How to make cured meat at home? Homemade beef jerky recipe.

If you love meat, love not only eating it, but also cooking, then one day you will definitely want to try this recipe! Very impressive to the eye, very tasty to the stomach, and very easy to make. The secret of this beef jerky is an amazingly selected bouquet of seasonings and spices, as well as methodical adherence to technology. With a piece of such meat, you can always set an exquisite table for a spontaneous friendly party, take it with you on a visit or a picnic, or even present it as an exclusive gift along with a bottle of brutal full-bodied red wine. If you have already dried meat at home, for example, you used mine, then this recipe will not seem difficult to you. If you decide on such a gastronomic adventure for the first time, then the recommendations given in the recipe will help you get an excellent result, and not “the first pancake is lumpy”.

Recipe Information

Cooking method: curing .

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of young beef (even oblong piece of pulp)
• 60 g sea salt
• 40 g sugar
• 6 g coarsely ground coffee
• 15 g coarsely ground black pepper (or a mixture of peppers)
• 12-15 g juniper berries, crushed in a mortar
• 5 large bay leaves.

Drying beef

For cooking, you will need a rectangular container of a suitable size, a stone or sandbag as weight, cling film, parchment, twine, a piece of cotton fabric of a suitable size.

Separately, it is worth making a reservation about meat. For home curing, young beef is best, with beautiful bright red meat and white fat. When buying in the market, pay attention to all the pieces of carcass. In old beef, the fat is yellow, and the meat is purple. Such meat will be tougher and rougher. Veal for this recipe is also not recommended, since the meat did not have time to gain the desired taste, the result may be disappointing. It is better to choose a piece that is even, with fibers along the length, or one from which it can be easily made with a knife and a few manipulations. There should also be no fat on the piece. Naturally, the meat should be purchased from a trusted butcher and be as fresh as possible, since it will not be cooked.

Since the drying process involves dehydration, the meat during the drying process will decrease both in volume and in weight, this should be taken into account. From a one and a half kilogram piece you get a block of dried meat 800-900 grams.

To prepare meat in the first stage, you will need a salt-coffee mixture with spices. To do this, in the container in which the meat will be cured, mix sea salt, sugar, ground coffee and pepper, crushed juniper berries, crumble the bay leaf. Such a set of seasonings should not embarrass anyone, and coffee and juniper, oddly enough, make up a spicy but discreet accompaniment to beef meat, emphasizing its rather bright taste favorably.

Wash the formed piece of meat, dry it slightly. Dip the piece in a mixture of salt, sugar and spices on all sides and thoroughly breaded. Place the meat in a container and cover with a piece of cling film.

The next week, the meat should be stored in the refrigerator under oppression. As oppression, you can use a suitable size cutting board and pebbles for salting, a bag of sand, or even a jar of pickled mushrooms. This is not so important, it is important that there is oppression. A day later, the meat must be taken out, the resulting juice drained and the piece turned over.

After a week, take the meat out of the refrigerator and remove from the container. Blot excess liquid with paper towels, leave the spices. You can mix in additional breading from your favorite spices, or simply sprinkle a piece of meat with a ready-made set of spices for pastrami or barbecue. This will make it even tastier.

The next two or three weeks, the meat will fall and dry out. There are two options for bringing meat to readiness. In any case, it is better to wrap the meat with cotton cloth. Further, if the meat “reaches the standard” on the shelf of the refrigerator, then it must be additionally wrapped in paper, tied with twine and put on ripening. It is better to check the meat a couple of times a week, if necessary, changing the wet cloth and paper. In a couple of weeks it will be possible to hold the first tasting.

There is a second way, faster and more radical. A piece of meat is wrapped in a cloth, or a bag is made from it with an overcast seam and a piece is placed inside and hung on the door of the upper cabinet or on the edge of the hood above the gas stove in the kitchen. If lunch and dinner are cooked on the stove every day and the oven is turned on several times a week to make bread or pastries for tea, then this will be quite enough so that in a week you can have gatherings over a piece of amazing jerky! The warm, dry air rising up while the stove is on will help the meat dry out more quickly.

If the house has an electric dryer for vegetables and fruits, then after a week of marinating in the refrigerator, jerky can be cut into slices and dried on grates for several hours at 40-60 degrees.

