1. The recipe for homemade cured meat should be started by preparing a salt mixture. To do this, pour salt into a deep plate, it is best to use coarse rock salt.

2. Black and red ground peppers.

3. Use your hands to chop the dried bay leaf into pieces.

4. Pour in vodka and stir. The mass should only become slightly damp, like wet sand on a beach.

5. Wash a piece of tenderloin, leave it to dry a little or remove excess liquid from its surface with a paper towel. Pork tenderloin usually has a small layer of bacon below, it can be removed if desired, but it would be better to leave it, since bacon can also be salted in a similar way, you get jerky with a small amount of bacon.

6. Rub the meat generously with a mixture of salt and spices on all sides, be sure to use the whole mixture. Place in a deep flat-bottomed bowl, cover with a plate on top. Send to refrigerator for 12-14 hours. In order for the meat to be salted evenly, it will need to be turned over every 3-4 hours.

7. The salt mixture will remove excess liquid from the meat that will collect at the bottom of the bowl, you do not need to drain it, it will help in marinating the meat.

8. After the allotted time, rinse the tenderloin under the tap, carefully removing salt, spices and pieces of bay leaf. Dry the meat again with paper towels.

9. Cut the garlic into small pieces and sprinkle over the tenderloin on all sides.

10. Take clean cheesecloth and wrap the meat tightly in it. In order for it to be more regular in shape and not flatten during the drying process, the piece must be tied with a thread. There should be free air access to the meat from all sides; for this, it must either be hung by something or put on a wire rack. In this form, the tenderloin will dry out first at room temperature for 12-14 hours (it is also advisable to turn it over periodically), and then in the refrigerator for two or three days.

11. The longer the meat dries, the more dense and salty it will become. But after a day, it is imperative to untwist it and separate the gauze from it, as it can strongly stick to the meat and it will start to deteriorate.

12. Delicious homemade jerky is ready.

If you love meat, love it not only to eat, but also to cook, then one day you will certainly want to try this recipe! Very impressive on the eye, very tasty on the stomach, and very easy to cook. The secret of this beef jerky is an amazingly selected bouquet of seasonings and spices, as well as a methodical adherence to technology. With a piece of such meat, you can always set an exquisite table for a spontaneous friendly party, take it with you for a visit or for a picnic, or even present it as an exclusive gift along with a bottle of brutal full-bodied red wine. If you have already dried meat at home, for example, you have used mine, then this recipe will not seem complicated to you. If you have decided on such a gastronomic adventure for the first time, then the recommendations given in the recipe will help you get an excellent result, and not “the first pancake is lumpy”.

Recipe Information

Cooking method: drying.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of young beef (even oblong piece of pulp)
• 60 g sea salt
• 40 g sugar
• 6 g coarsely ground coffee
• 15 g coarsely ground black pepper (or pepper mixture)
• 12-15 g of juniper berries, ground in a mortar
• 5 large bay leaves.

Drying beef

For cooking, you will need a rectangular container of a suitable size, a stone or a bag of sand as cargo, cling film, parchment, twine, a piece of cotton cloth of a suitable size.

Separately, it is worth making a reservation about meat. Young beef is best suited for home-drying, with beautiful bright red meat and white fat. When buying from the market, pay attention to all the pieces of mascara. Older beef has yellow fat and crimson meat. Such meat will be tougher and rougher. Veal for this recipe is also not recommended, since the meat did not have time to gain the desired taste, the result may be disappointing. It is better to choose a piece that is even, with fibers along the length, or one from which it can be easily made with a knife and a few manipulations. There should also be no fat on the piece. Naturally, the meat should be purchased from a trusted butcher and be as fresh as possible, since it will not be cooked.

Since the drying process involves dehydration, the meat during the drying process will decrease both in volume and weight, this should be taken into account. From a one and a half kilogram piece, you get a bar of jerky meat 800-900 grams.

To cook meat at the first stage, you will need a salt-coffee mixture with spices. To do this, in the container in which the meat will be dried, mix sea salt, sugar, ground coffee and pepper, crushed juniper berries, crush the bay leaf. Such a set of seasonings should not embarrass anyone, and coffee and juniper, oddly enough it may seem, make up a spicy, but restrained accompaniment to beef meat, emphasizing its rather bright taste favorably.

Wash the formed piece of meat, dry it slightly. Dip a piece in a mixture of salt, sugar and spices on all sides and bread thoroughly. Place the meat in a container and cover with a piece of cling film.

For the next week, the meat should be kept in the refrigerator under pressure. As oppression, you can use a suitable size chopping board and a pebble for pickling, a bag of sand, or even a jar of pickled mushrooms. This is not so important, it is important that there be oppression. After a day, you need to take out the meat, drain the resulting juice and turn the piece over.

