icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

My Father's Meat Grinder

My Father's Meat Grinder (573 KB)

An immigrant family's relationship with meat

My grandfather was a butcher in the old country, in Kamenets-Podolsk, Ukraine, and also in New York when he emigrated at the turn of the twentieth century. All his life my own father had a feeling for meat, and this dominated our kosher household. Meat and blood were powerful images throughout childhood. This essay is part of a longer work that I have been writing about a number of objects in my parents' home.