Okayest Cook · Okayest Podcast Network

Building A Stronger Relationship With Your Food: Jason Erman

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Jason says heart is the best starting point for fifth-quarter cooking because it is “just a muscle.”

1. Okayest Cook frames Jason Ehrman’s appearance around nose-to-tail cooking, homesteading, and the show’s “fifth quarter” idea. 2. Chris Wansaller hosts with Andy Heiser, and Jason Ehrman is the guest because his Instagram account and home butchery connect directly to the episode’s food agenda. 3. The episode asks what it looks like to rebuild a stronger relationship with food by using more of the animal, not just steaks and roasts. 4. Jason says he lives in Nevada County, California, near the Sierra foothills and Lake Tahoe, and that his Instagram account is called nose to tail Nevada County. 5. He explains that he started raising pigs for his freezer less than a year ago and began posting videos of slaughtering, skinning, gutting, and breaking them down himself. 6. Chris connects that work to the show’s pillars, including commensality, the hunter-gatherer mindset, and nutrition. 7. Andy notes that modern eating has become disconnected from where food comes from, and Jason’s work is presented as a way to reverse that disconnect. 8. Jason’s notable meal is a braised lamb neck from a pop-up lunch, cooked with beer, garlic, ginger, shallots, and a little dark soy sauce. 9. He serves that lamb with caramelized sunchoke puree and crispy Brussels sprouts, then describes the dish as sweet, nutty, and balanced with bitterness. 10. Jason also describes a cowboy casserole made with venison, ranch beans, corn, cream of corn, and a cornbread topper. 11. He says that casserole became the hit of a New Year’s Eve party and was later requested again by a friend who wanted the recipe. 12. The conversation turns to offal, and Jason says he wants to talk about the pig’s head, sheep’s head, and goat’s head as serious food. 13. He says those heads contain cheek meat, tongue meat, meat behind the eyes, cartilage, bones, and collagen that turns into gelatin in stock. 14. Jason says he prefers to remove the brain before making soup or stock because people think it can make the liquid muddy. 15. He recommends cooking pig’s head gently, letting it cool in the stock, and then using the meat for tacos de cabeza. 16. Jason names heart as the best starting point for fifth-quarter cooking because it is “just a muscle” and can be seared hot and fast after being sliced thin. 17. Chris and Andy describe heart as a bridge cut because it behaves more like familiar red meat than a secreting organ. 18. The episode stays conversational and practical, with recipe talk, butcher talk, and repeated back-and-forth about technique, texture, and respect for the animal. 19. People interested in nose-to-tail cooking, home butchery, and venison or lamb recipes would get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for light food chat without organ-meat detail may skip it.

As heard by us

Practical food talk with a strong values-driven streak and a use-more-of-the-animal ethic.

This episode settles on a clear idea: food is not just fuel, but a way to build a better relationship with what people eat. It moves through commensality, nutrition, wild ingredients, and making fuller use of the animal, with practical stops at heads, stock, soup, and whatever…

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Why you'd press play

You want to think about whole-animal cooking with more intention and less waste.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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