Assemble the ingredients: 4 to 6 veal shanks (about 12 ounces each), about 4 cups chicken broth (2 14-ounce cans is good enough), 12 oz. dry white wine (such as a chardonnay), 1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 2 large garlic cloves, 3 bay leaves, 2 medium celery sticks, and a 14.5-oz. can of diced tomatoes (drained). Sometimes getting a hold of veal shanks can be difficult. While preparing this recipe for photographing, I was only able to get veal shanks at one of the three Whole Foods Markets near where I live (and I had to try three times that week). I generally recommend getting 12 ounce veal shanks, but when the markets don't have much selection, get whatever you can. In my case, 3 smaller pieces and two larger cuts were all that were available, so I bought them all (leaving none for the next guy trying to find veal shanks to photograph). You can also use beef shanks (which is usually about 1/3 the price of veal) which will require about 20 min. longer braising time. 
Finely dice the onion, celery, and carrots. Mince the garlic cloves.
Salt and pepper the veal shanks. You can tie up the shanks to help keep the pieces stay intact (as shown in the picture), but I usually don't bother.Begin to preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Melt 4 tablespoons butter over low heat in a Dutch oven or wide stock pot.
Raise the heat to medium and brown the veal shanks by setting them into the pan and not moving them for five minutes. Flip the shanks over and brown the other side for five more minutes.
After browning both sides, remove the shanks and set aside in a large plate.
Add the diced onions to the pot and stir until golden brown. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to help deglaze the pot. If you don't get all the fond (the browned pieces of meat stuck to the pan) off, don't worry, the rest of it will come off easily when we add the wine.
After about five minutes of stirring, the onions should be golden brown. Add the carrots and celery to the onions and stir until softened and celery is slightly translucent, about five more minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for one more minute.
Pour in the dry white wine and increase the heat to medium high. Bring the mixture up to a full simmer. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape off any remaining bits of fond from the pot. Simmer until the wine has reduced by about half.
Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, and bay leaves to the pot. Stir so it's evenly mixed and let it come back up to a simmer.
Add the browned veal shanks to the pot. Make sure the open end (or larger opening) of each bone is facing up so the marrow doesn't fall out during braising. The liquid should come up to almost cover the shanks. Bring it back up to a full simmer.
Cover the pot and place it into the oven. Braise until the meat is almost falling off the bone, about 2 hours.
While the osso buco is braising, prepare the gremolata. Gather about ten sprigs of parsley (about 15 g), 1 clove of garlic, and a lemon.
Mince the garlic and parsley. Zest the whole lemon.
Mix together and set aside in the refrigerator to chill as the osso buco finishes. (Gremolata is a traditional garnish for osso buco, but can also be stirred into the sauce just before serving.) 
Remove the pot from the oven (while wearing oven mitts) and check the meat. If it's not soft and practically falling apart, put it back in the oven for another ten minutes and check again. Remove the shanks from the pot and set aside on a warm plate to await service. If any marrow falls out of the bone, just scoop it up with a spoon and deposit it back into its hole.
Boil the liquid in the pot to reduce it to a sauce. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. You can add a cornstarch slurry to help thicken the sauce (just mix 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch with a couple teaspoons of water and stir the mixture into the boiling liquid). The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon that is dipped into it.
Place a veal shank onto a plate and serve with sauce and gremolata on top.Related Articles
| Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) | ||||||||||
| 6 12-oz. (340 g) veal shanks | season | brown both sides (5 min. each) | set aside | bring to simmmer | braise in oven for 2 hours | plate | ||||
| salt & pepper | ||||||||||
| 4 Tbs. (55 g) butter | melt | saute until golden brown | saute until tender | saute 1 min. | simmer until reduced by 1/2 | stir in | simmer until thickened to sauce | |||
| 1 large (250 g) onion | ||||||||||
| 1 large (100 g) carrot | ||||||||||
| 2 medium (70 g) celery sticks | ||||||||||
| 2 large (15 g) garlic cloves | ||||||||||
| 12 oz. (355 g) dry white wine | ||||||||||
| 14.5-oz. (410 g) can of diced tomatoes (drained) | ||||||||||
| about 4 cups (900-1000 mL) chicken broth | ||||||||||
| 3 bay leaves | ||||||||||
| cornstarch slurry | ||||||||||
| salt & pepper | ||||||||||
Gremolata
| 1 clove garlic | mince | mix | chill |
| 1 medium lemon | zest | ||
| 10 sprigs (15 g) parsley | mince |
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<img src="http://images.cookingforengineers.com/pics3/ossobuco_trn.gif" width="633" height="297" border="2" />
I wonder if you can do this with just about any cross cut animal leg?
