psmv5: On the bone

A couple of weeks ago now a festival of beef, with the beef provided by Ben the Butcher of Upper High Street. The order was for around 3kg of forerib, on the bone, untrimmed and unchined. Plus maybe 1kg of bone taken off other peoples' beef.

And he produced the goods, all 3.106kg of it, with a good long tail, almost like the fine forerib we once had in Florence. Decent amount of fat blanket. 6lbs 14oz in old money. The only catch was that with all this bone, 3kg meant two ribs rather than three, which was enough for one good meal. Something to bear in mind the next time.

He offered to take off the old face, upper side in the snap above, but I declined. We have had old faces before and - well oiled before the off, as here - they turn out fine. The other side, which was where the joint had been cut, looked much pinker and fresher. In the event, I think I carved from the young side, with one of the girls present getting the opening slice, which I imagine tasted pretty good. Chewy and succulent, like the meat from around the bones.

Stock for gravy fired up in the big stew pan the afternoon before, cracked out from the upper cupboard for the occasion, giving it about 4 hours. Bones, onions, carrots and celery. No cabbage on this occasion. Stock strained and the debris rinsed with a little more boiling water, taking it to around 3 pints. Set aside. Nibbled at the bones after they had cooled a bit, with what little meat there was being quite tasty.

Stock in the fridge, early the following morning, to harden the fat off. Rather more of it than last time. Maybe half the fat went to roux'ing the flour for the gravy, in due course.

The joint went into the pre-heated oven at 190°C at 11:00, with the intention of giving it two hours. During which time I prepared two heads of greens (three would have been better) and 2lbs of potatoes - mash being the potato of choice when we have real gravy.

The form there was roux up some flour with the fat from the stock, then slowly stir in the stock, having used it to wash out the roasting tin. A bit careless at this point, so a bit lumpy, which was a bit of a pain to deal with, but I did. The end product was fine.

On the table, the standing juices having been poured off into the gravy. Some of those present were young enough to think that the string was a great treat.

Somewhat cut, looking rather well.

Not bad on the (special porcelain) plate either, with a little gravy added to the potato in due course. Some people take rather more than I do. Beef taken with a spot of Costcutter's Fleurie, as noticed at reference 2.

Followed by the chocolate cake which is traditional on these occasions. Plus the traditional, loud & lusty rendering of 'Happy Birthday'.

We then moved onto a telephone enabled version of Pictionary. You did a sketch of something - choosing one of the options provided on your card - and the telephone guessed what it was. I guess there were perhaps a couple of hundred options altogether, so the telephone's task was far from trivial. Simple to play and good fun.

Neither Bing nor Google obliged with the box that I remember, but the one snapped above looks as if it is, at least, in the right area. Manual versions of the game, not involving telephones or computers, have been around for ages.

The beef scene later in the afternoon.

At this point, I took a stroll around town. Wetherspoon's and the Marquis were still busy. The place which was the 'Plaice to Eat' was doing OK, as was the place which was a South American butcher and which has now morphed into a café. TB rather quieter.

Gravy on white bread for tea. Not bad, but the white bread from Holne was a bit feeble for this purpose. It might have been better had it been stale.