Local Food Heroes Blog

Saturday, 19 09 09 - 15:14

The Monster Bresaola

Sometimes curing boils down to 'flying by the seat of your pants'!

Let me explain: it all started a week last Tuesday when we went to get some meat from Joseph Morris's at South Kilworth. I described to Pauline the size of the piece of topside I wanted and I certainly got what I asked for, all 5.77 kilo's of it!

...and this picture is it after 2 kg was cut off for a roast!

I made a boo-boo trimming it in that I have cut off some of the solid muscle but left a separate muscle piece attached, you can see this nearest the camera...Doh!

I was worried about dry curing this thickness of beef; had it have been pork, no worries, but my experience of beef is that cure doesn't penetrate it nearly as easily as pork. My compromise has been to inject some of the cure as brine to get it to the middle of the meat. I have then applied the herbs and spices along with the balance of the curing salts, sugar, salt etc as a dry cure. Not ideal as the idea is to dry the meat rather than make it wetter, but never mind.

On the subject of Joseph Morris's, contrary to popular belief local butchers can be a lot cheaper than the supermarket as I commented in my previous post.

I've used the same recipe as before but reduced the levels of the spices and herbs with the aim of letting the flavour of the meat shine through more. I'll probably be in trouble for doing this as Pauline and the kids loved the last one I made so hold off with the exact recipe until I know how it all works out!

Monster Bresaola - Part II

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