Also, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" advises using hind shanks--these have smaller bones & the meat adheres to them quite well. I was able to find two hind shanks and two fore shanks when I made mine the other night & I have to agree with Julia. She also writes that shanks freeze well for several weeks, so you can gradually build a big enough collection to make it with hind shanks.
No, that is just lucky timing. I prepped and photographed the osso buco about two weeks ago and have been too busy reading article submissions and working on Fanpop to write it up earlier.
Slow braising often works on shanks as a technique to extract as much gelatin from the bone and connective tissue as possible. This "loosens" up the meat and coats the fibers and makes it into the dish that we love so much. I wonder how it turned out since Iron Chef doesn't give them much time to cook.
It is a very popular dish in Italy, or better used to be: this kind of meat used to be cheap, and available to everybody. It is part of the culinary traditions of northern Italy, even if it used to be prepared in the south as well (using different kind of meats, or even beef tail like in Rome): the use of tomatoes i s more tipical in the south.
The city where it became very popular is Milan: now you can see it served even in five star restaurants, where it used to be served more in canteens or very cheap restaurants.
Keep in mind that availability of frist class cuts at affordable prices (or incomes high enough to be able to afford it) are very recent hitory overhere: mid sixties, with the birth of the major industries. Before everybody was using second or third class cuts, wich now have almost disaperared, but which gave birth to extraordinary dishes.
To have an ossobuco alla milanese, just leave the tomatoes away, and place the veal ossobuco on risotto alla milanese (a safran flavoured rice, if you want I can quickly post a recipe)
Merry Christmas from Verona (Italy)
I believe that the combination of carrots, celery and onions is called mirepoix.
I think you could follow this recipe when preparing oxtail (soup/stew) as well.
Thanks again, Michael.
Anyway, those shanks look a lot like the "soup bones" that I see at Safeway. They are among the cheapest meats in the store. One time, I tried to cook it and eat it as if it was steak. That didn't turn out too well as it was really chewy.
How well do you think they'll work in this recipe?
How well do you think they'll work in this recipe?
Many tough and chewy cuts can turn out amazingly tender and flavorful is cooked with a long braising method such as the one used in this recipe. I have no doubt that cooking it in a flavorful liquid for a few hours will do wonders to the "soup bones".
Has anybody else heard this? Is there really a difference?
AJ's in Phoenix almost always has veal shanks. I usually have to go to the mexican carneceria to find beefs shanks. They're sometimes questionable in quality, but they make an OK stock. Anyone know a really good butcher in the phoenix area? I live in the east valley, but I'll drive anywhere.
For dessert I made the chocolate pecan pie. A great night. Love your site.
"You can also use beef shanks (which is also 1/3 the price
of veal)"
Hmmm, more flavor, cheaper. What's not to like?
The slightly longer cooking time is insignificant compared to
the overall effort to make this recipe.
Why chicken broth rather than beef broth? Wouldn't
beef broth add more bold beef flavor?
We've got to make this for dinner tonight. Thanks for the
article.
I am off to Citarella in hopes the butcher actually remembered to order my shanks. This stuff is amazingly hard to get ahold of. I don't know why, and neither does the butcher (well, meat counter worker).
<BR>
Dredging in flour and browning was more necessary in the past, when the meat was tougher. I still prefer to dredge and brown because I like the flavor and texture it imparts. As for cooking times, they depend upon your meat, and you are free to increase them if you want.
Kyle
Using red wine (like a Cabernet Savignon) tends to produce a very potent sauce. After the sauce is reduced, the flavor is very strong - which I find works really well with other brasied dishes (like short ribs), but for osso buco, the white wine provides a delicate flavor that doesn't overpower the natural flavoring of the shanks, broth, aromatics, and tomato in the sauce. Osso buco sauce should not be too strongly flavored, but should be a gentle blend of the ingredients.
I would braise it until it was completely done, remove the meat, let it cool, wrap the container in plastic wrap and refrigerate. (Do that for both Dutch ovens, one after the other if you don't have the space in your oven to put them in side by side or double stack). Then remove the fat from the liquid, combine the juices and set aside for the day of the event. Reheat the osso buco by putting all the meat in the pot with the juice and baking for another 30-40 minutes to get it nice and hot. Remove the meat and make the sauce. (Truthfully, if I were doing this, I'd skip the oven reheat and just microwave the osso buco to speed things up. You only need to reheat it since a great deal of the collagen has been transformed into gelatin during the long braise - microwaving won't hurt the taste or texture of the dish at this point.)
pork shanks are quite cheap here (south africa), going for between $3 and 5 (US) per kilogram, so this is a very good budget meal for us.
