ODD CUTS OF MEAT
Boneless beef chuck short ribs are but one of many “odd” cuts of meat. Photo from Tim Evanson on flickt.
I hope that I live long enough so that I no longer can afford the fancy pants meats like chops and steaks, tenderloin and filet.
Because then I will eat better—because all that I’ll be able to buy will be the cheap cuts.
While a tomahawk pork chop still can send me, braised pork belly is ethereal. I still get rhapsodic about a Sunday leg of lamb, but slow-cooked lamb breast beats even that.
Our pal Porky
It’s an ancient saying that “You can eat everything from the pig except the oink.” Pretty much the entire “nose-to-tail” eating move of the 1990s (onto now) was homage to this animal. Chefs such as Fergus Henderson (St. John Restaurant, London; love the name) didn’t get to many diners to move from pork chops to fried ears, but he did get them to find the tasties in lollipops of fatty belly meat, slow-simmered hocks, and even head cheese.
Baby back ribs and those tomahawks are all well and good, but find some recipes for far less expensive cuts of pork such as uncured, unsmoked hocks; the magnificently versatile and delicious front shoulder; fresh, unsmoked, unbrined ham (sometimes called “green” ham); and the best alternative to American-style bacon that there is, the cured jowl that the Italians call “guanciale.”
Once you go guanciale, you never go gringo again.
I have found that the best markets at which to purchase fresh, uncured, unsmoked pork are Asian. (Of course, they often sell smoked and cured pork, too.) You even can fashion a credible Alsace choucroute garnie from such a butchery. And let’s say you want a doormat-sized piece of raw pork belly, just ask the fellows behind the counter; they’ll do it - and the price will be right.
Seared steer
It appears to me that many American meat-eaters are getting themselves to feel more and more comfortable with less costly cuts of beef than, say, the rib eye.
Hesitancy yet remains at the level of nomenclature. So many terms! We had so much work to do just to learn the difference between skirt and flank, and now come along “hanger steak, culotte, flat iron, bavette, …” Stop!
Pull a Gross Anatomy 101 for your kitchen (that’s what Google’s for, folks) and learn about these delicious, if strange (to you), cuts.
Some of the names are nearly self-explanatory: the hanger steak, for example, hangs from the diaphragm in the lower plate of the beef carcass. Some suggest that because, as a muscle, it doesn’t work much (it, like, hangs) and is proximate to blood-rich organs, that it is particularly succulent. It’s also known, via French butchers, as the “onglet.”
The tri-tip is the triangular-shaped tip at the end of the sirloin. It has little connective tissue, cooks very quickly, and is eminently grill-able.
The “bavette” (of course, it gets its name from French bistros) is also known or sold as “flap meat” or “flap steak.” It’s an extension of the T-bone and Porterhouse off the short loin. Obviously, it was isolated at one of the better steaks for “steak frites.”
If you do not see these names in your weekly supermarket circular - and you likely will not - you can one of two things. You might ask for one by name from the fellow at the butcher counter. Or you might go to school on the internet and find out how to cut away one of these steaks from a larger piece that you’d already had you eye on.
For instance, the nicely named “Denver steak” comes within a large chuck roast, easily one of the more common beef cuts sold at large. Although the chuck can be gnarly because it’s originally much-used muscle, a small tear-shaped, well-marbled portion of it, in the under blade, is little-used muscle and was “discovered” in 2009 at christened the “Denver steak.” Allegedly, it is the fourth tenderest muscle of the steer.
And lamb
I’m going to give short shrift to one of my favorite eating animals, the lamb. But like pork and beef, many cuts away from the premium (in this case, for instance, leg) are so delicious that it would be a blessing to yourself to become familiar with them.
I’ve recently been cooking lamb breast (sometimes called lamb belly), which, as with pork belly, is so scrumptious it’s hard for me to forgive myself for taking so long to get around to it.
Roasted Lamb Breast
From allrecipes.com; serves 4
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon paprika
4 pounds lamb breast, separated into two pieces
1/2 cup chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup white wine vinegar, more as needed
1 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pinch salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine chopped parsley, vinegar, fresh lemon juice, garlic, honey, red pepper flakes, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well and set aside.
Whisk olive oil, salt, cumin, black pepper, dried Italian herbs, cinnamon, coriander, and paprika in a large bowl until combined. Coat the lamb breast in the olive oil and spice mixture and transfer to a roasting pan, fat side up. Tightly cover roasting pan with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven until the meat is tender when pierced with a fork, about 2 hours. Remove lamb from oven and cut into four pieces.
Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place lamb pieces on it. Brush the tops of each piece with fat drippings from the roasting pan. Bake lamb until meat is browned and edges are crispy, about 20 minutes. Increase the oven's broiler to high and brown lamb for 4 minutes. Remove from oven. Serve lamb topped with parsley and vinegar sauce.
Guanciale—cured fresh pork jowl—is another “odd” cut of meat. Photo from Sir James.
RECIPE: Rigatoni with Pecorino and Crispy Guanciale
Chef Nabil Hassed, Salumeria Roscioli, Rome; serves 6
Ingredients
8 ounces guanciale, sliced 1/3-inch thick and 1-inch long
1 pound rigatoni
1 3/4 cups (5 ounces) grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus shavings for garnish
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
Directions
In a large nonstick skillet, cook the guanciale over moderately low heat, stirring, until crisp, 8-10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain; reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.
Return the pasta and reserved water to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the liquid is slightly thickened, 2 minutes. Stir in the grated cheese. Fold in the guanciale; season with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with pecorino and more pepper.