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Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef | 
 enlarge | Author: Betty Fussell
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $10.64
You Save: $15.36 (59%)
New (46) Used (7) from $10.64
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 156826
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0151012024
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.2130973
EAN: 9780151012022
ASIN: 0151012024
Publication Date: October 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In Raising Steaks, Betty Fussell saddles up for a spirited ride across America on the trail of our most iconic food. When we bite into a steak's charred crust and pink interior, Fussell finds that we bite into contradictions that have branded our national identity from the start. We taste the colliding fantasies of British pastoralists and Spanish ranchers that erupted in land wars between a wet-weather East and a desert West. We savor the ideas of wilderness and progress that clashed when we replaced buffalo with cattle, and then cowboys with industrial machines. We take in the contradictions of rugged individualism and the corporate technology that we use to breed, feed, slaughter, package, and distribute the animals we turn into meat. And we participate—as do the cattlemen and chefs, feedlot operators and rodeo stars, boot makers and scientists Fussell talks with—in the mythology that inspires cowboys to become technocrats and presidents to play cowboy. Raising Steaks is a celebration of, and an elegy for, a uniquely American Dream.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The History of a Steak...From Moo to Chew November 26, 2008
Frederick S. Goethel (Central Valley, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The steak is an iconic part of American food history that developed as the country grew. Originally a staple of the rich on the East Coast and of ranchers in the West, the steak has grown from a food eaten only by certain groups into the meat of choice for millions of Americans. This book exams, in detail, how the steak is raised from a baby veal and becomes prime porterhouse.
Starting with ranchers in the western states of Colorado, Oregon and Texas the author examines different methods of raising the beef. Cattle can be raised a number of ways, from purely grass fed to grain fed. There are also different methods of ranching from ranchers that raise the beef all the way through slaughter to those that raise each animal through only a part of the process. All are looked at and discussed in detail, along with the various problems associated with each method.
From the ranchers, the author moves on to the feedlot/slaughter operations. From small country butcher to the Big 4 animal processing companies, again, the author examines each step and the problems associated with each. She gives relatively equal time to all factions, of whom there are many, and examines food safety in detail. The section on mad cow disease was amazing, and I will never buy generic beef again. If you are weak of stomach, I recommend skipping the chapters on slaughter and food safety issues. They may cause you to become a vegetarian...that is until you realize that beef by products are everywhere.
The book finishes with a number or recipes for cooking steak, although, as the author points out, there is really only one true way to cook a good steak. High heat on a grill!
I recommend this book to all who have an interest in the food they eat and how it comes to be. It may very well change how you perceive that slab of beef the next time you eat. In my case, the book reinforced my belief in buying premium beef from a known source!
 So bad I couldn't finish it! November 12, 2008
L. Humphrey (Pima, AZ USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book had great possibilities. The minor mistakes made me wonder if there were major mistakes. For example, the Mississippi River is not located near the 100th Meridian, they are GRAMA grasses, not gamma grasses, cattle do not eat yucca, under any circumstances, except for the seedstalk, Ted Turner's ranch is the Vermejo, not the Vermigo, Border Patrol vehicles are green and white, not blue and white. After reading these obvious errors in the first hundred pages or so, I gave up on the whole book. The author should stick to writing cookbooks. I saw she wrote the story of corn, but after the mistakes in this book, I'm not even going to look at the corn one. If an author travels across the country gathering information, presumably on an expense account, I think they owe it to the reader to get it right! I hate sloppiness!
A witty hunk of a read. October 24, 2008
carol gillott (NYC)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
When Betty Fussell turns her wit and candor to meat we must follow. There is never a dull moment whether Fussell writes on corn or mushrooms. Add to that a hunk of grass-fed beef and you're set to come out swinging. Steak for breakfast is my ideal starter, plus a macaroon or two. big merci Betty for confirming my addiction.
Makes Me Hungry October 21, 2008
Kenneth Albala (Stockton, CA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
All I can say is you should strap yourself in the saddle and expect a serious ride. I'm nearly done, and I must admit it has made me very hungry. I splurged on a gorgeous little piece of grass-fed beef after the first chapter, and was thoroughly sated. Short ribs followed suit. No seriously, this will get you to think about who raises beef and how in great detail. It is neither a blanket condemnation nor an unbalanced plea to forebear, but a good gutsy look at what we Americans really want for dinner.
MMMM BEEEFFF October 14, 2008
Hippyjajajoo (woodstock)
0 out of 23 found this review helpful
I have been on a strict protien diet so i've been eating about four cheese burgers a day. i was becoming discouarged as i began to have diareha but then i found this book and fell in love with it. Not only do i eat only beef but i have increased my intake of children too!
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