Home-Cured Corned Beef for Cook the Books Club

It was that time again - to break out the green, the shillelagh and of course, your own fabulous home-cured corned beef.  However, I decided to head this up with a picture of me in Ireland (a number of years ago), a tad prettier view than pics of a slab of beef brisket in brine. This recipe fits in well with our latest Cook the Books Club selection, The Unprejudiced Palate, or as Alice Waters dubbed it, the Prejudiced Palate, by Angelo Pellegrini. 

 Pellegrini was certainly sure of what he believed, though he crossed over the line a number of times, and especially in his encounter with M.F.K. Fisher in a final addendum.  Yes, there is a tremendous amount of waste in this country; yes, many people are dependent upon fast foods, more so now than when this book was written, and yes there is too much reliance on prepared foods, canned, frozen or boxed. 

 Also, he mentions parts of meat usually neglected by home cooks, though I have to say, that may now be for good reason - you cannot find those parts in most grocery stores any more.  Until recently a whole chicken came with the giblets and neck enclosed, which practice seems to have stopped. Unless you butcher the animal yourself, it is not likely you will be able to cook kidneys, heart, tongue, brains etc.  In fact, I was going to make his veal suggestion from page 203-4, but was unable to find even veal in the market here.  Despite the fact that Hawaii Island has one of the biggest cattle ranches in the U.S.

The memoir sections, from his young life in Italy and early years in America were very moving, especially the evocative cultural and economic contrasts.  I had no idea of the extreme poverty in rural Italy at that time.   He was so overwhelmed by the contrast in America, that I think it just broke his heart to see waste and carelessness with the precious gifts of abundance here.

As a winemaker myself, though not grape, unfortunately, I enjoyed his thoughts on that subject also.  Much of the remainder seemed a bit obvious, perhaps due to when it was written, or preaching to the saved, in the case of our group of bloggers anyway, and I found myself skipping sections.  Always addressing or referring to "housewives" in the book was annoying, though another sign of that era, I'm sure.

Corning your beef brisket from scratch would be right up his frugal little alley.  Using an inexpensive (supposedly) cut of meat, slow cooking after a long soak in spiced brine, is not at all difficult, just requires a bit of planning ahead.  5 days to be exact.  You throw all the spices and salt together with water and add your meat, easy.  Leave it to cure and then cook.

Hawaiian Grines - Wild Big Island Boar Sausage for Charcutepalooza

Grines is a term for food in Hawaii, in this case pork....ground.  I guess it makes sense in a way.  Finding them was the big deal, however, as I was not at all happy with the last bit of piggy we sourced.  Should have driven out to the scene of its undoubtedly sad upbringing, several hours away, down the coast to Hamakua, and checked things out  for myself.  Well, this time I was determined, one way or another to get some free range, wild and happy boar.  If I had to go hunting myself, with my trusty Glock.  Ha ha.  Just kidding folks.  I'm not into that really....  Unless sorely pressed.

I was walking away from the store yesterday when an employee came running after me, "Claudia, your pig came in."  Likely any vegetarians in the area were cringing, eyes squished closed.  So, back I went to collect my wild boar bits.

From free as a boar can be, in the forests of the Big Island, brought to the slaughterhouse by Mr. Hunter, to the store and then to me.  I cut the meat in half, ground one part for Breakfast Sausage and the rest for Chorizo, since the challenge for this issue of Charcutepalooza was grinding your own sausage.  Then added the seasonings and put both portions away in the fridge to chill up again.  We are using the authoritative book on the subject, Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, as a guide, and I pretty much stuck with his recipes, excepting as noted below.

