| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
Omnivoria:
Once You Try Yak, You Never Go Back
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| Illustration by Elizabeth Carney Sowards |
| Yak Burger Testimonial I spent my senior year at the University of Idaho as an exchange student in Nepal. I lived with farm families along the Tibetean border for two months. I remember that yak steaks and yak burgers were indeed delicious, but what I enjoyed most was the yak butter which was added to tea. We'd usually drink about 10 cups of tea a day and the yak butter was high in fat and energy. I look forward to the yak burgers at the Co-op. —Representative Tom Trail |
Several years ago, Tammie Damiano, of Tamarack Yak Farm in Santa, Idaho, saw something on television about the excellent nutrition of yak meat. A friend of hers, who had just had a kidney transplant and needed to change his diet, was looking for a healthier red meat—they decided to try yak. Tammie told me that her friend is now doing so well that his doctor has also started eating yak meat. “Once you try yak, you never go back,” she said. Tammie quit her day job seven years ago to become a yak farmer, and has never regretted it. She currently has 67 yaks, six of which are new babies this spring.
I must admit, writing this month’s column is a new experience for me; it is the first time I have written about something I’ve never eaten. It’s not a big surprise that I had never had yak; there are only about 4,000-5,000 yaks in North America (compared to about 350,000 bison and 100 million cattle) and, although the Tibetan natives were domesticated about 10,000 years ago, they weren’t raised for their meat in North America until about 20 years ago.
Yaks, a species of bovine, can be cross-bred with regular American cows but they have more similarities to the American bison than to cows. Yaks have very lean meat because, like bison, their fat is a separate layer outside the muscles that is easy to separate (unlike cows that have fat marbled with muscle). Yaks also look quite a bit like bison, with a large humped shoulder, horns, and lots of fur.
Yaks are exclusively grass-fed (and are very efficient food processors—a yak eats only about 1/3 of what a cow eats) and very disease resistant, meaning they almost never get antibiotics, and they are not treated with growth hormones. Tammie told me that yak meat has twice the protein and half the fat of skinless chicken breast. The fat that yak meat does contain, like any grass-fed meat, has very high percentages of omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acids (good fats).
In Tibet, yaks are a central part of the culture. They are extremely agile animals (more like goats than cows), and are often used as pack animals. In addition to meat, they provide milk, fiber and hide products, some of which are available from Tamarack Yak Farm.
Tammie sends her yak fiber to a mill on Prince Edward Island to be spun, and plans to have the yarn available for sale soon. She also has hides for sale, and other cuts of meat are available when animals are slaughtered (she will be slaughtering several animals this summer). And she markets one more item—yak manure, which she says has been one of her best-selling yak products. “We’ve sold the crap out of the crap,” she quipped, alluding to its superior fertilizing qualities. If you’re interested in any of these products, call her at 208-245-1349. For more information on yaks generally, visit www.iyak.org.
Currently, the Co-op only carries frozen yak burger patties; we brought some home to sample, and had them the traditional way—cooked on the grill and garnished with ketchup and mustard. Yak tastes quite a bit like bison; it’s a rich, lean red meat, but it is even richer and more delicate in flavor than bison. Tammie described it to me as “filet mignon in a burger,” and I would say that description is pretty much right on.
I was looking for a Tibetan recipe that used ground yak meat to include with this article, and I came up with the following information about Tibetan food:
“… Tibetan fare isn't so much a cuisine that is dissected for its flavors and textures; rather, the food is usually eaten in the outdoors for comfort and survival. Unlike other types of Asian cuisines, which involve culinary artistry and mastery, Tibetan dishes are stripped down and the food is cooked so that it tastes as close to its original and natural state as possible…Tibetan food doesn't involve a lot of sautéed dishes, fiery hot peppers or intricately prepared meals.” (www.khandro.net/links_Tib_recipes.htm)
Momos (Tibetan Steamed Dumplings):
12-18 dumpling wrappers
1 pound ground yak
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 pound Daikon, spinach or cabbage, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 green onions, chopped (both white & green parts)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Salt to taste
Mash together all filling ingredients. Place a spoonful of filling on each dumpling wrapper, folding over and crimping to seal.
Place momos in a steamer and steam on high for 30 min.
Serve with a mild tomato salsa, “Tsal,” made from chopped tomatoes, cilantro, green onions and garlic, and/or Sriracha sauce and/or soy sauce.
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