Meat

Appears in

Published 1986

About

Huge purple and cream carcasses hang high in the window from great meat hooks. Below, the white marble shelf is like a painter’s palette with freshly squeezed blobs of oil paint: vermilion steaks, pink cutlets, burnt sienna calf’s liver, maroon oxtails, ochre eggs piled high, brilliant white lard and sprigs of green parsley. A fine picture indeed - and you can eat it too!

Red-faced butchers saw, chop and fillet, knives flashing over the scrubbed wood tables, while pale apprentices struggle with whole pigs on their shoulders. I draw patterns in the sawdust with the polished toe of my shoe, waiting for a leg of lamb. I’m in no hurry, I love butchers’ shops. With such a dazzling choice of meats available it’s sad that, for some, barbecuing stops at hamburgers and bangers. Why, with good shopping, careful preparation and planning - essential ingredients for all good cooking - you can feast like a Viking warrior off a succulent roast pig, dine on sweet lamb delicately perfumed with rosemary, gorge like a sheikh on kebabs exotically spiced and marinated in yoghurt, or simply sink your teeth into a tender grilled steak.