Year of the Cow (35 page)
Authors: Jared Stone
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5.
Add the parsley, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, and lemon juice to the pot, along with enough cold water to cover the bones by several inches. Don't add salt! Stock is not a stand-alone food; it's prefood. You'll salt whatever dish you eventually use it in.
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6.
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 6 hours. Don't let the liquid remain at a rolling boil or it will result in a cloudy stock. If the water evaporates too quickly, partially cover the pot to slow evaporation. Add water, if necessary, to keep the bones covered.
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7.
As the liquid simmers, use a wide spoon to skim off any frothy impurities that rise to the top of the stock. Don't stir, or you'll disperse these impurities back into the liquid.
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8.
Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth, then place the pot in a sink filled with ice to cool to room temperature.
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9.
Once cooled, stash the stock in the fridge, and remove any fat that rises to the top. Working in batches if necessary, pour into ice cube trays and freeze, then transfer the cubes to a freezer bag for long-term storage. It'll keep for about six monthsâlonger if stored in an airtight package in a deep freeze. Freezing stock in ice cube trays will allow you to control how much you thaw for use at any given time. Each cube is about 1 tablespoon.
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“Is that what I think it is?” Summer asks.
“That depends what you think it is.” She is referring to a tapering tube of meat about the length of my arm. It's roughly segmented, notches made more pronounced by a butcher's knife.
“It looks like a tail.”
“Then, yes. It is what you think it is.”
“Gross.” She moves toward the door.
“It's just a tail! You ate raw beef heart, for Pete's sake. This is no scarier than short ribs.”
“Okay. Call me when you've cooked it.”
“I'm gonna braise it in red wine and stock.”
“Our stock?”
I nod. “With herbs and celery root.”
“Have I had celery root?”
“Maybe. It's like celery. But ⦠more so.”
Her eyes narrow, considering. Finally, she speaks. “Whatever. I know it'll be good.” She resumes her trajectory out of the kitchen. “Just let me know when dinner's ready.”
“I'll call you when the tail is on the table.”
The oxtail is the tail of the beef critter. As far as function is concerned, it swishes. It does not move the beast. It does not perform any structural purpose other than swatting the occasional fly. It does have a lot of fat and connective tissue, necessitating a braise. But otherwise, it just hangs at the end of the animal. And swishes.
Similarly, I've reached the tail end of my beef project. My freezer, once full nearly to overflowing with beef and countless promises of adventurous meals, is now filled mostly with water, in case the Big One comes and California slides off into the ocean.
So that's it. It's finished. An entire grass-fed steer provided nutrition and sustenance for my family for years. During that time, my son has grown from a baby to a boy. My daughter was born. My wife left her job to stay home with the kids, and I took a new position as well. I tried to climb the highest mountain in the Lower 48 twice, succeeded once. Got in possibly the best shape of my life. Cooked dishes from England to Vietnam to France to Argentina to Peru to Italy to Germany to the good old United States. Shared those meals with friends and loved ones on holidays and weeknights, quickly and slowly, for the most spectacular and mundane of reasons.
I slice the tail and drop the pieces into my Dutch oven to sear, and the meat hits the enamel with a satisfying hiss. New at the beginning of this project, the pot now looks as if it's been to war. Blackened by licks of flame and the scorches of meals gone wrong. Scratched by metal implements and momentary bouts of stupidity. The project and the meals it's engendered have changed it.
Similarly, I think of how this project has changed me. I once contemplated
terroir
and a life lived at a slower pace. Well, a slower pace is a relative thing. I am, however, considerably calmer. If I, like a grass-fed steer, have come to more perfectly reflect my surroundings, I take some comfort in the changes this project has wrought. Every night, I set aside my phone, kick off my shoes, and get down on the floor with my kids. It's an ongoing process, but I let go of whatever's going on in the wider world and focus on what's in front of me. Kids. Food. My lovely wife. And beautiful weather. Next step, next breath.
This project has also made me consider the cataclysmic change that occurred in the middle of the last centuryâthe heyday of my grandparents' generation. Society as we think of it today, with all its abundance of food and comfort and information and demands, is a relatively recent development. We tend to think of however the world is
right now
as how it's always beenâor we romanticize an invented, idealized past that never really existedâbut the fact remains that our current moment in history is a blink in the entirety of human experience. A lot of good has come out of the mechanization and innovation of the middle of last century, and I don't mean to denigrate it. But those innovations have come at a high price, in the form of greater fossil fuel dependence and the resulting pollution. But it's very easy to consider how things happen to be right now, the accidents of history and the efforts of people who've come before us, as an eternal normal. It's the default option.
Cooking with this steer has taught me, if nothing else, not to accept the default option. In cooking, in eating, in running, in working, in playingâother options exist and have their own benefits and shortcomings. And in some cases, I've found them preferable to their more recently developed defaults.
The slices of oxtail in my Dutch oven are a deep golden brown. I add sliced shallots, along with diced carrots and celery root. Soon the air is filled with the smell of good things. I add wine and stock to the pot, along with some herbs plucked fresh from my backyard garden. Then I lid the pot and slide it into the oven.
Summer slips back in from the other room, drawn by the scent of my handiwork. She peeks into the oven. “So that's it? The last of the beef?”
“That's it.”
“Wow.” She thinks. “This is the first time in years we haven't had an ungodly amount of beef in the freezer. It's weird.”
“I know.”
“I've gotten used to just having it on hand. It's been so convenient.”
“It has.”
“Huh,” she says. Then, acknowledging the end of an era, she nods. “Well. Good job, Stone.” She rubs my back briefly, then turns to leave. Over her shoulder, she calls out, “So what's next?”
I smile. “I need to see a man about a buffalo.”
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JARED STONE
is an award-winning television producer who won an Emmy in 2013 for his work on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
. He has worked with several major television networks including ABC, NBC, Fox, The CW, National Geographic, and many others. Stone lives with his family in LA. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
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Contents
Recipe: The Simplest Strip Steak
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2
   Grind
Recipe: Red WineâBraised Chuck Roast
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3
   Heritage
Recipe: The Best Burger on the Face of the Earth (Seriously)
Recipe: Chicken-Fried Steak and Onion Rings
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7
   Go Big
Recipe: Christmafestikwanzikkuh Feast
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8
   One Step Back, One Step Forward
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9
   Heart
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YEAR OF THE COW.
Copyright © 2015 by Jared Stone. All rights reserved. For information, address Flatiron Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Stone, Jared.
    Year of the cow: how 420 pounds of beef built a better life for one American family / Jared Stone.
        pages cm
    ISBN 978-1-250-05258-2 (hardcover)
    ISBN 978-1-250-05379-4 (e-book)
   1.  Cooking (Beef)  2.  Meat cuts.  I.  Title.
    TX749.5.B43S76 2015
    641.6'62âdc23
2014042130
e-ISBN 9781250053794
First Edition: April 2015