From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe meat and potatoesthe meat and potatoesAmerican English informalIMPORTANT the most important or basic parts of a discussion, decision, piece of work etc Let’s get down to the meat and potatoes. How much are you going to pay me for this? → meat
Examples from the Corpus
the meat and potatoes• But the meat and potatoes of the newscast is the gathering, preparing, and presentation of the news. 