Rose Veal

by Benjamin Roberts

A number of years ago a local farmer named Tom Hunter approached us about selling veal he was raising. Up until meeting Tom, we had not considered selling veal, as it didn’t fit our model of ethically raised meat. No need to recount the horrors of commercial veal production in this space, the internet will be happy to inform you of the unconscionable treatment of calves raised for veal.

Tom presented a much different idea of veal—a traditional method which allows the calf access to pasture in addition to its mother’s milk. Rose veals presents much more like grass fed beef than the ultra white confinement veal that most folks are used to. We covet this protein for it’s deep, complex flavor as well as it’s beautiful tenderness.

Each year Tom’s retirement project weighs on him a little more and he suggests this year might be the last. We will enjoy this incredible treat for as long as possible, as it really is one of the truest expressions of care for an animal that we can provide to our customers.

If you’re interested in learning much, much more about rose veal, click HERE for a wonderful, in depth exploration.

The Roast Quartet

by Nick Mangigian

With Thanksgiving only a week away, it's official: we're in feast season. There is no better balance between abundance, deliciousness, and sneaky economy than putting an awesome roast in the oven for your guests.

The holy quartet of roasts, in our opinion, is as follows: 

Prime Rib: The most decadent of them all. We recommend about one pound per person if opting for bone-in, and we are always happy to take the bones off and tie them back on (a process known as "Chicago-ing") if you ask. The absolute best way to cook this is a reverse sear, which takes time but is foolproof if you have an instant read thermometer. Our dedicated meatmongers would love to talk you through this. The important thing to remember is that medium rare, or even medium, beats rare on prime rib-- you want that fat to render!

Filet Mignon: The king of steaks, and deceptively easy. If you have a gas grill, there is no better way to cook one of those, although the oven/broiler combination is a good one too. 8oz of meat per person is a good rule of thumb, and you can either reverse sear this, or start it off hot to get nice color and then finish at lower heat until you've reached a final temp of 130 for medium rare.

Chicken: For three adults, or two adults and two kids, a roast chicken is a wonderful, comforting meal, and you can move mountains with two chickens. About an hour and 10 minutes in the oven at 450 is a bulletproof way to get crispy, golden skin and succulent meat that temps at 160.

Turkey: Everybody fears the biggest, baddest bird of them all (it was almost our national bird!), but turkey is really just a massive chicken. You'll want to treat it more gently to get it up to temp, and then blast it at the end to brown the skin.

The three biggest favors you can do with yourself on any roast, though, are the following:

• An instant-read thermometer is your friend! If you have one of these, and the internet, there is never any doubt about what temp you want to cook your beautiful piece of meat to.

• A preparatory dry brine makes a MASSIVE difference on how juicy and delicious your roast will turn out. As a rule of thumb: ¾ tsp of salt per pound of meat, and half that amount of black pepper, will lead to a memorably awesome roast.

• Let the roast rest! The bigger the piece of meat, the longer the rest, but generally speaking 10 minutes is a good amount to keep things juicy. You get about 7 or 8 degrees of carryover cooking during the rest period, so it's important to pull your roast off the heat before it's reached your goal temperature, and to let it rest far away from the heat source (ie, not on the grill or in a turned-off oven).

Roast easy, friends, and as always-- we are glad to help talk you through your next cooking adventure!

The Meat Shop Reuben // Now With Beef Tongue!

Before we opened the St. Paul Meat Shop, a group of us went on a reuben sandwich tour around the Twin Cities. It was a great bit of staff bonding and an opportunity to assess the reuben landscape. Unlike the pastrami and the chacarero, I have no emotional tie to the reuben. It’s a classic, it’s delicious, but it’s one of those sandwiches that can turn into a greasy mess of muddled flavors very easily. This was going to be a sandwich that we turned on its head a little bit.

We’re a whole-animal butcher shop, so of course, we use every little bit of the animals we source. We wanted at least one of our sandwiches to really reinforce that message, and that sandwich turned out to be the reuben! Beef tongue is a magical cut and it seemed perfect for this sandwich because, once pickled, it is incredibly similar to corned beef. In fact, we think it’s richer and more tender than most corned beef, without all of the extra fat that comes along with brisket. Beef tongue adverse? Don’t be scared, this sandwich will help you conquer your fears!

