Lifting the veil

If there's a food-related topic quite so bound up in controversy as veal, I haven't heard of it.

Go ahead, google it, see what happens.

Chances are the front page will look something like this: a few sites on straight information (ie, neutral in viewpoint), a few cooking sites and related items with recipes, and a few talking about how cruel the practice is.

I'm not going to try to convince you of one viewpoint or another. In fact, I won't even talk about my own personal stance. I'll just put out some information, and you can do with it what you wish.

First of all, a quick note about why we started using the mini-moo's in the first place. Veal is actually a by-product of the dairy industry. Cows (that's an actual category of cattle, by the way, meaning females used for dairy) need to give birth about once a year in order to continually produce milk. As it is, this leaves us with a surplus of baby cattle. Female calves can be taken to be raised as the future dairy-producers of America, but the males are just taking up space. Being the thrifty little people that we are, we slaughter them (generally around 9-10 months of age) and sell the meat as veal. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we're the first society to come up with veal - far from it, really. On to the topic at hand, though.

While animal right's activist groups such as PETA oppose all sorts of animal-raising practices, veal has it's own special little spot on the shelf. It's not only big groups like this, though. Many people are turned off by veal. While Americans consume in the neighborhood of 60 pounds per year apiece of chicken and beef, veal consumption is less than a single pound per person per year. Even lamb, which is another "baby-version" that is sometimes found on our plates, does not have near the amount of protest. So what makes veal so special? Check out how it's raised.

Granted, here in the states we're not exactly known for giving our slaughter-animals acres of roaming grounds. It's more efficient to use the factory-farm setting, and it produces a more consistent product (in fact, the factory farming technique is why pork isn't graded by quality - it's so consistent now that there's little point). There are 3 categories of veal, from a packaging standpoint.

Baby veal (aka Bob veal): Slaughtered at an age of 3-30 days. These are actually the lowest quality of veal because we haven't had a chance to produce that pale flesh that gives veal it's unique character.

Non-formula veal (aka Barn raised, and many other names): These are veal, but only just. Because they're fed a diet of grains, grass, and/or other examples of "real food" they don't have that pale flesh and the flavor will be more pronounced (not a good thing with veal). Often these guys will be hutch-raised (think calf-sized dog houses) or even maybe in larger yards or barn settings.

Formula-fed (aka Special fed): This is, in essense, the real deal. What is "special feed", you may ask? Liquid milk replacer. In large part it lacks iron in order to keep the meat pale. The calves are commonly raised in small stalls about 2'x6' (about enough room to stand up and maybe lie down). They're not given water so that they're encouraged to eat more (it is liquid, so they're not dehydrated). This leads to a larger slaughter-weight. On the downside, an all-liquid diet does often lead to chronic diarrhea. And of course eating a diet nearly void of iron does have its own side effects.

It's worth noting that about a year ago Europe got rid of the last of these crate-raised veal facilities. Over there it's all hutches and barns and the like. In fact, all animals over there must be raised "in the environment in which they would naturally be found" (quote may not be word for word, but you get the idea). Long story short, our four-legged friends across the pond enjoy a lot more outside time than those over here do.

However, in the case of veal this means that the meat just isn't what most people consider to be good veal. It's going to have more color, and be at least slightly less tender (although with an animal that young, it's not going to be tough by any stretch of the imagination). Case in point, in the past six months our veal exports to Europe have increased by about 70%.

Take it as you will. Love it or hate it, that's what veal is. If nothing else, it's good to know what's really on your plate.