Smoking Salmon for Charcutepalooza

Since the latest challenge from the folks at Charcutepalooza was hot smoking meat or fish, and we were blessed to be given a 3 lb. piece of wild red salmon by our hunter/fisherman/pilot friend, the selection of what to smoke this month was pretty obvious.  Not so clear was the" how to" of it all, though  I had the feeling that if sufficient directions were found, and I followed them step by step, then my first attempt at smoking wouldn't be a complete disaster.  And, I was right.  That salmon smoked up beautifully, moist, flavorful and tender.  I cut the piece in half lengthwise, so there would be skin on just one side of each, and so it wouldn't be so thick. Next it went into a salt and sugar brine flavored with toasted, crushed coriander seeds, 5 Spice and yellow miso for 2 hours at room temperature.

We have a Grillware charcoal BBQ, which has a thermometer on the hinged lid, which made things simpler.  Also a hand crank to raise and lower the grill level, which made adding extra chips and coals easier.  I went on the side of less charcoal being better.  You can add heat easier than taking it away, was my thought.  I used apple wood chips, soaked overnight, but they dried out after an hour, and weren't smoking much, so I threw on some fresh green guava wood pieces to continue producing smoke.  I had 2 old metal pans of water under the fish, as advised.  So, the salmon went for 3 hours at very low heat, and got a good dose of smoke along the way.

So many ways to serve this wonderful smoky flavored fish. One of my favorites was Open-faced Smoked Salmon Sandwiches on whole grains bread.

Brining My Brisket for Charcutepalooza

Brining is the Charcutepulooza challenge for March.  I have prepared food in a salt brine a few times, so I was looking at this as opportunity for improving technique and trying new recipes to use with it. Pickles are a favorite. Especially of mixed vegetables. I did brined Chicken, and Corned Beef last year, both using Ruhlman's Ratio book and his web directions as well, but didn't post about it, other than to complain over all the room the brisket took up in my fridge. And, the fact that it was late for St. Paddy's. This year will be different.

I decided make more of those pickles, since I was out, and the Beef Brisket for Corned Beef, in time for St. Patrick's.

Guanciale for Charcutepalooza

If you can pronounce the words in my title, there is a special prize. I (don't ask why) have decided to attempt this year-long challenge of preparing a different type of charcuterie, each month with the participants of Charcutepalooza, currently taking place at Mrs. Wheelbarrow's site. It has been called A Year in Meat, and is hosted by Cathy Barrow and Kim Foster. These two women have come up with the quite inspirational idea for us to cure, smoke and salt our way right through Michael Ruhlman‘s how-to cookbook, Charcuterie.

January's challenge was Duck Prosciutto, which came and went before I had a chance to join in.  Though, I would say making Duck Confit several times comes close, as it involves salting, then slow cooking and preserving in fat, rather than dry curing.  At any rate, the hosts have decided to extend the January Challenge, allowing late posts throughout the coming year.  So, I'm okay, and certainly looking forward to doing Duck Prosciutto, and especially eating it.

The February challenge is the salt cure, either bacon, pancetta, guanciale ("gwan-chi- ah-lay") or lamb prosciutto.  Folks, this does not mean that I am not committed to using less meat.  Only to preparing more myself, and from humanely raised animals.  At any rate, for non meat eaters, salmon, salt cod or even lemons can be done with a salt cure on this challenge. One of the things I do with the lemons life gives me.  Lemon Mead is good too, but that's another story.

Having procured some small farm, locally raised hog jowl, I began the simple (very) process of preparing homemade guanciale.  From what I was able to read, this fatty cut of meat, the jowl or cheek,  has a more intense piggy flavor than bacon or pancetta.  Which, if you enjoy pork, is a good thing.  According to Mario, in The Babbo Cookbook:

Guanciale is the very distinctly flavored bacon made from the jowls and cheeks of our hero, the pig.  It has a depth of flavor and intense richness that is simply not present in commercially made American bacon.  It is quite simple to make at home; we make fifty pounds a week at Babbo and use it with abandon whenever possible.

Whoa, if Mario uses it with abandon, it is likely pretty darn good.  However, having never heard of it before (goes to show that I don't read every word in my cookbooks), seen it in a store, or eaten this item, it's all new to me.  But, being up for trying something different and tasty, away we went.