Many people like to treat themselves to sausage or other dry-cured delicacies. That's just to buy quality products today is almost impossible. Or they will be very expensive. But few people realize that you can cook dried beef at home, and for this it is not necessary to have extensive knowledge of cooking. You just need to stock up on quality products and show some patience.
Dish history
Beef at all times enjoyed considerable popularity in many countries of the world. Not too fat, it could be stored much longer than pork. And the cows themselves require less attention and care than pigs.
But the question always arose: how to keep the meat tasty and healthy for many weeks? Still, refrigerators were invented relatively recently, and before that, fresh meat could in a few hours become the prey of flies that lay their eggs in it. And even without these flying parasites could not be stored for a long time. That is why quite similar storage methods were invented in different parts of the world. As a result, craftsmen prepared speck, prosciutto, basturma, jamon and other dishes. But in fact, all of them were and remain varieties of dried beef, which we will discuss in the article.
The benefits of jerky
Of course, the main advantage of jerky beef is the ability to be stored for a long time. But it is also worth noting the excellent taste. Still, modern store products can not boast of usefulness. To prepare jamon or basturma, they often take not the freshest meat, which, thanks to the marinade and seasonings, acquires a more pleasant smell. And it’s not worth talking about sausage - it rarely includes selected meat, which I would like to eat. And this applies to both cheap varieties and rather expensive ones.
That is why the only way to enjoy a really high-quality dish is to master the recipe for beef, jerky at home, and try to bring it to life.
Cooking nuances
There are a lot of recipes for this delicious dish. But basically, they differ in the composition of seasonings, which are used for marinating meat. In addition, it is necessary to provide a certain temperature for drying, and there should be no sharp drops. For example, if the temperature in the place where the meat is cooked rises sharply, then the product itself, remaining cold, will condense moisture on itself. And this is unacceptable - the process of drying is aimed at bringing the amount of water in the meat to a minimum.
Therefore, maintaining a constant temperature is very important. If this is impossible, then at least it is necessary to do without sudden changes. In cases where the entire environment gradually cools or heats up, moisture will not settle on the meat.
How to choose meat
Now we come to one of the most important moments of cooking - the choice of meat. If you make mistakes here, then even the best recipe for jerky beef will disappoint - to achieve a perfect result will not work.
First of all, it is advisable not to take frozen meat. Fortunately, one can still find fresh or even fresh beef in the markets today. When frozen, moisture breaks the cells of the meat, impairing taste. And it is not known how many days, weeks or months were stored frozen beef in obscure warehouses. But fresh meat is always fresh meat - it will make a truly exquisite basturma.
In addition to the freshness of the product, you need to take care of the correct choice. It is best to take a neck or tenderloin. Fat is the least, and the meat itself is surprisingly tender. Therefore, the finished product will turn out great.
In general, the amount of fat should be minimal. Still, it is he who spoils the fastest - he may eventually go rancid. And then, as in the proverb about honey and tar.
So, the success of the whole operation depends on the correct approach in choosing meat.
Classic recipe
To begin, consider the simplest recipe - the classic. To put it into practice will have to be patient. But the result will not disappoint - that's for sure.
You will need the following ingredients:
- 1 kg of beef;
- 700 g of salt;
- 1 teaspoon of red pepper;
- 2 teaspoons black pepper;
- 3 teaspoons of paprika;
- 1 teaspoon dried garlic;
- 2 tablespoons of brandy.
Meat should be cleaned of films and washed well. If this is one large piece, then it is worth cutting it into several narrower ones. After that, you can start cooking. Mix salt with black pepper and cognac. Grate the resulting mixture into pieces of meat. Pour some of the salt into the bottom of the pan and lay the meat on top. Salt again and meat again - until both ingredients run out. Remove for a day in the refrigerator. Drop in every few hours, draining excess fluid.
After 24 hours, get the meat, wipe with a paper towel. Leave it to dry on the table, meanwhile, mixing paprika, red pepper and garlic. Thoroughly roll the meat in a mixture, wrap in 3-4 layers of gauze, wrap with thread and hang in a cool place where the temperature is from +4 to +10 degrees Celsius. It should fade here 10-15 days, after which you can bring it home, unfold and enjoy an unusual delicacy.
Vyalim in the oven
If you do not have the desire or the ability to wait for so long, you can use another method, much faster, but already far from the classic. It will already be a Texas dish - Jerky.
