Tried and tasted: five essential meats And meat is good for you. It is an important source of protein, vitamins and iron. The trouble is, meat tends to contain a lot of fat, which is essential for succulence and flavour. But rather than eating super-lean meat, which means less flavour, or trying to trim visible fat, the best solution is to follow the doctor's orders and make do with a smaller quantity of excellent quality, humanely reared meat. Here are my Desert Island Cuts... Lamb chops For delicacy and flavour, there is nothing to match lamb; and the chop has all the contrast you need, combining succulent fillet and shiny, sticky, fat-basted rib in one delicious meaty lollipop. Nothing will give you happier memories to see you through your meat-free week. Calves" liver My wife, whose default choice on any menu is calves" liver, won me round from a lifelong antipathy caused by the leathery liver of school lunches. Granted a nibble from her plate, I was instantly seduced by this aristocratic offal. Whether cooked alla veneziana (with caramelised onions) or fried with butter and fresh sage, it should receive little more than a kiss of heat from the frying pan. It is one of the most distinctive of meat dishes, at once subtle and robust. Partridge Why pay through the nose for free-range chicken when you can enjoy the bargain of game? Roast pheasant is in a different league for flavour; and partridge is better still. There are endless recipes for the healthy, low-fat partridge, but I always come back to a roast (stuff with lemon and cover with bacon), served with homemade bread sauce. Sadly, the season ends on February 1. But there is a solution for those who want a bird with taste all year: guinea fowl. Oxtail Considering the banquet provided by cattle, from rib roast to well-aged rump steak, it may seem perverse to choose the twitching conclusion. But having dispatched an animal, the least we can do is eat all of it. Braise very slowly with lots of carrots for a thrifty dish of matchless body and flavour. Yes, there's plenty of fat as well, but that can be skimmed off when the braise has cooled. Belly pork There isn't a bit of this creature that I don't relish. But which to pick? Roast loin from a middlewhite pig or gammon baked in sugar crust are both excellent hot, and possibly even better cold. But after much deliberation, I've plumped for belly pork. This luscious cut, with its carapace of golden crackling, has provided some of my most memorable mouthfuls. It's almost enough to make me look forward to my once-a-week meat treat. Rose Prince returns next week