Food Porn

Please give me the recipe. This looks incredible 😋
Joint of topside or silverside beef.
Mix salt (3% weight of the meat) with whatever spices you like, bay, sage, pepper, orange zest etc in a tupperware, then add the beef and thoroughly coat with the mix.

Put in the fridge/larder for 4 days turning now and again.

Then submerge the meat in red wine and return to your cold place for 5 days, turning regularly.

Remove and pat dry, and truss with string to help keep the shape.

Hang it anywhere that’s 10-20 degrees and 60-80% humidity for about 3 weeks and you can tuck straight in. It will keep almost indefinitely, just keep getting harder until it’s inedible.

NB- the acid test of ‘readiness’ is when the meat has lost 30% of its original weight, but less of an issue with beef, essential with pork.
 
I do like a good cassoulet.

I have had this one from Waitrose before and can recommend it.

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She‘s been at it again! Pheasant breast (courtesy of our first shoot) stuffed with an orange stuffing with GF Yorkshire puds, pugs in Blanket, orange infused carrots, Hassleback potatoes, leek and mushroom with an orange marmalade……. Will no-one save my waistline :rolleyes:

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She‘s been at it again! Pheasant breast (courtesy of our first shoot) stuffed with an orange stuffing with GF Yorkshire puds, pugs in Blanket, orange infused carrots, Hassleback potatoes, leek and mushroom with an orange marmalade……. Will no-one save my waistline :rolleyes:

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Looks awesome and not at all bad as a breakfast but wouldn’t the compote be better on toast?

Sorry I just cannot abide mixing fruit with meat but each to their own.

But to repeat it all looks cooked and presented to perfection.

K
 
Looks awesome and not at all bad as a breakfast but wouldn’t the compote be better on toast?

Sorry I just cannot abide mixing fruit with meat but each to their own.

But to repeat it all looks cooked and presented to perfection.

K
She ran an orange theme through the stuffing, jus, carrots, etc - really lifted the pheasant which can be quite dry. Personally, I’ve always found fruit to enhance the flavour or game rather than to detract or mask it it. As you say though, each to their own:thumb:
 
Looks amazing. Do you have a curing chamber? And if not where do you hang the salami? I’d love to know your recipe/process for making those. Are they venison? With pork fat?
These are regular pork ones, bit of pepper, garlic and red wine, and the crucial 2-3% salt content. Pork to fat ratio is about 5:1 but you would maybe want 3:1 for venison as it’s quite lean.

I just soaked the middle casings, diced the back fat as small as I could (it just mushes in my mincer) then mince the pork shoulder on the 8/10mm plate. Mix everything together and pipe into the casings and prick them to let excess air out.

After they’re stuffed they need 12hrs at about 25 degrees to kick start the good bacteria, so I just hung them in the oven on the lowest setting with the door ajar, and that stayed roughly at the right temperature. I suppose if you had a warm house or airing cupboard then that would work, but my drafty old heap will never get that warm!

Then I just hang them in my pantry which stays around 12 degrees all year. Would be much easier with a temp and humidity controlled chamber, but half the fun of it for me is to try and do it as traditional as possible. They need to hang for about 6 weeks and then will just keep getting harder after that.

This Steve Lamb video is pretty concise:
 
These are regular pork ones, bit of pepper, garlic and red wine, and the crucial 2-3% salt content. Pork to fat ratio is about 5:1 but you would maybe want 3:1 for venison as it’s quite lean.

I just soaked the middle casings, diced the back fat as small as I could (it just mushes in my mincer) then mince the pork shoulder on the 8/10mm plate. Mix everything together and pipe into the casings and prick them to let excess air out.

After they’re stuffed they need 12hrs at about 25 degrees to kick start the good bacteria, so I just hung them in the oven on the lowest setting with the door ajar, and that stayed roughly at the right temperature. I suppose if you had a warm house or airing cupboard then that would work, but my drafty old heap will never get that warm!

Then I just hang them in my pantry which stays around 12 degrees all year. Would be much easier with a temp and humidity controlled chamber, but half the fun of it for me is to try and do it as traditional as possible. They need to hang for about 6 weeks and then will just keep getting harder after that.

This Steve Lamb video is pretty concise:

Thank you, that’s great info.

Something about leaving sausages for 12 hours at 26 degrees just sounds so wrong and sketchy! But I guess the red wine and salt helps to protect against bad bacteria during that time and while curing.

I must give it a go this winter.
 
Thank you, that’s great info.

Something about leaving sausages for 12 hours at 26 degrees just sounds so wrong and sketchy! But I guess the red wine and salt helps to protect against bad bacteria during that time and while curing.

I must give it a go this winter.
The whole thing is wrong! I still can’t get my head around how a bit of salt and air can make raw meat edible, but it seems to work!
 
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Rack of summer red deer on the firepit, last week.

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highland beef, low and slow (taken up from 0.4° to 58°C, went in at 0530!), finished on high 240° For ten mins;

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Considering this was on an unknown oven (in Cumbria), the Yorkies turned out not so badly either.
 
Thank you, that’s great info.

Something about leaving sausages for 12 hours at 26 degrees just sounds so wrong and sketchy! But I guess the red wine and salt helps to protect against bad bacteria during that time and while curing.

I must give it a go this winter.
It is wrong and sketchy if curing salt and a bacterial starter culture are not used. Anything is possible, from off fishy meat flavours , through to cultivation of lethal neurotoxins . I’ve never understood why the huge furry whipping tool and his followers practice such Luddite like charcuterie.
Kindest regards, Olaf
 
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