Thor’s Hammer, a beefy cut for a potjie kind of day

A few years ago, Checkers sent me a slab of picanha, at the start of my journey of cooking this fine piece of beef from the rump end of the beast, with its generous fat cap. A picanha is all about that fat cap, which is rendered until it’s golden and crunchy. I wrote this about it at the time, and later this, and have loved the picanha ever since.

A few days ago, they asked me to test drive another cut of beef. You may have seen it in the butchery sections of some supermarkets. It’s a striking hunk of meat fashioned from one of the humblest parts of the animal: the shin. Long one of the cheaper cuts, it is doubtless becoming considerably more expensive.

The label suggests oven-roasting it slowly for four hours. This makes perfect sense. But it was a potjie kind of day, so I lit a fire and set about preparing everything that would go into the pot.

A Thor’s Hammer is Frenched in the way a rack of lamb is trimmed. But, luckily, your butcher is likely to have done this for you and to have displayed it in a fridge all pretty and enticing.

It makes for a fine presentation, so plan one as a party piece. I reckon it would feed six comfortably, depending on how much meat is on it, as they won’t necessarily be the same size. 

Note: check that you have a potjie that fits the dimensions of the “hammer” you plan to cook. It might be tight.

Tony’s Thor’s Hammer potjie

(Serves 6-8 depending on how meaty it is)

Ingredients

1 Thor’s Hammer (beef shin on the bone, French trimmed)

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 leeks, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 celery stalks, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Tbsp flour

Salt and black pepper to taste

For the cooking stock:

1.5 litres beef stock, or enough to almost cover the meat

3 or 4 rosemary sprigs

3 bay leaves

2 Tbsp crushed coriander seeds

350ml red wine

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Chop and slice all the vegetables.

Presuming that you’ve prepared plenty of hot coals, put some around the base of a clean potjie and add the butter and oil.

Add the “hammer” and brown the meat on all sides.

Add the chopped vegetables, stirring for the fats to coat them, then sprinkle the flour on them, evenly.

In a 2-litre jug, mix the beef stock with all of the other cooking stock ingredients, including salt and black pepper to taste, and pour this around the meat.

Put the potjie lid on and cook for four hours, adding coals around the potjie base and a few coals on the lid whenever needed to keep the meat cooking slowly and steadily.

Once the meat is tender, spoon off the stock and leave it in a jug for it to cool and the fat to rise. Spoon off the fat. Heat the stock as a sauce to accompany the meat. DM