This is the 2^nd of a multi-part post on Beef, Sausage, Rigatoni. To start from the beginning (where you’ll find the recipe), click here.

Crying Beef and Irregular Ribs

[1] Crying Onions

I know, you’re a big man. But the onion is an even bigger man. You should either capitulate to the power of the onion, and simply find ways do deal with it…

Onion goggles. It’s the only way, I swear to you. Everything else you’ve heard is bullshit. Goggles are the only sure-fire way to chop onions without crying, and fortunately you can do this stylishly.

Barracuda Standard Goggles (this picture)
Digital Recon Ninja Glasses (the other picture)

…or show that onion who’s the fucking boss.

[2] Beef, Sausage, Rigatoni … it’s all about beef (and a little bit about pork)

Stop at a butcher shop or find a market with a bona fide butcher. This recipe is about meat. You might find decent sausage in a supermarket – my local market is a veritable sausage fest – but you’ll walk away with disappointing beef. Involving the butcher will make the difference between, “Wow! This is shockingly good!” and “Oh, yeah, I guess I should eat something.”

[3] Ribs vary.

The beef cubes and sausages will make themselves available to you in pretty much exactly the quantities you’re looking for, but not the ribs. Individual ribs can vary pretty widely in weight. For this recipe, I suggest simply asking the butcher to give you enough ribs to put you close to the 2-lb mark. If it’s under, so long as it’s not less than 1½, fine; if it’s over, so long as it’s not more than 2½, fine. That might not wind up being four ribs; it might be three, it might be five, it might be something else. That’s fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. However, you have to consider how you’ll serve this dish. When dishing out portions, any meat that hasn’t yet fallen off the bone, I will pull off the bone; none of my guests will wind up with a bone in their dish. But you could certainly decide to serve the ribs in-tact, in which case you’ll want to have 1 rib per person. If you start getting into the neighborhood of 3 lbs of ribs, you’re going to need to trim away a good deal of the fat and you’re going to be challenged to submerge all the ribs in the cooking liquid.

Continue Reading: Part 3, Fat Wine and Dutch Ovens

I can’t find my onion goggles!