You can serve such dried meat with dried or pickled spicy fruits, tomatoes, as well as with sweet mustard-based sauces. is obligatory, and a bottle of red wine will only decorate the meal of real gourmets.

Dried meat at home is not difficult. The main thing in this process is patience, imagination and time. The drying process is very long and takes about 1 month.

There are quite a few ways to dry meat. But basically, they differ only in whether a separate brine is prepared for the meat, or whether the meat is hung out for drying after some procedures. We will consider the second method a little later, but now I offer you a simple and effective way to wither almost any meat. I assure you that the meat declared in the following way will be both tasty and will lose little in weight, and will look and smell like the most exquisite delicacy.

So, in essence, the process consists of 3 stages:

1. Preparation of brine and soaking meat in it (3-4 days)

2. Finishing meat in the refrigerator (6-7 days)

3. Direct drying itself (6-7 days)

All times given are approximate, please refer to the condition of the product.

Let's start from the first stage - we prepare the brine and soak the meat in it:

1. Cut the meat into pieces. I recommend making longitudinally elongated pieces.

2. Prepare the brine: for 1 kg of meat you need about 2 liters of water. Bring the water to a boil, add 4-6 tablespoons of salt, 1-2 bay leaves, a couple of cloves, allspice to 1 liter of water. If you want to give the meat a light lemon flavor - add a lemon peel. Boil for 1-2 minutes, cool to room temperature. We remove the bay leaf and lemon peel, if you put it.

3. In the brine, cooled to room temperature, immerse all the meat and leave for about 5-6 hours. Then we put it all in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

It's time to move on to stage 2: finishing in the refrigerator.

1. After 3-4 days, we take the meat out of the brine, put it for 1 hour under a slight oppression of their improvised means, so that the juice can drain. This is done in order to remove excess soaked brine from the meat, which will interfere with drying and make the process indefinitely long.

2. After the press, rub the meat with ground black and red pepper on all sides, if you wish, you can take other spices for meat. For example, I recommend ground cumin and coriander.

Seasoned meat should be wrapped in clean cheesecloth and refrigerated in a covered container for about 6-7 days. After 6 days, you can start curing the meat, re-processing it with spices.

And the final stage is drying.

After the meat “rests” in the refrigerator, it must be removed and again thoroughly rolled in spices. I highly recommend adding paprika to the final deboning.
Red pepper required. Paprika gives a special taste, aroma and appearance to the cooked meat.

In addition to this, try rubbing dried garlic on the meat.

Hang the meat in a dry and warm place. If you are going to hang it on an open balcony, then be sure to wrap it in clean gauze, this will get rid of insects.

After about 6-7 days, the meat will be ready to eat.

It is best to store in the refrigerator, where such meat can be stored for up to three months.

Step 1: prepare the brine with spices.

For the preparation of jerky, it is very important to properly prepare the brine in which fresh meat will be marinated. The brine is prepared from the calculation: per 1 liter water must be taken 4-4.5 full (heaped) tablespoons salt. It is very important that the salt solution is strong enough, as the juice released from the meat will reduce its concentration during salting. In addition, there should be enough liquid so that the meat can be freely in the brine container. Pour water into a free saucepan and add salt here. Using a tablespoon, mix well until the salt is completely dissolved. Then, in the same container, add bay leaf, allspice, peas and cloves. Put the pot on medium heat and let the water boil. Through 3-5 minutes after boiling the liquid, set the container with the brine aside and let it cool to room temperature. After that, using a tablespoon, we take out all the seasonings from the saline solution and throw them away, we no longer need them.

Step 2: prepare the meat.

We wash the pork pulp under warm running water. Then, holding the meat with your hands, let the water drain, and then put it on a cutting board. With the help of a kitchen knife, we clean the pork from fat and film. It is desirable that the meat has the shape of a flat rectangle, so it will be easier to wrap it in cheesecloth and dry it. Attention: if you have frozen meat, it must first be thawed to room temperature. Do not defrost meat in the microwave or in hot water.

Step 3: prepare the spice mixture.

We first break the bay leaf with our hands into several small pieces, and then transfer it to a mortar. In the same container, lay out the black peppercorns, paprika, cumin and coriander. We grind everything well to a state of homogeneous, not very small crumbs. Then pour the resulting crumb into a separate small bowl and add salt and red ground pepper here. Attention: all spices for the preparation of the mixture must be taken to taste, but red ground pepper must be present among them in sufficient quantities, as it is a good preservative for our meat delicacy. Using a tablespoon, mix all the spices together until smooth.

