meat

Steaks being seasoned with herbs as they cook on bbq grill with vegetable kebabs, mediterranean food, healthy lifestyle, food and drink.

Science

Want juicy barbecue this Fourth of July? Cook low and slow

3:01am July 01, 2024

Perfecting your grilling technique ahead of the Fourth of July? Chefs will tell you that cooking is not just an art — it's a science. And the spirit of summer barbecues, NPR science correspondent Sydney Lupkin brings us this encore piece about how understanding the chemistry of cooking meat can help you perfect your barbeque. It's all about low and slow cooking.

This story was originally reported for NPR by Gisele Grayson. Read her reporting.

Curious about other science powering the things you love? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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12th October 1939: American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses America.

Price Controls, Black Markets, And Skimpflation: The WWII Battle Against Inflation

6:30am February 08, 2022

by Greg Rosalsky

To control inflation during WWII, the U.S. government resorted to wide-ranging price controls. Their unintended consequences might explain why today's policymakers are reluctant to try it again.

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Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech's Race for the Future of Food, by Chase Purdy

'Billion Dollar Burger' Asks: What Is Meat?

5:00am June 17, 2020

by Nicholas Cannariato

Chase Purdy's briskly paced and quietly bold new book about the future of meat suggests people rethink its meaning, as he explores those at the forefront of developing cell-cultured meat.

Health & Safety

Lower Production Output By Meat Plants Could Drive Up Prices At The Store

3:50pm May 15, 2020

by Keri Brown

There are more than two-dozen COVID-19 outbreaks at North Carolina meat processing plants. That includes confirmed cases at the Tyson Foods plant in Wilkes County.

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A Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., that produces 4% to 5% of the nation's pork supply has become the latest meat processing facility to shut down as COVID-19 sickens plant workers.

U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' To A Shortage, CEO Warns

2:25pm April 13, 2020

by Jim Zarroli

A Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota that produces 4% to 5% of the nation's pork supply has become the latest meat processing facility to shut down as COVID-19 sickens plant workers.

A flock of Texel-Dorset sheep gather near a hay trough in a Hudson River Valley barn in Medusa, N.Y. Millennials and more experimental diners might be open to eating mutton.

After WWII, Mutton Fell Out Of Favor In The U.S. Can It Make A Comeback?

10:37am November 26, 2019

by Lisa Fogarty

Once the stuff of high-end cuisine, mutton consumption tanked thanks to competition from the cattle industry and GIs fed up with rations. Fans say it's time to re-embrace this underappreciated meat.

Meat sentry Ray Stack oversees raffle prizes at the Polish Falcons Hall in Depew, N.Y.

National

Meat Raffles Aren't Just About The Meat In This New York Community

11:37am November 22, 2019

by Kate Kaye

The raffles are part social event and part fundraiser, as people in Western New York hang out and drink beer while they bid on slabs of meat. Even if they don't win, "everybody leaves with a smile."

An engraving dating from the 19th century depicts passenger pigeons, once one of the most common birds in North America but now extinct because of overhunting and deforestation.

Books
Arts

When We Love Our Food So Much That It Goes Extinct

7:38pm September 23, 2019

by Luisa Torres

A new book explores how overhunting and habitat destruction have left us with only a fraction of the foods that existed a century ago, and the changes that are needed to preserve our culinary variety.

Cows graze on a grass field at a farm in Schaghticoke, N.Y. The grass-fed movement is based on the idea of regenerative agriculture.

Is Grass-Fed Beef Really Better For The Planet? Here's The Science

2:46pm August 13, 2019

by Nancy Matsumoto

There are many elements to consider: climate, animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions, land use. And with so many factors at play, sometimes the answer gets complicated.

Spanish matador Alberto Lopez Simon makes a pass on a bull at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas bullring in Madrid. The restaurant Casa Toribio, located just down the street, keeps the meat from from bulls killed in bullfighting on its menu all year long.

World News

The Eating Of The Bulls: From The Spanish Fighting Ring To The Plate

12:10pm August 01, 2019

by Lucia Benavides

After matadors kill bulls, restaurants and butcher shops will sell the meat during bullfighting festivals. One Madrid restaurant sells it all year long, despite opposition from animal rights groups.