Andrew Zimmern is a three-time James Beard Award winner, the host of Journey Channel’s Weird Meals, and the creator of a brand new line of Cooks Catalog instruments.

I’m, like most males, infatuated with meat.  

On some primal stage, we wish to eat the meat we hunted, in entrance of a hearth we constructed. However not many males do this anymore. Over the previous few generations, we have misplaced a connection to the meat we eat. We have created a meals system that delivers to our shops single parts of center-cut animal proteins, wrapped in plastic.

People eat extra rooster than another meat, however these birds—fried, baked, grilled—are sometimes flavorless and boring. Our pork tastes nothing just like the stuff our grandparents ate. Our beef is bland and overcooked. Offal (stuff like liver, tongue, and kidneys) disgusts us. The meat you possible take pleasure in does not convey the very best essence of the animal.

We’re not going to return to our caveman methods anytime quickly, however consuming completely different cuts of meat (from animals raised nicely as a substitute of manufacturing unit farmed) offers your physique the number of vitamins it wants, your palate the tastes it craves, and the planet the sustainability it requires.

1. Goat
Goat is like soccer. The remainder of the world will get it and right here in America we do not. However we’re getting there.

Go to Chicago and take a look at Birrieria Zaragoza. Have the namesake dish. Then get again to me.

My dream sometime is to have goat on each desk in America as soon as every week. If that kind of change occurred, our entire meals system would self-correct, pivoting again to regionalism, freshness, and sustainability.

2. Donkey
The planet’s most underrated protein, donkey is ideal for salumi (ask the Italians), excellent for stir-frying or braising (ask the Chinese language), and simply plain superior for the yard grill (says me).

That is pure, lovely crimson meat that has a clear taste very like the world’s greatest veal.

The Chinese language have a saying, “dragon meat in heaven, donkey meat on earth,” implying what it is best to eat if you end up in both locale.

3. Horse

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It is the opposite crimson meat. Horse fueled the armies of Central Asia again when males have been males.

I am unsure why America is so hell bent on denying what the remainder of the world already is aware of: that horse is what beef needs to be when it figures out find out how to style that good.

MORE: The Reality Behind 5 Meals Myths

It is my favourite crimson meat to eat uncooked, although it cooks fantastically (the fats beneath the mane is a stunner—particularly when cured like lardo).

Get on a airplane, go to Montreal, dine at Joe Beef or Maison Publique, and take a look at the cheval. You’ll like it.

4. Escamoles, nopales cactus worms, maguey grubs, ants…
Bugs are massive enterprise. Many are usually not simple to eat, however these are. And they’re scrumptious.

Go to Mexico Metropolis and patrol Xochimilco Market (or the menu of any true Mexican restaurant for that matter) and take a look at actual bugs cooked by actual consultants. You may be hooked.

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5. Actual ham
I’ve a meals woody simply fascinated by the good ones. Not prosciutto, not jamón ibérico, not jambon sec. I am speaking about actual American nation hams. I am speaking about hams from Benton’s, Newsom’s, Broadbent’s, Edwards’, or those that so lots of the South’s nice cooks are serving of their eating places.

I maintain one in all these cured hams in my storage always. I carry it in to the kitchen only for my household to have a slice or two, and when firm comes over. Nothing says “I like you” like cured pig.

6. Rooster, duck, and turkey necks
Dry remedy them for just a few days in your fridge in salt, sugar, and herbs and a contact of garlic. Then poach them in their very own fats for just a few hours at a low temperature.

After that, fry them to crisp, peel again the pores and skin, and throw the meat in a tortilla with some scorching peppers and tomato salsa.

My lips to God’s ears, it is the very best factor you’ll ever eat.

7. Duck
You possibly can rating excellent duck in any Asian market, typically instances contemporary. As any chef will inform you, there is no such thing as a higher meat to make use of and re-use.

At this time’s roast creates leftovers for a salad or sandwich and the bones make the very best soup on the earth. Simply add some mustard greens and Chinese language skinny egg noodles and you can be satisfied.

