Very Unspare

For years I have read about ‘short ribs’. I have somewhat wistfully spied them on menus from the US: going by braised short ribs and polenta at Chez Panisse, braised short ribs with marrow bone and beef fillet at Boulud, or Mario Batali’s short ribs with Barolo and gremolata, these bones obviously keep good company. For some reason we don’t – or didn’t – associate with them here in the UK.

In Britain, we have always tended to save the short ribs for brisket, a cut we salted more often than not and then boiled. It is a very fine piece of meat, those of us who still have a taste for boiled beef well know. Very occasionally, the brisket was broken down while still on the bone and a cut called a ‘Jacob’s ladder’ was produced: once separated, you have short ribs. The point about these short ribs is that they are not spare ribs: they are very unspare, having a great deal of very succulent – once it is properly cooked, that is – meat about them.