I Missed This Episode on Martha Stewart

Buying meat here can be a challenge. Chicken tends to be fine, but the beef is generally very tough. It takes a lot of long slow cooking to make it chewable. I was trying to figure out the best way to tenderize tonight's dinner when I came across this tasty tidbit on the internet....

Tough meat is tough. I propose that sterilized maggots be used to tenderize tough meat such as wild game birds and lean cuts.
Maggots generate a potent brew of tenderizing proteolytic enzymes. Sterilized maggots would be added to a fresh cut of tough, lean meat and allowed to work. Before cooking, the meat would be gently heated from below, encouraging all maggots to evacuate. The supremely tender meat would then be prepared and served. The tunnels left by the maggots would also allow better penetration of sauce / marinade. The diner would never know.

OK, I've eaten a number of things in my day (including the famous Rocky Mountain Oysters) under the heading "it's best if I don't know what it is before I eat it." But as God is my witness, if I EVER found this out, I'd be returning my eaten meal post-haste. How in the world do you sterilize a maggot? As if that would make the whole thing more palatable. Right now, in my very limited kitchen, I'm pretty sure I can find at least 10 items I can use to run holes through tonight's main course. And how does he know the maggots will evacuate (oh, it's a "he" all right--you can bet on that)?

I think I'm going to take a pass on this little kitchen tip. And to make up for this gruesome post, I offer up my friend Lindsay, who publishes delicious recipes on her blog at www.mainegirll.blogspot.com. You can recover from my post by checking out her recipe for cochinita pibil (pork tacos in orange and annatto marinade) which sounds absolutely fabulous.

by the way--I realize this has nothing to do with the previous post about Tanzanian blessings. I just couldn't resist.