Cuts of meat...help, please.

[ccarmitaly]

I want to buy a beef brisket, the kind you BBQ in the U.S. It is marinated and wrapped tightly in foil and cooked for several hours in a slow oven. It has no bones and very little fat. I have not been able to find one in the meat cases. What cut of meat would I ask my butcher for in Italian?
Thanks.

[Nardini]

Originally Posted by ccarmitaly

What cut of meat would I ask my butcher for in Italian?

There isn't an exact equivalent here, although, if you have a "real" butcher - not one in a supermarket, that is - you should be able to ask him to cut the meat where and how you want. An excellent book that has diagrams on how meat is cut both here and in the UK is "The Silver Spoon",published by Phaidon. It is a translation of the original (and many would say the best) Italian cookery book, first published in 1950 as "Il cucchiaio d'argento". Armed with that you should be able to sort out what you want the butcher to do for you.

Good luck.

[alma]

I took a Carluccio book (cant remember which one offhand) over to Italy, which has a fantastic section on cuts of meat among other things eg. types of herbs and pulses etc. I can look which one it is in June when I go over if you like

[Steve Graham]

I have the English edition of the Silver Spoon. From the diagrams for beef cuts, a very close if not identical equivalent to brisket is 'punta di petto'.