Kill it at trivia with these fun facts about meat.
WHAT’S YOUR BEEF? Did you know there are four skirts on a carcass? Inside, outside (also known as thin), thick (also known as onglet) and flank. Of these, all but the flank are involved in the breathing capabilities of the live animal.
BABY, BABY, BABY, OH! Spatchcock is a cutting method – not a baby chicken!
TREAT YO’SELF Chicken used to be considered a treat and was worth paying a high price for and not a cheap every day thoughtless protein.
GET BEHIND THIS A beef butt is not its rear end but the name given to a hind leg.
OFFALLY GOOD Offal is any edible part of the carcass that is not left on the body after the head, hide, and gut is removed. What does this mean? Everything from the cheek, hanger, tongue and all the usual bits and bobs like tripe and liver are all offal.
PASTURE FED VS GRAIN FED Pasture fed (or grass fed) refers to meat from animals that have grazed on pasture for their whole lives. Grain fed meat comes from animals that are fed grass for most of their lives, but then switch to grains for at least 60 days. In Australia around 97% of cattle are in a grass fed environment.
DID YOU KNOW? Goat is the most consumed red meat in the world.
SIMPLY MARBLE-OUS Marbling simply refers to the white flecks and streaks of fat found within a cut of meat and between the muscle fibres themselves, like olive oil, marbling has higher levels of unsaturated fat (a good fat :)). A high-quality steak will have a lot of marbling, while a lean cut will have very little or no visible marbling. Marbling makes your meat tender, tasty and juicy!
DON’T LOSE YOUR MARBLES The most marbled part of any beef muscle is the tongue.
WHAT IS WAGYU? Wagyu is a breed of cattle native to Japan – ‘wa’ means Japanese and ‘gyu’ means cattle. Highly marbled, wagyu beef is famous for its melt-in-your-mouth texture. When cooked, the marbling is absorbed into the muscle giving the meat its unbeatable tenderness and flavour.
STICK TO YOUR RIBS Intercostal meat (from in between the ribs) makes incredible burgers and braised dishes. Fun fact: they’re also known as rib fingers!
GOOD THINGS GET BETTER WITH AGE Why dry age meat? During dry ageing, the fats become aromatic as the leftover energy in the muscle turns into sugar, loading up on heaps of flavour.
MAKE NO MISTEAKS Bistecca literally means bi steak or double steak.