The National Culinary Review - July/August 2010

marketing campaign, was the product of confined calves fed an iron-deficient and low-fiber milk replacer laced with just enough antibiotics to keep the anemic animal alive until slaughter.

Happily for all, from calf to consumer, things are changing, although for many, too slowly. Increasing numbers of farmers are raising what are called nature-raised, or free-raised, veal, animals born on pasture and raised in pasture with unlimited access to their mother’s milk. Others have gotten rid of the crates but still keep calves in barns, feeding them milk replacer but allowing them to socialize and move freely. When the calves’ rumens begin to develop and they need to chew, the animals receive enough grain for their biological needs (which, in the process, reduces the stress on the animals).

lost in the discussion of veal production is taste. Lori Dunn is executive director of the pasture-raised program for Strauss Brands, Inc., a Franklin, Wis., family owned business founded in the 1930s that produces veal made from pasture-raised calves or those group-raised in a barn with six to eight other calves. It is the only packer in the U.S. that is 100% confinement-free, and sells to restaurant and foodservice distributors throughout the nation and to consumers through Whole Foods Market.

“Until recently,” Dunn says, “chefs in the
United States were trained to look for
white veal—the whiter, the better—and
the flavor was bland. But that’s not how a
healthy animal should be. Free and group-
raised veal will be pink, with a fuller, richer
flavor. We are finding that younger chefs
are not asking for white veal but instead
asking for advice on where they can get
natural-colored, tastier veal.”
In San Francisco, Chris Kronner took
over the kitchen of Bar Tartine in October
2009. Named by the San Francisco
Chronicle as one of its 2007 Rising Star
Chefs, Kronner was the youngest ever to
receive the designation. He is among the
new breed of chefs, and spends his free
days roasting a whole goat for friends in a
Sonoma County field. With few exceptions
(veal being one), Kronner does not serve
protein raised outside California. Most
of the Tartine veal is from Paolo Shere’s
8IT Ranch in Laytonville, Calif., but on
occasion, Kronner sources from Eugene,
Ore.’s, Knee Deep Cattle Co.

In some nations, crates are a thing of the past. The U.K. prohibited veal crates in 1990, and the entire EU phased them out in 2007. Here in the U.S., the American Veal Association, based in Meshoppen, Pa., passed a resolution in May 2007 recommending that all veal producers change production methods and abolish crates by 2017. As of now, it is estimated that about 35% of the veal marketed in the United States is pastured or group-raised. Although the American Veal Association points out that calves still in crates can stand, stretch, lie down and groom themselves, the fact that they cannot turn around is not addressed.

“This is definitely not a white veal,” he says.
“It’s a deep rose color, and sells very well.
Our customers know that we are particular,
and any questions are usually more about
flavor and texture than any concern that
we are serving veal.”
Consumers and chefs concerned with
humane animal treatment are driving what is
a growing demand and market for pastured
and humanely raised veal. But sometimes

THE “NEW” VEAL As with most livestock these days, chefs face an array of decisions in purchasing veal. Some, like Bill Telepan, chef/owner of Telepan, New York, wait for a single producer, Duane Merrill, Walton, N. Y., to call and say that he has a veal. Merrill’s veal is so popular that Telepan now tweets on Twitter and announces on Facebook that “pastured veal is in the house.”