The holiday approached slowly, but steadily. Pig squeals cut through the air, and our noses catch the smell of enticing smoke from wood-fired ovens. Slowly everyone was getting ready. Because all kinds of smoking need time, a good mood, and most importantly – inspiration.
It is not for nothing that our saying, which Mykhailo Starytsky took for his comedy, is so optimistic: "Like a sausage and a glass, a quarrel will pass." And when you add ham, horseradish, and horseradish to sausage and a glass of wine, what a quarrel there is!
Fishing meat is a process, of magic and poetry. Since childhood, I have loved this fragrant mystery and still do. In Galicia, the tradition of hunting meat did not die out even during the Soviet era. Especially since sausage has become a shortage.
Those who live in the village or on the outskirts in a private house build themselves a special wood-burning stove with a chimney. Hams, sausages, sponderki, and sausages are hung in the chimney, and if there is a drig, then the whole pig's feet. And all this is not fried or baked, but quietly and dreamily grinds in thick hot smoke, which sneaks up to the chimney through a two-meter channel.
But wood burning is already aerobatics. And there is an easier way.
Those who do not have a wood stove, like me, use a metal barrel for this. In its upper part, ten centimeters below, iron bars should be welded crosswise, on which we hang the meat by metal hooks. You can buy them at bazaars, or you can bend them yourself from coarse wire.
In the lower part, we cut a hole into which we insert a two-meter tin pipe. It can be an old gutter, or you can simply twist the sheet so that it climbs into that hole, and both sides lie on the ground. Then we sprinkle it with earth.
Our wood-burning stove is already ready. At the opposite end of our pipe, we light a fire and make sure that it does not go out, but constantly throw something. The barrel must be covered with something from above so that the meat is bathed in smoke. I use moistened burlap and an old satellite dish for this. The plate is already completely greased, but it catches the signals.
For meat, it is desirable to have logs from vegetable (currently from fruit) trees, it is especially good to give cherry firewood at the end. They will decorate the hams with a beautiful red color.
Nuts can be only at the beginning and not much because nuts make the meat bitter. In no case should you throw firewood from coniferous trees, only from deciduous ones.
And now let's deal with meat. What kind of meat can be fished? Any but pork is best for this. It is ideal to have your own personal butcher. I have one, so I call and say that I need it.
I usually buy several loin steaks, which are back meat with a small layer of lard. I also take a whole neck, which I parcel out at home into more or less identical pieces. When smoked, the neck loses a little fat and is no longer as dense as ham, but its taste is special. And don't forget four or five sponderks and two rolls.
A roll is a fairly wide layer of meat and lard that goes in layers. You can also simply bake it in the oven, adding a filling of onions, mushrooms, greens and twisting and tying it nicely. Baked or smoked rolls is extremely tasty.
Well, if you want to go for a walk, then go for a walk - we make homemade sausage. For her, too, we buy pork neck, lard, and two kilos of veal. And the butchers have cleaned and packed intestines there.
When we move on to the marinating process, the main ingredient of the marinade is salt. One queen didn't like it when her daughter said she loved him like salt. But we know that there is nowhere without it. And to say that - in the Roman Empire, legionaries were paid in handfuls of salt, and it was called salarium. Hence the French word salaire - salary. Later, in the Middle Ages, salt was replaced by money (sol or sou), and soldiers who received wages (solde) were called soldiers (soldiers).
That is why the name of salted meat sausages was given by the Italian adjective salumi (salted), which long ago turned into the noun from which salami comes.
Butchers realized a long time ago that it is unprofitable to sell only fresh produce. It is much more profitable to produce meat products. The Germans of Westphalia were the first to fish ham. Such a ham quickly made Rome happy and conquered and enriched the Germans. Everyone disappeared after her, even the poet Martial. Cato advised rubbing the ham with oil before grilling and after. The secret of the taste of Germanic and Iberian pigs lay in acorns - they grazed freely in oak forests and had well-developed muscles, unlike pigs that were raised in barns without movement.
