Ukkram

I find it strange for the lack of beef and total lack of lamb here that I'm used to. Not that I'm complaining as I prefer fish, chicken and pork but I do love an occasional lamb chop and beef mince. The local pork mince is too greasy for me.
How do I make a good un greasy spaghetti bolonaise with pork?

peterfc

Hi

Easy buy the shoulder pork and ask the butcher to bone and mince it for you. Shoulder is best as it has the right fat content. Or find a cut of beef you are appy with and get them to mince it for you. As an ex butcher i know what i want and get what i want. For burgers i get about 2 kilo of the best belly pork i can find and have it minced twice.

Or use a food processer to to mince your own meat and at the same time add your onions, garlic, salt and pepper.

Peter

mfesharne

My local butcher and my local Intermarche both sell beef and also lamb in season but I have no idea how common that is.

Personally, I prefer to mince my own meat so I can do as Peter suggests and add my own odds and ends as I see fit..... also make my own sausages and use mostly pork belly for that..... but do sometimes add a bit if beef, venison or javali meat as well.

Ukkram

I'm a bit of a health freak and don't like too much fat in my meat. The pork belly will be too fatty so the shoulder will be best.
As to strange food, how are the rabbits? We have stacks here in the supermarkets but I hear that it is difficult to cook. Too long and it gets rubbery and distasteful. What is your experience?

Troia

As for minced meet: always select the meat and ask to be minced in front of you

mfesharne

Rabbit can be tough if not cooked correctly but there's plenty of good recipes on the net so it's worth giving it a try.

If you want lean meat, then it might be worth trying venison if you can find a butcher that sells it and as a rule of thumb, the bigger the species of deer and/or the bigger the individual animal, the tougher and/or coarser the meat will be. (IMO) Roe is better than fallow and fallow is better than red.

Better than all of them though is wild boar if you can get it........ it often has a bit more fat on it than venison but it's a fabulous table meat.

EMR

We are indeed more fortunate in the Algarve as their is little that is not availabe bet NZ lamb or Argentinian beef from the freezer to Borrego in season . Portuguese lamb has less fat and a different taste to UK lamb but is something we look forward to. We still have some of the 1/2 lamb we bought earlier this year in our freezer.
Being a Brit of a certain age meat must have some fat to give it taste .
There a few loca; restaurants who feature rabbit and very tasty it is, I always order it if it part of the lunch of the day.

The food is certainly not " strange " just different to those from a different background

mfesharne

Once you get to know the locals in the more rural parts, you might well be also be offered locally raised meat at good prices as well.

About this time last year, I bought some fabulous T bone steaks for €5/kg.

ouriquejan

Our local butcher always has a mixture of pork and beef, as mince.

They will, if asked, mince you either beef or pork seperately. And lamb, if you want.

Ukkram

Our local Continente has never had lamb. The little beef they have is sliced and prepacked.
Lots of pork though but no pork chops. Maybe the local pigs don't have chops.

EMR

You need to go to the counter, we have the same here in some supermarkets.
The Portuguese obviously prefer their meat from the butcher rather than in a pre pack.

mfesharne

Gotta say, the standard of butchery in my area at least isn't even 20% as good as I'm used to from SA & the UK...... we do get pork chops but they're smaller, thinner and have the skin removed for some obscure reason.

Ukkram

I do go to the counter and all I see is great big chunks of deboned and fatless pork. Some chicken and rabbits. We do have a butcher down the road and I will pop in sometime.

liveaboard

like a couple of others have said, you can get your beef minced for you at the butcher counter in most supermarkets; I just want to add that this is then far superior to what you get prepacked. you can see what's going in, which won't include parts we'd prefer not to eat.
It tastes much better.