After a week, remove the meat from the refrigerator and remove from the container. Blot excess liquid with paper napkins, leave spices. You can mix in an extra breading of your favorite spices, or simply sprinkle a piece of meat with a ready-made set of pastroma or barbecue spices. It will be even tastier this way.

For the next two or three weeks, the meat will collapse and dry out. There are two options for bringing the meat to readiness. In any case, it is better to wrap the meat in a cotton cloth. Further, if the meat "reaches its condition" on the shelf of the refrigerator, then it must be additionally wrapped in paper, tied with twine and put to ripening. It is better to check the meat a couple of times a week, changing the wet cloth and paper if necessary. In a couple of weeks, the first tasting can be held.

There is a second way, faster and more radical. A piece of meat is wrapped in a cloth, or a sack is made of it with a stitching seam, and the piece is put inside, and hung on the door of the upper cabinet or on the edge of the hood above the gas stove in the kitchen. If lunch and dinner are prepared on the stove every day and the oven is turned on several times a week for making bread or baking for tea, then this will be quite enough so that in a week you can have a gathering over a piece of amazing jerky beef! Warm dry air rising up while the cooker is in operation will help the meat dry faster.

If the house has an electric dryer for vegetables and fruits, then after a week of marinating in the refrigerator, jerky beef can be cut into slices and dried on wire racks for several hours at 40-60 degrees.

Such jerky can be served with jerky or pickled spicy fruits, tomatoes, as well as sauces based on sweet mustard. is obligatory, and a bottle of red wine will only decorate the meal of real gourmets.

Cured meat is a delicacy that, as a rule, not everyone can afford to buy, since it is quite expensive in stores. Yes, and its quality can easily be doubted - after all, there are very few conscientious manufacturers who will not use preservatives, flavor enhancers, flavors and other food additives in their production.

But preparing this delicacy at home is not at all difficult and, by the way, much cheaper than buying a finished product.

Meat selection

The choice of meat for jerking should be approached with extreme caution. Since it will not be heat treated during the cooking process, there is a risk of infection with helminths and other pathogens of various diseases. That is why meat must be taken from trusted suppliers who have sanitary certificates about their raw materials.

Homemade dry-cured pork recipe

Preparation:

How to make dry-cured beef

Do you know a universal meat dish, which is suitable both as a snack for beer, and for making savory and healthy sandwiches, and besides, it will not be ashamed to serve it on the festive table? No? But I know! Beef jerky! It is prepared without any difficulties, and the result will exceed all expectations. The meat is moderately dried and tender, with individually selected spices, as well as without excess salt (in comparison with the store counterpart).

Ingredients:

• beef tenderloin - 1.5 kg;
• coarse sea salt - 800 g;
• cognac - 50 ml;
• dry red wine - 50 ml;
• basil (dry ground) - 20 g;
• rosemary (dry) - 20 g;
• ground red pepper - 1 tsp

Cooking time: 8 days.

Caloric content per 100 g: 155 kcal.

Preparation:

1. To prepare a dry-cured delicacy, choose a beautiful piece of beef tenderloin, peeled from the fat layer and peeled from the film;
2. Prepare a curing mixture: in a deep bowl, combine sea salt, cognac, port wine, red pepper and aromatic herbs (basil and oregano);
3. Put half of the salting mixture in a glass or plastic container, put the beef on top of it, and then cover it with the remaining half of the mixture. Close the container with a lid (if there is no lid, tighten it with cling film) and put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours;
4. After a day has passed, remove the meat from the container and wash it off the remaining salt. Then dry it thoroughly and wrap it in a linen cloth, tie it crosswise with culinary thread and hang it in a cool ventilated place for 7 days;
5. A week later, Polendvitsa can be deployed. If you wish, you can grate the finished product with sweet paprika flakes - this will add aesthetics and complement the taste.

How to cook garlic chicken

Dry-cured chicken soaked in aromatic garlic is the most budget-friendly, but no less tasty version of this kind of delicacies. The cost price of chicken balyk is minimal, and the taste is simply amazing, so its attractiveness instantly increases, you can safely and without hesitation start cooking it.

Required Ingredients:

• chicken breasts (fillet) - 4 pcs.;
• coarse sea salt - 2 tablespoons;
• white crystalline sugar - 1 tbsp;
• vodka - 50 ml;
• spice mixture "Spicy curry" - 25 g;
• mixture of "Provencal herbs" - 15 g;
• granulated garlic - 20 g.

Cooking time: 5 days.

Calories per 100 g: 145 kcal.

