Joshua Applestone - The Butchers Guide to Well-Raised Meat: How to Buy, Cut, and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and More

Josh and Jessica Applestone would like to thank the old men of the business who taught us everything we know: Tom, Bob, Kent, Bill, Jan, Hans, and of course, Ted. Special thanks to Mike Meiller; your skills and facilities are exceptional. You make what we do possible. All the farmers we have ever worked with, especially Stephen Kaye, who showed us what grass-fed was all about, and David Huse, who made it even better. Thanks to Richard and his boys at Hilltown Pork. The chefs, restaurateurs, and their staffs that have supported us all these years as well as Peter Hoffman, Dan Barber, Adam Kaye, Donna Lennard, and Ed Witt, who believed in us from the beginning and have given energy to the movement. Spencer Mass and the Country Inn family, who have always provided us with moments of sanity and good food. Caroline Fidenza, who saw potential in a crazy idea and made it work. And Steve Slutzky, our smoking buddy. Our customers, we would be nothing without you. We are so blessed that so many of you have been with us since day one. Our employees both past and present, we could not be what we are without you. Our apprentices for carrying on the tradition, and especially Bryan Mayer, who has become a trusted employee and a deeply valued friend. The boys at the Meat Hook, especially Tom Mylan, you make us proud, bubbie! Our investors for believing in us, you truly are angels. Joe Concra and Denise Orzo for being the best welcome wagon ever. Dana Bowen for making our parents kvell for the first time. Julie Powell, for embodying the truest essence of a bouchretough, generous, and loyal. Jen May, our friend, and resident staff photographer, for making what we see as beautiful actually beautiful. Gunar Skillins, how fortuitous it was that one of the best (and most patient) graphic designers wandered into our shop one day. Kendra McKnight, food stylist, for helping to make our food as pretty as it is tasty. Liv Grey for her patience, professionalism, and precisioneverything a recipe tester should be. And Dietrich Gehring. Stacy Strauss and Craig McCord, who feed our vision. David Nelson, the definition of a mensch. Suzanne Wasserman for your historical illumination on butchery, New York, and all those good things. Richard Peachpits Frumessa master of the written word. Our landlord, Carter Hastings, for giving us a chance. Stephen Gates, for being a friend, confidant, and adviser. Matt Unger, Stephanie Ehrlich, and Jordan Berkowitz, who have known us since the beginning, touched our hearts, made us laugh, and have indelibly left your marks on our business. Juan Pablo Lopez, with us from the beginning, we never forget that you are our rockwe literally could not have done it without you. Aaron Chocolate Thunder Lenz, Hailey Schmailey Pearson, Erica Murray, Josh BJ Gravesyou have become family. Our friends and family who have stood by us and sometimes behind us propping us up during hard times. We couldnt live without you. Lexy, whose patience, stamina, and humor have made this project a pleasure, and for making our voices and philosophy tangible and accessiblebeautifully. Olli Tube Steak Chanoff for supporting Lexy and by extension us; this project was made possible by you as well. Samantha Gloeffke for taking care of Izzy with grace and humor and in turn taking care of us. Each other, for never giving up, and our son, Isaiah Wolf, for keeping us sane.

Alexandra Zissu thanks Jess and Josh for opening Fleishers and providing me, my family, and countless others access to small amounts of consistently flavorful, meticulously sourced, well-raised meat; for taking me up on my offer to write their story; for bringing me further along on my quest to truly know where my food comes from; and for turning up the volume on the conversation about sustainable meat. Bottomless gratitude also goes to my lovely family, especially Olli Chanoff, Aili Chanoff Zissu, my multitasking and supportive parentsZissus and Meaders alike (and the Van Steenburgh homestead!), and the beyond helpful Chanoff clan. Thanks also to dear friends who, when I went MIA for most of 2010, ordered Fleishers home delivery to taste what I was up to or froze in a field to witness a slaughter. I owe you dinner and you know what Im making.

The three of us could never have produced these pages without and are very grateful to Rica Allannic, Amy Hughes, Marysarah Quinn, Ashley Phillips, Christine Tanigawa, Alexis Mentor, Lauren Shakely, Doris Cooper, Allison Malec, Jacob Bronstein, Jill Browning, Kate Tyler, and Donna Passannante.

F OUNDING FLEISHERS WAS CHAOS. Im a leap-then-look kind of guy, but I should have looked more first. Hindsight. We signed a lease on a space around the corner from our current location before we found sources for meat or lined up the slaughterhousein other words, totally backward and not something we would advise anyone to do. But overcoming these considerable obstacles was an amazing education. Nowadays we happily consult with people interested in opening sustainable butcher shops so they dont make the same mistakes we did. Our learning curve was not a curve at all; it literally went straight up and weve never stopped learning. We had to educate ourselves on not just butchery but also animal husbandry, sustainable farming, and slaughtering practices. We got up to speed on everything from the use of hormones and antibiotics in animals to carbon sequestration to seasonal concerns affecting Hudson Valley farms to sourcing local cheese, dairy, and eggs (we sell all three). We needed to learn to ask the right questions of our farmers and slaughterhouse owners. In time these questions became our standards. We had to figure out how to sell to retail customers and how to educate our wholesale restaurant customers about what we were doing. We needed to become expert charcuterie makers. It was all new territory for us, and as far as we knew there was nobody in the country doing what we were doing. Factor in that we chose to do this at a time when butcher shops were drastically in decline in America, and in a depressed upstate New York town. Its a wonder that we made it, but here we are.

Before we opened, neither of us had ever broken down a whole animal. I have butchery in my blood, had carved meat as a chef, and thought I knew a lot more than I did. Technically Im a third-generation butcher. My grandfather, Jack, and great-grandfather, Wolf, both owned and operated Fleishers Meats in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. The shop closed when I was a kid, but it was formative. Wolf was nearly ninety when I knew him, but I still remember him as a real butcher, a real meat man. Jack was a huge presence in my life and was alive until just before I turned thirty. Pictures from the shop and his old butcher blocks were in my home when I was growing up. Jack was knowledgeable about food and loved to eat. He was also an artistwe have his gorgeous burnished wood sculptures in our homeand explained how meat is art, that whatever you do is an expression of art. He always said to be a really good butcher you needed to be someone who has experienced life and can turn that into a sellable product. You have to know opera and how to cook, and remember everything about the customer. I think what my grandfather meant was that it takes a well-rounded human being to be able to kibitz with customers. It was opera and the Dodgers in his day and politics and the Mets in mine. Most customers have a romantic notion of what a butcher is. They come and they want a little philosophy with their brisket, a few jokes with their chops. They want to make that connection, and I know that they would be happier with a butcher who was a failed poet than with a guy who stands behind the counter and just cuts meat for a living. If thats all they wanted, they could hit the intercom at any supermarket. Its why they come to a butcher shop.