Butcher’s Meat

Whatever the trend towards healthy eating, vegetarianism and the like, meat is traditionally the centre of any meal, the part first decided when planning a meal, and the part around which all else is built.

The role of the cook is technical rather than creative – astute purchase, and the choice of cooking method most suited to the joint. Because you have budgeted for topside of beef and would like a roast dinner doesn’t necessarily mean that roast topside is a good dish: braised or pot-roasted topside would be better (and a forerib would make an ideal roast). The cook’s objective is to make the best, most appropriate, use of the meat and it is paradoxical that most skill and creativity is needed to cook cheaper, less exalted cuts. With best Scottish sirloin or saddle of lamb you have only to avoid a major mishap for success, and the major skill is finding the large amounts of cash necessary to buy them.