Brilliant Mistake

beef confit, orange marmalade, horseradish mayo

You see, I was chatting. Chatting, when I should have been paying attention to what animal parts, precisely, I had pulled out of the freezer at Persimmon Provisions*.

(*Not that any sensible person would fault me for trying to extract as much information as I as possibly could from Chef Champe and David at Persimmon Provisions, because those two are chock full of meaty knowledge.)

I went in for two lamb necks, intent on making a confit to serve with some Greek Gigande beans (we’ll talk more about that soon). I pulled one neck out of the freezer and blithely reached in for the second, plopped it all on the counter (along with a king’s ransom worth of vinegar and verjus; let’s get it right out: I have no scruple where condiments are concerned. I am condimentally promiscuous.), swiped, and sallied forth.

Cut scene to home, where I unpack one lamb neck and one…something. Actually two somethings in one package. A sticker on the package said Blackbird Farms, so I knew it was beef. Really, really good beef, ’cause that’s the only way Ann Marie Bouthillette rolls. Nothing from Blackbird is less than brilliant. 

I consulted my cow chart, but couldn’t really figure out the cut or how best to cook it. Ignotus beef, as Jay would call it (gotta love living with a Classics professor).

When in doubt, confit.

Oh yes, I did: an overnight cure in some salt and herbs, then a six hour warm bath in duck fat, and I had some seriously luscious beefy morsels. Their provenance ceased to concern me; now I could only focus on their future.

And here’s what happened: beef confit met orange marmalade, horseradish mayo, and some butter lettuce on a toasted slice of country loaf from Seven Stars. They had a moment. One could even call it a happening. And, my most recent brilliant mistake became my new favorite sandwich.

Apologies to all photography cognoscenti out there for the rotten picture. Rotten photos are the only kind I seem to take.