Where's the Shank?

BEEFore!

Do you like my reference to that old Wendy’s restaurant commercial that wondered “Where’s the Beef?” You do? Why, Shank you very much! If you’re very clever, but not too bright, you may have figured out that this weeks Featured Ingredient is: Beef Shanks! 

Beef Shanks first came into my life many years ago, before I even knew what the Shankfest a Beef Shank was. It appeared in the form of the most tender bites of beef in my Vavoa’s Kale Soup, a very traditional Portuguese meal (see my own recipe for Kale Soup on the Recipes page) At the time, being wholly uninterested in cooking, I didn’t know or care what I was eating and didn’t recognize it as beef shank until a couple of years ago. I’ve since used it in Soup, and to make Braised Beef. Braising is a combination cooking technique, where the meat of choice is first seasoned and seared to brown the outside and lock in moisture and flavor, then simmered in a covered pot. This is basically how a crock pot cooks food, with or without searing it first. Beef Shanks are a popular cut of meat to braise because they are invariably tough, coming from the top portion of a cow’s leg. The shank muscle gets alot of use, what with supporting the heifer’s tremendously plump body...to say nothing of the effort it takes to reverse position after being “cow tipped”! 

Beef Shank can be used by a butcher and ground into low fat hamburger meat. When Beef Shank is used in a braising recipe or simmered in a soup/stew, it has an ultra tender and stringy like texture, and mildly gamey flavor that picks up the flavors of the simmering liquid quite well. Don’t try to remove the bones before cooking as they contain lots of flavorful marrow and the meat will literally fall off of them, but be careful when serving not to present a honking bone in Vavoa’s bowl of Kale Soup! If your Portuguese Grandmother is anything like mine, you might find a slipper hurtling through the air upside your head! Always followed by hugs and kisses, rest in peace my beautiful Vavoa, forever in our hearts ♥♥♥

So, where exactly IS the beef? In my grocery store it’s almost always in stock, near the roasts and ground beef. Grab yourself a couple of shanks next time you shop, and toss em into a pot on the stovetop with a few other ingredients for an easy to cook and clean meal. Don’t forget to get started about 5 hours before you want to eat, to give the cooking liquid enough time to break up the sinewy meat. And that’s all the beef I have to beef about beef! 

After! 

Bacon

Happy International Bacon Day! Ok, International Bacon Day isn’t until Saturday Sept 3, 2011, but any day is a good day to celebrate bacon! In the words of the hilarious bacon-loving comedian Jim Gaffigan, “bacon is like the fairy dust of the food world!” 

So, where does this magical meat come from? In the United States it is almost always the cut of meat from the belly of the Pig, which is then cured using large quantities of salt. Other cuts include meat from the cheeks, loin, shoulders, ankle...and just about everywhere there’s meat! A slice of bacon is also known as a rasher, and an unsliced side is a flitch or slab. Americans consume about 32 billion rashers of bacon a year! 

Relax, don’t feel too guilty! Bacon actually contains Vitamins B1 and B12 and antioxidants Zinc and Selenium! There’s about 42 calories, and 3 grams each of fat and protein in a slice of cooked bacon. That’s only 2% of RDA recommendations for caloric intake...and 31% of protein intake, followed by 68% of fat intake. Yikes! So that’s why bacon should be eaten in moderation. But, it tastes so good! 

For me, no one encompasses the miracle that is bacon more effectively than Jim Gaffigan. If you haven’t seen his bacon skit, your life may not be complete! Go to this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2uPdxUPnXU or search it on the internet. It’s a beautiful, poignant, reverent tribute to this wonderful sliced meat while being hysterically funny at the same time. 

There’s only one more thing I can say about Bacon: It goes with everything, and everything goes with it! It’s the little black dress of a delicious meal. Doubtful there’s a food on earth you couldn’t add bacon to and enhance it’s taste...from meat, to vegetables, to dessert! Not to mention, the grease leftover from frying bacon is a powerful flavor addition and convenient fat to sauté onions, garlic, and other vegetables in. In conclusion: Bacon equals Flavor Highway, route Pig 101 on Interstate Pork. Any questions? :)

Useless and Useful Bacon facts:

• Bacon Bits sold at the grocery store are actually vegetarian
• Yorkshire and Tamworth pigs are bred specifically for Bacon
• The average American eats 17.9 lbs of Bacon per year
• 11% of a standard pig’s weight is Bacon
• Bacon has been around since 1500 B.C,
• The BLT, (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich) became popular when fresh lettuce and tomatoes became available year round after the expansion of supermarkets following World War II
• A 200 lb pig will produce about 20 lbs of Bacon

Eat Bacon and You Will Live! Not healthily, and not for long, but Happily! Bacon, FTW!