Local Food Heroes Blog

Saturday, 10 04 10 - 21:16

Smoked Salmon and a Soggy Bottom

This post was going to be about the art of making the 'perfect' quiche, or as we say around here - egg and bacon tart. It was only after I took the photo of it that I noticed it had a soggy bottom. It didn't seem so when we ate it. I baked the case 'blind' and coated it with beaten egg to seal it; you can't do much more. Even so the photo made me look like the amateur I am! Anyway, the whole art of making the quiche can be summed up by - use fresh ingredients, double cream not milk, bake the case blind, and bake the egg mixture at less than 160°C so that it doesn't separate/curdle. To me it should be like an egg custard but savoury.

In the absence of the quiche, you'll have to make do with smoked salmon:

Yes, greed got the better of me and I bought some cut price whole salmon from a supermarket that I wouldn't normally be seen dead in. The salmon was filleted and then put into plain sea salt for 6½ hours followed by about 34 hours of cold smoking. It's been in the fridge for a couple of days to allow the flavour to 'mingle'. It deserved the 'poncy' presentation and tomato rose; it was superb.

It never ceases to amaze me how a bit of salt and smoke can turn this:

Into this:

It looks like my filleting technique needs a bit of work though!

Monday, 29 03 10 - 21:46

Smoked Cheese and Bacon - The Results

The Stilton and Edam cheeses were smoked for about 12 hours, the bacon nearer 30 hours. I've yet to taste the bacon but the cheeses are great. I didn't for one minute think that Stilton would take to smoking, but it has. They will, no doubt, improve further with a few days rest to allow the smokiness to equalise throughout the cheese.

Regrettably, the photo is not as good as the cheese. The photos that I feel are the best on the site are the ones I have taken with natural light and simple reflectors; I don't have an off-camera flash set-up... ...and it shows.

Thursday, 25 03 10 - 16:35

Smoking - Roe, Bacon and Cheese

I've done a couple of smoking projects in the last couple of weeks. It's funny, but since I've been using the Cold Smoke Generator (CSG) it's that easy I don't think to write about it.

I was surprised how good the Edam cheese was that I smoked at Christmas, it may not be a local cheese, but it sure does make a nice smoked one.

One of my real favourites though is Smoked Cod's Roe. Before you start, I know it's from a fish with long term sustainability issues but I justify it in my tiny little brain by saying to myself that the roe is only a by-product. If I didn't buy it, the fish would still be killed for it's flesh. In any case, I'm loathe to alter my habits whilst the EU/GB authorities insist that fishermen throw perfectly good fish away - just because the wrong variety had the audacity to get caught in nets that they should have known weren't for them!

Either way, Cod's roe ain't cheap, it was about £4.50 lb - there should have been more in this picture but the fishmonger interpreted my 4½ lb order as £4½! For some reason the taramasalata in the picture looks very anaemic: surprising given that it's over 45% smoked roe; the supermarket stuff's around 12 - 15% and is generally salted rather than smoked roe.

Tomorrow it's the turn of some back bacon. It's been curing for 8 days now and is in the fridge to dry before being smoked for 24 hours or so.

The cure's a little saltier than the one in the tutorial:
For each 1kg of meat :

20gm Salt
8gm Sugar
2.5gm Cure #1
0.5gm Sodium ascorbate (optional)

The method is here.

If produce for smoking isn't dry it doesn't 'take the smoke' well. With fish, it's left until the curing salt forms a film call a pellicle on the surface.

A piece of Edam and a trial portion of local Stilton will accompany it for the first 8 - 10 hours or so. I'd like a side of salmon to smoke as well. There is some on offer at a supermarket nearby that I won't normally patronise; I'm not overly principled though so there may be some salmon in there yet! I have to say that I find it bizarre that cod's often cheaper than farmed salmon, particularly given the shortage of cod and the distance and danger that trawlers go through to get it.

I'll post the results in a few days.

Monday, 25 01 10 - 17:18

At Last - A Fridge!

What a bloomin' lousy week! I said in my last post that the fridge in the kitchen had died; well, now the drying fridge has come out in sympathy! That's two fridges and a microwave in a couple of weeks.

We ordered a new fridge for the kitchen from a very large high-street retailer's website, along with a new microwave. The fridge arrived on Wednesday and, lo and behold, there was a dent in the door. An hour of navigating a labyrinth of the "push button one for..." variety finally got a replacement delivered on Saturday morning. Surprise, Surprise it had two dents in it! We finally got a new fridge today.

As you can guess, going from three fridges to one has meant that not much curing or sausage making has happened in this house recently. Fortunately, the jinx hasn't extended to the garden so my smoker is still working satisfactorily as these pheasants and partridges can testify; at least they could if they were alive. Oh, silly me - and able to speak!

Tuesday, 22 12 09 - 18:09

Christmas is Coming!

A spell of bed-rest put me somewhat behind in the preparations for Christmas so it was 'all engines on full speed' last week to get some ham and bacon done so that it would be ready for the 25th. Hence the lack of posts.

