“We will have something much tastier”: our chef shares his tips for making homemade osso buco!

Osso buco is an Italian dish which means “bone with hole”. A name which is perfectly coherent given the appearance of the veal rolls. Originally, it is a Milanese recipe since it is a region where a lot of veal is raised and used as a whole. Today, there are variations of osso buco. But contrary to popular belief, it is easy to do it yourself. If it takes time, you can do it without problem.

Moreover, Chef Christophe shared in video the best way to successfully prepare this preparation: “This is the simplest osso buco recipe. You can transform it and add things later but for now, we’re going with the basic, basic recipe”.

But before you get behind the stove, we first reveal the chef’s secrets to making this family dish a success. Here are his tips.

First of all, the central element of this dish is undeniably the meat. For this recipe, Chef Christophe recommends choosing veal shank rounds. The best is to opt for rear hock wheels because they are a little meaty: “there is more meat and we will have something much tastier”.

Then, to prepare the meat, you will see that there is nothing easier. The first thing to do is to season each side well with salt and pepper.

Then you flour it. This step is also essential for two reasons. The first is that it helps with coloring. The second is that it protects the meat in order to keep it soft and prevent it from drying out during cooking.

To flour, it’s relatively simple. “I put my meat in flour. I completely surround it with flour and there is a very important operation to do. As I only want a very, very thin film of flour, I will gently tap the pieces of meat to remove the excess flour” explains the chef.

Then place the meat on a rack, this will prevent its moisture from sticking to the plate.

Then you can brown your meat.

White wine is added to the casserole after cooking the meat to loosen all the juices. Please note, however, that you don’t have to use white wine if you don’t want to. In fact, you can perfectly replace alcohol. Several alternatives are then available to you. Consider making more veal stock to replace the white wine. A little water will also do the trick as well as a little apple juice: “It will change the taste of osso buco somewhat but it’s very good” says Chef Christophe. Otherwise, you can also go with a non-alcoholic wine. It’s up to you.

When using tomatoes in sauce, always remember to add a little sugar. This will remove the acidity.

Another precaution regarding the sauce. Before putting your osso buco in the oven, clean the edges of your casserole dish just to prevent small splashes from burning in the oven and giving your sauce a slightly bitter taste. “A little piece of paper, just damp, and you can clean the edges of your casserole dish” specifies the chef.

After cooking the meat, reduce the sauce. To boost its taste, add a little lemon juice.

If you want a more refined sauce, pass it through a very fine strainer to remove any small pieces of onions and tomatoes that may be in your sauce.

Don’t forget to turn your meat after three quarters of an hour of cooking. In total, 1h30 is enough. And above all, don’t forget: “It’s very important to cook gently in the oven and not on the stove because what it does is it will give you this very soft texture”. Sometimes it happens that the osso buco is a little dry, this is precisely because it was cooked too hard or too quickly.

Finally, to accompany this dish, as it is a dish with sauce, serve it with gnocchi or good spaghetti cooked al dente.