tekobo

Merry Christmas all! Awake and restless but know now is not a good time to be playing with knives so I thought I would post instead. First things first: this meat tastes fantastic! The last time we bought veal from this farmer was in 2016 and we had forgotten just how good it is. He hung it for me for 4 weeks before I picked it up and the flavour is great without any additional aging. Would I do this butchery thing again? I don't know. It's a lot of work but I have enjoyed the exploration. @Paul, we are still figuring out the "value" of having a tool for sawing bones. I had a brainwave - instead of buying something we will only use once in a while, why not ask a local meat shop to do the sawing for me? That didn't work. They only cut their own meat and, in any case, they only do halal. Not surprising and 'twas only a delaying tactic en route to buying something. I did seam out the leg yesterday. The guy in the video I watched said it took him 25 minutes. It took me just over an hour, in between doing a few other jobs. I now have a bunch of interesting muscles to clean off and decide how I want to use them. The irony of all of this is that, after all that careful work to separate out individual muscles, some of this will just end up in my mincer. The good news is that all that cutting gave me time to work out a plan for new year's eve. Polpette (meatballs) made of a mix of veal and pork mince are a lovely snack served in bars and are just plain delicious. I will make them and bunch of other cicchetti (Venetian equivalent of Spanish tapas) so people can graze on the day. Here is to happiness! And to the Eagles getting to the Big Dance. From this: To this: If you want to see a better and more expert approach look no further than:

So far so good. Got my tools laid out. I started with the prime cut - the sirloin on the bone. Simple job there to saw it in half so it would fit comfortably in the dry ager. The little trim at the bottom of the pic was for me to fry and taste the meat. It was delicious. Next came the rump. It was still on the bone and I was tempted to keep it to roast on the bone. It would have made an impressive centrepiece for our New Year's Eve party but I decided it would be a show offy waste when we could eat it over a few meals as steaks. So I embarked on the job of getting the bone out. It's one thing to watch folk online but it is quite another to get your knife in there and try to figure out where the bone ends. At times I felt like I was literally butchering the cut, and not in a good way! Whole rump on the right ready to go in the dry ager. I was disappointed that it did not look as impressive as the ones I normally buy but remembered that this is from a veal calf and not a full grown cow. The Husband will use the bone to make stock and that eye piece at the front will make a nice, tender roast. And now for my favourite bit. The flank/skirt. We don't tend to get these pieces in the UK - they get minced into things like Cornish pasties. I love them and approached this one like an old friend. It did help that I had re-watched this video before I started: Mine looked like this to start with I had fun seaming out the muscles and managed to get out, from left to right, the matambre, two bits of bavette/vacio and the flank. Up top were the miscellaneous bits of skirt left over that I will use for something like fajitas. Working my way round the muscles and silverskin was useful practice for the job of seaming out the leg tomorrow. My last job for today was the hardest. I had to cut through the shin for osso bucco. It was hard work and I eventually called for reinforcements in the shape of a new blade and a husband who is better at sawing than me. I was grumpy and would have loved that bandsaw that you talked about @David Chang! I will age the sirloin and rump for a week or so and will enlist The Husband's help to break them down to steaks and Italian cotoletta.

I have had an air fryer for while, courtesy of the KK shopping channel. I am very happy with it but it does have the drawback that it has a rotating arm that tends to squish more delicate items. This ninja's extra functions could work well for me as I am looking for something for the apartment that we are buying in Italy. Kit will need to be multi functional and an air fryer/"smokeless" grill/dehydrator looks like an attractive option.

A local farmer about an hour's drive from us here in the South of England rears really tasty rose veal. He gets it butchered and sells it at a premium at farmers markets. I wanted to butcher it myself to get the cuts I like but, somehow, got the timing wrong and now have a whole hindquarter of veal in my house to cut up just two days before Christmas! I drove to the farm to pick it up yesterday afternoon and here is all 60kg of animal spread out on my kitchen counter last night. I could barely lift the leg and ended up cutting off the shin before stuffing the rest of the leg in our big commercial fridge downstairs. I got up early today to scrub, salt and wipe down my butcher's block. It's not been used for this purpose for years. The Husband arrived back from Sweden last night and was not impressed at the prospect of having to deal with a huge carcass over Christmas. I think I will do this slowly over two days and enjoy it. When I read about the Americans on the forum talking about the price of meat I am amazed at how cheaply you can buy it. I think that I do well by buying animals whole, or in the case of steers by the quarter, but I suspect you would think this expensive. The 60kg (including all the bones) cost £600 which feels super cheap at £10/kg. Anyway, off to start my adventure...

