Juicy, smoked Ham & Prosciutto – Best in the land!
Teaching someone to cure after teaching them to chop is like teaching someone how to fly a jet after you have taught them to operate a lawn mower – it’s a bit irresponsible and mean. Okay, never mind, you can handle it. At the very least I hope that this will inspire you to pursue more learning because, like butchery, curing can SAVE YOU A TONNE OF MONEY!!!! I’m not going to get too deep into curing (as with butchery) because it’s beyond the scope of this guide.
Food for Thought:
My feeling about curing meat is this: if the lights go out like they did a few years ago in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada, or like they did when Enron was playing around with electricity in poor California, then those who have been curing meats will thrive. Oh wow, they will thrive. Imagine, you’re the only one with edible animal protein…okay enough of that dark thought.
Here’s one basic example:
Salmon is in season and you have scored a beautiful, full side (fillet) for an excellent price. You ought to make gravad lax. What the heck is gravad lax? Gravad lax is a technique out of Norway but cooks in every other European country would claim to have invented it. Everybody has their own spin on the dish.
Here we go:
Leave the skin on the fillet of salmon.
In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of sugar with ¼ cup each of: carrot brunoise, lemon peel brunoise, and chopped fresh dill.
Pack the fish in this mixture, wrap it in plastic wrap, place it on a cookie sheet, and put another cookie sheet on top of it with a small can of soup to put pressure on the fish; convince him to cure. Then, place this whole contraption in the fridge.
After 8 hours, turn the fish over and replace the cookie sheet and the weight.
Repeat two more times for a total of 24 hours.
Remove the salt mixture from the fish and soak the fish in cold water for 15 minutes.
Pat the fish dry with a towel and apply 2 tbs of olive oil and 1/8 cup of chopped dill to the top of the fish.
To serve, use your sharpest knife to slice paper thin slices on a 45 degree angle, beginning at the tail and working towards the head.
Serve the slices with lemon and a salad or, on a sandwich with cream cheese (not thrifty) and sliced onion and capers (also not thrifty). Or, you could just slice it and eat it--it’s tasty!
Store your gravad lax in the fridge.
The absolute most useful forms of curing allow you to store the meat in a cool, dry place out of the fridge. Charcuterie is a practical skill that is super thrifty as nothing on a pig goes to waste.
Homemade Bacon and Farm Fresh Eggs!
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