Try a food you might not have tasted.

[Cubist]

Breast of lamb isn't considered a poorer cut any more, unfortunately! It used to be really really cheap, but now it's hipster food .

I use it on the bone to make overnight low flame curries, mixed in with a bit of neck and shin. The lamb breast we got was from the older hoggets,

They had a Caribbean clientele, and so also had a lot of mutton and goat. I had a go at a couple of curry goat recipes. Bit longwinded, but oh, so worth the result!

 

[dim]

That would be something I've never tried.

Why not a tin of tomatoes and half a tin of borlotti beans instead? You've already got the carrots and onions, which are the other core components of a minestrone (at least in its commercial form)?

because the tomatoes and beans on their own taste bland .... The Knorr minestronie soup adds flavour because it has added spices (I use the large packets of minestronie soup and not the tins or the cup a soup)

 

[slowmotion]

Some of the more "archaic" cuts are by far the best! Cubester worked all summer at a wholesale butchers, and we often had a lot of what are now considered by some to be the "poorer" cuts. Pigs' cheeks for example, skirt, lamb breast, and an absolute revelation, hanger steak. Look it up, and if you like tasty coarse grain steak, try and source some. It's literally awesome.

That hanger steak looks very interesting.

 

[dim]

That hanger steak looks very interesting.

I often buy Hanger steak (also known as 'Butcher's steak' as the butchers used to keep this cut for themselves)

had one recently from the butcher (was just over £8 and weighed just under 1kg) .... get the butcher to 'clean' it for you, as there is a sinew/tendon that runs through the middle

we normally cut it in strips, and fry it slowly with sliced onions and greenpeppers and add Fajita spice and make fajita wraps with home made fries and a salad

 

[Dec66]

I turned 50 last week. In all that time I've managed to avoid eating sushi.

Yesterday, I had it for the very first time.

Today, I had it for the second.

 

[dim]

I love both mutton (mutton is the heart of a good bobotie) and goat. Not that easy to get hold of in Cambridge though...

go to spice gate in mill road .... that's where I buy all my lamb and spring chickens (baby chickens) .... The butcher is situated at the back of the shop. We buy lamb chops once a week from Spice Gate.... £10 gets you 14-16 chops and 1st class service and quality.... They sell rump steak for £12 per kg (cost over £30 at Waitrose) plus they have T-Bone steaks for £12/kg ... ask the butcher to cut from fresh, and he does it the thickness that you want. He normally has mutton and goat aswell

There is also an asian shop in Milton road (the last few shops where Dumbledon photos used to be and Staples) .... he normally has veg on stands on the pavement ... they sell goat and mutton aswell

 

[slowmotion]

I often buy Hanger steak (also known as 'Butcher's steak' as the butchers used to keep this cut for themselves)

had one recently from the butcher (was just over £8 and weighed just under 1kg) .... get the butcher to 'clean' it for you, as there is a sinew/tendon that runs through the middle

we normally cut it in strips, and fry it slowly with sliced onions and greenpeppers and add Fajita spice and make fajita wraps with home made fries and a salad

Thanks for the tip. I've just been looking at some recipes for it. It's also known as onglet. I'm pretty sure I've eaten it in France on a few occasions.

 

[robjh]

I love both mutton (mutton is the heart of a good bobotie) and goat. Not that easy to get hold of in Cambridge though...

You may strike lucky in the monthly Shelford farmers' market (or presumably in one of the other villages they go to on their regular cycle). The woman who sells lamb there sometimes has some mutton cuts.

 

[Tim Hall]

I love both mutton (mutton is the heart of a good bobotie) and goat. Not that easy to get hold of in Cambridge though...

Mr Google's magic computer says Anglia Farm Shop are in Girton and do deliveries of goat.

 

[dim]

I wasn't overly impressed with the meat from the butchers at Spice Gate. I'll give the one in Milton Road a try.

Now and then the Gogs Farm Shop get some really nice mutton in and I fill the freezer.

I live very close to Gogs farm shop .... I spend loads there, especially on cheese and meat. (especially pork ribs which I smoke on the BBQ) They are one of the few butchers that are open on Sundays.

I've never seen mutton advertised there, but will ask next time I visit. We do a meal called potjie kos (a stew cooked in a 3 legged cast iron pot and mutton is excellent for that type of cooking as one normally cooks it for 7-8hrs over coals

 

[Cubist]

Thanks for the tip. I've just been looking at some recipes for it. It's also known as onglet. I'm pretty sure I've eaten it in France on a few occasions.

They need to be skinned (there's a silverskin on one side,) and it's divided by a large sinew, which of course needs to be trimmed out. Depends on the beast I suppose, but you can get two modest steaks from either side, or one large one. They are kind of tubular in shape, and coarse grained. That means they take an olive oil and salt rub very well.

They need to be cooked to medium rare as per received wisdom, and the great thing is that they really need searing heat to get them going. I tend to use a heavy based skillet, (though I sometimes use a griddle) and get it to colour-changing heat. The thickness means that to cook them through on contact with the griddle/skillet the outside gets a superb charred crust, helped along by the olive oil and salt.

 

[TheDoctor]

Hanger steak is incredibly good, if cooked rare, or seared really. Or if you braise it.
Try doing it well done, and you may as well make it into brake pads!
Bavette is another lovely and cheap cut of steak.
But the best are beef short ribs. Cheap - I usually pay about £1.50 each for them, they're a doddle to cook and ruddy delish.
Gordon Ramsay has a superb walk-through on YouTube. As he does for pressed belly pork.

 

[slowmotion]

They need to be skinned (there's a silverskin on one side,) and it's divided by a large sinew, which of course needs to be trimmed out. Depends on the beast I suppose, but you can get two modest steaks from either side, or one large one. They are kind of tubular in shape, and coarse grained. That means they take an olive oil and salt rub very well.

They need to be cooked to medium rare as per received wisdom, and the great thing is that they really need searing heat to get them going. I tend to use a heavy based skillet, (though I sometimes use a griddle) and get it to colour-changing heat. The thickness means that to cook them through on contact with the griddle/skillet the outside gets a superb charred crust, helped along by the olive oil and salt.

Olive oil isn't ideal. My Bible says get the skillet to a temperature approaching the surface of the Sun. Olive oil has a too low smoke point, they say.
http://www.irishsteak.com/blog/?p=57

 

[Cubist]

Olive oil isn't ideal. My Bible says get the skillet to a temperature approaching the surface of the Sun. Olive oil has a too low smoke point, they say.
http://www.irishsteak.com/blog/?p=57

Which is why the steak or rubbed with it and seared in the pan which is simply heated until it goes that strange white blue colour, no oil in the pan. It's the charring from the burning oil and outer layer of meat that makes it for me.

I tried it "blue" rare, but the texture isn't great.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Ya mo be there