Thanks very much!

I even had my own trailer there, not that I ever used it. But we coulda had one heck of a girls weekend! Only one of the members had any sort of ideas about not socializing with “the help,” but he was only there because he married money. The others were totally cool about me eating at the members’ tables, drinking as much wine or whatever as I wanted, etc. Probably because I didn’t abuse the privilege and because I can hold my own in most any conversation. They weren’t quite as “equality minded” with the employees with less education and sophistication. YOU? You would have been asked back every year forever.

Of course, I’d leave out the caraway (I hate it) and swap out the morels for porcinis (morels are tough and I worry about what might be hiding in the holes.) I might use that trimmed off silverskin to my advantage and drape it over the ribs as they cook. I adore the “fat in the mouth” feel when the connective tissue melts to gelatin, and self-basting anything is always good. The remnants can be easily removed before service.

Hey, I have a question for you: When cooking with portabellas do you remove the gills? I was taught to do it when I worked at the place where I cut my hand and I’ve done it ever since because it just looks nicer without little black flecks on everything. It really bugs me that TV “chefs” some of whom are real chefs, I realize, but most of whom are not, never seem to do it! (Thank the lard I’ve never seen your old bosses cook with portabellas!) I’m betting Ripert and Savoy remove the gills!

That parmesan caraway sauce is killer. I used that with some pasta the other night. Easy and totally amazing – different too, in a good way. That is some of the best cream sauce I have ever had.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Nico

Nico! You know, I never take pictures when I really need to. And I told myself I was going to photograph this the whole way through because it’s easy once you do it and feel it, but the description is just problematic – sorry about that, I ran out of time.

So yes, you are going to get a fat flankin style cut of shortrib. This “fat” cut-across-the-bones style (preferably 3 to 4 bones) should be about 2-inches thick. Slap that puppy on the counter with the bones facing up towards you. Then carve ALL the bones out with a sharp boning or filet knife so you are left with a boneless strip of meat. It should be around 2-inches wide and about 5-inches across.

Take the most slender bone and clean the fat and sinew off. This can be hard. I take the tip of a knife and score it down each side then peel away the skin with my fingers.

Next, clean off as much silver skin and excess fat off the strip as possible without destroying the strip. There’s a lot of fat on shortribs and even though I love fat there is more than enough even after you take a lot off. You will see some deep veins of fat, and I like to carve those out too as much as possible.

Rolling up is easy but you have to look at the strip and decide which way will work better. There’s no right or wrong. I prefer to have the meat side facing out and the bone side (that is now boneless) facing in. Place the cleaned bone at one end and roll the strip of meat tightly all around it. Then tie!

A 1lb strip with bone in will be about 1 serving. It gets tricky because different cross sections of the rib will have heavier bone or more meat or more fat. But that’s a close approximation. And I promise to get some pictures up!

I hope this helps a little?!?

But then you note that you put the strip “meat side down”, does that mean such that the bones are parallel to the table surface, and the most meaty side is on the table with the bones hovering above it?

Also, once the meat is cut off the bone (I assume you end up with a rectangular strip), how is it then rolled around the bone? With the cut side touching the bone? I feel like a picture could be handy 😉

Finally, you say you end up with 4 1lb ribs. Are those 4 single servings? 1lb of meat? Sounds like a good meal 🙂

Thanks!

Nico

Ah! thanks for the clarifications. I really like the look of the long bones and I think I can get around the inability to pan-sear the top surface by painting some clarified butter on the surface and then carefully blowtorching.

Transglutaminase makes covalent bonds and versions found naturally are involved in wound healing (e.g. knife cuts) and forming hair.

It is harmless in food prep because it’s completely deactivated if it hits 56º (132ºF or so) and because it can also make covalent bonds with itself, it will eventually deactivate itself by losing active conformation.

As for the lengthh of the bones. 2-inches is fine, you can roll the meat fully around the bone and brown on all sides and then pull it up for presentation. In my picture the butcher cut my strips about 4 inches and I coudn’t see until it was too late. Therefore I couldn’t brown them on the top but the long bones do look fabulous. Somewhere in between 2 and 3 inches is just right for these, it depends on the look you’re going for.

Also, I really clean a lot of the fat of the strips…makes for a nicer bite!

I’m supposed to do a demo for my boucher some time early in the new year and I think this is a winning idea for the main.

I will definitely use transglutaminase to glue the cleaned meat back to the bone because I hate tying with twine and what you’ve done takes more than a little practice to get it right. I will do a test rack to compare traditional braise with sous-vide.

What is the length of the bones? If the strips are 2 inches wide, the bones look about 3 inches.

Add the cold butter after the sauce is reduced and shake it in over high heat (and baste meat with it)– be forewarned that there is a point where the sauce will go from gorgeous and glossy to ‘split’ so be sure and watch out for this and only use the butter to finish the sauce when you are ready to serve.

If you do not use low or no sodium beef stock, when the sauce is reduced it will taste too salty. If nothing else is available then reduce the sauce until it has the right flavor and add arrowroot or a little cornstarch to thicken.