It Came from the Briny Deep

This weeks meat adventure: Corned Beef.  I put 1 cup of kosher salt in a gallon of water, which should make a brine around 5 - 7% by weight.  Of course, I could have weighed it.  The brisket piece is a "flat cut" piece about 2 pounds.  I also added a bunch of spices, though there is disagreement on the internet about whether they really flavor the meat.  

Later ma femme informed me that we have a package of "Corned Beef Spice Blend" in the freezer.  C'est la vie.  Overall, this seems like it will be a pretty easy project, since I think I am basically done.  I will flip it over a couple times, every other day or so, to make sure things are curing evenly.  I haven't decided whether I'll cook it with cabbage (it's a little late for St. Patrick's day, sorry) but I will probably make sandwiches to take for lunch.  It's too bad I don't have any homemade sauerkraut ready...  

...wait here.

Smoked, Sliced, Fried Up

Beware the Ides of March, 'cause Imma fire up the grill!

Look at how smokey it is! So Smokey.  Unfortunately it is WAY too salty.  Next time around, I think I am going to do a wet brine cure, rather than the dry rub cure on this one (which kind of ended up being a salt-crust.)  When you fry this stuff up, it just concentrates the salt and it's almost inedible.  Or it would be if it weren't so fucking delicious.  However!  If you slice it and eat it raw (cool out, I cooked it to an internal temperature of 150 F, son) it tastes like the most delicious country ham I've ever had.  Holy F.

This will happen again, and more nearly perfect bacon will be the result.

Dangit

I know I posted about the bacon already, but I flipped it and put herbs and black pepper on in today.  It's starting to get a little stiffer and a bunch of water had come out of it; nearly a cup from a 5-pound slab.  It looked so good I had to post some meat-porn.

Aw mang.

Take it, Naked, Bacon

Five pounds of pork belly, slowly thawing out and curing.  I have committed to providing the bacon for this year's Meatfest, but since I plan for this to be incredibly delicious, I'm not sure if this specific bacon will make it there or if I'll have to make a second batch.  First world problems.

I was considering starting a corned beef this weekend, but there hasn't been a massive hipster obsession with corned beef like there has with bacon, so the internet is not drowning in recipes for it.  Really, though, bacon seemed like it was "next."  You will note that this is my third meat-based adventure: Duck Confit, Sausage, now Bacon, none of which involve fermentation.  I am taking baby-steps, since meat is a whole other ... animal compared to fermenting vegetables. Pickles, sauerkraut, and Kimchi basically can't go wrong, other than to taste bad, and can't kill you with minute amounts of unbelievably deadly neurotoxins that have no taste or smell.  This is well-salted, and I'm going to hot-smoke it, so it will end up being a fully-cooked product.

Play your cards right, and you can have some...

Confit for a King

Duck Confit.  Food of peasants and kings alike, and a preservation method designed to minimize or eliminate fermentation.  Meat is rubbed with herbs and salt, to add flavor and begin extracting water.  The salted meat is patted dry, submerged in oil (or sufficient fat from the same animal) and heated gently to cook and sterilize.  Skim any carbohydrate/protein scum, and as long as anything with any water in it is below the fat when it solidifies, it will be preserved.  Cover, set it in a cool dry place, refrigeration not required, and it should stay perfectly preserved for weeks or months.

In my case I'm covering it with olive oil, and I'm not really going to keep if for months under the fat.

I get delicious duck meat, crunchy fried skin cracklin's, and the thing that will flavor our meals for months to come: a quart and a half of rich, herb-flavored, duck fat/olive oil blend, rendered to perfection.

It's good to be king.

It's Better than Bad, It's Good!

Making sausage is so easy, you guys!

Pork: 70% lean, 30% fat according to the nice guy behind the counter at Bunzel's.  Lots of Penzy's Bavarian spice blend and a couple percent salt by weight.  Into the freezer for half an hour, then through the grinder.  Keeping the mix near freezing stops the fat from melting and stiffens everything so that it gets cut, rather than smeared through the plates.

Back for another freeze after the first grind and then through the breach again.  I wasn't ready for casings just yet, so this got formed into a loaf pan and cooked it in a water bath into:  Meat Log!

Tasty slices, delicious by themselves; or lately, fried and made into sausage, egg, and cheese "McMuffins."