Step 4: prepare the jerky.

We put the pork in a saucepan with a cooled brine and cover the container with a lid. Then we put this dish in the refrigerator. for 1-3 days. From now on, we will turn the meat in brine 1-2 times a day. The liquid in the container should completely cover the meat so that it seems to float in it: the more brine, the better it is for pork, because the meat will not absorb excess salt, but it will salt well. Attention: the time spent by pork in liquid saline depends on the size of the meat piece and on the desired degree of salting. After this time, we take the meat out of the container and transfer it to a paper towel in order to wipe it from the remaining water. Then we shift the pork to a cutting board, tilt it slightly, and cover it with a plate with oppression on top. Leave the meat in this position for about 1 hour so that the rest of the brine flows out of it.

After we shift the pork to a flat plate and evenly rub it well on all sides with a mixture of spices.

We spread the meat boned in spices on a clean, dry gauze cloth and wrap it. Then we shift the gauze with pork into a free deep bowl, cover the dish with a lid and put this container for 1 week in the refrigerator, preferably on the middle or bottom shelf. After this time, we take the meat out of the gauze and again, transferring it to a clean bowl, roll it in the newly prepared fresh spices. After that, we again wrap the pork in a clean, dry gauze cloth, and tie it with a thread or twine. Then we hang the gauze with meat in the kitchen to the cornice or in another well-ventilated place for 1-2 weeks.

Step 5: serve the jerky.

After 1-2 weeks We take the jerky out of the gauze and transfer it to a cutting board. Using a kitchen knife, cut the meat delicacy into small pieces and put it on a flat dish or on a plate with cold cuts. Our cured meat delicacy looks just great. And the smell! But the main thing is that our dried pork is completely natural and without any additives.

Enjoy your meal!

For the preparation of jerky, it is better to use a fresh, slightly chilled meat ingredient. Dried meat can be prepared from chicken fillet or beef tenderloin. But the tastiest thing is this pork delicacy. Usually, the neck or tenderloin is used to prepare jerky.

Ground ginger can be added to dry ground spices. It improves the flavor of the cured meat.

If you are cooking jerky in the summer, then take it out to the balcony to the sunny side, hanging our ingredient on a clothesline. In winter, meat can be dried near a central heating battery or gas stove. But it is more convenient to cook jerky in the cold season, when the heating is on, since at this time the air in the apartment is usually dry.

1. The recipe for homemade jerky should begin with the preparation of the salt mixture. To do this, pour salt into a deep plate, it is best to use coarse rock salt.

2. Black and red ground peppers.

3. Chop the dried bay leaf into pieces with your hands.

4. Pour in vodka and mix. The mass should become only slightly damp, like wet sand on the beach.

5. Wash a piece of tenderloin, leave it to dry a little, or remove excess liquid from its surface with a paper towel. Pork tenderloin usually has a small layer of lard on the bottom, it can be removed if desired, but it would be better to leave it, since lard can also be salted in a similar way, you will get jerky with a small amount of lard.

6. Generously rub the meat with a mixture of salt and spices on all sides, be sure to use the entire mixture. Place in a deep bowl with a flat bottom, cover with a plate on top. Send to the refrigerator for 12-14 hours. In order for the meat to salt evenly, it will need to be turned over every 3-4 hours.

7. The salt mixture will remove excess liquid from the meat that will collect at the bottom of the bowl, you do not need to drain it, it will help in marinating the meat.

8. After the allotted time, rinse the tenderloin under the tap, carefully removing salt, spices and pieces of bay leaf. Again, dry the meat with paper towels.

9. Cut the garlic into small pieces and sprinkle the tenderloin with it on all sides.

10. Take a clean gauze and tightly wrap the meat in it. In order for it to be more regular in shape and not flatten during the drying process, a piece must be tied with a thread. The meat should have free access to air from all sides, for this it must either be hung for something or put on a wire rack. In this form, the tenderloin will dry out first at room temperature for 12-14 hours (it is also desirable to turn it over periodically), and then for two or three days in the refrigerator.