8. Goose
I wish to hunt goose, take away the breasts, sear the boneless lobes on the grill, and serve them medium uncommon.

Take a tip although: Slowly grilling an entire spatchcocked duck over scorching charcoal, utilizing oblique warmth, will make this wonderful chook a month-to-month meal in your own home.

Have I not satisfied you? If you happen to’re ever in Hong Kong, go to Yung Kee Restaurant, the place Chef Fai will.

9. Cuttlefish
They belong to the identical class of animals as squid and octopus. Clear them nicely, slice them in half, after which strive them blanched, sliced uncooked, or flown throughout a scorching grill for a short second.  

New Yorkers can expertise Enrique Olvera’s excellent model at his restaurant Cosme. Strive your at-home model uncooked, lower into skinny ribbons  and dressed with salt, lemon, celery, and olive oil.

10. Octopus
Not the imported sort. I am speaking about good old school home octopus—the tender little ones, just a few kilos every, swimming and nesting in coastal areas from Florida to Maine.

To wash one, take away the beak and viscera, and rinse nicely. Then poach the octopus entire in simmering tomato-spiked broth till tender, about 90 to 100 minutes.

Cool within the poaching liquid, after which grill crisp and serve with frisée salad and a sturdy mustard French dressing. Open a bottle of Sancerre. Growth.

MORE: Easy methods to Grill an Octopus

11. Spot prawns
If there may be any higher cause to go to Vancouver in Could or June I do not know what it may very well be. I like the meals there, and this could be (together with the native matsutake mushroom) sufficient of an argument for making a second residence in Canada.

Steam and eat these wonderful crustaceans. Nothing extra.

12. Lobster
Current years have seen some monster seasons for Homarus americanus, with report harvests and radically lowered costs. I steam lobsters at residence and let everybody else eat the tails and claws. I eat the heads, brimming with tomalley and roe.

However on the street I all the time search out the lobster rolls at 5 Islands Lobster Co. in Maine, lobster xiao lengthy bao at Benu in San Francisco, lobster gnocchi at Scott Conant’s Scarpetta in Manhattan, the lobster lasagna at Le Bernardin … however I digress.

13. King crab
Faltering demand for entire crab in Asia has meant brown and golden kings can be found within the U.S., flown from Alaska or Seattle to all factors east.

I hate to maintain enjoying the identical card, but when I’m going to indulge, I hit my favourite Chinese language seafood restaurant and do the normal three-course, twice-dry-fried ‘arms’, steamed knuckles with fermented duck egg, after which fried rice served within the physique itself.

14. Smooth crabs
Spike Gjerde is likely one of the greatest cooks in American that you just won’t have heard of.  He owns a number of eating places in Baltimore and his Woodberry Kitchen is a must-go for any meals lover. For native celebrity substances like smooth crabs nobody in America makes them higher.

Every year, native blue crabs enhance their physique fats content material after which shed their shells. Earlier than the crabs harden once more, fishermen harvest them and we customers eat the entire thing. There isn’t any finer seafood taste on earth than an actual wild-caught Maryland softie.

15. Milk fed lamb
Get to know a farmer. And earlier than I hear a cry from the sentimental, let me simply say that milk-fed lamb (or goat, or pig) is so a lot better than older animals that hit the grass or hay. It is a delicacy, a rarity, and, for a lot of, an moral dilemma to eat a younger animal.

If you happen to’ve by no means had milk-fed lamb offal, you might be lacking maybe the very best chew within the meat lover’s lexicon. A fast sauté of gut that has by no means digested strong meals is healthier than the bastard love baby of bone marrow and foie gras.

16. Frog
I am unable to assist it. Huge, fats Cajun frogs are an obsession of mine ever since my chef pal Don Hyperlink took me gigging on his household’s farm in Rayne, Louisiana. Floured and fried, or cooked quick in a sauce piquante is the best way to go.

