Besides the beef shank, my recipe includes beef neck bones, which are usually meaty, and turkey, which is relatively inexpensive but flavorful.

Stews were usually a way of cooking less expensive cuts of meat like beef neck or brisket and older chickens or the hens known as poule in French.

The 17th-century British industrial processes for corned beef did not distinguish between different cuts of beef beyond the tough and undesirable parts such as the beef necks and shanks.

Meat from the beef neck and shoulder is soaked in brine for three to five days, then spread with a thick paste of half-cracked black peppercorns and fresh garlic and cured for another three to five days.