Lamb Shank Osso Bucco

And some thoughts on earning your salary.

In Roman times, salt was one of the, if not the, most important commodity. Before widespread refrigeration, salt was one of the few ways you could preserve things¹. Even throughout the Middle Ages, salt was often referred to as “white gold.”

Given it’s value, Roman soldiers often took their pay in salt — their monthly allowance, in Latin, was their salarium, from the root word sal, meaning “salt.” This root flowed through the course of time, eventually landing in the English language as “salary.” There’s a reason we call it “working in the old salt mine!”²

I bring this up not because it’s fourth Friday of the month³, which generally coincides with a bi-weekly paycheck, but because this week, Mrs. CWD finally came to the realization how terrifically important salt is when cooking. In the past (and maybe this stems from her cuisine growing up⁴), salt was a four letter word to her. A recipe calling for a pinch of salt got, quite literally, a pinch. Tablespoons turned into teaspoons faster than you could blink an eye. Fortunately I do most of the cooking, so our meals are palatable, but goodness, you’d think NaCl weren’t an essential nutrient or something.

Anyway, Mrs. CWD got a hankering for cookies⁵, so she whipped up a batch of dough. Shockingly, we were in between grocery runs, and we were lacking both salted butter and your typical table salt for baking. Nevertheless, she persisted, and pushed through. After taking the cookies out of the oven, though, she realized that she didn’t really like them. They were — in her exact words — “flat.”

Why? Because they didn’t have any salt in them to bring out the flavors! Mrs. CWD is now a believer!⁶

I, for one, could not be more thrilled about this discovery. Not just because I’ve been preaching the Salt Fat Acid Heat mantra for years, but because I think it’s cool when someone, anyone, makes this type of cooking discovery — like, “hey, there actually is a reason we do things this way!”

In the vein of doing things a certain way, today we’re making osso bucco⁷. Traditionally, osso bucco is done with veal shanks, broth, and white wine. I like the way Tim Ferris suggests it in The Four-Hour Chef, which is with lamb and canned tomatoes — so that’s how we’re doing it today. I don’t think you’ll find it baaaaa-d!⁸ Plus, the amount of prep required here is like 5 minutes, and then it cooks all day — so really, no excuse not to give it a shot.

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Salt and pepper four good sized lamb shanks⁹ and then roughly chop a carrot¹⁰ and some garlic¹¹. Place all of this in a slow cooker¹² and then pour on top some olive oil, one or two large cans of tomatoes, and a slug of red wine.¹³ Turn your slow cooker to low and then let this cook for 8 or so hours until your house smells delicious and you can’t wait any longer to eat.

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There we have it. Exceptionally high output for exceptionally low input. This recipe is perfect for the cooler weather that we’re heading into, and is pretty adaptable. You can switch up the proteins, switch up the veggies, sub stock for the canned tomatoes, white for red wine, whatever floats your boat. You can serve it with bread like we did¹⁴, with polenta, over pasta, or straight with a spoon like soup. No one’s judging here.

With that, I’ll leave you to your weekends. Someone told me that September is the best month to pick apples, so maybe go do that. Or plant some cover crops in your garden. Whatever you do, try to do it outside.

1. Salted meat, salted fish, Mos Teutonicus.

2. Or maybe that’s just something Grandfather CWD says.

3. And first of Fall… mon dieu!

4. Sorry, Gma.

5. Did I mentioned Baby CWD Deux is on the way in December?

6. Now of course after she made this revelation, she did caveat to me that while she recognizes the importance of salt, and will certainly no longer omit it when needed, she doesn’t believe in “an excess or anything!” Fair enough.

7. My iPad just autocorrected “osso bucco” to “Oslo Gucci” which is kind of hilarious.

8. (Bad) Pun!

9. You could also do veal shanks, beef shanks, pork shanks, or probably even turkey legs here — lamb just happens to be one of my favorite proteins.

10. Peel first, if you’d like, or just scrub well.

11. You could also add some onion, potatoes, or really any other sturdy veggies you have on hand. Just keep in mind this cooks for 8+ hours, so spinach probably isn’t a great choice.

12. Or big cast-iron Dutch oven — just pre-heat the oven to 325(F)-ish and then put it in covered.

13. The meat and veggies should be about 1/2-2/3rds covered.

14. Still waiting for your recipe write up, Uncle Steady.