Homemade Salami/Chorizo - Week 1

After only a week it's a little firmer to the touch but not mouldy in the slightest.

Homemade Salami & Chorizo

The salami recipe I'm using is spot on, straight from the River Cottage Handbook. The chorizo recipe isn't, I'm simply chucking some paprika into the salami recipe. It shouldn't be far off!

Here's the basic salami recipe:

1150g minced pork
70g back fat
1 garlic clove
18g pepper corns
small glass of red wine
2% of the above combined weight in salt

With regards the back fat, initially I struggled to get hold of it. Even the family butcher on the high street didn't have it. Amazingly Morrisons were virtually giving in away. Just take the skin off. The back fat in underneath.

The pepper corns should be lightly bashed up. Ideally you want big lumps of pepper. It's a bit of a pain. I paid a small child a chocolate biscuit to smash mine up.

My ingredients weighed 1285g so I added 26g of salt. I then split the mixture and blathered one half in paprika.

Then...shock horror. I pulled out the hog casings and it looks like I've over salted them the last time I put them away. They're rock hard. I chucked them straight into water. I'll have to wait a few hours now to see if the water revives them. If not I've have to go and beg the butcher on the high street for some.

It came back to life after 5 hours in warm water. Next just fill 'em up using your sausage making machine!

Stick them up in the loft and check on them weekly. They should be ready in six weeks or so!

I'll post a pic every week so that the mould can be observed! Mould = Tasty

Proper Corned Beef Pie

You've 'corned' your own beef and made some corned beef hash. The end is in sight. You now need to make the pie!

Firstly the shortcrust pastry. The recipe for this is easy to remember. You need half as much fat as flour. I'm looking for a traditional pastry so part of my fat will be luscious lard.

600g plain flour

200g unsalted butter

100g lard

water

I would normally use a blender to make the pastry, but our Magimix is knackered so I'm doing it by hand. Luckily I found a small child to mix the flour, butter and lard together until we were left with breadcrumbs.

Once you have breadcrumbs add a little water, a bit at a time and mix together with a knife. After about 150ml ours was ready to bring together into a ball. Sling it into a plastic bag and whack into the fridge for 30 mins or so.

Next grease your cake tin. With lard! Don't worry, it works. We want a massive pie so we used a deep 9 inch spring form.

Lastly plonk the pastry in, fill in any gaps, fill with hash, sit the top on and fork around the edges to seal. 180 for about 45 minutes will do it.

Salt Beef - Corned Beef (with added Prague Powder) Part Two

After about 48 hours in the brine your meat will be ready to cook. First of all rinse the lump under some cold water to remove any excess salt.

Next you want to make your poaching stock. I'm using the same spices etc as the cure, but throwing in the customary stock vegetables. In this case a couple of carrots, an onion, halved and a couple of lengths of celery.

You can add the beef when the stock is just barely bubbling. This is important. If you cook the meat in a raging cauldron it will end up tough. The liquid should present barely a murmur. See vid.

You can leave the beef in there for about 2 hours. Then it'll be falling apart and still pink! Pink, because of the Prague Powder. If you don't have PP you'll end up with grey meat. It'll still be tasty. But it'll be grey.

Next we make the corned beef hash! This is a traditional recipe passed down from my Grandma Griff and shouldn't be tinkered with.

When you take the beef out reserve the flavourful stock. We'll be needing that!

Peel about 2.5kg of spuds and dice 4 medium sized onions. Chuck back into the stock pot and pour the poaching liquid back in so that the spuds and onions are just covered.

Whack the heat up and cook until soft. Next dice your corned beef.

When the spuds are soft put the beef in. Add a few good pinches of black pepper. No need to salt as it's salty enough. Stir in about 3 tablespoons of Bisto and then either mash or wazz-up with a stick blender. It should be about the consistency of molten lava.

You can either eat it now or allow to cool before pie making. I'll be having half for tea tonight and making a pie with the rest.

Salt Beef - Corned Beef (With added Prague Powder!)

This is a doddle to make and sets you up nicely for the king of all corned beef hash pies!

Firstly, you need a nice piece of brisket. No other cut will do so don't let anybody tell you it will! Mine was 1.3kg.

Next you'll need to make the brine that's going to cure this lovely fatty beefy lump.

5l water
750g of cheap salt (The cheaper the better)
300g light brown sugar
3 tps Prague Powder
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
1 star anise
5 juniper berries (squashed)
pepper corns (small handful)
2 cardamon pods
sprig of thyme

Plonk it all in and bring it to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and the salt. As soon as it comes to the boil turn it off and let it cool completely.

Once it's cooled transfer the brine to a non-metallic receptacle, in my case a lego storage box.

Pop the beef in and weight down with something to keep it submerged. Chuck it in the fridge and forget about it for 48 hours!

I'll be back in a couple of days with the next part! The slow inevitable simmer towards corned beef - salt beef perfection!