Beef Shin

Swampy

Having heard it been talked about, I bought a beef shin yesterday with the intention of making an indian curry.

The beef shin was amazing.It only cost me €12 (Brannigans wholesale shop, Rosemount Business Park). A huge amount of meat and when slow cooked for 4 hours it just melts in your mouth. It would easily have fed six. I'll be eating it for two more days.

Unfortunatly it being my 1st ever Indian curry, it was not so great (apart from the meat!!). Very bland.No real depth of flavour and yes, I used a pack of spice mix from the Indian shop. A real rush job. However once I added some mango chutney and mixed it in, it came alive.

I cant wait to eat it again later.

The Sweeper

Oh yes, beef shin for the win.

If you want to make a good but easy curry, use one of the Sharwoods curry pastes, in a jar, where you fry the paste up but you still add onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes or whatever else... They're pretty good. Also all such things are helped by the addition of things like fresh chopped coriander or, as you did, mango chutney.

The Hill Billy

I'm another fan. I absolutely love it.
I made a stew out of it on Sunday & had it for dinner last night (& there's enough for tonight & tomorrow too.).

Just as a matter of interest - what weight did you get for €12? I got 2kg for €17 from my usual butcher, but he can be a bit expensive. That said - I got cheaper shin beef from a different butcher a while ago, but it clearly hadn't been aged as long & you could tell the difference in the taste & texture.

Dizzyblonde

Swampy or Hill Billy, a question:

I usually use rib steak for my stews and casseroles - is shin beef much nicer? And is it very fatty? Thanks.

Pigletlover

After seeing it recommended here I too bought beef shin over the weekend to make a curry. I didn't really know what to ask for but I told the butcher I was looking for some beef shin to make a curry so he said he'd cut me off a few slices (I was expecting a full shin, but I wasn't sure how it was sold, it was just for myself anyway so I had plenty). I cooked it very slowly for around 3 and a half hours and while the meat was tender there was an awful lot of fat - you know the kind of veiny stuff that doesnt break down? The curry wasn't great either, the only curry paste they had in Dunnes was Blue Dragon and it didn't give much of a flavour but I'll look for the Sharwoods one next time.

Anyway, what I'm wondering is did I get a bad piece of shin or is it just a gristly cut? I don't mind slightly fatty meat where the fat breaks down or can be easily cut away, but I hate having to pick to find a little bit of meat.

Alun

I think with cuts like this with lots of gristly connective tissue that it's the temperature at which you cook it that makes all the difference, i.e. lower rather than higher. Something to do with collagen IIRC.

I'm sure someone with a Heston Bluementhal book will be able to look it up for you. Probably exactly 67.345611223 degrees for 3 hrs 43.5 mins exactly, but only if there's an 'R' in the month and the moon is in Venus or something daft like that.

Minder

Pigletlover wrote: »

After seeing it recommended here I too bought beef shin over the weekend to make a curry. I didn't really know what to ask for but I told the butcher I was looking for some beef shin to make a curry so he said he'd cut me off a few slices (I was expecting a full shin, but I wasn't sure how it was sold, it was just for myself anyway so I had plenty). I cooked it very slowly for around 3 and a half hours and while the meat was tender there was an awful lot of fat - you know the kind of veiny stuff that doesnt break down? The curry wasn't great either, the only curry paste they had in Dunnes was Blue Dragon and it didn't give much of a flavour but I'll look for the Sharwoods one next time.

Anyway, what I'm wondering is did I get a bad piece of shin or is it just a gristly cut? I don't mind slightly fatty meat where the fat breaks down or can be easily cut away, but I hate having to pick to find a little bit of meat.

Beef shin has a connective tissue running through the meat, particularly when the meat is cut from higher up the leg - it separates the various muscles. It is exactly that which makes shin suitable for slow cooking. The tissue breaks down and keeps the meat moist and tender. If you find that unpalatable, get a cut from the lower shin, the connectice tissue is less.