Take:
- 800 g of beef;
- 1 tablespoon of salt;
- 1 tablespoon of dried garlic;
- 1 tablespoon of red pepper.
The meat here will have to be slightly frozen, so that you can cut it into really thin slices - 2-3 millimeters. Of course, the knife should be very sharp. When all the meat is sliced, mix all the seasonings and sprinkle the pieces with the resulting mixture.
You need to cover the baking sheet with parchment and put the meat with spices on it. Preheat the oven to 110 degrees and remove the pan there for 3 hours. After about two hours, you need to remove the pan and turn the pieces over so that they are dried evenly. After time, the dish is ready - you need to let it cool and you can feast on it.
Vyalim with wine
You can cook jerky beef according to the Italian recipe, resulting in bresaol. In this case, you need wine. In general, you need to stock up on the following ingredients:
- 1 kg of beef;
- a glass of red dry wine;
- 1 kg of coarse salt;
- 10 tablespoons of black pepper;
- rosemary, paprika, thyme, oregano and dried garlic - to taste.
Cut the meat into narrow strips. Mix pepper with salt. Mix everything in layers in a saucepan, pour wine and put in the refrigerator for a week. After this time, get the meat, dry it with paper towels, wrap in gauze and hang on the balcony for one to two weeks. In 7-15 days you will have a great opportunity to enjoy a real bresaola - not every sophisticated gourmet can boast of it!
Cooking sausage
Of course, jamon, bresaola or basturma is good. But sometimes you just want a real, tasty sausage, which today is difficult to buy in stores even for a lot of money. Therefore, we will tell you the recipe for dried beef sausage. At home, cooking it is only a little more difficult than a simple basturma. True, it takes a lot of time to ripen. But you will definitely not have to be disappointed with the result.
To prepare you need to take:
- 1 kg of beef;
- 25 g of salt;
- 2 g of caraway seeds;
- 2 g black pepper;
- 1 g of sugar;
- 1 g food nitrate.
After that, the work itself begins.
Meat should be cut into 5-7 pieces, mixed with salt and put in the refrigerator for a day. After this period, take the meat and dry it with napkins. Scroll in a meat grinder with a large grill, mix with seasonings and nitrate, leave in a cool place for 72 hours - the mince should ripen well.
Now skip the minced meat with a finer grill.
Prepare your guts in advance - preferably pork. Rinse them so that not even the slightest unpleasant odor remains. Now fill the intestines with the resulting minced meat - it is advisable to use a special nozzle for the meat grinder. Make sausages small - 20-30 centimeters or less. Tie tight on both sides.
Give the sausages a horseshoe shape and place in a cool place (but not cold !!!) for 30 days. Every week, bring them briefly home and squeeze them, for example, between two cutting boards, and then return them to the balcony or to the refrigerator.
When a month passes, you need to leave sausages between the boards for about a day, crushing on top with heavy oppression.
You can rest assured that the resulting home-made jerky beef sausage will not disappoint even the most picky connoisseur.
Who can come in handy
All products prepared according to the recipes described above can decorate the table of any gourmet. In addition, you can take them outdoors, for example, if you are fond of tourism. You don’t need to carry a stew with you, the quality of which in recent years is not pleasing. Now you will have at your fingertips natural meat - without veins, fat and a weighty, uncomfortable jar. After all, you can take clean, selected meat, which will easily be stored for several weeks.
How to store
To keep the finished product as long as possible, you need to know certain rules.
Beef should be wrapped in several layers of paper towel and put in a plastic bag. It is not recommended to immediately put it in a bag - in this case, the moisture released from the meat will become a source of mold and speedy damage to the delicacy. A paper towel will easily absorb liquid into itself, so the shelf life will increase significantly. Do not forget to make a note - for example, with a marker when a treat was prepared. Then, if you decide to cook several batches, you will not get confused and easily prioritize the use. And to know how long the dried beef lay, without losing excellent taste, it will be very useful.
In this state, the meat can be stored at room temperature for up to a month. In the refrigerator - as much as 6 months. And even in the freezer, thanks to the complete removal of water, it will not lose its excellent taste even in a year.
Conclusion
On this our article comes to an end. From it you learned different recipes for dried beef with photos that can stimulate the appetite of any person. And also made sure that cooking meat in such exquisite ways is much easier than it might seem at first glance.