How to eat less meat

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June 11, 2008

THE MINIMALIST

Putting Meat Back in Its Place

By MARK BITTMAN

LET'S suppose you've decided to eat less meat, or are considering

it. And let's ignore your reasons for doing so. They may be

economic, ethical, altruistic, nutritional or even irrational. The

arguments for eating less meat are myriad and well-publicized, but

at the moment they're irrelevant, because what I want to address

here is (almost) purely pragmatic: How do you do it?

I'm not talking about eating no meat; I'm talking about cutting

back, which in some ways is harder than quitting. Vegetarian recipes

and traditions are everywhere. But in the American style of eating —

with meat usually at the center of the plate — it can be difficult

to eat two ounces of beef and call it dinner.

Cutting back on meat is not an isolated process. Unlike, say, taking

up meditation or exercise, it usually has consequences for others.

The keys are to keep at least some of your decisions personal so

they affect no one but yourself and, when they do affect others,

minimize the pain and don't preach. (No one likes a proselytizer.)

On the other hand, don't apologize; by serving your friends or

family less meat you're certainly doing them no harm, and may be

doing them good — as long as what you serve is delicious, and that's

easy enough.

Reducing the meat habit can be done, and it doesn't have to make you

crazy. Although there will undoubtedly be times you'll have

cravings, they'll never give you the shakes. So, in no particular

order, here are some suggestions to ease your path to eating less

meat.

1. Forget the protein thing. Roughly simultaneously with your

declaration that you're cutting back on meat, someone will ask " How

are you going to get enough protein? " The answer is " by being

omnivorous. " Plants have protein, too; in fact, per calorie, many

plants have more protein than meat. (For example, a cheeseburger

contains 14.57 grams of protein in 286 calories, or about .05 grams

of protein per calorie; a serving of spinach has 2.97 grams of

protein in 23 calories, or .12 grams of protein per calorie; lentils

have .07 grams per calorie.) By eating a variety, you can get all

essential amino acids.

You also don't have to eat the national average of a half-pound of

meat a day to get enough protein. On average, Americans eat about

twice as much as the 56 grams of daily protein recommended by the

United States Department of Agriculture (a guideline that some

nutritionists think is too high). For anyone eating a well-balanced

diet, protein is probably not an issue.

2. Buy less meat. How many ounces of meat is a serving? For years,

the U.S.D.A.'s recommendation has been four ounces a person, yet

most of us have long figured one-and-a-half to two pounds of meat is

the right amount for four people. (Our per capita consumption of

meat hasn't changed much over the years, and remains at about a half-

pound a day.) Change that amount, and both your cooking style and

the way the plate looks will change, and quickly.

Remember that most traditional styles of cooking use meat as a

condiment or a treat. This is true in American frontier cooking,

where salt pork and bacon were used to season beans; in Italy, where

a small piece of meat is served as a secondo (rarely more than a few

ounces, even in restaurants); and around the world, where bits of

meat are added to stir-fries and salads, as well as bean, rice and

noodle dishes. In all of these cases, meat is seen as a treasure,

not as something to be gobbled up as if it were air.

For many of us who grew up in the United States in the last 60

years, this is the toughest hurdle. The message (remember " Beef:

it's what's for dinner " ?) was in our psyche from before we could

hold a fork. We may have vegetarian nights, or seafood nights, but

when we have meat nights, there's often a big piece of meat (or

poultry) on the plate, with starch and vegetable to the side.

3. Get it out of the center of the plate.

You don't have to jump into utterly unfamiliar territory; just try

tweaking the proportions a bit. You might start by buying skinnier

pork chops, or doling out smaller slices of steak .

Build the meal around what you used to consider side dishes — not

only vegetables, but also grains, beans, salads and even dessert, if

you consider fruit a dessert — rather than the meat. Nearly every

culture has dishes in which meat is used to season rice or another

grain. Consider dirty rice, fried rice, pilaf, biryani, arroz con

pollo: the list is almost endless.

Similarly, there isn't a country in the world that cooks legumes

that doesn't toss a little meat in now and then. And mentioning stir-

fries and pasta dishes here seems almost too obvious.

But you need not go transcultural. When you make stew, soup or

another dish with many ingredients, you make a decision about its

main ingredient and about the quantity of that ingredient. If you

think of meat stews or soups, chicken pot pie, even lasagna, you'll

quickly recognize that the decision to load them up with meat or to

use meat as an ingredient of equal importance to the others is

entirely yours.

The same is true when you're grilling. Compare these

statements: " We're grilling a leg of lamb and throwing a few

vegetables on there, " and " We're grilling vegetables and breads, and

will throw a few chunks of lamb on there. " Again, if you see the

meat as a treasure, things change.

4. Buy more vegetables, and learn new ways to cook them.

If you're a good cook, you already know you can make a meal out of

pretty much anything. If you open your refrigerator and it's stocked

with vegetables, that's what you're going to cook. You'll augment

the vegetables with pantry items: pasta, rice, beans, cheese, eggs,

good canned fish, bacon, even a small amount of meat. We're not

discussing vegetarianism, remember?

If you're not a good cook, you have the opportunity to learn how to

cook in what could turn out to be the style of the future.

5. Make nonmeat items as convenient as meat. There is a myth, even

among experienced cooks, that few things are as convenient as meat.

And while there's no arguing that grilling, broiling or pan-grilling

a steak or chop is fast, it's equally true that almost no one

considers such a preparation a one-dish meal.

By thinking ahead, and working ahead, you can make cooking

vegetables as convenient as what in India is often called " non-veg. "

Spend an hour or two during the course of the week precooking all

the nonmeat foods you think take too long for fast dinners.

Store cooked beans in the refrigerator or freezer and reheat as

needed, with seasonings. Keeping precooked beans in the freezer will

change your cooking habits more easily than any other simple

strategy.

Reheat cooked whole grains (the microwave is good for this) for

breakfast with milk or dinner with savory seasonings. Wash tender

greens and store in a salad spinner, covered bowl, or plastic bag.

Most other vegetables can be poached, shocked in ice water, drained,

and served cold or reheated in any fashion you like — sautéed

quickly in butter, steamed, grilled or made into a gratin or

something equally substantial.

6. Make some rules. Depending on your habits, it may be no bacon at

breakfast; it may be no burgers at lunch; it may be no fast food,

ever; it may be " eat a salad instead of a sandwich three times a

week, " or " eat a vegetarian dinner three times a week. " It may mean

meatless Fridays. It may mean (this is essentially what I do)

meatless breakfasts and lunches and all-bets-are-off dinners.

7. Look at restaurant menus differently. If you're cutting back on

meat, there are three restaurant strategies. Two are easy, and one

is hard, but probably the most important.

The first: go to restaurants that don't feature meat-heavy dishes.

It's harder to go overboard eating at most Asian restaurants, and

traditional Italian is fairly safe also.

The second: Once in a while, forget the rules and pledges, and eat

like a real American; obviously you can't do this every time, but

it's an option.

The third is the tricky one: Remember you're doing this voluntarily,

for whatever reasons seem important to you (or at least seemed,

until you were confronted with the lamb shanks on the menu). Then

order from the parts of the menu that contain little or no meat:

salads, sides, soups and (often, anyway) appetizers. If all else

fails, offer to share a meat course among two or even three or four

people; many restaurant entrees are too big anyway.

I distinctly remember (no great feat; it was just over a year ago),

the first time I was in a restaurant and ordered two salads and a

bowl of soup.

My companion, who had long known me as a meat-first kind of guy,

asked, " Really? "

The waiter asked, " How would you like that served? " And then life

went on as usual. Wasn't bad at all.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company