Adventures in Charcuterie - Bresaola

Recipe

This recipe is taken from Man Up a Tree

Ingredients:

  • 3.5-4.5kg joint of beef silverside.

The Marinade:

  • 500g Coarse sea salt (Maldon flakes)
  • 12 sprigs of Rosemary
  • 2 tsp of Cumin
  • 2 tsp of Lea & Perrins
  • 10 crushed Juniper berries
  • 10 Bay leaves
  • 20 cloves
  • 4 Garlic cloves (crushed)
  • 1 tbsp of cracked black pepper
  • 2 tsp of dried chilli flakes
  • 6 strips of lemon zest (finely chopped)
  • 6 strips of orange zest (finely chopped)
  • 1 bottle of Red wine (Cote Du Rhone or Italian)

Mix up all the ingredients in a plastic Tupperware; make sure the joint or joints will fit in snugly.

Trim the beef of all fat and sinew and place it in the marinade coating them well.

Keep in the fridge or a cool place for 5 days, turning twice daily.

After 5 days soaking, remove the beef, which should have taken on a deep purple colour by now, rinse under a cold tap and pat dry with a tea towel.

Wrap the joint tightly in a double layer of muslin and truss up like parcel.

Hang in a cool place (cellar or garage) for 10 days till the beef is hard to the touch. I told you it was easy.

Slicing can be a bit of a pain if you don't have an electric meat slicer. Word of warning- don't try to do it yourself at home with a sharp knife, fingers could be lost and you wont do your bresaola justice.

Diary

Atempt #1 - Autumn 2009

Decided to have a go at this one around the end of november using a 1kg joint of silverside beef, rather than a larger piece as suggested. I diligently went and bought all the ingredients needed, came home and started making the brine. I thought I had cumin and garlic in stock, and realised only as I was making the brine infact I didn't have either. *doh*. So for the first couple of days of curing there was no garlic in the brine. Because of this, the cure actually took 10 days, rather than the 5 in the recipe. Drying took about 2 weeks, outside in the meat locker built for this purpose.

Based on the advice from the man up a tree, I called in a favour from my local supplier of charcuterie who kindly sliced about a 3rd of the joint. Sampling by several people has yielded positive reviews. All in all this seems to be an outstanding success, will have to try this again.

This page last modified Friday, 24-Aug-2012 16:17:01 CEST.