The Hill Billy

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Swampy or Hill Billy, a question:

I usually use rib steak for my stews and casseroles - is shin beef much nicer? And is it very fatty? Thanks.

I find shin beef much nicer indeed. If you cook it right - low heat for a long time - it is absolutely melt in the mouth. You can't rush it though.

As for being fatty - no. As others have said - it does have connective tissue, & if you really want to you can remove this with a sharp knife. Personally, I leave it & it mostly renders down during cooking & this adds to the flavour.

Give it a shot. You won't regret it.

tSubh Dearg

Does anyone know is Osso Bucco the same as beef shin or is it calf shin?

I've used it for stews and it is fantastic meat.

The Hill Billy

Osso Bucco is the name of the dish. AFAIK cross-cuts of veal shin are traditionally used when making it.

tSubh Dearg

Interesting, cause when talking to my butcher, he said it was a cut of meat.

Alun

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

Interesting, cause when talking to my butcher, he said it was a cut of meat.

I think you (and he) are right. The dishes are all called Osso Buco alla <something or the other> ... Osso Buco is just the Italian name for a veal shank, something to do with the hole in the bone (osso = bone buco=hole) when it's cut into slices.

Pigletlover

Minder wrote: »

Beef shin has a connective tissue running through the meat, particularly when the meat is cut from higher up the leg - it separates the various muscles. It is exactly that which makes shin suitable for slow cooking. The tissue breaks down and keeps the meat moist and tender. If you find that unpalatable, get a cut from the lower shin, the connectice tissue is less.

Thanks for that tip - the piece I got was actually from the top end of the shin so that's probably what the problem was. Ill try it again and ask the butcher for the lower end.

The Sweeper

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

Does anyone know is Osso Bucco the same as beef shin or is it calf shin?

I've used it for stews and it is fantastic meat.

As others have said, osso bucco is the cross cut of a beef shin with the bone still in, comes in rounds, should be cut quite thickly (I can get some beautiful pieces off the Italian butchers here, 1.5" thick, freshly cut so that the marrow in the bone hasn't even dried yet).

You make the traditional osso bucco stew with veal shins (smaller, paler in colour) but IMO it's just as good with beef shin.

If I can buy beef shin bone-in I do, and use that whole for dishes like beef stew and osso bucco. If I want to make curry, I'll cut it into 1.5" squares before hand, trimming some connective tissue as I go, and use it that way, though I always end up tossing the bones in to add flavour and removing them at the end of cooking. (I'm not convinced they make much of a flavour difference to a curry, but they do with a stew.)

Come to think of it, this all started for me because some tiny octogenerian australian woman sidled up to me at the butcher counter in the supermarket when she caught me eying up round steak or somesuch for a stew. I think she saw onions, carrots and celery in my basket, drew a conclusion and ambushed me to say "Pssst! If you're stewing, trust me, I'm an old hand at this, beef shin is the best cut for it. Beats the pants off the others, fair dinkum!" (Seriously, I'm not making the 'fair dinkum' bit up.)

The Hill Billy

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

Interesting, cause when talking to my butcher, he said it was a cut of meat.

tSubh - I stand corrected.
As Alun said - it is a bit of both.
Wikipedia article:
"The shank is called in Italian osso buco (from Western Lombard oss bus classical orthography, òs büüs alternative orthography), lit. 'hole bone' (osso 'bone', buco 'hole'), because the bone marrow is part of the appeal of the dish."

Swampy

Hi,

I paid €12 for about 1.2 or 1.3kg. I cant remember. It was off the bone but in one shin shaped piece.

Go cows.

P. Breathnach

Swampy wrote: »

Go cows.

They can't go without their shins!

I love shin beef, cooked for hours in red wine at a low temperature. Well-used muscle has more flavour, but can be tougher and needs the time. The old slow cooker comes out for it.