Falling for slow-cooked meat

Hear the phrase “falling off the bone” and, if you are a meat-eater, you start salivating. You think of short ribs, lamb shanks, osso bucco, coq au vin — all the spectacular stews and braises that make you want to belly up to the table and dig in. All the dishes in which the meat is fork-tender, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. In other words, “falling off the bone,” whether or not (as in the ragout, below) there are actual bones involved.

At the holidays, cooking such dishes is not only good gastronomy; it's good for economy. Many slow-cooked dishes (with some notable exceptions, like veal shanks for osso bucco), use tougher, less expensive cuts of meat. It's good planning, too: At the holidays, a slow-cooked dish makes much more sense than a last-minute one. Plus, it can be made in advance and refrigerated or even frozen until needed. For example, the beef-ragout recipe here incorporates several shortcuts: sliced, packaged mushrooms, canned cranberry sauce and canned broth. Yet it is delicious and impressive enough to serve for holiday company.

If you don't have as many recipes for slow-cooked meat dishes as you would like, the aptly named “Falling Off the Bone” by Jean Anderson (Wiley, 2010) can more than help. Here is a book crammed with luscious, meaty dishes — including a number of hearty soups — that will get you through the holidays and beyond. Anderson, a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, draws inspiration from the flavors of Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China, Latin and South America, as well as early American and Native American cookery.

The best news for busy cooks is that most soups, stews and braises are best made at least a day ahead of time, to allow the flavors to meld. Added bonus: Most need only some good bread and a salad to make a warming, festive meal. Your guests will fall off their seats for meat that is “falling off the bone.”

Marialisa Calta is the author of “Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family” (2005 Perigee). More at marialisacalta.com.