Kosher Blog

Kosherfest, part 1: Meat

I attended my first Kosherfest this week. Kosherfest, in case you were wondering, is an annual trade show for the kosher industry, open to industry professionals and press. Many new (and old) kosher products are showcased at Kosherfest. Jon and Steven will probably get around to telling you what they saw, but in this post, I will focus primarily on the meat products.

First, the bad news: A representative at the Solomon’s/Noah’s Ark booth said that they currently have no plans to do any more kills of bison or elk. Since Solomon’s is the only company to produce kosher elk as well as the major producer of kosher bison, this is very disturbing news for the kosher consumer who wants game meat. In a presumably related story, the Abeles & Heymann representative said that they have no plans to bring back their delicious bison hot dogs (which are both lower-in-fat and better-tasting than regular beef hot dogs).

The last bit of disturbing news: First, some background. Whenever I make veal, invariably someone won’t eat veal because the calves are supposedly raised in an inhumane fashion. I always responded with the oft-repeated wisdom that kosher veal is different because R. Moshe Feinsten ruled that veal was not kosher due to the inhumane conditions under which the calves are raised. Since bob veal and free-raised veal are not raised in inhumane conditions (unlike both milk-fed and red veal), I always assumed that kosher veal was all of the bob veal or free-raised veal varieties, in order to comply with R. Feinstein’s position. However, just to be sure, I decided to ask at the OU booth at Kosherfest if the OU imposed any conditions on veal production. I was referred to an unfriendly gentleman in a grey beard. He tried to evade my question. Finally, I was able to get this out of him: “We don’t raise the veal.” So, I asked “You don’t impose any restrictions on how it is raised?” He responded that they followed USDA regulations. So, apparently “kosher” veal is not necessarily raised any more humanely than non-kosher veal. Disappointing.

Now on to the more interesting stuff:

The big news is the “Holy Cow!” kosher beef jerky. Holy Cow! comes in 4 flavors: original, teriyaki, sweet & spicy, and hickory. I tried the sweet & spicy, and it was quite delicious — tasty, but not too hard and dry. I make my own beef jerky and I have also tasted several commercial kosher varieties (including Jeff’s in LA, Prime Grill in NY, biltong from the now defunct kosherheaven.com, and RJ’s–which was also at Kosherfest) and the Holy Cow! sweet & sour that I tasted was definitely the best commercial variety that I have tasted. It was similar to homemade jerky in quality. I should point out, however, that the other 3 flavors appeared to be significantly drier. I also tried RJ’s again at the show, and it was indeed much drier and harder, with a less appealing flavor.

Also pretty exciting was the (very small) display at the booth of A.D. Rosenblatt Meats. Their poster loudly proclaimed “Glatt Kosher American Wagyu Beef.” For those of you who aren’t in the know, Wagyu is the breed of cow that the famed Kobe beef comes from. Kobe beef has to come from Japan, and it is a strictly-controlled name. Apparently, the Japanese government prohibits Japanese Wagyu cattle from leaving the country alive. However, recently Wagyu – black angus hybrids have been allowed to leave the country, so a couple of US ranches raise US “Wagyu” cattle. I was informed that A.D. Rosenblatt has an exclusive contract to do kosher slaughter at one of the two US Wagyu ranches. Anyway, they didn’t have any samples, so I can’t tell you how good it is. The next booth over was Glattbox.com, which distributes A.D. Rosenblatt meats online. They gave me a brochure, which listed Wagyu back ribs for $15.99/lb., Wagyu chuck eye roast for $24.99/lb., Wagyu french roast and first cut brisket for $29.99/lb., and Wagyu rib steak and standing rib roast for a whopping $49.99/lb. Quite pricey, but at least they have free shipping “on most orders.” Their prices on ordinary beef were MUCH better — $7.49 for minute roast is the best price I have seen anywhere, and $10.99/lb. for first cut brisket is also pretty good. However, the small print on the brochure indicated that service is only available in NY, NJ, CT, PA, and MD. Unfortunately, today I went to their website, and it was still under construction with no real information.

A.D. Rosenblatt also produces veal, lamb, and ordinary beef. The representative mentioned that they only produce the highest quality white veal. I assume he meant milk-fed veal, which is consistent with what the OU told me earlier in the day (and they are under OU hashgacha as well as CRC).

Rubashkins, which was recently bought out, was also at the show. The company name has apparently been changed from Agriprocessors to Agri Star. Their booth was sparse, but they were showcasing their pre-made meatballs and chicken wings. I tasted both, and they were both quite delicious.

Jerry Hirschman, CEO of Synergy Delivery System (SDS), had a booth exhibiting both pure sucralose (the active ingredient in Splenda) powder and sausage-making equipment. They were showing the famous Devro kosher edible sausage casings (previously mentioned here and here), which are made from natural collagen! Apparently, they are the US distributor for the Australian Devro. Unfortunately, they are only distributing two sizes — 22mm and 30mm, which are both too small for real salami (which should be at least 40mm and preferably 50 or 60). But, these sizes are quite suitable for sausages. They also showed a sausage stuffing machine. The sausage casings cost $150 for a box of 24 rolls of casing, each roll having 50 feet of casing. He also claimed to sell a kosher starter culture suitable for fermented meat products, so I hope to acquire some for my next attempt at salami making. By the way, if you want to purchase powdered sucralose, they also sell a 10kg drum for the low low price of only $1800.00. Of course, 10kg of sucralose provides the same sweetening capacity as over 6 TONS of sugar, which works out to be be about 3.5 times cheaper than sugar at retail (based on the $0.50/lb best price for sugar at my local supermarket), So, if a couple dozen people want to split a drum with me, I would totally spend $80 on a pound of sucralose powder…

Very exciting was that one company was showing imported kosher Hungarian hard salami! This is real fermented salami! No taste tests, but it appears to be a French company callled Les Delices de Mathias with a product called Les Quatre Saisons Salami (The Four Seasons Salami). You can see some pictures below. The product does not appear to be on the market yet, however.

There were also several producers of kosher chicken (and a few of beef as well), but nothing too exciting.