Ahhh… digging through the fridge and finding yummy things to throw together and grub on. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all and I used only a few ingredients:
My standard meat curing formula
Edit: Now with an image, because I made some bacon today 🙂
So here’s my standard recipe for curing meat that I mostly use. It can be adjusted to personal needs in terms of herbs and spices, but I strongly recommend to stick to the directions concerning the curing salt.
Recipe (per kg of meat):
30 – 40 g curing salt, which equals 3 – 4% by weight (and not “pink salt” etc., see below)
10 g brown sugar
1 tsp. freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary
Pig’s Trotters and Tails
I’ve got an eMail Request from far abroad, that’s great! Someone from the U.S. wanted to know how we made the pig’s trotters and tails several years ago, so here’s the recipe. Thanks Alan for your request!
Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce
Slow braised short ribs – a delight to me. Although a very cheap cut they come out delicious when done with a little attention, time and some patience.
There’s no magic to it – on the contrary, you’ll have about half an hour of work and will then be able to laze around for 2 1/2 hours! Here’s my recipe:
Home Made Pork Rinds
I also bought skin-on pork belly for bacon curing this time and made pork rinds from the cut-offs. Nothing simpler than that: Heat your oven on “broil” to about 250 – 280 °C. Put your pork skin pieces onto a rack and salt them “as you would salt a roast” (statement of the sales lady at the butcher shop). Leave in the oven for about 15 minutes, turn over and grill for another 10 – 15 minutes more – until they’re crisp and blistered. Delicious.
Biggest Batch of Sausages so far
Yesterday I made the biggest batch of “Bratwurscht” ever since I’m doing this. It took me a whole afternoon, to grind meat, season, knead and fill into casings. Now I’ve got 2 types of sausages, ending up with 4,5 kg in total:
Six Hours Rib Smoking Session
I tried smoking pork short ribs using the “professional” 3-2-1 Hours Method yesterday and they really came out outstandingly great! So what does that mean? It means you have three stages of cooking:
Sous Vide Duck Breast
Yesterday’s Dinner for two. I should really work on the presentation, but – man! – this was delicious! The sous vide gadget makes sure the duck breast comes out perfectly, pink in the middle and absolutely not overcooked. I really like that thing!
The fat side was seared in the pan and glazed with a mix of sherry and honey. The sauce was a reduction of red wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic and honey. This was serious work, but it was absolutely worth the effort.
