Tools and accessories:
- culinary thermometer;
- large saucepan;
- smokehouse;
- vacuum sealer (preferably, but not necessary);
- sous vide (preferably, but not necessary).
Ingredients:
- pork lard (undercut, brisket) 1 kg;
- table salt 8 g;
- nitrite salt 10 g;
- ground pepper to taste;
- spices to taste.
The annotation contains a list of tools. In fact, only a temperature probe and a smoke generator are required. But first things first.
All ingredients are listed based on the weight of the raw material, one kilogram. Adjust all numbers to the total weight of your product.
Just a few words about nitrite salt. I consider the use of this ingredient here to be completely justified. The product turns out safe, beautiful and tasty.Do not be afraid of this salt, it is completely safe when used correctly. There is several times more nitrite in store-bought bell peppers than in a kilogram of our product.
Preparation
First, let's prepare and weigh the raw materials. We try to make the pieces beautiful from the very beginning. Let's trim all the edges and make it pleasing to the eye.
Based on the total weight of the product, prepare salt and spices. You can limit yourself to just salt and pepper. If desired, you can add hot paprika or smoked ground paprika. I don’t recommend using garlic in this particular case, but you’ll see why later.
Sprinkle evenly and gently rub our spices and salt into the lard.
We vacuum each piece separately. If you don’t have such a device, just wrap it tightly with cling film. We leave it in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf to salt out. Five or seven days will be enough. Be guided by the thickness of your pieces.
Cooking stage. Sous vide will do the job perfectly here. Set the water temperature to 80 degrees and cook until the center of the largest piece reaches 71 degrees Celsius. We do not tear the packages. Cook in a bag (in film). If you don’t have sous vide, just cook it in water on the stove. We try not to exceed the water temperature of 80 degrees.
Let the product cool. Freeing from packages. We wipe it off. Leave to dry. Let it air dry for several hours. Only completely dry product should be smoked.
We install the product ready for smoking into the smoking chamber. We start the smoke generator.
We smoke with cold smoke (no more than 30 degrees Celsius) for about 30 hours.
Upon completion of smoking, be sure to hang the product out for normalization.
Normalization or alignment is a mandatory process. At the end of smoking, there appears to be a glut of smoke in the outer layers, but not enough inside.It is this process that evens out all the tastes and aromas throughout the body of the product.
Next, we package the entire product in a way convenient for you.
Conclusion
What is cold and hot smoking?
Cold smoking, as in this recipe, is a fairly long treatment of the product with smoke not exceeding a temperature of thirty degrees Celsius. Cold smoking can last from 24 to 48 hours or more. Hot smoking. Short-term smoke treatment of the product at a temperature of no more than 80 degrees. From 30 minutes to one and a half hours.
If the temperature in your chamber is higher, then you simply cook the product. It turns out boiled with the smell of smoke, nothing more. This is not smoking.
Bottom line
In my opinion, the only difficulty is the smokehouse. Now there are a lot of products of this kind on the Internet, and it won’t be too difficult to make them with your hands if you have the proper skill.
Having a smokehouse opens up a huge scope for creativity in your culinary path.
Beautiful, interesting and tasty.
