BATTLE OF THE BOOBS

Dos Hermanos were talking about breasts the other day.

HP was saying how underrated they are and I was saying how cheaply I could get my hands on them.

We were, of course, in case you thought we had descended into Carry On territory, talking about lamb breasts which are, as we said, incredibly cheap and quite delicious. The wool giver’s equivalent of belly pork.

So, we decided to do a bit of market research all of course for the long term benefit of mankind.

So, HP bought one slab from Farmer Sharp in Borough Market ( £3.50 ) and I bought a slab from James Elliott on The Essex Road ( £2 ). The two pieces of meat were quite different in appearance. The former was darker, with bigger ribs and needed more trimming. The latter, more pink, smaller ribs and with a thicker layer of fat.

Prepared two ways after being trimmed and cut to ribs

The Farmer Sharp was marinated simply in some olive oil, lemon thyme, English mustard powder and salt and pepper. The James Elliot was rubbed in a ginger, chilli and garlic paste and then given a rub of smoked hot paprika, chilli powder, cumin, and cinnamon.

Both were left to sit for an hour or so before being slow roasted and then crisped up under the grill.

Very good results both. The FS slab was more, er lamby although that may just be that it was not smothered in as many flavourings.

For a total of £5.50 enough ribbage to defeat even our appetites with enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

I suspect we may remain breast men for a long time to come.