Monday, January 9, 2017

Smoking some Wildboar




What can be more tasty then some smoked wild boar meat !

Hanging a few Breasolas in my new curing room



Love the beautiful Breasolas and my refreshed curing room

Pancetta roll



Making a Pancetta roll seems to be very popular . I don´t use to roll my Pancetta but why not making a try for it.
The nice 3 kg pork belly have been inbedded with Nitrite salt and spieces for a week.
I used about  8% salt compared to the pork weight. Then a mix of herbs and peppers and a lot of garlic . The meat was turned a few times during this week.
After this week u get a much firmer piece of meat and a lot of juices from the meat.
Now u clean the meat in fresh cold water removing all salt and herbs on the outside. When the meat is dry enough it´s time for the rolling process, Very interesting process for the handy man....
I read u should start rolling it from the thicker side. Makes the roll easier.
Then u need some food cotton thread to start binding the meat and make sure the roll is compact all the way. I started from one side to the other.  Some experts can do this very nice and easy but I made it somehow. An extra hand can always be helpful for sure.

When the roll looks ready I sprinkled it with peppers herbs and garlic powder.
Then time to hang it in the curing room . My room right now 20 degrees Celcius and humidty 50%.

In a few weeks from now it should be ready to try. In a month from now I will have a first check.
Will get back with result and pictures when ready.

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Now beginning of March after hanging for about 2 month the Pancetta is ready to be enjoyed.
Tasted fantastic! Probably the best so far. The wonderful taste and saltiness last forever in your mouth and u won´t be sorry for sure. Below some new result pictures.









Confit Wildboar ham



They say confit meat is tender and tasty so I needed to try it out.
Had a few wildboar hams ready for the smoker but couldn´t fit them all in it.
So why not try to confit one of them.

The hams had already been marinated in 8% salt water for a few days and was ready.
If 8% works for the smoker it will work well for the confit process also I thought and it did.

I know duck fat is good when u confit but more expensive and difficult to get. Other oils works well also. In this case Rape oil was used. 

I used a casserole big enough for the ham. Filled it up with Rape oil until the meat was covered.
Added some mixed herbs,black pepper , garlic cloves, carrots and some leek I found in the refrigerator. Taking what I found at home more or less.

Now the casserole was put in to the oven at 90-100 degrees Celcius . Just close to boiling but not.
There it stayed for 7-8 hours. I tested once in a while with a knife to see if the meat started to loosen up from the bones. It finally did .The bones got cleaned from every little piece of meat when I started to remove it. Just perfect.

The meat was removed from the oil. So tender and tasty. The oil makes sure u don´t get any dry meat at all. Then u serve this meat with something u prefer . It´s similar to pulled pork.

The oil was filtered and can be used a few more times before thrown away. The more u use it the more good flavors u get for the next meal.

We will for sure try this again. No meat waste at all and very tasty !