A variety of tomato which produces large, deep rose-pink, ox heart-shaped fruit with very few seeds. The fruits have shallow furrows which are born in clusters of 2-7. The flesh is meaty and firm and has a mild flavour. The shape resulted from a single gene mutation and is now synonymous with a separate tomato-type. It was first commercially available in 1925. Indeterminate dating from 1925. Good for slicing or in sauces.
Oxtail is a great cut for making soups and stews. Although it is fatty and bony, of it is simmered and well skimmed the resulting stock has really good flavour.
Beefsteak mushroom. It may be sliced and fried like liver, or eaten raw with a salad, when it should be cut into thin strips, soaked in salted water, drained and then dressed with a vinaigrette.
On the underside of a chicken there are two little nubs of meat behind the wings - the best bit, where all the juices collect as the chicken cooks.
There are two types of sea water oyster readily available in the United Kingdom and most of Europe: rock (Crassostrea gigas) and native oysters (Ostrea edulis). Native oysters (known in France as belons) are small, flattish and circular in shape and with a brownish-green, relatively smooth shell. They are difficult to farm, take four to five years to mature and are not disease resistant. Not only are they more scarce than rock oysters, they are also more highly regarded, with firm flesh and a subtle, delicate flavour.
The oyster crab is a small whitish crab which shares the shell with the oyster and is only 1 cm (1/2”) wide. It lives inside the gills of the oyster or clam for protection. Very irritatingly I had a good photograph of this rare delicacy and it has disappeared.. Most common on the American Atlantic coast. They are usually served fried.
A name in North Carolina for the blackfish. A lean fish found in the Pacific with many tiny fine bones and a delicate flavour. Much used in Chinese cooking.
The oyster mushroom is a quite fragile, light grey mushroom with good flavour, it has a cap with pronounced white gills which spreads out from a central stem. (If gathering mushrooms you must be absolutely certain what you have before you eat them as many are very poisonous.)
