Fleishers Craft Butchery - Brooklyn
Amidst the busy streets of Brooklyn, NY, there is a place filled with like minded individuals who understand the importance of slowing down, appreciating the natural world, and building quality relationships. One of those individuals is Kyle McCarthy of the Fleisher's Butchery Education Team, who we were fortunate enough to have a great conversation with.
Kyle’s story begins in the small town of Sharon, Connecticut where he grew up around farms, very few restaurants, and his mothers cooking, aside from the occasional trip to Applebees for special events and an annual Red Lobster visit for his birthday. He started cooking, often with one of his friends, around the age of 7 or 8, and he has never stopped since. He explored all types of cuisines and techniques, and never missed an episode of the Food Network. Some episodes were valuable enough to be recorded on VHS (remember those days?) to be played back later for the recipes. After high school he went on to pursue an education in the culinary world, and he became a Johnson and Wales culinary school grad. He started his career as a chef, prior to a brief stint as a cheesemonger, and eventually making the transition into butchery. Needless to say, he is a well rounded and highly knowledgeable individual when it comes to food and flavor.
The restaurants he worked at were always farm to table because that is of utmost important to him. “If you bite into a tomato that’s ripe and in season, you can never really go back” he reminisced. Although he recognizes that the Farm to Table sentiment is starting to lose its luster. Any restaurant that sources one item from a farm can technically say that they are farm to table. Like many things, the overuse and abuse of terms like this can take away from the initial good intention and transparency.
Kyle eventually found himself in a toxic zone, working 80-90 hours a week since graduation, which he acknowledges is expected of anyone trying to make it in the industry. He was burnt out, lost all his passion for cooking, and it wasn't a place mentally that he wished to be. It felt like work, and it had never felt like that before. He made the decision to get out of his comfort zone and work as a cheesemonger, which reignited his passion and excitement for food and learning. After spending some time in this profession, he applied to Fleishers Craft Butchery. He was always circling whole animal butchery as a farm to table chef, but this is a deeper dive into the profession and he thought it would be a good fit for him, and he was right. His story is an example of how the path is not linear for anyone who is pursuing their passion as their career. It will have its ups and downs, but the time it takes pales in comparison to the feeling of knowing you made it to a place that is true to your character. As a chef he was trained, as everyone was, to not show that you were intimidated or that you didn’t know what you’re doing, but when he became a butcher he realized he didn't know nearly as much as he thought he did about meat, there was plenty of room to learn, and that is OK.
Making mistakes, asking questions, and learning from them is actually encouraged at Fleishers. One of his co-workers and someone who inspires him, Jason Yang, explains when somethings wrong, why it’s wrong, and why improving will make your life easier. It was an entirely different approach than what he previously experienced. Fleishers as a whole is mindful of how they educate and train their employees, especially new employees working the counterGoing into a butcher shop can be intimidating if you haven’t done it before, and Fleishers recognizes that each person that walks into their stores is an opportunity for an exchange of information and to form a relationship.
The irony is that what butchers do has been a human practice for thousands of years. In a sense, butchery is a lost art, a quite impressive one at that. It takes skill to navigate the carcass of an animal, taking care to dissect each piece of the animal so as to leave as little meat as possible on the bone, and get as much use out of it as possible. It is only very recently that the majority of the population has been completely removed from the process. We just see the end product; the nice clean and sanitary cuts of meat and poultry wrapped in plastic, ready to be thrown on the grill at a moment's notice. What people often don’t think about is how that animal was raised, what it was fed, the conditions it lived in, the people that watched over the process, and where it came from. But it is easy to turn a blind eye when you can get any cut of meat you want essentially half the ticket price it used to cost. How did it get this way you might ask? The answer is large companies with an immense amount of capital. Essentially what happened, and still happens, is companies scope out where to open up their next location, set up shop, and undercut prices of their competitors around them. They are able to take the initial financial hit because they have a cushion of funds to protect them, whereas small businesses they are competing with charge a premium price for their product. And for good reason. Unfortunately, more often than not, these small companies are driven out. But business is business and this cycle won’t stop. The way to combat this is simply the continued support of local shops.
