When my father-in-law recalled eating brawn that his mother knocked-up when he was a young lad, it conjured up sepia-toned images of post-war days when food was sparse so little went to waste to keep bellies full.

He fondly remembered his mother boiling up pigs trotters, pulling the meat off and leaving it to set in the fridge. He described it as soft pig meat suspended in jelly smothered on crusty bread with a smidge of mustard. I could see he was salivating at the mere thought of it, finishing his description with a typical French gesture of kissing his fingertips, quickly opening them and saying “absolutely beautiful it was”.

I wondered if – by chance – my copy of the trusty Fergus Henderson recipe book ‘The Complete Nose to Tail’ had this ‘brawn’ recipe in it. Well, of course, it did… Only, it stated that not just trotters were to be used but a whole pig’s head.

Trot On!

By chance, my butcher had recently told me that he now sells pig’s heads. I excitedly told my wife, who was not so optimistic and – if I remember rightly – suggested our marriage would be in question if she found a pigs head staring back at her in the fridge.

Marriage is all about compromises, so I swallowed hard and settled for just the trotters. I followed the recipe – albeit, headless – and rustled up this so-called brawn by boiling the trotters along with some veggies and herbs for a few hours. Next I picked all the meat off and reduced the broth. Then I separated the meat between 2 cling film lined Tupperware boxes – one for the in-laws, one for me – and poured the broth over and left it to set in the fridge.

What a delight… this stuff is so moreish with its mix of soft skin, connective tissue and fat encased in meaty jelly. Being a carb dodger, I skipped the toast and enjoyed it with some punchy Dijon… beautiful stuff indeed. And, my father-in-law loved it, “just like I remembered” he said joyfully.

The curiosity of what other taste dimensions would be added with the additional tissues of using a whole pigs head left me determined to figure out a way around this without jeopardizing my marriage. So, a quick chat with the in-laws and a plan was set. I was excited, to say the least.

“One whole rare breed pig head please”.

Head in hand, in a black plastic bag, I headed to the in-laws for this culinary adventure. The first challenge… the head’s too big for the pot… hmm… let’s get the hacksaw out. Yep, there I was hacksawing a pigs head in their garden, quite a sight for any nosey neighbours. After a cut here and a cut there, finally the head was in the pot along with a trotter to keep it company while it thawed out overnight.

After around 3 and half hours of cooking – one hour of which was just getting the water to the point of simmering – the meat was falling off… it was ready.

Next came the process of pulling the meat and flesh and any other soft tissues away from the bones in what felt to me like an almost tribal experience. Some bonding time between my mother-in-law and myself, I imagined this may have been what it was like many years ago for our ancestors preparing food for the tribe, true nose-to-tail eating leaving nothing to waste.

Everything that’s soft goes in, the snout, the brains the eyes and the tongue. There’s also plenty of muscle meat in the cheeks as well as all the skin and connective tissue. The remaining bones were saved for a bone broth to be cooked at a later date.

All the while, the broth is being reduced by half, concentrating the gelatine to ensure a good jelly is produced when cooled to hold it all together.

After separating the meat between 2 cling film lined baking dishes and pouring over the broth, there was just a night in the fridge to wait before we could sample the result of our hard work.

And, it was worth the wait… the added textures of the additional tissues took it to another level. I’ve spoken out umami before in my post about oxtail, and this is another example.

More than just a taste

When different tissue types – muscle, bone, ligaments and skin – are slowly cooked together, a type of taste called ‘umami’ is produced. It’s known as the fifth taste after sweetness, saltiness, sourness and bitterness. The difference is this is more of a feeling than a taste, you can’t quite put your finger on it… all you know is that you just want more.

How and why did this staple get forgotten? It’s such a beautiful waste. So healthy, packed full of vitamins, minerals and collagen promoting gelatin, yet most will not have heard of brawn and would likely scoff at the sound of it.

“You’re wrong in the head mate”

One friend of mine, when I showed pictures of what we’d done said “you’re wrong in the head mate”. Another, when he heard we got a pigs head said “why on Earth would you do that?”. I get it, it’s weird… it shouldn’t be, but in this world we live in, it is.

Personally, the more I think about our ancestral ways, the more I realise how normal this way of eating is. Up until very recently in our existence on this earth, it would’ve been the norm.

What is weird though, is all the highly processed, hyper-palatable food we now accept as normal. It pains me to see kids stuffing their faces with sugar-filled cakes, sweets and chocolates. Gorging on MacDonald’s deep-fried nuggets and French fries washed down with some Sprite.

A good home-cooked meal being nothing more than some packaged, preservative, sugar and MSG ladened breaded turkey escalope, with a side of chips and sugar-filled baked beans. “Who’s a good girl? You’ve eaten all your dinner… you deserve some afters. Ice cream or a chocolate mini roll?”.

What’s weird was normal and what’s normal is weird… which is weird

Why are we getting fatter and sicker again? Because the old normal is now weird replaced with a load of man-made weirdness that everyone thinks is normal.

Well, most people… but there is hope. There is a community out there that seem very normal to me but “wrong in the head” to others. I hope that changes… I think it will and I hope it’ll be in my lifetime.

I’ve ranted about this before and explained my common sense perspective on what we – as humans – should actually be eating. Just think about what our ancestors would’ve eaten, that’s what I do.

If you’re tempted by this to try and make your own brawn, even if it’s just the trotter version, I recommend you give it a go. The recipe is below. If you have a pressure cooker as I have, even better. An hour and a half is all you need. You won’t be disappointed, and if you try it, let me know all about it by leaving a comment or mentioning me on Instagram.