I took the bacon out of cure today with the intention of quickly drying it and then smoking one piece, however Pauline has saved me the trouble by saying that we need it all unsmoked. I've popped a couple of Camembert and a piece of Edam in the smoker instead. Camembert and Edam I hear you say, that's not local, nor is Edam any good for anything other than rubbing out spelling mistakes; well apparently it's a different beast altogether when it's smoked. I find it hard to believe, but I'll let you know.

In all hobbies you accumulate a lot of 'kit' and I've written before about all the paraphernalia that a keen curer and sausage-maker acquires; I think my favourite has got to be my Pro Q Cold Smoke Generator. This simple but cleverly designed piece of kit will produce smoke for 10 hours unattended using just 100g of wood-dust. Maybe not earth shattering; I guess you've got to have been outside in the dark, cold and wet conditions that always accompany smoking sessions to appreciate it.

Friday, 30 10 09 - 17:09

More Chorizo - New Recipe

When I started making my latest batch of chorizo on the 17th October it was my intention to photograph everything and create a sort of mini-tutorial. Need less to say when I got involved with making them I forgot to take most of the photos!

I started off with a big chunk of pork collar, also known as spare rib, and cut it into strips. If you have a small mincer you will have to cut it smaller. I prefer strips to chunks as the screw in the mincer pulls them through with very little need to use the pusher.

The meat with plenty of fat attached was cooled right down and then minced through an 8mm mincer plate.

The rest of the ingredients were weighed out and the culture activated in a little blood heat non-chlorified water for about an hour.

Ingredients as a percentage of the meat's weight:

0.133% ls-25 Starter culture
0.4% Dextrose
1% Fresh Garlic
2.533% Salt
0.4% Black Pepper
0.8% Smoked Hot Paprika
1.2% Smoked Sweet Paprika
0.133% Cayenne Pepper
0.2% Oregano
0.267% Cure 2

Sunday, 16 08 09 - 20:15

Flamin' Smoker

I've been tinkering with my smoker set up for a couple of years now and it's just about getting to how I want it: or so I thought until today when the wood chips burst into flames!

Anyway, the partridge I was smoking seem to be OK, but what should have been a simple job became an absolute pain.

The problems are basically my fault, the original sketches I did have a metal plate between the burner and the smoking chamber:

The burner in the filing cabinet to the left is for cold smoking

The burner set-up for hot smoking:

Regrettably we failed to install the metal plate. Not only would it physically stop the flames from igniting the wood, but it would also restrict the air supply to the wood, meaning less chance of ignition. I also thought that the pebbles on a mesh shelf, which spread the smoke so successfully, would be sufficient to stop any fat dropping onto the wood. Oh, how wrong can you be? A good drip tray will be simple to install, I can do that myself, but the metal plate will have to wait until my Nephew, Mickey, can get time off from refurbishing his house to do it.

Why the apparently over elaborate set up, when you can hot smoke easily in a barrel or metal drum? It's true you can, or even a biscuit tin and a small burner. The reason I do it this way is because I smoke sausages. These have specific temperature control requirements that would be very difficult to achieve using a less controllable system.

Wednesday, 29 07 09 - 17:46

The bresaola is dead; long live the pastrami.

We are sorry to announce that Mr Supermarket Bresaola passed away on Sunday, 26th July 2009.

He had been losing weight for quite a time, but was still extremely soft. On checking his medical records we found that whilst at his previous home, a large supermarket, he had been a user of a noxious substance known as added basting fat. This was not apparent as an outer coating on his body so the coroner has surmised that he was injecting the fat.

He was embalmed in a rub of black pepper and ground coriander seed for his journey to the after-life. As he wanted to be cremated we carried out his final wishes on Sunday 26th July at around 100°C for 3 hours with oak and beech smoke, and a couple of hours more without.

Late on Sunday evening a miracle happened in our small village; Mr Bresaola came back to life. To mark this momentous event he has decided to change his name to Mr Pastrami.

Thursday, 11 06 09 - 13:57

Buckling Pâté

Maurice brought me a buckling at the weekend from Cookies Crab Shop.

Now, for those who don't know, buckling is a whole smoked herring and like all herring is full of bones. Personally I find the bones a real pain, so I decided to make this Buckling Pâté instead of just eating the fish as is.

No need for a formal recipe - it's basically the meat off the fish with butter, seasoning, and chopped parsley, all mixed in the food processor. You could add some cream cheese or cream which would make it more spreadable from the fridge.

Thursday, 14 05 09 - 18:40

The Half Pig - Cured

No, not 'cured' as in running around again! But, what I've done with the half-pig I got a couple of weeks ago.

Well sad to say, the 4kg of Everyday Sausage I made from the shoulder is in the dustbin following a freezer failure. As are a variety of other items.

What I'm left with is 2kg of pork and herb (haslet style) slicing sausage and potted ham that I wrote about previously.

