exerda, I’m not in a terribly different position to your wife. I was vegetarian for a very long time, then re-incorporated fish into my diet and spent decades within that compromise. After years of nurturing a “parasitic” fibroid* which drained me of iron and vitality I took to eating meat again. I see meat as precious, and make the most I can from it, will never squander the bones or off cuts and use a pressure cooker to turn them into stock.

It does mean that there are aspects to beef I never picked up. Have ordered an organic beef brisket from a reputable provider to be delivered just after Christmas, but it’s not a cut of beef I’ve ever cooked with before. When I was a little girl, my father would occasionally take me to a Jewish restaurant called Bloom’s in London’s East End for Salt Beef. That was back in the 1970s. It was amazing. I’d love to try and replicate that.

Can anyone point me to a recipe for this kind of salt beef I could attempt myself as a complete brisket novice?

Have already got the cabbage shredded and salted and fermenting away so I can have sauerkraut with it.

* surgically removed