Polendvitsa - a dried product of meat tenderloin. This dish belongs to Belarusian, Lithuanian and Polish cuisine. In these countries, almost every family has their own recipe for dolendwitz. We offer two excellent cooking options for this dish.
How to choose meat?
No matter how good the dolendwitz recipe at home, a delicious dish will work out only if you choose the semi-finished product correctly. It is prepared from beef or pork fillet, less often - from horse meat.
The meat must be fresh. Check it out is very simple. If you click on it, then the surface should return to its shape completely. Irregularities may remain in stale meat. Naturally, a good semi-finished product does not have a bad smell.
Fillet is recommended to take chilled, but not frozen. Be sure to remove all films, veins, tendons and excess fat from meat. The piece should be even, smooth and not thick.
Next, we’ll look at how to cook a dolendewitz. Usually this process is carried out in two stages.
Wet method of pickling dolendwitz. Drying and drying the product
Take a kilogram piece of fillet. If it is thick, it is recommended to cut it lengthwise into two parts. This will speed up the process of salting and drying the meat.
First, let's look at how to pickle a dozen. We make a pickle. Bring to a boil a liter of water, add one hundred grams of salt and five - sugar. Be sure to boil the brine for five minutes and cool. Pour them chopped fillet and forget about it in the refrigerator for eight to ten days.
Next, pull out and put under the load. It’s better to first place a wooden circle, and on top - something heavy. These actions will remove excess moisture and leave the surface even and smooth. It will take a total of four to five hours. Dry the meat thoroughly and roll with your favorite spices. An ideal option would be a combination of black and allspice, coriander, caraway seeds, nutmeg in equal proportions. Add a little bay leaf. It is recommended to grind spices in a mortar and carefully distribute them on the fillet surface. Spread a piece of gauze, put the meat, roll it up and tie it with twine. Each piece of filet is in a separate material.
In order for the meat to ripen, it must be hung in a cool (5-8 degrees) place for at least two weeks. But it must be aired, otherwise the dish may deteriorate. Then we leave it in a warm place for seven to ten days. For example, it can be suspended above the gas. The dried half-dozen is ready. You can cut it and serve. A great addition to meat prepared in this way will be vegetables, herbs and sauce.
Further we will consider how to salt dolendewitz to get a denser and drier product.
Dry way of salting the product. Drying and drying
It is recommended to take meat (approximately one kilogram) with fatty veins, you can dress it a little. This recipe for dolendwitz at home is very similar to the previous one. The exception is that the salting process is carried out in a slightly different way.
To start, prepare an aromatic mixture. To do this, mix seventy grams of salt with ground spices (five bay leaves; in equal proportions - black and allspice, cumin and coriander). Pour the mixture onto the table and carefully roll the meat in it.
Wrap the fillet in gauze very tightly, in several layers, and twist it with threads. Next, proceed to the next step.
Pieces of meat are transferred to a container and left for five days. It is recommended to turn them over every day. Then we hang for a week in a cool and necessarily ventilated place, and in the end - in a warm place. It will take fourteen days to make a great dish. Now you can take a sample.
To get a more dried jerky dolendwitz, it is recommended to leave the meat in a warm place for a longer time.
How to determine the degree of readiness of a dish?
You can do this as follows. The suspended product must be squeezed by hand. If it is clearly determined that there is a dry hard crust on the outside, and flesh can be felt inside, then the product is definitely ready.
How to store the finished dish?
It is believed that cooking raw meat at home is not recommended because it can go bad. But this fact does not apply to salted semi-finished product. Therefore, the main thing is to choose the right proportions. In this case, the salted meat does not deteriorate.
Despite what kind of dolendwitz recipe was used at home, it is recommended to store it in the refrigerator. If necessary, you can remove, cut into thin plates and clean again.
The finished dish can be stored as much as needed. But you need to keep in mind that it will become harder and harder every day. Therefore, the palandwitz preserves optimal taste for sixty days from the moment of full readiness.