From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgristlegris‧tle /ˈɡrɪsəl/ noun [uncountable] DFthe part of meat that is not soft enough to eat —gristly adjective
Examples from the Corpus
gristle• The meat is fat and gristle from tough old yaks, sheep and goats.• This series has all the markings of a seven-gamer, hard-fought, with lots of grit and gristle and not much elegance.• She ate fried gristle and fat.• Slipstreaming away, waiting for the bits of gristle from the sandwiches.• What does Mary always say, horrible creature, as she spears the hideous lumps of gristle on her fork?• Tonight, Lown gets down to the gristle with a lecture titled Mountain Men Vittles.• Meanwhile, the past clings with the gristle of regret to the bones of her characters' lives.• Still joined, the central bone was spotted with gristle and blood.Origin gristle Old English 