Our local rancher had freshly-processed beef; I got a brisket, some
cross-cut shanks, and a bone-in chunk of chuck. I also got sour
cherries, ruby chard, Tuscan kale, arugula, and garlic scapes.

I think the shanks will go into a kind of beefy minestrone, and I'll
make a pesto with the arugula and garlic scapes to use as a garnish
for that.

The Tuscan kale will be cooked with more of the garlic scapes and be
showered with grated pecorino to become a bruschetta topping. Maybe
I'll slice some of the chuck thinly and pan-cook it to go under the
kale.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the cherries, chard, or
brisket yet.

Bob

its not better or worse, just different, beef is sorta a continum that
encompasses everything from just butchered/never frozen to wet/dry aged to
injected/forzn for ages... if you like beef in general it can all be made
into something at least edible, and most times delicious.

Lee
"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Sat, 28 May 2011 10:27:57 -0700, Bob Terwilliger wrote:
>
>> Our local rancher had freshly-processed beef; I got a brisket, some
>> cross-cut shanks, and a bone-in chunk of chuck. I also got sour
>> cherries, ruby chard, Tuscan kale, arugula, and garlic scapes.
>
> Is fresh beef really desirable? I see you bought long, slow cooking
> cuts so that probably doesn't matter. But I've been told you don't
> want steaks fresh off the hoof. or is this just something the beef
> packers/Cryovac have led us to believe with their "wet-ageing" claims?
>
> At least one person here subscribes to the idea that a brisket should
> be wet-aged (in Cryo-vac) for about 2 months for maximum
> flavor/tenderness. the problem with that is that cryo-vacs are never
> stamped with the actual pack date.
>
>> I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the cherries, chard, or
>> brisket yet.
>
> I simmering a Walmart corned beef right now. The smell of it makes me
> wish I would have bought a whole brisket and corned it myself.
>
> -sw

Sqwertz wrote:
>
> On Sat, 28 May 2011 10:27:57 -0700, Bob Terwilliger wrote:
>
> > Our local rancher had freshly-processed beef; I got a brisket, some
> > cross-cut shanks, and a bone-in chunk of chuck. I also got sour
> > cherries, ruby chard, Tuscan kale, arugula, and garlic scapes.
>
> Is fresh beef really desirable? I see you bought long, slow cooking
> cuts so that probably doesn't matter. But I've been told you don't
> want steaks fresh off the hoof. or is this just something the beef
> packers/Cryovac have led us to believe with their "wet-ageing" claims?

I don't know how important the fresh part is, but pastured, grass fed
organic is a *big* plus. A friend of mine managed to get such a beast,
the whole thing, custom slaughtered and nicely packed and frozen and
labeled "not for sale" which is about the best dead cow I've had.

Steve asked:

>> Our local rancher had freshly-processed beef; I got a brisket, some
>> cross-cut shanks, and a bone-in chunk of chuck. I also got sour
>> cherries, ruby chard, Tuscan kale, arugula, and garlic scapes.
>
> Is fresh beef really desirable? I see you bought long, slow cooking
> cuts so that probably doesn't matter. But I've been told you don't
> want steaks fresh off the hoof. or is this just something the beef
> packers/Cryovac have led us to believe with their "wet-ageing" claims?

I do prefer beef to have a bit of age on it, and it *does* matter even with
the long-cooked meats. Those shanks simmered for eight hours, and the
connective tissue still hasn't broken down. I think I might have to
pressure-cook them to finish.

Speaking of "long, slow cooking cuts" I made a boneheaded mistake last week:
Took a packet of meat out of the freezer. There were two strip steaks in the
packet. I pan-seared one to a perfect rare/medium-rare point and had it with
a pesto made from arugula, garlic scapes, pecorino, and hazelnuts. It was
disappointingly tough. I mentioned it to Lin on the phone that night, and
she said, "We didn't have strip steaks in the freezer. Those were boneless
short ribs." D'OH! Sure enough, that's what they were. Naturally, when the
second piece was cooked CORRECTLY it was delectable.

Bob