I bought mine from a german deli that usually pickles and smokes them. Some of the cuts were really huge, so I suspect it came from the hind leg. I'm not sure whether that makes a difference or whether one should only use meat from the front shanks (size-wise). I bought 4 shanks and it was enough for 10 people!
The big pieces were also not holding together that well, and it didn't look as if tying them as suggested would have helped, so I ended up cutting the loose outer bits into chunks, and keeping the big bones with the meat clinging to it intact. So we ended up with more of a stew than a single piece per person, but that did not seem to detract from the overall taste, although of course it did not look authentic.
But seeing as osso bucco stands for 'hollow bone', I guess it can still be called that!
Thanks for a great site.
I recently had a kid processed and was delighted with the packages of Osobuco. Would you recommend that I make any adjustments to your recipe because I am using kid as opposed to veal ? Boer Goat meat is mild and the osobuco is small..
Happy to have discovered your site.
Thank you,
Judy
We are in Maine. Northern New England.
We really enjoy our goat meat. It is much milder than Lamb. The Boer breed is raised specificaly for meat production. It really cannot be compared to a dairy breed of goat. Very much a health food, it is low in saturated fat & cholesterol,at the same time high in protien.
Learning to cook with it has been exciting. I give out samples at the Farmers Market every week which is how I happened to find this site. Always searching ! :)
Judy
I don't have an oven but I would still like to try this recipe. Would it be possible for me to cook this on a stove top at a very low fire?
Thank you.
Yes, low and slow.
I've found that using orzo instead of arborio rice is easier to handle when you can't really pay attention. You can modify the Orzo Risotto recipe to fit your needs.
I wonder if you can do this with just about any cross cut animal leg?
I had pork Osso Buco at the Disney Hilton last Friday. Simply delicious. I have noticed that "shanks" are either sliced (as Michael has in his recipe) or with the long (shank) bone ending in a globular piece of meat, not unlike a turkey leg. The cooked bone sticks up with the meaty end resting in the sauce. I personally prefer that presentation to that of the slices.
Examples:
Wrong! First of all, what I got was one enormous hunk of COW leg, not veal. It was four inches tall and filled an entire plate, with a huge bone. Still, with four hours of braising.... No, no such luck. It was horribly tough and reminded me of the bad beef stews I used to make before I knew anything about cooking. It was near closing time so I choked down enough to fill myself up, and will never go back. I'm sure the menu is a lie; four hours of braising should be fine even for a big hunk of meat like this.
But tonight I have osobuco [the Spanish spelling] de ternera (i.e. veal), it looks normal, and best of all the three nice pieces cost about 80 cents Canadian. Let's see if I can conquer this anti-ossobucco prejudice with your recipe!
Luca in Barrio Norte
It was seasoned with vinegar - I presume either wine or balsamic. I'm guessing it used a red wine in the sauce, as well. It was very hardy.
I've been ordering Osso Bucco ever since when I see it on the menu, but, to my disappointment, have never run across one seasoned like this.
Has anybody else run accross this?
Gray
I got the Veal Shanks from a great butcher shop: Gepperth's Meat Market on Halsted in Lincoln Park. I'm sure most Chicagoans know about it, but if not... give it a look.
there's a couple places in Vegas that do most excellent osso bucco - one being Ferraro's on West Flamingo - another down toward the Henderson line - Dangelo.
I think somebody that worked one place changed jobs or such - very similar and most excellent.
and no, I haven't been able to duplicate it either!
I like to support greenmarket purveyors of meat but cuts don't always come exactly as you want them. For ex., I bought a couple of long-ish lamb shanks that, had they been cut in smaller pieces, would have made for a fine, if not as meaty as veal, ossobucco. But the meat seller was not a butcher and I'm not exactly set up for sawing shanks in my apartment, so I braised the shanks. They were delish but I still wonder about home shank-sawing. That would be a different site -- butcheringforengineers dot com.
Ossobuco (Italian for 'holed bone'), in English often spelled 'osso buco' or 'osso bucco', is a Milanese specialty of veal shanks cooked in meat broth and ...
doncha love it when it all doesn't taste the same <g>
with multiple layers the bottom would have be be fully submerged to have any of the second layer in liquid. not sure how it would work out - could be boiled bottom layer and braised top layer?
turkey roasting pan? perhaps two pans?
One comment:
Compared to other recipes on the site, this one brought up a plethora of ads for weight loss.
I love Ossobuco, and yeah, I'm a few pounds over the AHA limits, but, hey, I'm offended by the bombardment.
Wow, that's weird. The only thing I can think of is that the weight loss ads seem to be performing on this particular recipe. If nobody clicked on the ads, then I'd stop having them (I've already blacklisted several dozen weight loss ads in the past, but it's gotten to the point where I've just given up.)
