It is Greek Easter tomorrow, this is what's for lunch.
A leg of mutton, or basically 2+year old female sheep that has given birth.
I ordered it 10 days ago and told the butcher to weigh and tag it and I will pick up today. It was 4kg 10 days ago, 3900g today so it's got some ageing going on.
I salted THE HELL out of it once I got home and put it in the fridge, that will make the salt pull out some water via osmosis, dissolve and then some hours later it will reabsorb into the meat, salting it from the inside and making it more tender as proteins are denatured. I also coated it with a Serbian herb mixture called Vegeta, it is basically like a vegetable stock cube in powder form with a pinch of curry. Also put some dried garlic on it, but not a lot because my mother can't take the taste of sheep OR garlic
Pre-cook salting has been among the biggest revelation I had in terms of meat. I was told by a chef friend, said if you can salt at least 24 hours ahead of cooking you get a softer, more flavourful and juicy meat. The other revelation is buying aged meat, very fresh meat is the worst. My dad told me that traditionally the French say you should hang meat until it's almost rotting and falling off the hook. This is an exaggeration, but a lot of meats like beef, lamb and game don't go bad in appropriate conditions, they just get better.
Back to the sheep. This is the fourth time I get a leg of aged sheep from my butcher, the last time it was so good my wife was nearly moved to tears, saying it's like what her grandpa used to make, then I told my butcher and HE was nearly moved to tears. This says something as my wife is Serbian, from a region of Serbia famed for its rolling hills and sheep grazing pastures.
I was puzzled to find that Anglosaxons have put a weird stigma on meat with taste, that'd be game, offal, darker cuts, aged sheep and goat. I find I prefer the taste of American beef when I can get it to European beef, but the "white meat" (chicken and pork) I had in the US was very much lacking in flavour. I find it weird that in the UK chicken breast costs twice as much as legs, they got all the flavour!? People seem to have forgotten what real food tastes like. I see this trend infecting Greece too.
A leg of mutton, or basically 2+year old female sheep that has given birth.
I ordered it 10 days ago and told the butcher to weigh and tag it and I will pick up today. It was 4kg 10 days ago, 3900g today so it's got some ageing going on.
I salted THE HELL out of it once I got home and put it in the fridge, that will make the salt pull out some water via osmosis, dissolve and then some hours later it will reabsorb into the meat, salting it from the inside and making it more tender as proteins are denatured. I also coated it with a Serbian herb mixture called Vegeta, it is basically like a vegetable stock cube in powder form with a pinch of curry. Also put some dried garlic on it, but not a lot because my mother can't take the taste of sheep OR garlic
Pre-cook salting has been among the biggest revelation I had in terms of meat. I was told by a chef friend, said if you can salt at least 24 hours ahead of cooking you get a softer, more flavourful and juicy meat. The other revelation is buying aged meat, very fresh meat is the worst. My dad told me that traditionally the French say you should hang meat until it's almost rotting and falling off the hook. This is an exaggeration, but a lot of meats like beef, lamb and game don't go bad in appropriate conditions, they just get better.
Back to the sheep. This is the fourth time I get a leg of aged sheep from my butcher, the last time it was so good my wife was nearly moved to tears, saying it's like what her grandpa used to make, then I told my butcher and HE was nearly moved to tears. This says something as my wife is Serbian, from a region of Serbia famed for its rolling hills and sheep grazing pastures.
I was puzzled to find that Anglosaxons have put a weird stigma on meat with taste, that'd be game, offal, darker cuts, aged sheep and goat. I find I prefer the taste of American beef when I can get it to European beef, but the "white meat" (chicken and pork) I had in the US was very much lacking in flavour. I find it weird that in the UK chicken breast costs twice as much as legs, they got all the flavour!? People seem to have forgotten what real food tastes like. I see this trend infecting Greece too.
