Shin

We start with PrimeStar of New Zealand (reference 1), a meat wholesaler whose picture of a shin of beef was turned up by Bing. Domiciled in Miramar, the name of a hotel in which we have stayed in Bournemouth, many years ago, and which was still there, more or less unchanged, when we lunched there, much more recently. And is still there today (reference 2), if a touch flashily presented. One memory from which is the view from our bedroom one evening of the Britannia turning up with the Queen and an attendant frigate. Another is of a French chap carefully corking up what was left of his wine after lunch and sending it back to the fridge for the next day. A place which, I might say, took a substantial cheque when we left, without bank card or any other form of identification. Those were the days!

While the meat wholesaler offers a far bigger range of cuts than is usual in a meat retailer, that is to say butcher, in this country.

Another strand of the story concerns the arrangements of my childhood, involving Sunday roast at Saturday lunchtime, cold on Sunday and minced on Monday. Or something like that, with the important point being that I do not recall our ever buying shop mince: we always minced the cold roast - which I have since learned gives a quite different result from once-cooked shop mince.

The diagram

A whole shin

Most of a shin

Bought from the butcher in Manor Green Road (reference 3), cut by eye to around 8lbs, but turning out to fit the vessel destined for first cooking rather nicely. Or so we thought.

Started at around 0500 at 125C.

End of first cooking

By around 1000, the joint had swelled rather than shrunk (as I had expected), pushing the lid right off. By this time also a fair amount of fat had leached out. Covered with foil and returned to the oven.

Out again at 1030, by which time it looked fit to eat - but that was not the plan. Fat drained off and meat left to cool.

Ready for the mincer

The meat was minced the following morning, along with some onions and carrots. Mincer outlet visible right. Ended up using rather more onions and carrots than are shown here.

A slice of shin, almost ready for the mincer

Note all the fat and connective tissue. All flavour enhancing.

Down to the bone

Second cooking in progress

Added what seemed like quite a lot of water and then simmered for about an hour, with the lids on. Potatoes left - sold as baking potatoes, discounted by Sainsbury's on account of the wet weather, not good for outdoor barbecues. Which saved on the peeling time.

Furthermore, an outing for our largest saucepan, as well as an outing for the Spong. With neither getting to see the light of day terribly often these days.

End of third cooking

There was a subsidiary pie in the white enamel pie dish visible in previous snaps. Served with a gravy made with the left over stock (and some e-numbers from Knorr, for those who liked to be able to taste their flavour) and boiled cabbage.

Going down

But not going down so well that we did not need the genius tester, visible back right. See reference 4 for a previous outing.

Taken with a spot of red

We don't drink much red wine these days, but we did take a spot of a good 2017 Barolo, from Waitrose, on this occasion. Originally from the people at reference 5. Leaving us with the puzzle of why Waitrose own brand champagne dates back to 2007, making it far older than the white wines that we know. Or indeed most red wines.

The shed

Complete with what appear to be new, or newish, wooden barrels. Complete with very other flashy shots. Not a very artisanal operation at all.

For the birds

With the leftover bone being hung up at the back of the garden for the birds. Although experience suggests that our birds take a long time to find and consume meat in this form.

When we next cook such a pie? When will the Spong have its next outing? And so far, I have only turned up a non-mincing mention, at reference 6. A turning up initially confused by the search in Windows Explorer on the Word archive including sponges in its search for spongs.

Reference 1: http://www.primestar.co.nz/.

Reference 2: https://miramar-bournemouth.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.masterbutchersepsom.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/deconstruction.html.

Reference 5: http://www.terredavino.it/.

Reference 6: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/01/werther-not-goethe.html.