In this post, I'm going to be cooking a recipe from The Joy Of Cooking. Specifically, I will make Osso Buco which is on page 471. (I have an older version of the book if you have an updated version the page numbers might be different.) This morning I am going to walk you through my experience of making this recipe and then share my thoughts on using the Joy of Cooking and on the dish itself.
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The Joy of Cooking
Let's actually talk about the cookbook itself for a second. If you are unfamiliar with the Joy Of Cooking, let me tell you about it. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks and has been in print since 1936. Since it was first published, it has sold over 18 million copies. It is considered by a lot of people to be a quintessential part of any cookbook collection. If you are interested in learning more about it and its history, I suggest you check out the Wikipedia article about it here. It is an interesting read.
A little side note. The version of the book I have is from 1975 and was actually my mom's. I got it after she passed away in 2013. Yesterday, as I was reading the Osso Buco recipe and flipping through the book a pressed flower fell out from between two pages. It was a great surprise to find this pressed flower from mom. What is even a little more magical than that is that yesterday was my birthday so it was like a little surprise birthday gift from my mom hidden between the pages of this cookbook.
Okay, now that we've talked about the book a bit and my mom, you may be wondering about the dish itself. Let's take a look.
What Is Osso Buco?
Osso Buco (or osso buco) is a specialty of Northwest Italy made by braising cross-cut beef shank (shin) with vegetables, wine, and broth. Traditionally, Osso Buco is topped with gremolata which is a combination of chopped parsley, garlic, and grated lemon zest. This gives the dish a pop of colour and freshness. This dish would typically be served with risotto or polenta though it goes really well with mashed potatoes too.
Making Osso Buco
To make osso buco, the shanks are first dusted in seasoned flour, browned in oil, then slow-cooked in the oven with wine, stock, and vegetables. This specific recipe was very simplistic. No herbs or real flavourings other than gremolata were added. The only vegetables used were onions and tomatoes. I'll get into all this a little bit more in a minute.
The Flouring Process
The book called for something I've never seen before: to flour the osso buco. That was to dip the shanks in olive oil before dipping them into flour. This seemed odd to me, but the whole point of this is to follow the recipe verbatim, so I left it alone and did what the recipe said.
The book also called for "seasoned flour" and led to a second recipe later in the book. The seasoned flour recipe called for 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper or paprika, and ⅛ teaspoon ginger or nutmeg. I opted for pepper over paprika and ginger over nutmeg. I also used gluten-free flour.
One thing I noticed right away when dipping the shanks into the olive oil, then the flour was how thick the coating was. It seemed way too thick to me, which is what I initially thought would happen. But again, I pushed on.
Browning the Osso Buco
Generally, when you braise meat, you want to brown it (sear it) first. This gives the meat a better flavour than if you just braised it straight up. This recipe called for that too, however, it specifically said to "brown the bones very slowly". I took this to mean to not have the pan too hot. It also calls to have ¼ cup of olive oil in the pan or 2 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoon butter. I opted for the olive oil and butter. I got the pan nice and hot, but not too hot, added in my olive oil and butter, waited for the butter to melt, then added in the meat.
Typically, when you are browning meat, a recipe will tell you to leave space between the pieces. This prevents the pan from cooling down too much while searing. Generally, you want to leave about 30% of the pan surface uncovered. This recipe, though, says specifically to put the meat in the smallest pan they will fit and to put the pieces as close together as possible. I have no idea why it says to do this, as it is counter to everything I know, but I did what it said.
My version of this book was published in 1975, our understanding of food science has changed a lot since then. This is an important thing to keep in mind when cooking from older books.
As I was trying to brown the meat, my worst fear came true. The pan cooled down too much, and rather than browning, the flour became a soggy mess and started to come off the meat. When this happens, the flour particles tend to burn, which isn't good for anyone. To combat this, I removed the shanks from the pan, washed them out, heated them back up (a little hotter this time), added some oil, and put the shanks back in. This time, I kept a bit more distance between the pieces. This worked a lot better, and the meat was browned nicely.
How I Would Do This Differently
There are a lot of things that I would change about this recipe, but up until this point, there are only two main things I would do differently. It just occurred to me that I've only really done three things up until this point, so essentially I would change everything. What I would suggest is to not use olive oil when dusting the shanks in flour. Take the shanks as they are and dust them with the seasoned flour. This will give the shanks a nice light coating that will be more than enough to brown but not so much as to gum up the pan.
The second thing that I would do differently is to heat the pan a little more and spread the shanks out. This will give a better sear and more even browning. If you want to understand more about why preheating your pan is so important, I cover that in another post.
Next Ingredients
Next up, the recipe says to add "¼ cup chopped onions to the bones". It doesn't say to saute the onions or anything; just add them to the bones, then pour over a preheated combination of ½ cup white wine, ½ cup fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced, and enough flavoured stock to cover the shanks by ⅓. I didn't have any fresh tomatoes, so I used canned. Other than that, I did exactly what they said. I heated this mixture in a separate pot and then poured it over the browned shanks and raw onion.
Into the Oven
The next step in the recipe was to cover the pan with a lid and bake the osso buco in a 300°F oven for 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Cooked
I checked the osso buco after an hour, but it wasn't ready yet. I put it back in for an additional 30 minutes, then took it out of the oven. It probably could have used another 30 minutes as the meat was still a bit tough.
While the meat was braising I found the recipe for the gremolata and made it. The recipe called for 2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley, 1 clove minced garlic, and ½ teaspoon lemon zest. Easy enough.
Once the osso buco was ready, I sprinkled the gremolata over the top and served it.
Taste Test
First of all let me say that this dish was visually very nice. The colours from the gremolata really made it pop. But, as for the taste it was disappointing to say the least. There was very, very little flavour in this dish. The recipe called for no seasoning other than what was in the flour and it was very underseasoned. On top of that the gravy was watery.
I've made osso buco before. Many times in fact. It is typically a very flavourful, hearty dish. This was not that.
What I Would Have Changed
Okay, so what would I have changed? Well, beyond what I've already talked about with the flour dusting and the browning, I would change a lot. Here is what I would do differently:
- Brown the onions a little bit and add some garlic to the pan as well.
- Deglaze the pan with the wine and reduce it before adding in the stock.
- Taste and season the dish multiple times as I cooked.
- Add carrots for a little sweetness and to have a vegetable.
- Add herbs like fresh thyme or rosemary for additional flavour.
- Add a bay leaf or two which would have worked wonders.
My Opinion on the Dish
It will come as no surprise that I wasn't happy with this dish or this recipe. Yes, I could have easily adjusted things as I went and been happier, but that wouldn't have been in keeping with the spirit of what I was doing. The whole point was to follow the recipe and make the dish as the author had intended. That's what I did.
I will say that tastes have changed a lot in the 50+ years since my copy of this book was published. However, that doesn't excuse blandness or anything like that. I think it goes without saying that I will not be using this recipe for osso buco again.
My Thoughts on the Book
I'm not going to be too harsh on this book. It's a classic for a reason. It has helped generations of people find their way around their kitchen and I applaud it for that. Also, you can't judge a book based on one recipe.
One positive thing I will say is that I like how the recipes are written. Though it took me a little while to get used to it, I did find the recipe style easy to follow. The recipe style differs from most in that it is not based on a list of ingredients and a list of instructions. The ingredients and the instructions are intertwined, which is actually how I prefer to write recipes as well.
Conclusion
This was a fun experiment even though the end result was not what I hoped for, and it reinforced something I believe strongly: understanding the why behind each step matters more than blindly following instructions. If you want to learn more about the technique that makes osso buco great, my post on braising covers everything you need to know.
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