People will always want meat, and they want it cheap. “Can you imagine a farmer living off of $2/lb of chicken? You have to think about the farmer, what they’re doing to raise these animals, and the animals welfare.” The fact of the matter is, they actually can’t live on that price Americans increasingly demand to pay. At the same time, most Americans can’t afford the price of good, high quality meat. We find ourselves in quite the conundrum. But like Kyle says about the quality of a ripe in season tomato, once you taste a high quality cut of beef, it is very hard to ever go back. Animals that are raised right have ample access to grazing fields, are able to move around so more blood flow and oxygen get into the muscles, and will therefore have a much better flavor and mineral content. Contrast that to factory farming, where animals are stacked on top of each other, often tortured by those hired to raise them, fed soy, grains and antibiotics, until they meet their end.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are starting to see a revived interest in the quality of what we consume. As grocery stores were selling out and everything seemed uncertain, people were counting on Fleishers to provide for them in the safest way possible. One of the blessings of the pandemic is giving people permission to slow down, take better care of themselves, because you really can't take care of anything else unless you’re taking care of yourself first. And that includes what we eat. People were forced to stay home and cook rather than go out to eat, and they are realizing that food is an immensely important factor in their short term and long term health.
Another value of Fleishers that served them well during this time is their commitment to limiting waste. Because they recognize the great sacrifice of the animal, it breaks their heart to see any part of that animal go to waste. They try to have a turn around time of 2 weeks for every cut of beef, they have a vacuum seal machine which helps to preserve the meat by preventing oxidation and bacteria buildup, and they use the freezer, but sparingly as it can pile up pretty quickly. They push the envelope to come up with creative ways to utilize parts that would typically be tossed. They use the bones to make stock, freeze unused ground beef to be later made into a delicious meal, and make dog treats out of dried skin. They repurpose products that don’t sell, and whatever they don't find a home for, they give to a company to compost (yes, meat can be composted). In addition there are some good samaritan programs for food waste to give back to the community, which could very much use the help, but it's a grey area. There are allergies and other liabilities you may have to worry about when donating any sort of food, which makes this more difficult. Fleishers is committed to this process, and they see it as their duty to give back to their community in any way that they can.
They aren’t the only ones in the fight for a more sustainable food system. There are plenty of shops just like them popping up all the time, which is great news. It shows that there is interest in this way of being and that more of these conversations are being had.
We recognize that people have a hard time making changes, especially when skepticism is involved. We often used to think to ourselves, what is two girls being conscious about the way they shop going to do for the world? But we realized, the more we participate in this movement, the more people around us become interested, and the thought process multiplies. Just like Fleishers, we treat interested people as opportunities to transfer knowledge, who hopefully pass that knowledge and interest onto others. At the most basic level, the first and best step people can do to be a part of this change is to just have conversations and be open minded. Secondly, check out what's going on in your community and challenge your beliefs about food. You don't have to buy anything, but go to local farmers markets or butchers shops and see if there's anything you like. These are small actionable steps that are worth taking.
A good rule of thumb to follow is when buying meat, poultry, lamb, pork, if you ask where it came from and how it was raised, and if they don't have the answer, they should be able to find it easily. If you wanted to look at where Stop & Shop and Whole Foods, for example, get their products from, it is on their website. There is nothing convenient about doing your own research and learning about this industry, but neither is an unsustainable and unhealthy food system. You are free to choose your inconvenience.
From the butcher, Kyle himself, take a look at the description of cuts below to try:
I believe that the sirloin in any species, across the board is one of the most overlooked cuts. It’s so very versatile. It can be tied into a roast, cut into steaks, skin on, skin off, bone-in, bone-out, smoked, braised, grilled, stewed; I really could go on and on. I think one of the coolest features of the sirloin are the different muscles that make up the sirloin. Each compartment has a slightly different flavor and texture which makes it extremely exciting to eat.
A few other cuts that I don't think get enough love are:
Pork Coppa: It's usually reserved for curing to make capicola but it's an incredibly flavorful steak or roast with a good amount of fat and super tender.
Beef Oyster: Also known as spider steak. It has an awesome amount of fat that runs through it similar to a spider web, which is why it's also called a spider steak. Fun fact: the German word for this steak translates as "bat steak", making this the spookiest cut in any animal. I love telling this to people around Halloween.
Chuck Ribeye: Right where the shoulder meets the rib primal, you can get one or two of these beauties. I like to think of it as a ribeye born on the wrong side of the tracks. All the tenderness from the ribeye with all the flavor from the working muscles in the shoulder.
Denver Steak: This cut has become more popular in recent years and for good reason, it's very versatile. You can cook it like stew or pan-sear it mid-rare. The muscle is an extension of the chuck short ribs and wraps around the chuck eye, which gives it amazing marbling.
Pork Belly: My favorite cut of pork. What is the point of living without bacon? It's also more versatile than most people think. You can cut fresh pork belly into strips and pan sear it like bacon without the smokey, cured flavor or slow roast it. It's perfect for ramen (my number one favorite meal), and makes an amazing, no-fuss porchetta.