A Maligned Meat Gets a Makeover

It’s standard practice for people to make New Year’s resolutions regarding their eating habits. Usually it’s a simple matter of eating less, or eating more healthfully. But many people are also resolving to eat more ethically — and that inevitably leads to the question of veal. Veal has always been a thorny proposition. Most people will eat beef, pork, or chicken without thinking twice, but a baby calf is, well, trickier, even for seasoned carnivores. Personally, I’ll eat veal, but I tend to feel a bit guilty about it. Yes, that’s more of an emotional reaction than an objective one, but food is all about emotion.And the veal industry hasn’t exactly done a lot to help itself. While other meats are promoted with catchphrases such as “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner” and “Pork: The other white meat,” the best the American Veal Association has been able to come up with is “Veal: Explore the possibilities” — not exactly a slogan destined to go down in marketing history.And there’s no denying that veal has become a fringe product. National annual veal consumption has been stuck at about 0.6 pounds per capita for years — down from about three times that amount in the early 1980s, and from significantly higher numbers in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of that decline is due to ethical concerns about how the calves are raised.Recently, though, there have been some shifts in the veal industry— shifts that may eventually allow veal to re-enter the mainstream of American meats.One man at the center of that shift is Michael Mosner, president of David Mosner Inc., a veal and lamb packer at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx. Mr. Mosner deals exclusively with veal farmers who use group housing, meaning the calves are free to move about in open pens instead of being confined in individual stalls. The calves are also fed some grain instead of just milk formula, so they’re functioning ruminants, which is important because most veal calves are five to six months old at the time of slaughter — well past the age when they would have been weaned from mother’s milk.These standards have earned Mr. Mosner the “Certified Humane” seal from Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit organization that certifies farmers who abide by ethically responsible livestock standards. They’ve also made him the local veal supplier for the New York-area Whole Foods stores, which have their own stringent rules for livestock farming. “There are a lot of people who don’t eat veal, maybe because they heard something, or someone told them something, or their Aunt Tillie read something about these calves being tortured,” Mr. Mosner said. “So my goal has been to make people feel that veal is okay to eat.”Ethical considerations aside, Mr. Mosner’s veal — which is also sold at Lobel’s butcher shop on the Upper East Side (1096 Madison Ave., 212-737-1372), Union Market in Park Slope (754 Union St., Brooklyn, 718-230-5152), and D’Agostino supermarkets (where it’s packaged under the Philip Michaels brand name) — is tastier than factory or commodity veal. Since the animals can move around and use their muscles, they develop a more pronounced, slightly beefy flavor.The feed affects the final product too, as Mr. Mosner explained: “The more grain you give them, the stronger the flavor they’ll have.” The result is meat still subtle and tender without being characterless.Calves raised in group housing currently account for only 5% to 10% of the veal on the market, but industry figures show that those numbers are likely to rise significantly over the next decade — especially if veal can make a breakthrough into casual-themed restaurants, which is where the industry’s marketing push has been lately. “If Olive Garden put veal back on their menu and insisted that the animals be raised in open pens, that could change the industry very rapidly,” the executive director of veal marketing for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dean Conklin, said.For now, though, veal remains a fairly rarefied, high-end product. One local chef making good use of it is Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern (42 E. 20th St., 212-477-0777), who offers five different veal preparations, with meat sourced from a variety of small farms. Some of these farms specialize in grass-fed calves, which is how veal was raised generations ago.“The grass-fed veal has a more nutty, beefy flavor quality, and a more noticeable red color,” he said. “We try to explain that to the customers table-side, because in many cases their mother or grandmother taught them that veal should be pale and pink.”One of Mr. Anthony’s greatest successes is a breaded veal cutlet that’s miles better than similar dishes at Italian restaurants. For the coating, he collects the breadcrumbs that come cascading off the restaurant’s crunchy Sullivan Street Bakery loaves as they’re sliced. And the veal itself is extremely juicy and earthy. Served with arugula and white beans, it’s a perfect autumn dish.If you want something a bit more decadent, Mr. Anthony also offers slow-braised veal deckle (the fattier part of the brisket), which is incomparably savory, almost like veal bacon.Mr. Anthony said veal sells well for him, but my own informal market research suggests that veal still has a long way to go in terms of public perception. When I mentioned to friends that I was working on this article, time and again they cringed, even when I explained about Mr. Anthony’s use of small-farm sources and Mr. Mosner’s humane certification.Mr. Mosner understands people’s concerns. “People want to think that their food has been handled compassionately,” he said. “And I’m not suggesting that the other way isn’t compassionate — I know those farmers, and they’re caring people. But I think we’ve come up with a better product, and a better story to sell for people who have these issues.”Now it’s just a question of whether consumers will respond to these changes — assuming most of them haven’t already sworn off veal for the New Year.

A Maligned Meat Gets a Makeover

A Maligned Meat Gets a Makeover

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