[Sca-cooks] Chuck vs Bottom Round

[Nick Sasso]

-----Original Message-----
To roast on the spit the shoulder of beef or cow.
One does not normally use this cut of beef on the spit, but I have found
that it is possible to roast it, usually when the animal is young. Take the
shoulderof beef and cut it into pieces, none bigger than four pounds, and
each of these should be marinated for four hours in a marinade consisting of
fine salt, ground fennel seed, ground black pepper and a little chopped
garlic.  Put this meat on the spit without pre-cooking it or larding it with
fat, if you want you can skewer it with several sticks of rosemary. 
Similarly place sliced onions in the drip tray beneath so they may cook in
the falling fat.  One can then serve it hot with the cooked onions mixed
with a sauce made of vinegar, grape must and common spices.

I would never have thought to use it as a pot roast recipe, as I have beef
stew recipes from Scappi so tend to use those for the cheaper cuts.  When I
cooked this at feast I used ribeye roast, the onions caramalize in the beef
fat (and they are yummy). > > > > > > > >


Are you saying you used a loin cut for the recipe?  That seems odd as well
given that they stipulate specifically a shoulder hunk.  I'll bet the ribeye
roast was quite good slow roasted this way . . . but texture and flavor
would be way different as well.  It really is fun to see the directions
people go and the 'provisions' people make to meet their expectations and
needs for a recipe.  I'll bet the same recipe read 8 months apart by the
same person would yield different resulting final dishes.  This is some big
fun of historical cookery.

BTW, I am out of the loop on Helewyese's translation and its availability.
Can one purchase said translation yet?

niccolo difrancesco