do grill only briefly (rare) and use a barrier between the flames and the foods to prevent juices falling into flames. The risk is definitely highest for grilling meat to well-done; with regard to colorectal cancer, eating well-done meat leads to a risk 3.5 times greater than the level seen consuming rare meat. If you use a marinade, do not put any oil in it.

Q: I’ve read that some researchers have found evidence eating vegetables with grilled meat changes the way the body metabolizes certain chemicals associated with grilling. I recommend making your vegetable or vegetable and fruit portion at least twice the size of your protein portion. Ideally this will displace grains, which are less nutritious.

A: Yes, when you eat grilled food, I also recommend that you consume it with vegetables and fruits or tea; although inconclusive, evidence suggests the phenols in these foods may help prevent mutations caused by mutagens in grilled meat. 

Q: So do the rules about grilling apply to other cooking techniques?

A: Yes. Keep meat away from direct flame and don't let juices fall on the heat source.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, copyright 2006©.

Q: Is the risk of cancer producing compounds greater for grilled meat than for fish, poultry, or lean meat?

A: Not necessarily. The risk mainly comes from the damage done to proteins by high heat. Lower fat content may reduce the risk slightly, but even the leaner meats have enough fats to generate significant amounts of toxic lipid by-products when juices hit the flames. Bottom line, grilling creates serious toxins and I recommend you avoid them as a general rule. Remember, our prehistoric ancestors did not have grills so we had no opportunity to develop a resistance to their toxic effects.

Q: Thanks Don. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. I know a lot of people wonder what to believe when they read articles about the association between various foods or practices and cancer. Do you have any other suggestions you’d like to add to help people make sense of all the information they’re bombarded with about diet and cancer?

A: The only way I have found to make sense of all this information lies in comparing everything we eat and do to food to the only known cancer-free cultures, hunter-gatherers and primitive horticulturalists who don’t eat grains. If they didn’t or couldn’t eat a certain type of food or use a method of cooking, I consider that food or method of preparation a possible suspect in producing or promoting cancer and other degenerative diseases until proven otherwise.  Basically, we remain stone age in our physiology, and can’t adapt to new foods or new cooking methods as quickly as we can create them. Learn what our ancestors ate and how they prepared foods, and compare every newfangled item to that baseline. 

To read more about Don’s views on food, fitness, pharmacy, freedom, and philosophy using an evolutionary paradigm, visit his blog, Primal Wisdom, which refers to the accumulated wisdom of our pre-agricultural ancestors as well as the innate wisdom built into the modern human organism through millions of years of evolution.

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