Along with this the 4kg of dry cured back bacon and smoked back bacon have survived, these were both made using the bacon cure previously posted. For a tutorial, and down-loadable cure calculator for a similar cure, see my tutorial on the sausagemaking.org forum. I was really pleased with the smoked bacon, given that it's the first thing I've smoked in my, much altered, smoker.

Most of the 3.2kg of Everyday Ham's also survived. That reminds me I must take some decent pictures of these things next time.

The 1kg of polony I made tastes just about OK, but the recipe needs a lot more work. Will I bother to make it again? I don't know yet.

That leaves a couple of pieces of pancetta, that are still drying in my curing fridge, another new, and somewhat costly addition that has separate temperature control, and within the next month or so will have full humidity control as well. The flat piece (stesa) is the same recipe as the previously posted pancetta, but the rolled (arrotolata) pancetta is to a completely different recipe from my American curing chum 'Larbo', it's flavoured with orange so should be interesting. I'll write about this one later.

I still have some pork and liver frozen to make pâté and faggots when I get around to them. All in all not to bad, If it wasn't for that flamin' 'frost free' freezer.

Friday, 20 03 09 - 19:57

...and about time too!

Finally the cod's roe has come out fine.

The roes were covered with plain salt for 8 hours, rinsed and left in the fridge overnight to dry.

They have been smoked for a total of 24 hours over 2 days with oak and a small amount of beech, resting in the fridge in-between. They have been in the fridge overnight for the smoke flavour to penetrate throughout.

I'm really pleased, not least because to buy this amount of smoked roe online would cost between £35 and a whopping £75!

...and the verdict? Well, all I can say is that Maurice thinks it that good, he says he's going to wear a top-hat when he eats it for breakfast!   

Thursday, 05 03 09 - 15:57

Failure!

No need for any more detail or gory pictures; here's on of my latest posts over at the smoking section of the sausagemaking.org forum.

RIP Cod's Roe

It seems like the week for failures, following on from Big Dog's disaster, I've just binned 3kg of cod's roe.

No photo as after salting and smoking for over 24 hours, they looked just the same as when bought - so if you want to see what they looked like just google cod's roe!

I washed the roe's, which to be honest smelt a little like a tramp's underwear (is this normal?). They were dry salted for 6-7 hours, washed, dried overnight, and then cold smoked. After 12 hours of light smoke they looked just the same, so I upped the level of smoke (to the sort of level you'd get in a bradley) and continued. After another 12 hours or so I ran out of gas and the wretched things were still as soft and pale as when I started!

So RIP £15 of cod's roe, I'm off now to replace the tenners worth of Calor Gas I must have used.

Phil

Aw well, you can't win 'em all!

Wednesday, 04 02 09 - 21:18

Hot Dog Sausages - The recipe

When I wrote about my first attempt to make hot dog sausages I posted the link to the original recipe that I adapted. It's by Big Guy at the sausagemaking.org forum. I've just realised that some of the ingredients he mentions aren't available in the UK. Here's my anglicised version.

This recipe has cure #1 in it, a chemical that needs treating with great respect, the recipe may seem to have unnecessarily accurate measurements, the reason for this is that it allows me to maintain a consistency between 'batches', also because of the conversion from spoon & cup measurements, and in the case of cure #1 it is necessary to ensure a safe product. Digital scales to weigh to a tenth (or even a hundredth) of a gram are usually available for a tenner or so on ebay.

Monday, 22 12 08 - 16:08

Smoked Pheasant and Partridge

You know how it is. These things start with a conversation in the pub...

Maurice - "Do you want a brace of pheasants, Phil?..."
Me - "Err, No thanks I've not used the last ones yet..."
It goes on:
Maurice - "That's a pity, I've got 3 brace I don't know what to do with..."
Followed by that fateful line...
Me - "I wonder if we could smoke them?"

...and there you are - into another 'little' project.

Anyway, I found a couple of brines online, and chose to do one posted by JPJ at the sausagemaking.org forum, omitting the allspice and garlic.

2 hours of brining (2½ for the whole partridge) followed by a couple of hours or so smoking, at between 70°C and 80°C, to cook the meat, was all that was needed. The meat was then refrigerated overnight to allow the smoky flavour to fully penetrate the meat.

Some of the finished smoked game; at the back, partridge crowns and whole birds, at the front, pheasant breast.

The brine:
4L pre-boiled water
400g salt
400g sugar (I used ¼ Dark Brown Sugar)
40g cure 1
4 crushed bay leaves
4 ground cloves
1 tsp each of cracked pepper and minced juniper berries

I thought the outside of the meat was very tough, but everyone else seemed not to bother. The taste was superb. Next time I'll lightly oil the meat, or better still, leave the skin on.

Thursday, 28 08 08 - 17:56

Darren and the Whale

Darren bought me another trout at the weekend, he brings a lot of them for guys in the village including me, I had mentioned to him that my preference was for slightly larger fish and I guess that this suits as it's nice to have a smaller, portion sized fish, if you're cooking them fresh. What I didn't expect was this:

Mind, I don't think Darren expected to catch one this big either! He tells me he caught it at Foremark Reservoir and that it weighs 11½lb.