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post Beautifully Brawn appeared first on Offaly Good.

Before I started on my offal adventures, the only oxtail I’d tried was soup out of a can, it was ok, but I preferred the tomato variety. So, when I cooked up some real oxtail in my beloved pressure cooker, an instant love affair blossomed.

Now one of, if not my number one favourite cut, the mixture of meat, fat, connective tissue and bone is the perfect combination for a decadent culinary delight.

At the slightest mention of oxtail to my fellow Instagram #offal followers, the responses are unanimous… “oxtail is the best!”

When I’m devouring my oxtail, I go into a kind of blissful trance as the taste and texture sensations consume me like the first time I’m eating food after a 3 day fast. Or like a toddler eating candy for the first time, like a drug, at that moment nothing else matters.

I feel simultaneously blessed that I’m experiencing this taste sensation while also feeling regret that it’s taken me 39 years of roaming this planet before I discovered this wonder… What other sensual delights am I missing out on?

You gotta try this

In other words, oxtail is super tasty, and – if you haven’t tried it already – I highly recommend you march on down to your butcher and demand (politely)… “some of your finest tail from an ox, please”.

When you return home, waste no time, fire up your pressure cooker, slow cooker, oven or hob – there are many recipes and cooking methods to be found – cook and wait a while. Your patience will be rewarded with a flavoursome flamenco on your tongue, smooth but punchy.

Forgive yourself as you slurp and groan, just give in to it, all will become a dreamy blur. After, rest easy with a full fuzzy feeling, a warm afterglow of content and notice your involuntary smile… You have just experienced one of Mother Nature’s comforting hugs.

Is it magic?

What’s actually going here with all of these orgasmic sensations?

I’ve got an amazing book that I turn to when I’m pondering such questions. It’s called ‘Deep Nutrition‘ by Catherine (Cate) Shanahan and her husband Luke.

The book explains…

“Cooking meat slowly is the best way to turn an ordinary meal into something extraordinary – in terms of taste and nutrition. The potential flavour of meat, or any food, derives from its complexity. Depending on the cut, “meat” may include muscle, tendon, bone, fat, skin, blood and glands – each a world of chemical diversity. When that diversity is released onto the tongue you can taste it, and the rich, savoury flavour means a world of nutrients are on their way.”

So, not only does it taste amazing, but we’re also getting a powerful hit of nutrients and collagen. They go on to explain the process…

“All you need is moisture, time and parts (as many different tissue types as possible: ligament, bone, fat, skin etc.). Making soup, stewing, keeping a top on to trap the steam, basting often when cooking in the oven – all these techniques keep moisture inside the meat, enabling water molecules to make magic happen.”

Oh yeah, and magic does happen with oxtail, which makes sense… This one cut has numerous tissue types including ligament, bone, fat and muscle meat. The book further explains…

“[It] begins when heated moisture trapped in the meat creates the perfect conditions for hydrolytic cleavage… How does hydrolytic cleavage translate in to taste? It’s simple. Taste buds are small. The receptor site where the chemicals bind to them is tiny. So things that impart taste (called flavour ligands) must be tiny too…

Cooking releases trapped flavour because, during the process of hydrolytic cleavage, some proteins are chopped into very small segments, creating short strings of amino acids called peptides. Peptides are tiny enough to fit into receptors in our taste buds. When they do, we get the sensation of savouriness food manufacturers call the “fifth flavour”, or umami.”

It’s just a feeling

This rich, decadent, succulent joy called oxtail can be summed up in one word… Umami.

Umami is well known in the world of food. It’s considered to be a taste along with sweetness, sourness, saltness and bitterness. We have taste receptors that respond to glutamates which are found in various foods, although mainly slow-cooked animal foods that have a mixture of different parts such as muscle meat, bones, connective tissue and skin.

It’s these glutamates that when they hit your tongue, sensations of euphoria ensue. Food manufacturers know about this and use this to their advantage. A man-made version called monosodium glutamate (MSG) is used in many fast foods to cheat your taste buds and make you want more of their food.

Umami is more than a taste through… It’s a sensation, a feeling, almost an emotion. Another one of Mother Nature’s wonders.

There are no rules here

You’ll find a wealth of recipes to try out with a quick DuckDuckGo search, but it’s pretty easy to wing it. Here’s what I did…

Ingredients

• 1.5kg oxtail
• 500ml of beef bone broth (or beef stock)
• 3 carrots cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 celery sticks cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 small onions cut into bite-size pieces
• A few cloves of garlic roughly chopped
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp of salt
• Filtered or bottled mineral water

Method

Nice and simple… using a pressure cooker, throw everything in. Give it a mix around, then top it up with water until it’s just covering everything. Cook for an hour and a half.

If you haven’t got a pressure cooker, you can use a slow cooker which will take around 8 hours. Or you can simmer or bake in a casserole in the oven on 170C/325F/gas mark 3 for 4 to 5 hours.

When it’s done the meat should fall off the bone and any connective tissue should be soft and gooey.

If the sauce is not thick enough for you, mix up 2 tbsp of flour with a splash of water in a cup until there are no lumps. Then add this and stir in. The sauce should thicken. Repeat if needed.

I enjoy it on its own but you can have it with some mash, or some buttered French stick perhaps. There are no rules here.

Devour and enjoy!

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post Oxtail – A Taste Sensation appeared first on Offaly Good.