Rubia Gallega old-cow beef ◆

Bœuf Rubia Gallega

What it is

The blonde Galician cow works or milks for eight to fourteen years before she is taken, and it is the age rather than the breed that makes the meat: deep purple, dense, carrying fat the colour of daffodils from a lifetime of Atlantic grass. Hung for weeks, that yellow fat picks up a faint blue-cheese note, which is exactly what buyers are after.

In the kitchen

The fat is the point: buy the chuletón with a thick rim on it, salt it coarsely, and grill it over embers so the rim renders and bastes the meat. Serve it at 50 °C in the centre and carve it off the bone — that fat sets waxy on a cold plate.

Goes with

Fleur de sel de Guérande Piquillo pepper Olive oil Padrón pepper Garlic Potato Black pepper Oloroso

Same species

Abura-kasu Amourettes (spinal marrow) Spider steak Bastourma Flank steak Beef

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