An Auckland restaurant is showcasing a project to make use of meat from retired dairy cows which has traditionally only been thought suitable for low-value items like hamburger patties.
Esther Restaurant’s executive chef James Laird said their culinary director was inspired by what chefs were doing in Spain and particularly the Basque region.
Some extra care was needed with the meat, Laird said. That included fattening up the animal and ensuring it was in good condition once it had finished milking, as well as ensuring the resulting meat cuts were well-aged, he said.
The first animal the restaurant got in was aged for about 10 days and the second one was aged for longer and there was a noticeable difference between the two, he said.
Cuts from the animals included 1kg T-bones, tomahawk ribeye steaks, eye fillets which had a great depth of flavour, he said.
The trial was successful and the restaurant now plans to put it on the menu and talk to the farmer and butcher to ensure they can get some more of this type of beef in, he said.
Credit: radionz.co.nz