Good go David. I hope it tasted good. 3 hours sat in front of a pizza oven does sound too much like hard work though! I think this would work well in a KK with the skin jabbed lightly all over to help release the fat and crisp the skin.

Hi @Basher. I tried to use my Argentinian grill the other night. Really struggled to get the wood fire going properly and there was a lot of smoke. Gave up and cooked the steak in the KK. I do love the Argentinian grill for the way it drains fat away from the fire but I need to get back into the rhythm of building a good wood fire. @jeffshoaf thanks for doing the research. Keen to see your next try at the fries. It's not a cheap piece of kit so will want to be sure it does fries well too before investing.

I hate to say it but that is actually a funny joke @Poochie

Hiya. Not aged that long. Probably about 60 days. Twas yummy.

Self indulgent cook for one. My husband is not so keen on heavily aged meat and I like my meat rarer than him so him being away for work was a great opportunity. Dry brining in the fridge Cooked indirect on the 23, with some parsnip poutine and whole beetroot in foil in the foreground. Anticipation Happiness. I finished the poutine under the grill in the house with pecorino and soft gorgonzola. All my favourite things. And the meat cooked just right for me.

KK shopping channel strikes again! The combination of this ninja piece of kit being a grill, a dehydrator and an air fryer is very tempting. Will you be trying its capabilities as an air fryer @jeffshoaf? More reports of how you get on using this will be very gratefully received. That said, we have a break in the cold and wet weather today and I am hoping to get out there and do some fire cooking after a break of quite a few weeks now. Cold and the risk of slipping on wet and/or ice has made outdoor grilling distinctly unappealing this so far this winter.

Looking good so far...

Hurrah! That looks good @Troble Glad to hear that one is winging its way towards you!

Or this...

Makes sense, skin side up at the end. Will be keen to see how you get on with the skin. I looked through my photos and found these pictures of piggies in progress at Sabor, a Spanish restaurant in London. I have not eaten their suckling pig so I cannot say if they achieved that glass "crack" skin. The last pic is of a larger suckling pig leg that I cooked on the KK. That skin was very good!

First off I am jealous @David Chang. I would love to cook another suckling pig but a good one is pretty expensive to buy in the UK and I can't quite justify it. The method in your recipe calls for turning the pig over towards the end. I am struggling to see how that will help to crisp up the skin. In any case, I would be a little scared of doing this in a WFO without some kind of shield for the majority of the cook time. I would be worried about the skin burning prematurely otherwise. @Troble and @C6Bill's methods in the KK may be of help as long as you can figure out how to get that elusive crispy skin. Looking forward to seeing your results.

Beautiful thick pork chops @CaptMorg82. I agree, chops can be super delicious. @Basher it looks like all the angst and hard work has been worth it. Great that you will be back home and able to enjoy it for Christmas. Congratulations. Snagging lists take a while to clear but what you have shown us so far looks gorgeous.

Hi @dj-dj There are a number of variables to consider including the passage of time (My last purchase was in 2020 and costs may have gone up since then), the number of KKs being delivered (I bought 3 at the time) and the port you choose for delivery and how far away you live from the port. This is the bill for the clearance and delivery: In addition to this there was 20% VAT to pay but no customs charge as the BBQs were considered to be zero rated for customs purposes. You will be working with an agent that Dennis recommends. The agent at the time was Incentive Forwarding but that may have changed by now so you will need to get the most up to date info from Dennis and his team. Good luck. All relatively easy but you do need to be prepared for these extra charges and a bit of a wait for customs clearance.

Welcome back @johnnymnemonic. I am not a turkey girl but I did spin a 20+lb suckling pig on my 32. Hard to imagine that your gear for a 42 won't be up to a 30lb turkey. Whatever method you choose, it will be good to hear about the results.

That is some set up @C6Bill! I am going to regret showing this to my husband I think... Looking forward to seeing your steer in pride of place when the weather is better @Tyrus

Woo hoo! You can't tease us with a pic of drumsticks. Where are the pix of the reno? Where did your dry ager end up? More deeeeeets!

Looking good @tony b. I have many more chillis to harvest from the polytunnel. A nice bottled sauce like yours would fit the bill nicely.

Sounds like some good detective work all! And very nice looking chook @djami. Keep on jamming.

I was in a cook shop in Sweden over the weekend. I think the must have titled this display "shock and awe" when they dreamt it up! Huuuuuge pots!

Ooooh. I pre-ordered that book months ago. Here's hoping it arrives soon. Fingers crossed for that puff @PVPAUL! Glad to hear you got the adaptation to the grinder working well for you.

@Tyrus Cooking brisket can be like a roller coaster ride. Glad yours turned out so well. Looks good, gentle smoke ring, nice layer of fat and moist.