I was rifling through the reduced meat yesterday at the Piggly Wiggly, and I saw some beef ribs that
had been cut, and another package that looked like the same thing, but a different part of the rack.
So I picked up both as the light wasn't right to see through the over-stuck price and info tag.
The markdown tag has no cut name on it. So I got home where the light was better and it was
beef neckbone, which I usually leave to the po-folks cause it's such a nightmare getting any
decent meat off it. I was shopping for jerky meat and bargain steaks. ANYWAY,
I heated up some oil in a pot, dredged the cut neckbones in a shopping bag with some flour in it,
then browned the chunks on all sides in the oil, added some more flour and fast-cooked a roux.
I then tossed in a medium onion chopped, about 8 toes of garlic sliced thin like on goodfellas,
cajun seasoning to taste and cut up a big fat sweet potato into 3/8 inch slices and covered with water.
I let it simmer covered with a little steam gap for about two hours. I then slid all the meat off the bones
and put the gravy, potato and meat in a tupperware container for later. The taste of the sweet tater AND
the dank sweetness of such a weird, bony cut was magical. There is plenty of collagen in and around the
bones that just made a wonderfully thick gravy. But again, it was the sweet combo of the all-but-mashed
potato and the meat that just sang out with flavor. Can't wait for supper tonight.
Of course now I am kicking myself for not throwing the cut up rib bones in there, too. They won't
be so hot smoked on a grill next weekend. That's the job of a FULL RACK of dino bones. Still, I will smok'em.
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It was beef, not pork, so I think that's correct. And the wrapper sticker did say neckbones, so yeah,
I am guessing that's correct. Around here ox tails are marked as such. These look like vertebrae cut in half
with a band saw. Who knows who gets the neck muscles.
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