Tough beef

[vervialle]

Good meat in France is hung and must not be overcooked, cooked very rare it will be very tender.I always cook beef rare in France and do not have a problem.Limousin beef is raised amongst the hills , so they have more muscle, a bit like welsh lamb which is tougher than that grazed on flat landscape, I always eat welsh lamb pink.For people who want a nice roast beef, you can cheat and ask your butcher in France to roll you some brisket which is the bit of the cow above the front legs at the front of the cow, if you cook it slow with an onnion in water for 4 hours, take it out and crisp it in a nice tin of duck fat in the oven, you will be suprised at how good it tastes. You can use the stock for the gravy.This cheating works wonderful with belly pork and stewing lamb also.If you let the stock cool in the freezer,the fat that solidifies on the top can be used for the roast potatoes.I have a jug of beef stock and a jug of chicken stock in my fridge all the time all salvaged from the slow cooking of different meat, great for curries, chillies,Boulongarie potatoes, I always think of it as a free ingredient.If you want wonderful chicken gravy, cook a chicken slow,when cooked empty the liquid into a pan keep boiling until you have a third of the liquid.Seperate the fat on the top, in another pan fry the fat and add flour whisking all the time gradually add the rest of your liquid and a chicken stock cube, it is chicken gravy to die for.

[mint]

[quote user="Clair"]Whilst waiting for Frenchie ito translat her family recipe, you could look at this video recipe for Bœuf en daube [:)]
[/quote]

Clair

I enjoyed the video and the finished results look so tasty I could have licked my computer screen.  Mind you, he seems to have had a really blunt knife and I felt like I could have handed him one of my knives when he was hacking away at the bacon rind!

Just waiting for Frenchie now as I want to cook this for some French friends and I want them to go "hm...mm" and not "o la la"!

[Clair]

[quote user="sweet 17"]... he seems to have had a really blunt knife and I felt like I could have handed him one of my knives when he was hacking away at the bacon rind![/quote]

I agree! I was almost shouting at the screen! He should have rolled it up too, it would have been easier to cut...

[vervialle]

Iforgot to mention a master butcher once told me that really red meat is |Bull meat and it is killed quite young and does not have the flavour, which does make sense as the cows are kept for breeding.

[dwmcn]

But what, if like myself, you don't want blood running all over your plate? I like my meat medium to well done. I'm not a savage.

[Helen]

[quote user="Hoddy"]I heard on the radio the other day that much of the beef sold in France is cow beef, and therefore old, which is not what normally eat in the UK. Hoddy[/quote]

  I don't know about other supermarkets elsewhere but beef in  our local hyperu is marked on the label (in fairly small print) whether from vache laitierie or viande bovine(think thats what  it says). You've also got the option of   beef  from the butchers counter where (as in butchers shops) they give information as to the provenance and age of the animal, its breed, place and date of abbatoire. Far more info than you usually get in the UK.

 

 

[Hoddy]

Thanks for the information about supermarkets Helen, I can't say I've ever noticed that. I'll look out for it.

We have a travelling butcher who visits once a week and, as you say, all the details of the animals are listed. The farms they come from are not very far away and neither is the abbatoir. Even our local 'organic' butcher in the UK doesn't do that.

As with good butchers in the UK the meat I buy in France is expensive; on the other hand it is always of excellent quality and I've never had the problems with tough beef which are described here.

Hoddy