We talk to Troy about recipes to impress, how to cook with alcohol and what cocktail traditions are due for a comeback.
Writing a cookbook was not something Troy Wheeler ever saw himself doing. “I left school quite young and I wasn’t very academic, so being an author, writing a cookbook, was definitely not on my radar.” And yet, the head butcher and co-owner of Melbourne’s Meatsmith, along with his business partner, chef and uber restaurateur Andrew McConnell (think Gimlet, Builders Arms, and Marion among others), have just released a knock-out anthology of recipes.
Practically sectioned into chapters including A Butcher’s Picnic, Comfort Food and Duck Party (it’s time to make duck your thing), Meatsmith was curated around how the butcher and chef like to cook. “It reflects how Andrew and I like to entertain our friends and family. It’s got a good mix of things that are pretty easy and simple and familiar, as well as things for when you really have some time up your sleeve, you're feeling adventurous and you'd like to knuckle down and try something harder.” Those latter recipes you’ll find under Time to Kill.
There are also recipes inspired by Meatsmith patrons. “It does reflect our customers and the people we've gotten to know along our journey as a business. Often these things come from nostalgia – conversing with our customers about the time they went on holiday to Italy and the amazing dish they ate there.” If you’ve never been to a Meatsmith (they have four stores across Melbourne), imagine the feel of an old-school quality local butcher, the execution and curation of a top restaurant, and the convenience of your mum laying out your ironed school clothes on a Sunday night.
“It’s primarily a butcher shop,” says Troy, “but we consider it to be more than just the local butcher. We have a great range of condiments, some made in-house, and accompaniments and all those grocery items that you need to create a great meal. We also do lots of in-house ready-to-eat meals that have been pre-prepared for a quick and easy, mid-week dinner. If you’re entertaining but stretched for time, we have options so you can quickly prepare something delicious.” It’s a one-stop gourmet shop where you can walk in clueless and come out with a menu, all the ingredients, home-made accoutrements and even whatever you need to cook it in (yes, they have cookware). “It’s just a way you can cheat a little.” Troy says “cheating”, we say cooking smarter not harder.
Ahead, Troy shares his top tips for cooking like a butcher, his go-to recipes, drinks and how Melbourne made him a foodie.
There are lots of great recipes that use alcohol in Meatsmith. Any tips for getting it right?
“Quite a few of the recipes lean into that European-style cooking where they use alcohol for adding acidity and depth of flavour. For those more involved recipes, it’s about making sure you're reducing the wine, brandy or Madeira or whatever it is to really bring out the sweetness, acidity, thickness or that coated mouthfeel with the reduction. Take your time to make sure you're using alcohol to create the desired effect and get the right result.”
How much should you spend on cooking alcohol?
“If you are reducing one litre of Madeira down to 200 mLs, and using an expensive bottle from Portugal, that then becomes a very expensive end product. So, I think when it’s alcohol for adding flavour, taste and complexity, something like a mid-range to more expensive is probably the right choice, but if you’re just cooking and reducing it down to get that syrup-type consistency, it’s probably better to use something cheaper.”
What’s your most-given advice for cooking meat?
“First, making sure your proteins are room temperature before you start is key. Cooking temps are designed for room-temp meat, so if you try to cook something straight out of the fridge, the exterior proteins will cook and caramelise and look really done, but the centre will still be cold, so you’ll have to cook it further than you would want to make sure it’s cooked through. Not just your red meat either – don't be afraid to leave your chicken out or your pork. Not for hours, but half an hour, 40 minutes is pretty acceptable. Second, rest your meat after it’s cooked. It lets everything relax and settle after the stress of an aggressively hot pan or oven. The rule is to rest for half the amount of time you cooked for, but that only really applies if you're cooking a steak and it takes you 12 minutes, you might rest it for five to six. If you were cooking a roast and it took you two hours, you're not going to rest it for an hour. So, as a rule of thumb for roast resting, 10 to 12 minutes is appropriate.”
What Meatsmith recipe do you recommend for kitchen rookies?
“The Quail and Freekeh Salad. I feel like it’s a good recipe to have in your arsenal: a delicious grain salad. It’s got some good fundamentals to help you start somewhere and then, once you become confident, it’s really adaptable so you can add your own twists and turns.”
What Meatsmith recipe do you recommend to cooks who are up for a challenge?
“Try your hand at the Beef Wellington. Even though it’s had lots of publicity lately [for some wild, mushroom-based reasons], it's a good dish, and very rewarding when you get it right.”
What cocktail do you think should be more popular?
“I've done a little bit of travel overseas over the last year or two, and while I was in Los Angeles, I went and visited some of those quintessential American cocktail bars. I was ordering Martinis that all came with the little sidecar of the overpour from the cocktail shaker. It was usually in a shot glass and sat on a little ice tray so you can top yourself up. I like that – like a little reward on the side.”
What was the first bar that became your place?
“Until the last few years, cocktail bars probably weren't my scene. I was very much a dive bar person. The first place that’s really spoken to me, and I have felt like I could spend a lot of time, is Andrew’s most recent bar Apollo Inn. The space is so comfortable. It’s small and intimate, but doesn’t feel like you’re locked away in a little dungeon. It has the right balance of some delicious food and excellent cocktails, and some great approachable wines. I think it ticks all the boxes for me. It’s a very nice place to be.”
The first dish you fell in love with?
“I’m not sure whether there was a first dish, but I was very green to the idea of eating at great restaurants when I came to Melbourne from a very small country town. My ‘going out’ was a beer and a steak at the pub Thursday through Sunday. The first dining experience that really pricked up my ears and made me think, oh my god, this is next level, and sent me down this path of eating at great restaurants, was when Andrew was cooking at Circa in St Kilda. I’d moved in across the road after living in a sharehouse. I took a date there and it was amazing. I think the date was good, too.”
Finish these sentences…
On a lazy night in, I drink:
“Something indulgent like a white Burgundy.”
On a night out, I drink:
“A dirty gin Martini.”
If I want to dazzle my guests, I make them:
“Over summer, something from the Lunch in the Garden section of the book. I have a couple of woodfire grills so the Clams, Bacon and Lovage to start, and then some rice pilaf with a nice lamb shoulder slow roasted in the barbecue for that smoky deliciousness. And a nice chilled rosé to go with it.”
