Italian · Main
Osso Buco alla Milanese
- Intermediate
- 45 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with acid holding everything up to the light, richness that coats and comforts, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 4 veal hind shin slices, 4 cm thick, about 1.4 kg
- 8 g fine salt
- 2 g black pepper
- 40 g plain flour
- 50 g butter
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 onion, in 5 mm dice
- 1 carrot, in 5 mm dice
- 1 celery stalk, in 5 mm dice
- 200 ml dry white wine
- 500 ml veal or chicken stock
- 1 lemon, zest finely grated
- 20 g flat parsley, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Reducing a sauceBraisingSweating aromatics: soft, never brownedThe coat before the fry: dredge, crumb, batterKnife cuts: dice, julienne, bias
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · celery · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Tie a length of string around the circumference of each shin slice, snug but not cutting in, then dry the slices, salt and pepper them, and dredge them in flour, knocking the loose dust off.
- Brown the slices in the oil until both cut faces carry a deep crust, lift them out, add the butter, and soften the onion, carrot and celery in the same fat until translucent and sweet.
- Pour in the wine and reduce until the pan smells of wine rather than alcohol, return the shins in one layer, add stock to come two thirds up them, and cover.
- Braise at 150C (300F) for 2 hours, turning them once at the halfway mark, until the meat is loose around the bone but still standing inside its ring of string. 120 min
- Mix the lemon zest, parsley and garlic and scatter this gremolata over the shins off the heat, seconds before they go to the table.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Braising 39 recipes
- The pieces went into the liquid already deep brown on their faces, and the pot floor gave up its fond to that liquid rather than keeping it.
- The liquid comes partway up the pieces and stays there for the whole cook (not submerged, not run dry), and it never boils: the surface trembles and no more.
- It went long enough for the collagen to convert: a fork twists in it with almost no resistance, and the piece still lifts out whole rather than falling into shreds.
- The liquid has become a sauce: it has body, it coats the back of a spoon, and it tastes concentrated rather than thin and washed out.
- The meat is moist and seasoned through to its centre, not dry fibres sitting inside a good sauce.
Where it goes wrong The oven or the burner ran too hot and the liquid boiled, so the fibres tightened and squeezed their moisture out: it shreds dry into a thin greasy liquid, and more time makes it worse rather than better.
The coat before the fry: dredge, crumb, batter 80 recipes
- The coat is continuous before it goes anywhere near the fat: held up to the light, no bare patch of food shows through anywhere, seams and thin edges included.
- It is bonded rather than resting on top: a gentle shake sheds loose dust only, and the coat does not slide off as a sheet when the piece is handled.
- It bubbles hard and steadily from the moment it enters the fat, and the bubbling visibly slows as it finishes; those bubbles are the surface water leaving, and a quiet entry means the fat is too cool.
- Out and drained, it is an even gold-brown all over and it is still crisp several minutes later on a rack; a coat that softens within a minute of coming out never lost its water.
- Broken open, there is no paste of raw flour under the crust and no hollow gap where the coat has lifted away from the food.
Where it goes wrong The fat was below temperature or the pan was crowded, so the coat drank fat instead of sealing against it: it comes out pale and heavy, greasy to the fingers, and slumps off the food as it cools.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chardonnay (village Burgundy)
- Also Right
- Chianti or Barbera
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Verbena iced tea
Chicken is wine’s most agreeable partner. Match the SAUCE, not the bird: cream to oak, tomato to Sangiovese’s acid, herbs to Loire whites.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.