Bear, elk, venison, moose - osso buco!


Game osso buc0

The owner of that website, Hank Shaw, has the written the best big game cookbook ever printed: Buck, Buck, Moose.

Anyway, back to the topic... Osso Buco is a wonderful preparation for any big game shank. It is hard to beat.

But here is the thing: the secret to osso buco isn’t the preparation itself, the thing that makes osso buco so delicious is the fact the it is made from the best meat on the animal, the shank.

I know that many will call me crazy. These are the guys who bone out and grind the shanks or simply thrown them away thinking that they aren’t worth the hassle. But these guys are doing it all wrong. If you slow cook(or pressure cook) a shank, using any recipe, you will find that the shake is the best meat on an animal. Dense, rich and utterly wonderful. The key is cooking it long enough to break down all that dreaded connective tissue. As my daughter said in wonder recently over a pressure cooked caribou shank, “it’s like butter.” And that is an apt description.

Sure, the back strap is easier to cook, but the shank is tastier. In our house we run out of shanks before we have used up the filets and back straps. Shanks are darn good.

It never occurred to me to pressure cook a shank. I always just ground them up to add to the chili meat. That I need to try.

We also used to through away the shanks, until we saw MICHELE EICHLER on TV put shanks in a slow cooker over night. The wife adds a little beef bullion and sliced onions then puts it in the slow cooker with enough water to cover the meat, we let it go all night. Let it cool in the morning and strip the meat off the bones and tendons. Shred the meat and freeze in a vacuum seal bag. When ready to serve, heat it up and add BBQ sauce and serve on bread or buns like pulled pork. We do that with moose, elk, deer and antelope.

Pressure cooking is great for tenderizing. But I think that too much water sucks out a lot of the flavor kind of like making home made stock.
Talking about leg cuts...... We are fortunate to have several smoke houses around here that [we just discovered] make the best ham hocks. Never paid attention to them because they look to be mostly bone. Not true. I've found that baking them in the oven at low temp with very little water in a aluminum foil sealed earthenware loaf pan works wonders for two hocks. A enameled covered iron pot should do for 4 hocks. An hour at 375 and an hour at 275 is all it takes. A little black pepper and allspice is all we used. One got picked clean in an hour. The other was picked and made for breakfast the next day. We're hooked on hocks.
To each his own.
Eat good.

That would be very good wrapped in a tortilla for breakfast the next morning. Maybe with some scrambled eggs, grated cheese + salsa.

The Wife goofed and got shanks instead of hocks at another store yesterday since the regular place was closed on Monday's. They taste a bit saltier than our favorite place. But, still pretty darn tasty. Put a little turbinado sugar and the usual allspice & coarse black pepper on 'em this time.
Will be putting some on a home made pizza later.

Not great on pizza. Makes a great omelet.