The other big change we made to the classic reuben was serving it at room temperature. Is a reuben really a reuben if it's not served hot? You can decide that for yourself, but we love the creaminess of the unmelted raclette next to the crunch of the fermented cabbage. Textural bliss. And finally, our Russian dressing has just the right amount of sweetness to pull off the tricky balancing act of salt, acidity, and savoriness. I hope you'll give it a shot!

Meet The Chacarero

My first job out of college was working in an office tower in downtown Boston. As a carefree 22-year-old with a salaried job, I had zero concern for packing a lunch. Lunch was eaten on the streets of the Boston financial district and, more often than not, at a Chilean sandwich counter called Chacarero.

The original Chacarero was a window in the side of the old Filenes at downtown crossing in Boston. By noon the line would be 20 people deep. You paid in one line and then moved to the next line where you’d wait again until it was your turn to customize your sandwich exactly the way you wanted. The protein options were chicken, beef, or vegetarian and then you went down the line with your sandwich picking your various toppings.

It’s the green beans that make the Chacarero iconic. Blanched green beans on a sandwich? Kinda odd. Then there’s muenster cheese, tomato, cilantro-avocado spread, salt, pepper, and a secret spicy sauce. A small sandwich is enough to make you sleep, a large one means you don’t need to eat dinner.

The Chacarero (which interestingly translates to “farmer”) we serve at the St. Paul Meat Shop begins with brined and roasted pork shoulder. We knew we wanted roast pork on a sandwich and the Chacarero seemed like the perfect place to put it. The green beans are exactly the same as the original Chacarero, but for cheese we went with Comté (c’mon, we run a cheese shop after all) to bring a little sweet nuttiness to the sandwich. Instead of avocado we have a bright chimichurri, which brings the cilantro without getting in the way of the Comte’s creaminess.

Every time I eat one of our Chacareros, the flavors are just reminiscent enough to make me instantly homesick for that little sandwich window back in Boston. We’ll never be as good as my memories, but for sure I feel we’re paying a respectable tribute to the sandwich-slinging folks on the east coast.

--Benjamin Roberts, Manager-In-Chief

In Praise of Pastrami

When we decided to open a butcher shop in St. Paul, I knew that we were going to have a pastrami sandwich on our menu. I also knew that this was going to be the most difficult sandwich to execute (cue dramatic music). Much has been written and said about the state of the humble pastrami sandwich here in Minnesota and there was no way we were going to head down that path.

I grew up on the East Coast and NY deli pastrami sandwiches were part of my upbringing. Sure, we weren’t going to be competing with Katz’s sandwich, but I wanted to offer something that would be evocative of the sandwiches of my youth. It took us over 6 months to get it right and we cut it so close to opening that I wasn’t sure that we would actually open the doors with our sandwich ready to go!

The first big decision we had to make was whether to use a wet brine versus dry rub. And here’s the thing: each brisket cures for a minimum of two weeks, which means each time you need to make an adjustment you have to wait a long time to see how your changes turned out. It’s a lot like navigating a giant cargo ship instead of driving a zippy little sports car. After a month and a half we knew that we wanted the dry cure—bigger, bolder flavors.

Once we’d settled on the cure it was on to the length of cure. Too short and the cure doesn’t penetrate the meat enough. Too long and you just have salted beef. Sixteen days ended up being the magical number. A side note: because we selected the dry rub, we have to flip our 100 pound batch of brisket everyday during those 16 days! I think Brisket Flipping is part of the CrossFit regimen, no?

Adding smoke turned out to be the easiest part of the recipe. Two hours luxuriating in the smoker is perfect for our pastrami. And sorry, we’re not going to tell you what kind of wood we use (that's a secret!). And of course, the last step is cooking. That time and methodology was also tricky to figure out and is another detail we're keeping under our hats for now.

Our pastrami sandwich is served very simply, on toasted rye bread that's custom-made to our specifications, with a little house-made brown mustard. These three simple ingredients mean we can't hide any mistakes. We'd love to hear your feedback! I know I'm biased, but if I could marry this sandwich, I think I would.

--Benjamin Roberts, Manager-In-Chief of both our Meat and Cheese Shops