Beef is a castrated male bovine, but in butchery generally includes the meat of all large cattle, heifer, cow, steer, bullock, steer. Among the best origins, one will find beef from Limousin, Normandy, Charolais or Parthenay, but also Chalosse (Aquitaine) and Salers (Auvergne), which are rarer. A good quality beef will be bright red and shiny, its consistency firm and elastic, its smell sweet. The fat is rather white or slightly yellow, forming a more or less tight network, the meat can be marbled or marbled. Beef provides "noble" pieces, for quick cooking, the most expensive, and second and third category pieces, rather used for slow cooking as carbonades. Among the best are steaks, chateaubriands and tournedos, entrecote, prime rib and roasts. Lesser quality dishes include braised meat, stews, bourguignons and pot-au-feu, for which you can choose pieces such as chuck, scoter, shank and collar. Discover original food and wine pairings with beef.
In the last board meeting of 2021 for the regulatory council of DO Terra Alta, in Catalunya, Spain, a long list of changes was approved. The most prominent was the making of a very strict certification system for wines that are 100% Garnatxa Blanca given that it’s their flagship grape variety. But perhaps the most interesting item is a bit further down the list that allows certification for a type of wines that in Catalan are called “vins brisats”. The name refers to white wine ...
Pale salmon in colour, a basket full of freshly-picked summer berries backed by the tell-tale, mouth-watering English acidity – these pink delights are wines made for summer and glorious celebrations. In fact, rosé is likely to become ‘one of the most important styles made in Britain over the next 10 to 20 years,’ as Oz Clark put it in his 2020 book on English wines*. The top examples of English sparkling rosés tend to be made mainly from the red Champagne grapes using the traditional method, wi ...
Christmas, famously, is not about religion any more. But as a Decanter reader, you’ll also know that it’s not about giving, family or food either. No, it’s about drink. The one time of year when we get to open the good stuff without anyone questioning what we’re doing. And of course, there’s no shortage of advice as to what form those bottles should take. Every year, hacks in newspapers, magazines and websites tell us how to make the big day go with a bang. But these don’t correspond with the re ...