11. The longer the meat dries, the more dense and salty it will become. But after a day, you must definitely unwind it and separate the gauze from it, as it can strongly stick to the meat and it will begin to deteriorate.

12. Delicious homemade jerky is ready.

So listen
Let me be in the middle of summer
Bliss under the old pear,
Treating yourself in the cool
The wine that gurgles in the bottle
Ilyansky, or something, and moreover
The most delicate piece of ham,
Yes, so that there are seasonings for it ...
Lope de Vega "He who left stayed at home"

Dried meat or ham is not just a piece of meat, it is a delicacy. It is suitable as an appetizer with wine, beer, sherry and whiskey. Pre-salted meat, and then dried, is stored for a long time. For this reason, warriors and travelers often took it with them on the road.
There are many varieties of jerky, they are all delicious and some can be cooked at home.

Jamon

Jamon is the culinary pride of Spain. This famous delicacy has existed for over 2000 years. Roman emperors adored him, and Miguel de Cervantes described the beauty of taste in his novel Don Quixote. In his novel Goya, or the Hard Path of Knowledge, Lion Feuchtwanger described Pepa, comparing it with a delicacy - "A plump jamon is a nice pig with a pleasant, smooth skin like satin."
First, the hind legs of the pig are salted and kept for a week at 3 °C, and then they are dried for 6-36 months. Drying begins in winter or early spring, so that the temperature slowly increases until the very end of summer.
In autumn, jamon is hung in the cellar, where it is kept for 9-12 months at a temperature of 8 °C. In the cellar, under the influence of microflora, meat acquires aroma, structure and characteristic taste. To check the readiness of the ham, the expert pierces it with a thin needle from the bone of a cow and draws conclusions from the aroma.
There are two types of jamon: Iberico and Serrano. Jamon Iberico (Spanish: jamón ibérico, often called "pata negra" - "black leg") is more expensive. For its preparation, an Iberian pig (black pig) fed on acorns is used. The meat is very tender and just melts in your mouth. Most often it is served on holidays. Jamon serrano (Spanish jamón serrano, "mountain jamon") is made from pigs raised on the plateau (white pig). In Spain, it is eaten as a daily dish.
Jamon must be cut into thin strips. Cortador is the very specially trained person who will cut your jamon perfectly.
Jamon goes well with fruits such as melon, pear, grapes. For drinks, choose dry white wines or sherry.

Prosciutto

Prosciutto is an Italian cured ham. It is prepared from the hind legs of pigs, which are fattened with fruits and corn. On such a diet, meat acquires an amazing taste and aroma. The most famous type of prosciutto is Parma ham. In this variant, the pigs are fed whey left over from the production of Parmesan cheese.
First, the hams are salted and then dried for at least 9 months. The meat turns out dense and dry due to the low content of fat in it.
Prosciutto is cut into thin slices and served with melon, figs and dry red wine.

Basturma

Basturma is a cured beef tenderloin in a crust of spices. For the first time this dish was invented by the warriors of Genghis Khan. They put pieces of meat under the saddle, under the weight of the rider, excess juice came out of it, and it was salted with the salty sweat of the horse. During the trip, it was dried in the wind and a delicious delicacy was obtained. Later, such meat was in demand in the countries that were part of the former Ottoman Empire.
Basturma is prepared from veal tenderloin, rubbed with salt and put under pressure for 12 hours. Then it is washed, plentifully smeared with gruel of black and red pepper, garlic and blue fenugreek (chaman). Basturma is hung in a ventilated room for 12-14 days. The taste of basturma is rich, and the meat itself is quite tough. Serve it thinly sliced ​​as an appetizer for beer or whiskey.

Bresaola

Bresaola is an Italian dry-cured veal tenderloin. The tenderloin is covered with a crust of salt and black pepper and left for 15 days, then hung out to ripen for 5 weeks at a temperature of 24-25 ° C and an air humidity of 40-50%, and ripen at a temperature of 12-15 ° C and an air humidity of 70 % about 3 weeks. Under these conditions, the meat slowly releases moisture and ferments. Thanks to this, bresaola acquires its unique taste. Each cook has his own secrets for preparing bresaola, and sometimes dry red wine is added when salting.
Bresaola is not too salty in taste. Dried meat is cut into thin slices and served with olive oil, lemon juice and ground black pepper. Dry red wine is suitable for drinks.

Eat not much, but tasty!