Greetings, and welcome to À La Carnivore! I started this blog to help individuals who have chosen the carnivore diet or a meat-based lifestyle improve their culinary prowess. Over the last few decades, home cooking skills have deteriorated— particularly in Western nations. Sociology and nutrition science researchers have suggested this decline is due to a number of factors, including the advent of convenience foods and kitchen technologies, longer work hours resulting in less time to cook, and a reduction of culinary skills instruction in schools. Unfortunately, these changes are related to adverse health effects, including poor food choices (e.g., highly processed products, high sugar meals, etc.) and adverse eating behaviors (e.g., overconsumption, constant snacking, eating immediately before bed, etc.). To add insult to injury, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these effects, as well as added problems like food insecurity, which primarily affects lower socioeconomic families. These factors make choosing and sticking to a carnivore lifestyle difficult, and sometimes not financially feasible. 

Goals of À La Carnivore

What if you could pick up any cut of meat (including an inexpensive one) at the supermarket and instantly know five carnivore-compliant ways to cook it. This ability affords you the opportunity to be more adaptable and flexible, to finally put that piece of venison at the bottom of your freezer that your hunter-friend gave you to good use, to take advantage of sales, and as we all learned in 2020, to deal with scarcity and be able to buy and cook what is available to us during societal turmoil. This blog aims to help you improve your carnivore lifestyle acumen with respect to knowledge of culinary properties of meat, proper cooking techniques, and choosing the appropriate equipment for your desired dishes. 

The number of Carnivore Diet followers is growing due to the countless benefits of this way of eating and the enormous success of those in the carnivore community (e.g., weight loss, inflammation reduction, mental health improvements, increased energy and overall wellbeing). Unfortunately, the staples of carnivore (i.e., meat and animal-based products) are some of the most expensive ingredients lining the shelves of our food markets today. One of my goals is to show how this lifestyle may be followed on a minimal budget for both ingredients and equipment. To this end, my primary aim is for À La Carnivore to provide readers with a repertoire of techniques, both classical and modern, which are designed to: 1. make the meats you buy taste better, 2. provide a solid foundation to use as a springboard for culinary creativity, and 3. eliminate the need for recipes, thus increasing efficiency and giving you time back for the important things in life while maintaining the proper human diet. To reach these goals, my content will operate under three core tenets.

Tenet 1: Champion Methods Over Recipes

Don’t get me wrong, the ability to follow a recipe is a great skill (and one our society has unfortunately begun to abandon in the age of ready-mades and Uber Eats). But…whenever I see cookbooks for the Carnivore Diet, I tend to laugh or roll my eyes— not because these resources are lousy, but because they are unnecessary. I am sure these cookbook authors are well-intentioned, but most carnivore gurus will tell you this lifestyle includes three ingredients: meat, salt, and water. Some don’t even advocate for the salt. So, why would we use recipes? The standard cookbook-style recipe will typically provide the cook with a list of ingredients followed by a detailed set of directions that support the construction of a particular dish. This format makes sense when you are creating complex meals and need to add each element in a specific way and at a critical point in the process. When cooking with fewer ingredients, however, the directions become less detailed and simpler. The factors that determine whether a dish is delectable or inedible rely more on the cooking method that optimizes the flavor and texture of a single ingredient, rather than the flavor combination of a whole slew of comestibles. Therefore, recipes don’t make sense for the carnivore cook.

A better approach to carnivore cooking is to learn a series of methods and techniques for the optimal preparation of meats, eggs, cheese, and other animal products. Making a meal via a method rather than a recipe may seem like a minor distinction. However, it is an important one— as this is what separates cooks from chefs. A foundational understanding of the culinary properites of ingredients and kitchen equipment combined with the art and science of using both provides you with a powerful skillset to take advantage of sales at the grocery store, reduce time researching recipes, eat down your larder and freezer, and create carnivore meals tailored to your own personal nutritional requirements and the needs of your family’s lifestyle. 

Tenet 2: Culinary Skills are Essential for Long-Term Success on Carnivore

One of the (many) benefits of a carnivore diet is that ingredient lists are inherently short. The flipside of this simplicity is that there is little recourse for the home cook to save an overdone roast when one is unable to serve it smothered with a flour-laden gravy or alongside a heaping mound of mashed potatoes. A thorough understanding of the protein you are working with when following the carnivore lifestyle is imperative to success, not only in the kitchen but also with maintaining the diet long-term. 

For example, let’s say you’ve decided to commit to carnivore. You go out and buy ten pounds of pot roast at the supermarket on sale. When you get home, you cut off a thin steak, and pan fry it in a dry skillet until it resembles and tastes like a hockey puck. You would probably be less likely to remain on carnivore if this was the extent of your cooking knowledge. Also, your remaining nine and three quarter pounds of pot roast just might be relegated to pet food. However, if you have educated yourself ahead of time, and you know that what’s labeled as “pot roast” at the meat counter comes from either the chuck or round primal cuts, is very lean and therefore requires low, slow, and wet cooking methods using either a braiser, slow cooker, or sous vide…well then, you’ll have a lot more success. À La Carnivore aims to provide readers with the means to educate themselves about animal-based ingredients and methods that result in delicious food and enable long-term success.

Tenet 3: Equipment is as Important as Ingredients or Technique

Don’t let this tenet scare you. You do not need to go out and buy thousands (or even hundreds) of dollars worth of tools and gadgets to be successful on carnivore. I maintain that the bulk of delicious meats can be prepared using a cast iron skillet with a lid, a dutch oven, spatula, tongs, a decent chef’s knife, and a good-sized cutting board. Most of these tools you probably already have in your kitchen, and if you don’t, they can be obtained for minimal cost from a variety of stores or online retailers. That said, I will be exploring the use of gadgets and specialty equipment (e.g., sous vide, salt block, etc.) for experimental purposes to help you decide if you might like to invest in new items to expand your culinary artistry beyond the basic kitchen set, or purchase a tool that might save you some time on dishes you prepare often. 

When I say that understanding equipment is as important as understanding your ingredients or technique, I mean that it is important to know the capabilities of your tools and what they were designed to do. This knowledge will guide what kinds of equipment you choose to keep in your kitchen because choice of tool should be paired with choice of protein. If you don’t care for beef but love eggs, you might choose to purchase a nonstick skillet to improve your scrambled or fried concoctions, whereas someone who is allergic to eggs might opt to stick with a cast iron or stainless steel option for their ribeye steaks. My research will include thorough testing and reviews of all types of utensils, cookware, tools, and gadgets so that you can make an informed choice as to what you would like to include in your arsenal. 

Conclusion

Armed with these tenets and the ambition to help my fellow carnivores, I endeavor to make À La Carnivore a premier resource on the art and science of meat preparation with respect to animal cuts, culinary methods, and kitchen equipment. Thank you for visiting my blog and coming along with me on my own carnivore journey. Together we will grill, roast, and braise our way through the animal kingdom.