RECIPE NOTE: “We stock pine syrup at Meatsmith, and some good delis and specialty food stores will sell it. If pine syrup is unavailable, the best-quality maple syrup you can find is a good substitute.”
Australian butcher shops have always been social places; they are places of knowledge as much as they are places to buy produce. At Meatsmith, we’ve noticed that when someone buys a steak, they first ask what it is, then how much it is and the next question is: how do I cook it? That exchange of knowledge is a constant in the butcher shop environment, and that makes recipes a constant in our daily life. It made sense to us to document and evolve those recipes, and create a record of how and what we like to cook at home.
What you’ll notice in this cookbook is that meat is not the hero ingredient in every recipe. Sometimes it’s just there as a seasoning or textural element, with vegetables or grains or salads doing most of the heavy lifting. This reflects the way we like to eat, and the way more and more people are incorporating meat into their home cooking: using better-quality meat in smaller quantities, for both everyday meals and special occasions. We’ve created a loose sort of template, a modern, rounded, balanced approach to
