Next up, I decided to cure a duck leg to go with the pork belly in our Chinese clay pot rice. We started by making a rub with salt, Sichuan pepper, and star anise, mixed with vodka (or some other neutral tasting alcohol). After a few days of marinating in the fridge, we rinsed it, dried it, and hung it in our curing fridge for about 3 weeks. The result was a little too salty and didn’t really have enough duck flavour. More iterations to come.
Growing up, I always like Cantonese clay pot rice. If you go to dim sum, you will often find clay pot rice with an of assortment of toppings to choose from: fermented black bean with pork ribs, marinated chicken with mushrooms, minced meat with egg, and my favourite: Chinese cured meats. There’s something very comforting about that dish for me.
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Next in the Odyssey of cured meats: pancetta. We bought a pork belly, and followed a process similar to the bresaola: rubbed it with a mixture of salt, sugar, Insta Cure #1, and some herbs and spices. We then placed it in the fridge for a week, turning it every other day. After that, we washed off the cure with warm water and returned the meat to the fridge to air dry for 4 to 6 hours. Next, we rolled it into a tight cylinder, starting from the thick side, and tied it securely with string. We then placed it in Cur’an (our fridge) at Temp: 10°C, RH: 67.5%. We pulled it at the target weight loss (about 30%), then vacuum packed it to be used at a later date.
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After the Soppressata, we tried our luck with a few more things. We decided to cure whole muscles this time. It was a bit of a challenge to get the right size of beef so that it would cure under the right conditions in range of time it suggested. We started by rubbing the muscles with half the salt, seasonings and herbs. We then placed them in a bag in the fridge for a week. The following week, we drained the excess liquid and added the remaining salt, seasoning and herbs and put it back in the fridge for another week. After a total of 2 weeks, we rinsed everything off, air dried them for a few hours and then hung them in the fridge to cure until they reached the target weight loss.
Read MoreI have always wanted to cure my own meats. I mean – I’ve always wanted to do everything from scratch. I think it’s good to understand where food comes from and how to make stuff, down to every little detail. I like taking on these projects at school so that I can teach the students as well. Last year, we dabbled with koji to try to make our own cured beets, soy sauces and garums. A few years before that, we tried a cheese-making which was deemed unsuccessful. This year, I decided it was time to learn how to make our own cured meats. This is something that has been on my todo list for some time. In fact, I bought a grinder, sausage stuffer and a fridge (Curan, we named it) years ago for school and they have been collecting dust all these years! I even sought out the help of a friend of mine who now owns a butcher shop, just before the pandemic. After a one day session and years of forgetting about it, I am now ready.
Smoothies & Sundaes 