Prime Quality Meats

Because if you roast a whole turkey, you will have to invite your second cousin’s third husband and their seven children to Christmas dinner. And because turkey should not only be for Christmas.

Because it’s a perfect little casing for any of 123,456,789 stuffings. And because it’s inherently elegant. You may even serve it undressed to impress.

They take half as long to roast as intact chicken and cook perfectly on a barbecue whether you are a masterchef or mess up cook. Even better, Craig Cook marinades them for you. The cryovac seal enhances the absorption of flavours and marinade moisturising, deep into the meat.

Scorchingly hot ovenproof pan, no oil, skin side down for 3 minutes, flip over, salt and place in searingly hot oven. Roast for 8. Duck breast is haute cuisine in less than 10 mins. Reduce orange juice and Grand Marnier to a syrupy drizzle with the pan juices. Haute-er cuisine in an extra 2 minutes.

Don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what you want. That’s why you have your butcher. Have him double cut your T-bone steaks. You can achieve a thickly crusted exterior and moist red interior on beef’s best flavoured bone-in cut.

Australians don’t consider flank a grill cut. Millions of Latin Americans disagree. It’s the part of the animal that gets a lot of exercise, so there is a lot of connective tissue. Cook it quickly to medium rare only, or marinade it prior. It flash fries very tastefully (pun intended) in butter in a very hot, very heavy pan.

It must be properly dry aged and top tier quality. Otherwise you’ve lost the point of it. Buy a cut of at least four ribs. You really do want that crusty caramelised exterior to juice-drenched, rose-hued middle that longer roasting imbues. Roast in a heavy, preheated pan in a very hot, preheated oven. Find and use the meat thermometer that has wriggled to the back of your bibs and bobs drawer.

Body and soul fuel. Melt in the mouth morsels of nourishment for every cell in your body. Sear in a pan of hot sizzling garlic oil the way you’d walk on coals. Stack and drizzle with your favourite vinaigrette, aioli or nam prik.

Known as picanha in Latin America where it is the top tier cut. The cap is its thick, moisturising layer of fat. At a churrascaria it might be roasted whole on a spit then sliced to the diner’s desired thickness. Or it may cut into a very thick steak and grilled until most of the fat has melted away and the fat that’s left is crisp.

Because there are a hundred and three Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Caribbean, Spanish, African, Australian and American ways to marinate, glaze and spice, barbecue or roast these.

Being able to buy these is why you have your butcher. Here’s what to tell him. Loin please, skin intact, 5-6 cms thick, string tied tightly. Fry on its ends, in sizzling butter with a splash of oil added. Unlike its lamb-y counterpart, you do not want it rare. Finish by browning the skin, rolling it in the frypan.

Very, very lean...so feel free to smother it in a wicked sauce after flash frying these long thin strips. Pork easily befriends fruit and sweet sauces. Prune and cassis, sautéed vanilla and caramelised shallot apple. Or in keeping with the food, fast theme, sweet chilli sauce.

Wrap in jambon, pancetta, prosciutto or bacon. Roast slowly. Let the intense, salty, piquant, vibrant, cured casing meld with this very lean, white meat alternative to beef scotch fillet.

Just roast it. Massage the skin with oil and sea salt. Put it in a hot oven. Wait 45 minutes. Check that the crackling is the way you like it. (Back in the oven for 10 or so, if not.). Eat it. By the way, there are a hundred luscious Asian ways to braise pork hock too.

Nearly every Asian cuisine has a magnificent way to use pork mince. The Chinese version of spag bol (zha jiang mian) is just one of these. Here’s one without an exotic name that takes 2 minutes. Fry with minced speck or pancetta (2/3 fresh pork, 1/3 cured pork) in a dry pan. Eat.

A loin chop taken from right across the saddle to become a double sided chop. It was made famous by the Brooklands Hotel in Barnsley, a former mining town in Yorkshire, England but is known throughout the world to be a gorgeous cut to grill, fry or roast. It is called côte-filet double d'agneau in France and doppelte lamm-kotelett in Germany.

Old school, elegant, upmarket, revered. Its metaphor is a Bentley. Visually, it’s a showstopper. Use it to show off.

New, now, wow. It’s just as lovely in a twin set and pearls (stew, curry, casserole) as it is in hot pants (mole, kho, pelau). It’s a large meaty chunk not a bony soupcon. Lambs don’t have fingers and this cut is further up the leg.

This part of the lamb works hard. It is full of collagen fibres and marbled with intramuscular fat. It is so very full of flavour perhaps because of all this. The meat is also what carnivores call ‘sweet’. Slow roast slathered in extra flavours, fast roast at 220C enhanced only by sea salt, kettle roast in the barbecue. Cook with both bones in for best results.

Flavour, flavour, flavour. Oh, and flavour. Experts will tell you that you can only use these in casseroles and curries. Experts do not always get it right. Roast them in a really hot (preheated) heavy pan in a really hot oven, until the outsides are crisp.