Meat

In an ideal world, we would buy only whole animals raised in the region where we live, according to the highest standards of animal husbandry with regard to feed and access to space, and our cooks would put every centimeter of those animals to use. In reality, we have limited storage space and it is only occasionally that we have whole animals or large pieces of meat aging at Gjelina. We do buy primal cuts of beef, pork, and lamb along with the occasional whole pig, lamb, or goat and those get broken down and cooked as soon as they arrive. We get a steady flow of lovely rabbits, chickens, and ducks from our suppliers. Fortunately, there are increasing numbers of larger-scale meat producers that are raising the bar, providing meat from pasture-raised animals, free of hormones and antibiotics, so they are good options for us, too.