Veal

RATM

Was just in France over the New Year where veal shows up on menus in a lot of restaurants. But it is rare I see it here, I know it is available in some butchers around Dublin but I can't recall ever seeing it on a menus in Ireland. I'm sure some restaurants somewhere are serving it but it begs the question as to why it is so rare ? It's a gorgeous meat if cooked properly so I'm trying to grapple with its low availability.

I remember growing up in the 1980's there was a lot of controversy in the UK about exporting live calves in tiny cages and that episode probably gave veal as a meat a bad rap as I remember the protests at ferry ports where quite big and gained national attention at the time.

But transport aside surely eating veal is no different from eating lamb ? I mean there is a moral argument that an animal should live as long a life as possible and I can understand it. But if we eat lamb which only lives for around 2 years before slaughter surely the same logic should apply to veal ? It obviously doesn't or else veal would be a lot more popular in Ireland and would be a common feature on Irish menus.

So why the Irish aversion to veal ?

Mr Simpson

Unfortunately, people still have the images of indoor cage reared veal calves ingrained in their minds. That doesn't happen in the UK or Ireland anymore, but it seems to be proving hard to overcome that image.

Jamie Oliver has high welfare veal on his menus at Jamie's Italian, it is unbelievably good!!

The Hill Billy

While there are some Irish people who have an 'aversion' to veal (most likely due to previous poor animal husbandry practices or just the thought of eating 'baby cow'), I think that the reason it is not on many menus or cooked widely at home is that it was never a traditional meat of choice. This is probably due to being a prohibitively expensive source of meat for most people in days in our parents' & grand-parents' time.

It is very popular here in Switzerland & I've eaten it on many occasions. I prefer 'stronger' flavours, so veal steaks/cutlets for me are pretty 'meh!'. I find it best served with a sauce as it can be quite bland just fried or grilled.

Here's a recipe for Zürcher Geschnetzeltes that I posted in The Cooking Club that uses veal.

the beer revolu

OP, peoples problem with veal wasn't just the transporting of the calves but the practise of keeping them completely confined in crates in the dark for their entire lives.
As stated, Irish and UK veal is not reared in this way - I can't really say for sure if it is still practised this way in France but I believe it is.

Lamb on the other hand happily runs about fields and mountains before being slaughtered. BTW if it is over one year it's not lamb anymore - it's hogget or mutton if older again. Mutton is a much under rated meat but much of what is sold as lamb is in fact hogget.

Mr Simpson

Indoor cage rearing is still practised in continental europe, in fact a lot of Irish calves are exported for such. Its a shame really, its something I'd like to see banned EU wide.

Edit: It is now banned EU wide

the beer revolu

MarkMc wrote: »

Indoor cage rearing is still practised in continental europe, in fact a lot of Irish calves are exported for such. Its a shame really, its something I'd like to see banned EU wide.

It is from Wiki so.......... but

Veal crates became illegal in the UK in 1990,[25] and a full ban has been placed for the entire European Union, as of 2007.[26][27] Switzerland, with its substantial dairy industry, continues to use crates.

Veal calf production as such is not allowed in many Northern European countries, such as in Finland. In Finland, giving feed, drink or other nutrition which is known to be dangerous to the health of the animal to an animal which is being cared for is prohibited, as well as failing to give nutrients the lack of which is known to cause the animal to fall ill. The Finnish Animal Welfare Act of 1996 and the Finnish animal welfare decree of 1996 effectively banned crates in Finland and provided general guidelines for the housing and care of animals.

Mr Simpson

So it is, I hadnt realised.

the beer revolu

MarkMc wrote: »

So it is, I hadnt realised.

Neither had I.

Kat1170

MarkMc wrote: »

Indoor cage rearing is still practised in continental europe, in fact a lot of Irish calves are exported for such. Its a shame really, its something I'd like to see banned EU wide.

Edit: It is now banned EU wide

WOW !!!! That was quick work :D

Mellor

This is my understanding, is this correct:
Some cattle are bread for dairy, some are for beef. For the dairy variety, half will be males and therefore useless for milk, and they'll never be big enough to be viable as a source of beef. So these become veal. Or else, I imagine they are they are destroyed.

I can understand the aversion to veal in the past, indoor crate rearing, conditions, the imagery etc. I'd never eat veal raised that way.
But if what I outlined above is accurate, then surely not using male dairy calves for veal is the worst option, as it means they destroyed when some use could be salvaged.

Minder

There is no market in the UK for male veal calves so UK farmers have them shot at a few days old. Jimmy Docherty featured the practice in series about the influence of giant supermarkets on our food supply.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9302303/Calf-slaughter-on-television-upsets-viewers.html

The programme didn't show the animals getting shot, but it did show Jimmy's reaction to the crack of the pistol and the calves lying dead afterwards. The irony of it is that the animals are destroyed after the export of live veal calves was curtailed in the UK over welfare concerns.

The programme explored the reasons as to why such waste is allowed to continue. 90,000 male dairy calves are destroyed in the UK each year. The outcome was that supermarkets will occasionally try to promote veal as an alternative to beef etc, but with little take up from consumers the mainstream supermarkets usually drop the product after a short marketing exercise.

bbam

So guys.
Male calves from dairy herds are currently used for beef here in Ireland. While they are more challenging to fatten it can and is being done on a large scale. Some of the meat companies have been working with the industury to develop this market.
Veal has essentially been replaced with Rose Veal. I'll look for a link in a minute.
The shooting of dairy bull calves is not practiced here at the moment. Calves that don't enter ye beef market are exported live for beef elsewhere.
I don't expect the price of beef in general to drop to the stage where fattening these dairy beef calves isn't profitable, although grain prices will also have an effect.

http://www.slaney.com/rose_veal/index.asp

Mr Simpson

I actually read about that recently. Unfortunately, in the UK the same cannot be said, they still kill male dairy calves.

mitosis

Used to love veal. The meat sold as veal these days is just not as good.

thegreatiam

MarkMc wrote: »

Indoor cage rearing is still practised in continental europe, in fact a lot of Irish calves are exported for such. Its a shame really, its something I'd like to see banned EU wide.

Edit: It is now banned EU wide

thats some fast work right there MarkMc, you've some power ;-)

Mr Simpson

thegreatiam wrote: »

thats some fast work right there MarkMc, you've some power ;-)

Poor joke was made already But yes, yes I do

thegreatiam

MarkMc wrote: »

Poor joke was made already But yes, yes I do

yes i missed it in my speedy scrolling.

and its a great joke!

C.K Dexter Haven

An Irish butcher told me it was banned when I enquired some years ago. It confuses me though how you can get it in Italy and France and not Ireland.

Mr Simpson

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

An Irish butcher told me it was banned when I enquired some years ago. It confuses me though how you can get it in Italy and France and not Ireland.

Crate reared veal is banned in the EU. Other veal isn't, you can get it here

paulbok

Got veal (albeit frozen) in a butchers in Charlestown Shoping center about 2 years ago.

C.K Dexter Haven

MarkMc wrote: »

Crate reared veal is banned in the EU. Other veal isn't, you can get it here

Just googled Irish veal- lot of it is exported. I don't understand why. You really need to search for suppliers to the public.

If anyone knows of a good veal butcher you might post the name/location of their business here?