So, the marinade. First, we weighed everything we bought, including the meat for the sausage. I always have it within 20 lb. 20 lb of meat requires 1 lb of salt, 10 cups (100 grams) of sugar, and 1,5 gallons of water. These proportions are observed at any weight.
Before marinating, we cut the meat into parcels so that the pieces are not too long and rough, but about the thickness of the hand and up to 8-10 in. long. We leave the meat destined for sausage as it is.
Pour half of the salt and sugar into a bowl, add a spoonful of rosemary, cumin, marjoram, thyme, dry mustard, and crushed garlic, and mix. Therefore, we rub the meat with this mixture, and at the same time, it is good we're messing around Yes, you must have kneaded the dough. And if you also beat him with your fists, it's not bad either. Because the meat must relax, stop pressing on you and relax.
We fold such minced meat into the stew as tightly as possible, cover it with a wide lid or a plate, and smother it with, for example, a 5-liter bottle of water.
Boil 6 liters of water with the remaining salt, adding bay leaves, and a teaspoon each of juniper, cloves, and peppercorns. Cardamom is also suitable.
Leave the grated meat in a dry marinade for a day. But so that it does not relax too much and does not fall into hibernation, we turn it over 3-4 times. After a day, pour the cooled marinade so that it is completely covered. And we suppress it again.
Pickling can last a month or a week. The only problem is that it is not winter anymore, and the stew with meat must be cold. That's why I don't risk it and make a place for her in the freezer. But if you do not have such an opportunity, then a week is enough.
And here comes that happy day of the liturgy. As your children light a fire near the barrel, take out the meat from the marinade and wrap each piece, except the meat for the sausage, in cheesecloth and wind it with a thread. Then hook the hooks and hang them on the rods. But it must be remembered that sponderki and rolls do not need to be smoked for too long.
How do we know if the meat is ready? We squeeze it with our fingers - when it is very soft, it is not worth taking it out yet. You can also stitch with a skewer. If clear juice flows out, you can remove it. In general, the fishing process lasts 5–6 hours with intensive tossing of sticks. Although, when there is inspiration, you can stretch it even longer, but then the fire must be weaker.
But there is still sausage waiting for us. Divide the sausage meat into two piles. For one, we put the lard and parts of meat without veins and films, and cut all this into small pieces with a knife. Grind the second, larger part on a machine, but insert a sieve with large holes. Then everything is mixed together like a dough, adding water. You need to knead it for at least 10 minutes, and at the same time beat the poor meat again, beat it on the counter, shake it with your fists, turn it over, and smother it so that it fills with air and does not stick to your hands.
Then we take out the cruciform knife and strainer from the machine and instead insert the nozzle for the sausage. We pull the gut on it exactly like a well-known rubber product and tie the tip.
But before that, the intestine must be washed under running water, because it is usually salty.
How exactly to stuff the intestines - there are many censuses on the network. Do you need the hands of your lover for this? No. I do this work myself because my lover is baking cakes at this time.
And there must also be inspiration for braids.
It is also advisable to wrap the stuffed sausages in cheesecloth so that they do not break and fall. Now the fire should be made weaker and smoke enough for 3-4 hours.
However, this day will not pass only with the bait, because in the program we have slaw and beetroot with horseradish. But everyone here already knows how and what to do, and, I think, will share their secret recipes.
Of course, you can buy ready-made ham. Just not the pale pink one that didn't see the smoke, but bathed in a chemical liquid, after which it was thrown onto a sponge.
But then the feeling of the holiday will be incomplete. Because the meat you prepared yourself is special. Melts in a squeal and enchants with aromas.
With such a mass, you can proudly withstand all the interesting looks of the parishioners who displayed their baskets near the church. Because not everyone's ham will smell like yours.
Therefore, do not deprive yourself of this pleasure. Although it is tense, it is powerful.
Yuriy Vinnychuk.
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