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entertainment links There really is no middle ground," says Marsha McBride, chef-owner of Berkeley's Cafe Rouge. "There are people who are bone eaters, and people who aren't." These days, the bone eaters are getting a little cranky. Heaps of petrale fillets, boneless pork cutlets and boneless rib-eye steaks fill our food shops, giving the impression of abundant choice. But where are the lamb necks and bone-in lamb shoulders, the oxtails, breast of veal and fresh pork hocks? Where are the whole, head-on fish, looking like they did when they came out of the water? "As a food stylist, I've done so many boneless, skinless chicken breasts and pork tenderloin recipes that I go insane," says Jennifer McLagan, a Canadian writer whose new book "Bones: Recipes, History, & Lore" (William Morrow) celebrates the often-overlooked -- and increasingly unavailable -- bony cuts like lamb ribs, marrow bones and chicken feet. "I think people have forgotten how good cooking on the bone is." Accomplished cooks have long known that food tastes better when cooked on the bone, although they may not have understood why. And in many cultures, nibbling and gnawing on bony parts, from fish heads to duck feet, is undertaken with pleasure. Why Americans prefer a boneless kitchen -- Fourth of July spareribs aside -- is debatable, but one consequence isn't: We are missing out on some fabulous food. "When you're eating on the bone, it makes the experience last a little longer," says Grace Young, a Manhattan cookbook author who was raised in a Chinese home in San Francisco. "You can suck a little more flavor from the bones after you eat the meat." Chinese children are taught from an early age how to eat whole fish deftly, paying attention to the bones but not fearing them. Young says her parents, like other Chinese parents, taught her to use a spoonful of rice as a chaser if she happened to swallow a fish bone. In her childhood home, chicken was always cooked whole, hacked and eaten on the bone, feet included. "There's a complete distaste in the Western mind for even seeing that chicken foot," Young says. Squeamishness surely explains some of the disdain many Americans have for bony parts. Generations removed from the farm and the stark realities of farm life, many diners don't want their dinner to look remotely like the animal it came from. In virtually every other part of the world, carcasses hang from their hind feet in markets and shoppers are accustomed to the sight. They view the carcass as an indicator of freshness, not an object of disgust. That's another reason Chinese cooks prefer to buy whole fish, says Young. From the look of the gills and the eyes, they can evaluate freshness. But whole fish are a hard sell in Bay Area restaurants, chefs say. Chris Rossi, chef-owner of Oakland's Citron, says he had a similar experience when he cooked at the neighboring A Cote. "We tried whole fish but (customers) would freak out when they'd see the head," he says. A jellied pig's feet terrine, made with boneless meat, sells briskly at Bistro Jeanty, the Yountville restaurant, but chef Philippe Jeanty says he could never sell the bone-in braised pig's feet that are a beloved specialty of his native Champagne. "People don't want to have to work to get their food," he says. Diners rave about the pig's feet at Quince in San Francisco, but they've had a total makeover. Chef Michael Tusk bones them raw, then stuffs, poaches, slices, breads and fries them. The crispy dish looks nothing like the appendages the meat came from. At Acme Chop House in San Francisco, chef Thom Fox prepares oxtails, but they are braised, boned and fashioned into a sauce for gnocchi. Christine Mullen, chef at Cav Wine Bar in San Francisco, takes the same approach, using the rich, gelatinous oxtail meat for a pasta sauce after discarding the bones. Even Rossi, an enthusiastic advocate for cooking on the bone, sometimes hides the evidence. He cooks chicken breasts with the rib cage attached but removes the ribs before serving. "As a rule, people don't like to see anything on their plate when they're finished," he says. But when customers tell him his chicken breast is particularly moist, as many do, he knows the reason why. Bones themselves don't contribute much flavor, says Harold McGee of Palo Alto, author of "On Food and Cooking" (Scribner), a food-science bible for many chefs. But they do prevent juices from escaping from what would otherwise be a cut surface. Bones also act as an insulator, slowing the transfer of heat, which is why meat near the bone is always more rare and moist than meat near the surface. Anyone who has ever made a stock with veal bones has witnessed one of bones' most valuable contributions to cooking. Once chilled, the stock will be as stiff as a bowl of Jell-O. That's because bones and the cartilage that surrounds them are high in collagen, a protein that dissolves into gelatin when heated. A sauce made with reduced veal stock will have a viscous consistency, thanks to the bones. Similarly, a braise made with lamb shanks will have more body than the same dish made with boneless lamb. The younger the animal, the more collagen in the bones and cartilage, which explains why most chefs prefer veal bones over beef bones for stock. With so much goodness to offer, including the sheer atavistic pleasure of gnawing on them, it's unfortunate that bones are so often associated with lowbrow dining. Cuts like pork hocks and lamb necks, and bone-in fish like sardines, are associated with poverty because they're cheap, says McLagan. As people rise economically, they flaunt their status by eating filet mignon, viewed as superior because it costs more. As if their low stature didn't doom them already, bone-in cuts like necks and chicken wings demand time and effort to cook, a serious drawback in our 30-minute-menu culture. In times past, in-store butchers purchased whole carcasses of beef, lamb and pork and broke them down on site. If you wanted fresh marrow bones, butchers would have them unless another customer got there first. Today, markets buy boxed meat -- already broken-down into the so-called subprimal cuts such as loins, ribs and round -- and skilled butchers who can dismantle a whole carcass have all but disappeared. "Butchers (today) wouldn't know how to break the beef," says Peter Flannery, who has owned the carriage-trade Bryan's Meats in San Francisco since 1963. Although the past may look rosy in retrospect, Flannery says boxed meat was a breakthrough for the industry. "In the old days, you bought all the carcass, but you had to move everything evenly," says the merchant. "You had 90 percent of the people wanting 10 percent of the animal." With boxed meat, retail meat managers could buy just what they needed. Today, the best way to locate the unpopular odd parts is to find a butcher who buys whole carcasses. Bryan's still breaks down whole lamb carcasses and has a backlog of orders from Middle Eastern cooks for the flavorful necks. Latino and Chinese markets often purchase whole pigs and are a good source for pig's tails, feet, head, bone-in shoulder and the like. Niman Ranch, with its own wholesale butcher shop, is another source for obscure bony parts like lamb riblets and marrow bones. Some meat counters can obtain certain cuts with enough notice, but in general, the best tasting cuts of meat require a hunting expedition. "I think that in North America, the meat we buy is too cheap, so we don't value it enough," says McLagan. If meat cost more, she argues, "We might think about using the veal breast and lamb shanks and bits that we tend to disregard because we associate them with something cheap." They don't buy pig's feet because they're cheap, but because they're delicious. You may never find them in white-tablecloth restaurants, but as serious eaters know, sometimes the best and boniest food is in the back room, with the kitchen staff. Years ago, Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe put a grilled duck carcass on the menu, a nod to Pepette Arbulo, her mentor in southwest France. In Arbulo's restaurant, the duck legs were made into confit, the duck breasts were sauteed, and the carcasse...
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