Healthy Cooking Columns

In Your Pantry: Other Meats

Veal

Veal is not as widely available and is more expensive. In some cases we have recipes using other ingredients as with the Chicken Piccata. This is traditionally done with cutlets of veal that cut from the leg and have been pounded into scallops (scallopini if you are Italian). Chicken breasts are accessible to everyone thus the decision to substitute them for veal. There are a lot of recipes, however, that you could use veal scallopini in by simply substituting veal for the chicken (Chicken Tarragon Mustard Cream or Vineyard Chicken).

Because most cuts of veal are so lean, they are quite low in fat and calories. Four ounces of veal cutlets cut from the leg has only 120 calories and 2 grams of fat. At the same time the lean meat has much less flavor than beef. As such veal is really a “vehicle” for other flavors — one wouldn’t eat grilled veal sirloin without sauce or other flavoring in the same way you might with beef sirloin steak.

Both  veal sirloin and veal chops can be substituted easily for other cuts of beef and pork. Try using veal sirloin steak or veal chops with recipes such as Lemon Pork with Lentils, Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples or Skirt Steak with Sautéed Mushrooms.

Venison

Four ounces of venison tenderloin is only 167 calories and 2.6 grams of fat (just at 1 gram of saturated fat). Most all cuts of deer meat will be similarly low in calories and fat whether loin steaks, shoulder or top round. Even ground venison is quite lean. A quarter pound burger has only 176 calories and 8 grams of fat compared to lean ground beef at 197 calories and 11 grams of fat. Here’s a great venison burger recipe: Southwest Venison Burger.