It seems to many housewives that culinary masterpieces and cooking delicacies are the destiny of only professional chefs. One of such refined and “complex” dishes is pork pastrami. In fact, you can cook this dish at home. The novice mistress will cope here.
Today we will tell you what are the main secrets of the recipe for home-made pastrami from pork, what are the features of this wonderful delicacy.
A bit of history
Many historical sources claim that many centuries ago pork pastrami was not an expensive delicacy. Initially, people used corned beef as a method of storing meat. In those days, they didn’t even hear about refrigerators, so they looked for any improvised means that could extend the “life” of home-made meat preparations.
The first mention of this dish was found in Romanian historical documents. Experts believe that the word has Turkic roots. It is known that the word "pastrima" or "basturma" was found in this language. Very often the mention of pastrome is found in historical military documents. It is this food that soldiers most often consumed. It was stored for a long time, tolerated temperature extremes, was satisfying and high-calorie.
The meat used for cooking dishes in different countries is different. It is known that pork pastroma was popular in Romania. In other countries of the world, they used beef or chicken more often. The meat was pickled, sprinkled with a special set of spices and dried in the sun. The highlight of this dish is garlic and spices, which give the meat a specific taste.
Pork pastrami at home, the recipe of which we will offer you today, is an excellent alternative to absolutely any meat dishes. It is also an excellent snack for the festive table.
Acute home pastrami
The delicacy that we will cook today does not require any special culinary knowledge and skills. But by the result you will get a surprisingly tasty and fragrant dish that will surprise both the sophisticated culinary gourmet and the true picky meat-eater.
Today there are a lot of cooking options, you can find a lot of methods and recommendations on how to cook pasta from pork at home. We suggest you cook this dish according to an old classic recipe. Immediately make a reservation that, according to the traditional recipe, the dish turns out to be quite spicy, so if for some reason you can’t eat spicy food, simply reduce the amount of “burning” ingredients initially.
Cooking Products
- Pork - two kilograms.
- Ground black pepper - 3.5 tbsp. l
- A tablespoon with a mustard slide.
- Four tablespoons of coriander.
- Half a teaspoon of red hot pepper.
- As much ground cloves.
- A pair of bay leaves.
- A quarter teaspoon of caraway seeds.
- As much ground ginger, as much cinnamon.
- 250 grams of sugar.
- 200 grams of salt.
- Five to six cloves of garlic.
- 100 grams of brown sugar.
- One hundred grams of honey.
- 4 liters of water.
- Two tbsp. tablespoons fennel.
Step 1. Cooking the Spice Blend
A set of fragrant and fragrant ingredients is one of the important points that should not be overlooked when preparing a pork pastroma at home. To start, peppers, mustard and coriander are fried in a pan for five minutes. It must be clean and dry. After the aromatic ingredients are fried, transfer them to a mortar and grind. Experts advise against using food processors, coffee grinders and other equipment for grinding spices. Everything must be done by hand.
Choose a larger pan. Put chopped spices there. Add cloves and ginger, cumin and salt, bay leaves, hot peppers, salt and cinnamon, brown and white sugar, garlic and honey. Pour water and put on the stove. When the liquid boils, reduce the heat, mix thoroughly and cook the spices until the sugar and salt have completely disappeared. The brine is ready. Remove the pan from the stove.
Step 2. Meat
When the cooked aromatic brine cools, you can put meat in it. It is important to choose the right pan. The meat must be completely covered with liquid. From another container, the size of which is slightly smaller than that chosen by you for cooking brine, we take the lid. Put it on the meat, doing oppression. You can also put a jar filled with water on top. In this state, the future pork pastrami will be for five days. Place the container in a cold place. It can be a refrigerator or a balcony, if weather permits.
Step 3. Re-marinate
After the meat has stood for five days in the cold, it should be removed, washed under running water and dried. Grind coriander, fennel, mustard and pepper in a mortar. We rub the meat piece with the prepared mixture and send it to the refrigerator for 12 hours. Do not forget to pin down the yoke.
Step 4. Roasting pan
Of course, according to the traditional recipe, the heat of the sun should be used to finally prepare the dish. But we are preparing a pastrami from pork at home, so instead of solar heat, we will use an oven. It should be heated to 180 degrees.
We get the meat from the refrigerator. We wipe it and wrap it in foil. Now you need to send a piece for fifteen minutes in a hot oven. After the specified period of time, we get the pastram and get rid of the foil. We put the meat back on a baking sheet or wire rack and bake it already without foil for half an hour.
Turn off the oven. Do not rush to open the oven. Do not let out precious "artificial solar" heat. The dish should stand in the roasting pan for about four hours. Only then will it be finally ready.
The meat will cool down for about two to three hours. Appetizer is served necessarily cold and cut into thin small pieces.
Reviews
It is impossible not to say about the pleasant reviews, which are just pouring hail on the recipe for pork pastrami cooked at home. All culinary specialists note that, despite the long cooking process, the dish is prepared quite simply. Many housewives say that this “highlight” was not enough at their holiday tables. For many, pastrami has forever replaced sausages and sausage.