HAPPY INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

In honor of this momentous occasion we thought it would be cool and a little educational to fill you in on what a standard meal for a pirate would be. Aside from the obvious rum and grog, pirates ate and drank a wide variety of things.

The first few weeks at sea were very bountiful for pirates. There was plenty of meat, cheese, eggs, and what ever else they could get their hands on! But, after a couple of weeks, things would not be so easy. Pirates obviously did not have refrigeration so most of the meat and vegetables had to be pickled or salted. Eventually all of the food would go bad and start to rot and spoil.

There was livestock on board. Usually a few chickens and cows, but they never made it the entire voyage. Chickens were kept alive as long as they laid eggs. Once that stopped it was into the pot! Cows were kept for the milk. Once the cow's food supply was gone it was STEAK AND RIBS FOR EVERYONE!

Read more below...

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri is urging the meat eaters of the world to curb their consumption.(1)

Pachauri, chief of the Nobel prize winning United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has made numerous statements about how NOT eating meat will save the planet from global warming. In fact, he travels all over with fellow IPCC member Al Gore campaigning for the vegetarian lifestyle and how it will save the world.

Here's what makes this all so difficult to swallow:

Dr. Pachauri is Indian. India has the largest cattle population in the world, weighing in at an estimated 282,000,000 head.(2) To put that number in perspective, there are currently about 104,300,000 cattle in the United States (as of July 2008).(3) So... according to Pachauri, it's okay to have 2.8 times the U.S. cattle population just sitting around, grazing and spewing methane into the atmosphere, but the people that EAT cows had better knock it off.

Did I mention that Dr. Pachauri is also a vegetarian?


Why no - I STILL don't make this crap up:

1. The Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment ... /sep/07/food.foodanddrink
2. Cattle Network: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=63256
3. U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Cattle/jul_inv.asp

This is a little something (no pun intended) we came across during our never-ending, internet meat quest. It comes from our friends at MSN and The Wall Street Journal Online. It seems that farmers around the country are turning to raising miniature cows in an effort to save money. Apparently the pocket-size bovines are a hell of lot cheaper to raise, they're better for the environment, and they produce a higher percentage of usable MEAT than their full-size cousins. That's right! MORE MEAT! I'm sold!



Check out the story and video here.

Beware of Falling Cows!

OK, I know I'm not the only person who's been grillin' for a crowd and not had enough room on the grill for all the meat. Don't you hate that? You have to cook a little meat then move it some place to stay warm while you finish the rest. Worse yet, everyone else starts eating while you're still chained to the grill! Well, if you had the Weber Ranch Kettle 60020 you would've had plenty of grill area to cook an entire cow! IT'S HUGE! It measures 42″ H x 37.75″ W x 44.75″ D and it features OVER 1,000 square inches of grilling surface! It's wide enough to set up multiple cooking zones for direct and indirect cooking at the same time! Did I mention it's HUGE? It's a little pricey (between $800 and $1,400 depending where you get it. SHOP AROUND!), but it would be a great investment for any of us who love to grill huge amounts of meat. Hell, you could even cook those giant mastadon ribs from The Flintstones if you wanted to!



Check out the rest of the specs here.