Osso Buco - Wagyu F1 x Angus

The Beef: This is 100% grass-fed F1 Wagyu, a first-cross of Full-blood Wagyu over Angus, raised for superior quality and grown with a deep respect for the land. The F1 cross is the sweet spot: it takes the Wagyu's fine intramuscular marbling and pairs it with the Angus frame and the deep, beefy flavour Australian cattle are known for. In a long braise, that marbling melts into the sauce and leaves the meat silky and rich.

The Cut: Osso buco is cut from the shin, sliced straight across the bone into thick rounds. Each piece is a ring of meat wrapped around a centre of marrow. The shin is one of the hardest-working muscles on the animal, packed with connective tissue, so it needs time. Give it that and the collagen turns to gelatine, the meat falls from the bone, and the marrow melts into the sauce. It's one of the most rewarding cuts you can cook.

How to Cook It: Take the osso buco out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking and pat it dry. Season generously with salt and pepper, then dust lightly in flour.

Brown the pieces hard in a heavy, wide pot with a little oil, a few at a time, then set aside. In the same pot, soften diced onion, carrot and celery with garlic. Add a glass of white wine and let it bubble down, then a tin of tomatoes and enough stock to come about two-thirds of the way up the meat. Return the osso buco in a single layer, marrow side up so it stays in the bone.

Cover and cook at 150°C for 2½–3 hours, until the meat is meltingly tender and pulls away from the bone.

Grass-fed F1 Wagyu fat renders at a lower temperature than grain-fed, so it softens a little sooner. Start checking at the 2-hour mark. You want it tender but still holding together around the bone.

Tips

• Finish it with gremolata: lemon zest, parsley and garlic, chopped fine and scattered over at the table. It cuts through the richness.
• Serve with soft polenta, mash or saffron risotto to catch every drop of sauce.
• Don't waste the marrow. Scoop it out with a small spoon and spread it on toast.
• Tie a piece of kitchen string around each round before browning to keep it neat in the pot.

A Little History: Osso buco means "bone with a hole" in Italian, and it's one of the great dishes of Milan. The traditional version uses veal shin, braised in white wine with no tomato, finished with gremolata and served with saffron risotto alla milanese. Tomato crept in later, and the dish travelled the world with Italian migrants, Australia included. Beef shin does the job beautifully, with a deeper flavour that suits a long, slow cook.