It was while sitting in an Indian restaurant in Birmingham that the idea first came up. A friend of mine was telling me how someone she knew had tried to eat 52 different meats in a year and, being a committed carnivore with a desire to personally endanger as many species as possible, I decided that was something I wanted to be a part of. However, that seemed too easy. 52 different meats? Simple! Hell, without even trying I've surely notched up more than that number in my lifetime, and I wanted to make this interesting. So I put out some feelers, and came up with various ideas. Some were thrown out for being a bit too difficult - eating something beginning with each letter of the alphabet, A-Z and back again, for example - but eventually, specifically with the help of Captain Meat (AKA Ben), a list of rules were formulated which will lend both structure and an element of challenge to the, erm, challenge.
So, here they are, the provisional rules for 365 Days of Meat, as drawn up by myself and Ben:
1) Once an animal has been eaten, it is allowable for the rest of the year. For example, if I have pork in the first week, all pig based meat products are then able to be eaten for the remainder of the challenge.
2) The challenge is for flesh based foodstuffs - items from animals (ie. dairy or other secretions - honey, for example) do not count.
3) I will eat at least two of each type of animal from the below list:
Herbivore Mammals
Bovine
Ovine
Marsupia
Rodentia
Omnivore Mammals
Porcine
Rodentia (a different one to the herbivore one)
Carnivore Mammals
Canine
Anthropods
Insecta
- Winged
- Unwinged
Aracnid
Crustatia
- Land
- Sea
Reptilia
Lizard/Snake
Amphibians
Frog/toad
Fish
Scaled fish
Flat fish
Shark
Mollusca
Bivalvia
Cephalopoda
Gastropoda
Plus 10 different types of Bird
Plus 2 Animals from classifications NOT on the list
Giving 52 animals to consume.
4) All meats will be photographed BEFORE and AFTER cooking, along with a date indicator.
5) All animals will be asigned a card from a shuffled deck.
5a) On drawing a King the animal will have to be roasted as part of a sunday roast
5b) On drawing an Ace you will have to curry the animal
Failure to do so will mark the animal as null and void.
6) You have 53 weeks in which to complete the task from 1st Jan 2009.
7) You have ONE respite week in the year when these rules do not apply. This will have to be chose by 1am on the 1st January 2009, and be presented in writing to the judge.
8) At anytime you can ask for the adjudicators assistance in selecting animals to fulfil the catorgory, but in doing so you will eat as prescribed.
I am currently thinking about changing some of the rules: I don't need a respite week - I'm not a Southerner, for Heaven's sake - and have some concern over the 'canine' group, as that doesn't seem to encompass much more than dog. Still, I reckon any kind of carnivorous mammal should be ok for that one, although I'll wait for confirmation. Also, Rule 5 might have to go altogether, just because of the limitations a random cooking generator might offer.
So there you have it. This will be my life for the next year, and, so long as I can avoid some form of colon cancer or other, this here blog will be where I chart its progress. It will hopefully include recipes, restaurant reviews and various other minutiae, along with pictures - hopefully, at least once, of the animal before I've killed and dressed it. If I'm going to be part of the food chain, I should at least try and do it properly.
Any comments, ideas or suggestions are welcome, so feel free to dive in. Welcome to my 2009, ladies and gentlemen.
The 365 days of meat.
