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Meat on the bone, also called bone-in meat is
meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
that is sold with some or all of the bones included in the cut or portion, i.e. meat that has not been filleted. The phrase "on the bone" can also be applied to specific types of meat, most commonly ham on the bone, and to fish. Meat or fish on the bone may be cooked and served with the bones still included or the bones may be removed at some stage in the
preparation Preparation may refer to: * Preparation (dental), the method by which a tooth is prepared when removing decay and designing a form that will provide adequate retention for a dental restoration * Preparation (music), treatment of dissonance in tona ...
. Delia Smith
Lamb
Examples of meat on the bone include T-bone steaks, chops, spare ribs, chicken leg portions and whole chicken. Examples of fish on the bone include unfilleted plaice and some cuts of salmon. Meat on the bone is used in many traditional recipes.


Effect on flavor and texture

The principal effect of cooking meat on the bone is that it alters the flavour and texture.
Albumen Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms arou ...
and
collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole ...
in the bones release
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
when boiled which adds substance to stews, stocks, soups and sauces. The Sydney Morning Herald
Savour the flavour
/ref> The bone also conducts heat within the meat so that it cooks more evenly and prevents meat drying out and shrinking during cooking. LBC
Cooking in the credit crunch


Eating

Consumption methods vary by size; smaller bones can be eaten whole, while larger ones can be broken or gnawed. Some meat on the bone is most commonly eaten by picking it up, notably ribs and chicken (particularly wings and drumsticks). Others are primarily eaten by cutting off the meat, such as steaks, but possibly picking up and gnawing the bone when otherwise finished. Smaller fish are often eaten whole, with the bones. Examples include
whitebait Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine-m ...
of all sorts, anchovies, and
smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...
. In some cases the
bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...
may also be eaten, notably for beef or poultry (especially chicken), in the later case by the eater breaking or chewing off the end of a soft leg bone and sucking the marrow out.


Cooking

Meat on the bone typically cooks slower than boneless meat when
roasted Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelization ...
in a joint. Individual bone-in portions such as chops also take longer to cook than their filleted equivalents.


Value for money

Meat on the bone is quicker and easier to butcher as there is no filleting involved. Filleting is a skilled process that adds to labour and wastage costs as meat remaining on the bones after filleting is of low value (although it can be recovered). As a result, meat on the bone can be better value for money. However, relative value can be hard to judge as the bone part of the product is undesirable in many cultures or for larger bones even inedible. Various portions may contain a greater or lesser proportion of bone.


Ease of handling

The presence of bones may make meat products more bulky, irregular in shape, and difficult to pack. Bones may make preparation and carving more difficult. However, bones can sometimes be used as handles to make the meat easier to eat.


Import restrictions

Foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followe ...
(FMD) is a contagious disease affecting
cloven-hoofed A cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes. This is found on members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla. Examples of mammals that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, ...
animals. Because FMD rarely infects humans but spreads rapidly among animals, it is a much greater threat to the agriculture industry than to human health. FMD can be contracted by contact with infected meat, with meat on the bone representing a higher risk than filleted meat. As a result, import of meat on the bone remains more restricted than that of filleted meat in many countries.


Health issues


Injury

Meat and fish served on the bone can present a risk of accident or injury. Small, sharp fish bones are the most likely to cause injury although sharp fragments of meat bone can also cause problems. Typical injuries include bones being swallowed and becoming trapped in the throat, and bones being trapped under the tongue. Discarded bones can also present a risk of injury to pets or wild animals as some types of cooked meat bone break into sharp fragments when chewed.


BSE

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as "mad cow disease", is a fatal brain disease affecting cattle. It is believed by most scientists that the disease may be transmitted to human beings who eat the brain or spinal cord of infected carcasses. In humans, it is known as ''new variant Creutzfeldtโ€“Jakob disease'' (vCJD or nvCJD), and is also fatal. The largest outbreak of BSE was in the United Kingdom, with several other countries affected to a lesser extent. The outbreak started in 1984, and continued into the 1990s, leading to increasing concern among governments and beef consumers as the risk to humans became known, but could not be quantified. Many countries banned or restricted the import of beef products from countries affected by BSE. Animal brain and spinal cord had already been removed from the human and animal food chain when, in 1997,
prion Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It ...
infection was also detected in the
dorsal root ganglia A dorsal root ganglion (or spinal ganglion; also known as a posterior root ganglion) is a cluster of neurons (a ganglion) in a dorsal root of a spinal nerve. The cell bodies of sensory neurons known as first-order neurons are located in the do ...
within the
spinal column The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates ...
of infected animals. As a result, beef on the bone was banned from sale in the UK as a precaution. This led to criticism that the government was overreacting. The European Union also considered banning beef and lamb on the bone. The UK ban lasted from December 1997 to December 1999, when it was lifted and the risk from beef on the bone declared negligible.


Use as a metaphor

The phrase "meat on the bones" is used metaphorically to mean substance. For example, "I expect that we'll start putting some meat on the bones of regulatory reform"
The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

U.S. dollar weakness hurts G20
/ref> indicates an intention to add detail and substance to plans for regulatory reform and implies that these plans were previously only set out in broad or vague terms. The phrase to "flesh out" relies of the same
imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory ima ...
in which a basic idea is likened to a
skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
or bones and the specific details of the idea to meat or flesh on that skeleton.


See also

* Butcher * Cut of beef * List of beef dishes * List of steak dishes * Meat chop * Steak * Primal cut


References

{{Beef Cuts of meat