I am having a dinner party for 8, I'm making osso for the very first time...Am I out of my mind????? First of all, what-ever posessed me to promise my guests this very expensive cut of meat I will never know....$16.95 per pound. Too late to revise the menu my guest are expecting it....How much veal should I buy? and since I'm cooking for 8 can the veal be put in one pot? Is it a problem if the veal is crowded?
I'm also making risotto alla Milanese. I'm crazy! But I plan on serving lots and lots of wine before dinner, so if I mess this up no one will notice...
Help![/list]
$17 a pound... that's a lot more than I remember buying my shanks for. As long as the shanks fit on a single layer, it should be okay. If not, you'll probably need to use two pots.
first browning the meat - that would not happen in a slow cooker - but you could do it separately
second the braising needs a single layer - you can't just pile the pot full of shanks - two will fit in "the average" slow cooker easily (just a size thing) - larger quantities could be problematic....
I always like brussels sprouts.
:unsure:
retail labeling is subject to .... uhm errr. not much truth in advertising.
regardless, yes - veal tends to the paler side of shades - but color is probably not a real good criteria.
I guess we wouldn't have much of a shank to work with if unborn were the case though....
I reckon I'll just try what they have....Tom
Veal can be unborn cattle, but not in the United States. I don't know where you are, but the rules here are that cattle must be able to walk immediately prior to slaughter to enter the food system. "Bob veal" which are baby calves one month of age or less (which include unborn cattle) is the category that you're thinking of, but most veal is not bob veal. If the calf is on the older side and has had a chance to graze/eat grain or eat food besides milk, then both can contribute to the color of the flesh while still being technically considered veal due to its age... or it could be mislabeled.
Begin to preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Love this recipe, have used it a few times now :)
Is it too pale? Butter in the U.S. is often very pale due to the feed that is provided to dairy cows. Grass-fed cows produce a richer, more golden color to their butter (and the butter has healthful properties missing from the non-grass fed varieties).
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well but find that lamb shanks have more meat on them. My whole family loves it that way. If you are not a fan of lamb then I would stick to veal or pork otherwise give it a try!!
I generally brown, braise and reduce the day before the dinner, using both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. It reheats beautifully for the dinner party (hey, it's stew! Always better the next day), and that frees up the pressure cooker for making real Risotto Milanese in quantity. A pressure cooker is the only way to make good risotto other than the "stand there and stir non-stop for 20 minutes" classic method.
I agree from experience that using white wine (not red) and chicken stock (not beef) lets the more delicate flavor of the veal come through.
Re: which cut of shanks. I start collecting and freezing shanks way ahead of time, so I can get the SMALLER shanks with a well-defined and hollow bone full of marrow (treat!). So I average serving 2 very small or 1 medium shank per person. (And leftovers for me, of course!)
This is a dandy site. Love the step-by-step instructions. I'm bookmarking it!
Here in Hungary we have quite a few good recipe for shanks, but by this even my great cook father was amased.
We had the same dish once in Toscana with my husband , in a tipical family run restaurant, but frankly to say it was even better.
I do not know how most of you consume the meal, but please say that you also eat the bond marrow, as it is far the best part of it.
1. We don't "brown" braised meats, we sear. That was a horribly weak sear. I understand you were using butter and may not have wanted to induce smoking, but next time just use oil and crank the temp to high. That sear is very, very important.
2. Don't use "broth." Most of the time broth you get in a store is salty garbage. If you can find it, go for stock. Other than that, very nice piece.
if you use oil, will the fond still have as good flavor? how about butter and oil?
you can use a mix of cooking oil & butter - I often do that for a saute on a "delicate" dish where I'm looking for a flavor kicker.
with osso buco there are other strong flavors to the dish that I think will completely hide the butter taste.
Anchovy may be the natural mono-sodium glutamate of slow cooked meats - but without the bad connotations. It's been used in rich dark sauces like Worcestershire forever, so clearly something is going on.
Wouldn't bother going out to buy anchovies, but if you've got some handy then be bold and give it a go.
I've braised in the oven, on top of the stove, and used a crock pot. The only difference is the crockpot doesn't reduce the broth as well. I've done single layers and stacked layers for more portions with no change in results. Just keep your kettle covered.
It is rich and satisfying in small portions, and costs maybe $10 US for a family of four.
>>staff note: link broken<<
http://dinnerteaser.tumblr.com/post/21853136628/osso-buco
bon apetito!!
By the way, my friend thought it tasted great.
not heard of any of them described as 'shoulder' - might be a local term?
there is not a huge amount of meat on them - but done right it's very tasty.
Rod