That being mentioned, in lots of Vietnamese communities in the identical state you may relish frogs wok-tossed with basil and fish sauce.

MORE: Why Protein Is not Dangerous for Your Well being

17. Pork chops
A technology in the past, all of the fats and taste was bred out of pork. Fortunately, instances have modified.

There are one million and one causes I like L.A., however Chad Colby and what he’s doing at Chi Spacca needs to be among the finest. All of the meals turned out of his teeny kitchen is incomparable, however his tomahawk pork chop, laden with caramelized fats up and down the large bone is a fennel-pollen-dusted-wood-fire-roasted Adonis.

18. Tuna Head

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Nobody is serving it in America and I do not know why. Tuna heads provide the very best meat on the fish. So cook dinner one your self.

Discover a fishmonger that can promote you the products. Rub the top with salt, place on a baking tray, and slide the factor right into a 400°F oven for 60 to 180 minutes till cooked by. Take away the top from the oven and hack it aside with a knife and fork. Serve with ponzu sauce, loads of rice, grated daikon, and Japanese pickles. And check out the eyes.

19. Buffalo
Additionally known as bison, this American meat is now obtainable nearly in all places you store. Buffalo meat is sweeter and richer than beef, whereas additionally being leaner.

And regardless that it is lean, buffalo is excessive in important fatty acids and has a helpful ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 acids. So what’s stopping you?

20. Venison
Begin looking. There isn’t any higher meat obtainable than the one roaming your forests and plains. Or befriend a hunter. Or benefit from the myriad ranches now supplying America’s first crimson meat to cooks and eating places everywhere in the continent.

As an illustration, Damaged Arrow Ranch outdoors of Austin, Texas, has created a humane harvesting program. They even butcher the deer within the discipline, bringing a cellular USDA processing facility to the looking grounds.

21. Beaver

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Get a trapping license. Study to pores and skin. Save the pelt. Butcher the meat. Eat your beaver. It is scrumptious.

I like grilled beaver steaks. I like mild and chic beaver chili made with the gorgeously marbled tail meat much more.

22. Porcupine
Trapping wild porcupine is the one method you’ll style this wonderful animal except you journey to Botswana and hunt them (or journey to Cu Chi, Vietnam, and dine at Quan Dong Que, a restaurant that makes a speciality of serving it).

If you happen to entice one, you may serve all the ‘coat’ of fatty pores and skin charred, which is a real deal with.

MORE: Eat Lean Proteins for Higher Coaching

23. Barnacles
From percebes to picoroco, barnacles are the subsequent massive factor. When steamed or grilled, pried from their armor, barnacles signify among the greatest consuming within the animal world.

Deeply tasting of crustacean, their taste is very advanced owing to their diverse weight loss program within the tidal swimming pools they dwell in.

Development-hoppers take notice: It is advisable to be speaking about this now or your road cred might be shot to hell.

24. Snails
Certain, People likes escargot as a result of we just like the garlic and parsley butter that they are bathed in. However I like Babylonian snails, steamed for an hour after which sautéed with Thai basil, chilies, and coconut milk.

Douse them with lime, gimme a snail decide and a soccer recreation, and I am accomplished for the evening.

25. Abalone
The issue has all the time been diving for them in northern California as a result of they sit in the course of the identical area of shoreline made common by all of the Nice White sharks.

The shellfish meat is melting and tender when uncooked—even buttery when cooked. Plus, the cooked intestinal tract is stuffed with pristine seaweed so the animal garnishes itself.

MORE: Make an Superior Baked Goat Cheese Salad

26. Good cheese
Everywhere in the U.S, proper now, there are artisanal cheese makers who’ve adopted the European mannequin for manufacturing and altering the best way we eat cheese on this nation.

Head to your native farm market and assist your native cheese maker at present. Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm was one I found years in the past and I now I am unable to stay with no small wheel of their Moses Sleeper on my counter.

The article “Horse Meat, and 25 Different Unsung Proteins Each Man Should Strive” initially ran on MensHealth.com.