Pot roasting is a very useful method for dealing with the less tender cuts of meat, such as small lean joints of topside or silverside and blade or chuck steak (look for some marbling of fat throughout and often labeled in supermarkets as housekeeper’s cuts) but rolled brisket is often considered best as it has a perfect fat to meat ratio.
Serves 6 
20 mins prep + long cooking time 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 carrots, sliced
675g boned and rolled beef brisket
100g piece Italian pork sausage, finely minced (cotechino) or lean minced pork, optional
2 tbsp tomato puree
250ml red wine
1 litre beef stock or
Irish stout
1 fresh thyme sprig
2 bay leaves
400g can plum tomatoes
Oval casserole dish
Rabbit was a great food for country people for many years. Tomás O’Crohan in The Islandman tells us of the many rabbits they caught on the Blasket islands when he was young: ‘When we had all come to the boat and put the game together, we had eight dozen rabbits – a dozen a-piece.’ Maurice o’Sullivan in Twenty years A-Growing writes of the same island and rabbit stew: ‘We sat down to dinner, a savoury dinner it was – a fine stew of rabbits and plenty of soup.’ Young rabbits can be roasted – as with the body of the hare – and wrapped in bacon. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
