When you grow things, you get a new appreciation for food. Like the fact that only about 1-2 per cent of a beef cow is fillet steak, so, in theory, you should only eat it 1-2 per cent of the time you eat beef. Or that no matter how many lamb shanks you’d like to eat, each lamb only has four.
We rarely eat fillets and often eat so-called secondary cuts, sometimes from the limbs of the animal. These are the cuts with more flavour and more texture, so they need more cooking. Think long and slow, rather than hot and quick. Osso buco is braised veal shank. Pork knuckles are the shanks of the pig. Even birds have cuts that are more flavoursome and suited to other uses, namely the so-called ‘dark meat’ on chooks, the legs and the thighs.
I don’t see these as lesser cuts. I look at them as better cuts. More flavour means that you can stretch the meat further. Slow cooking means that you can make a rich sauce that harnesses the flavour in both the meat and often the bones, and use it to flavour pasta, polenta or rice. And in winter, when it’s a bit cold outside, cooking meat on the bone in the oven or on the stove also imbues the house with more warmth; a large pot of simmering sauce used to make meals that can carry us through the week.
Recipes
Photography by Alan Benson. Food preparation by Asher Gilding. Food styling by Michelle Crawford.
As seen in Feast magazine, August 2014, Issue 34.
