Meat Madness: Which Meat Deserves the Title?

Ladies and gentlemen, So Good is pleased to announce the premiere of “So Good Presents: Meat Madness.” In this tournament style, 32 meat face-off, So Good readers will vote on what is the greatest meat over the next 25 days.   The bracket of all 32 contenders appears below.  We have 4 regions. The “Red” Meat Region, the Poultry Region, the Pork Region and the Seafood Region.

(Click on bracket to see a larger, easier to read version)

There are no rules and no criteria other than to answer the question: “What is the #1 meat?” You can base your vote on taste, cost, convenience, prestige, flavor…anything you want.  Just like the NCAA tournament, when a team from the East coast will randomly get sent into the Western bracket, there are a couple minor exceptions with our regions.  For example, Rabbit has been placed in the Poultry Region and the “Red” Meat Region contains a few reddish meats that technically aren’t actually red meat (Lamb, Veal, Venison).

Obviously March is the time of year when people do brackets for everything – and So Good is no exception. I don’t know if something like Meat Madness has been done before, but this is certainly the debut offering of such a tournament on So Good.  There are similar brackets going on right now, such as Washingtonian’s Burger Bracket to determine the best burger in DC.

On Wednesday we will begin voting on our first round match-ups. Two first round match-ups a day for 8 days, then we move on to the second round.  Finally, thanks must be given to one of my readers, Jenelle, who suggested this idea to me 4-5 months ago.  I’ve patiently been sitting on the idea until the NCAA tournament arrived (which was really tough because I LOVE the idea of  a Meat Madness bracket!).

Click “Read More” to see each Region up close and read a little analysis of some of the early match-ups we have to look forward to.

We have four regions, “Red” Meat Region, Poultry Region, Pork Region and Seafood Region. Let’s take a look at each one.

First up, the “Red” Meat region.  Steak (1), Lamb (2), Ground Beef (3) and Veal (4) are the top 4 seeds in this bracket, and I think there is no doubt that Steak and Ground Beef are forces to be reckoned with.  Will Lamb be able to protect its #2 seed? Or will Corned Beef present a threat in the midst of Lent?  Veal and Buffalo could be an interesting first round match-up as well.

The Poultry region presents us with a wide-range of tasty birds – plus Rabbit.  The top four seeds are Chicken (1), Turkey (2), Duck (3) and Rabbit (4).  Will the more widely used and readily available Chicken and Turkey prove impossible to stop? Or will advocates emerge for more tasty alternatives?

The Pork Region sees a bevy of 8 different meats all coming from the same animal.  The top 4 seeds are Bacon (1), Sausage (2), Prosciutto (3) and Ham (4).  Yes, I am aware that Prosciutto IS Ham, but we are going by the English definition here.  According to Wikipedia, “in English the word is almost always used for an aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served uncooked.”  Bacon has proven to be the darling of the food blogosphere in the past year, but this bracket is stacked from top to bottom. Potential upsets abound with extremely strong lower seeds in Pulled Pork (5), Pepperoni (6) and Ribs (7).

The Seafood Region is just that – seafood.  The top 4 seeds are Lobster (1), Scallops (2), Salmon (3) and Tuna (4).  Like the Pork Region, this region has depth – Crab (6) and Shrimp (5) look like potential first round sleepers, and Clams (8) and Mussels (7) both certainly have their supporters.

Voting on first round match-ups will begin on Wednesday.  Use the comments on this post to predict potential first round upsets, your pick to win the title, or any debates over seeding.  Let the Meat Madness begin!