Ossobuco, or osso buco, traditionally a speciality veal cut from the Lombardy region of northern Italy, is equally delicious when made with our heritage beef breeds.

A hearty and luxurious one-pot ingredient, beef ossobuco is a full slice of beef* shin, cut straight through the marrow bone. As it slow-braises, the bone releases complex flavours, while the marrow enriches the dish for a melt-in-your-mouth experience.

Perfect for autumn and winter, beef ossobuco is also wonderfully versatile, pairing beautifully with lighter flavours in spring and summer.

Chef Valentine Warner Inspires
"This cut across the shin yields the tenderest results yet demands a longer more patient cook that the collagen content delivers its melting satin mouthfeel. An embarrassment of riches for such a reasonably priced cut it also offers up that jellied jewel of marrow from within the bone.

Classically it is best known in Italy, famous for its coupling with saffron risotto, the beef cooked in a rich sauce of tomatoes, white wine and carrots then delivered onto the oozing, vivid yellow, unctuous rice beneath.

Alternatively braised with white wine, green olives and diced fennel it is equally wonderful with polenta.

Even simpler is to lower this cut into a mix of anchovies melted in a little oil with a raw garlic clove, tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, red wine and fresh basil and let it braise until tender.

If braised simply and carefully with just a little thyme, onion, garlic and brandy, the sauce reduced and meat allowed to go cold and the beef can be put in a pithivier, the puff pastry crown opening into untold joy.

In Mexico I’ve enjoyed shin cooked in a pozole-style stew with sweet squash, rehydrated dried maze kernels, a little chilli and lime juice. So very delicious!

A Vietnamese pho-style soup with its spices, charred ginger and fish sauce is simply delicious, the marrow oil floating to the top to be lifted with the noodles.

Braised with miso and saké then thickened with pounded walnuts and beef shin can make for an unutterably delicious Japanese winter stew.

Lastly and I cannot help thinking the modern chilli con carne and overthought idea and full of far more ingredients than it probably ever was. Beans and corn kernels were dried and carried easily, the grazing lands probably prevalent in scrub herbs such as brush sage and wild thyme. Chillies from Mexico were likely traded and limes perhaps also as a valuable source of vitamins. Keeping it this simple with the likely addition of onions and maybe pouring in a little beer and coffee has delivered very tasty results, I think those cowboys would agree was more how it was."

*All Swaledale beef is heritage breed and raised on independent farms and smallholdings dotted around the wildly beautiful Yorkshire Dales. Slow grown and free to roam on the swath of green hills and valleys; the result is exceptional tasting beef with an umami taste - rich, dense and flavourful. Swaledale Beef Ossobuco is Always Fresh Never Frozen®, butchered to order, vacuum packed, and shipped in recyclable packaging to arrive safely insulated and ready to enjoy.