Appetites: Serving up the whole animal in 'nose-to-tail' dining

There was a time when the idea of eating a whole animal was not a food trend — it was just being thrifty. But it's back, and Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine spoke to MPR News host Tom Crann about how "nose-to-tail" dining is playing out in the Twin Cities.

This is not a new idea but we certainly got away from it over the years.

The ordinary thing used to be that you had a pig and you'd use all of it. But then technology came around and people thought, "Why would I mess around with that whole pig when I can just open a box and get the pork chops?" That's much faster.

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Who's doing this in the Twin Cities?

Red Stag Supper Club and Victory 44. Heartland, which was one of the leaders of this movement, and Strip Club Meat & Fish in St. Paul. Corner Table in south Minneapolis. There's even a food truck, Curious Goat, that does this.

How does this play out on menus?

Let's take a pig, for example. You've got to break that down. You have to get the chops out, you've got to get the loins out. Perhaps a ham, you might be making a ham. So you get all the prestige cuts that you know and love. But with the rest of it, you have to have a plan.

At some places like Corner Table, I think they get three lambs every Thursday. They get the chops out and all that. Then with the rest, they save some for lamb shanks and that kind of osso buco-style. Then they use a lot of it for a sauce, a ragout.

Is this trend challenging for chefs?

Chefs have to be extremely creative. You actually have to know the Old World cooking techniques that people used for the thousands of years before you just got boxes of things off trucks.

It also allows them to operate at a much higher level, because the economic incentive is there. If you are only buying pork chops you're spending $16 a pound. If you're buying the whole animal, now you're down at $2 a pound or so.

I think that's one of the reasons we have so many affordable, very fine restaurants here is because people are figuring out how to do that.

Sounds like it's a trend we're going to see more of here in the Twin Cities.

Absolutely. All the young kids will take apprenticeships essentially at butchers or at the restaurants that do this. It's a highly sought-after skill. And I think we're going to see it migrating back outstate.