Cooking a dish:

1. The first thing to do to prepare a delicious dry-cured chicken fillet is to prepare a high-quality curing mixture. To do this, in a deep bowl, mix sea salt, sugar, a mixture of spices "Spicy curry", "Provencal herbs" and vodka;
2. Next, prepare the breasts: free the fillets from skin, bones, and also peel off the film. Put half of the curing mixture in a glass container, put the chicken fillet on it in one row, and then cover it with the second half of the spicy-salty mixture;
3. Cover the container with a lid and leave at room temperature for 8-10 hours;
4. After the specified time has elapsed, wash the fillets from salt and dry thoroughly (this is very convenient to do with disposable kitchen towels);
5. Rub the drained breasts with granulated garlic (fresh is not recommended, in order to avoid mold during the drying process), and then wrap in a cotton cloth (envelope), tie with culinary thread and hang in a ventilated place;
6. After 4 days, dry-cured amber chicken meat will be completely ready to eat. Cut it into thin slices and serve.

Advice: it is necessary to salt the meat in a glass or plastic container, since the metal container will oxidize during the salting process.

Bon Appetit!

The taste is much superior to the more purchased sausages. However, they surpass them to the same extent in prices. Therefore, lovers of tasty things sadly pass by tempting shop windows, allowing themselves this luxury only on major holidays. But gourmets in vain limit themselves to their favorite dish, since it is not so difficult to make dry-cured meat at home. Of course, you will have to wait - the process is quite lengthy. However, you can adjust the flavors by adding the spices you like and taking out the ones you don't like. In addition, dry-cured meat, at home and made with love, will definitely be from high-quality sources and with an unexpired shelf life.

Only those who have special equipment can just wither raw beef, poultry or pork. The rest must first marinate the meat.

"Wet" drying

Home cooking jerked meat begins with salting. Let's start with the traditional method using brine. It will take about a liter for every pound of meat. The water is boiled, salt dissolves in it (two heaping spoons per liter), a little sugar is added, a tablespoonful of red and black pepper, peppercorns and bay leaves - like pickled cucumbers. It will boil for three minutes - it turns off and cools down. The bay leaf should be thrown away - it will add bitterness and not too pleasant smell. The meat is medium-cut, dipped in brine and left in it for five hours right in the kitchen. Then it is put in a cool place for three days. Then the liquid is decanted, and the meat is placed under a press until moisture ceases to appear, after which a mixture of red and black pepper is rubbed into it (you can add other spices). The slices are wrapped in clean cheesecloth, placed in a sealed container and placed in the refrigerator for a week. During this time, they will marinate qualitatively. The meat is again rubbed with spices, wrapped in a clean cut and hung out in a dry place, where it will not interfere. A week later, dry-cured meat (at home that has reached the desired condition) is served on the table. In the refrigerator, it will not deteriorate for three months.

"Dry" method

This option, how to make jerky at home, is usually chosen by those who believe that beef (pork / poultry) is too saturated with unnecessary moisture in the brine. A whole piece is taken and rubbed very carefully with a mixture of spices from two tablespoons of salt, one - sugar, halves - coarsely ground black pepper, the same amount of pounded juniper berries and chopped seven bay leaves (everything is designed for a kilo of raw materials). The future dry-cured meat is tightly wrapped in cling film, a weighty load is placed on it, and the whole structure is removed in the refrigerator for at least a week. You will have to drain the meat juice regularly, otherwise the product may deteriorate. Then the slice is dried, rubbed with the same seasoning composition, laid out on the wire rack and hidden back for two weeks. Turn over at least once every two days! Ready jerky is wrapped in paper or put into a paper bag. Please note: cooked using this method, it will "live" in the refrigerator for no longer than a month.

Spicy beef jerky

So far we have looked at the basics, so to speak. You can use them to cook any dry-cured meat at home. However, there are many refinements that you can use to create a tastier treat. For example, you can do differently with beef - the result will be much more aromatic and "ripen" faster. A large piece of meat is taken, cleaned of excess veins and cut along the entire slice into thin strips - 5 centimeters each, not thicker. In boiling water (2 liters) are placed 10 washed large leaves of black currant, two "burdock" horseradish, a couple of cinnamon sticks, a spoonful of chopped ginger, 400 grams of salt, bay leaves and peppercorns. This amount of brine is enough for as much as 10 kilos of beef. The trick is that pieces of meat are dipped in brine for three minutes, then cooled, strained and hung in gauze bags for 10 days in a dry and dark place. Temperature is not so important as good ventilation and lack of light.

Fast drying

You can also get dry-cured meat with the help of the oven. The recipe involves cutting the beef into very small pieces (about 5 x 5 cm). Moreover, before the main processing, the washed and dried meat is put into the freezer, so that it is easier and smoother to cut. A sprinkle of salt (60 g), ground black pepper (10 g) and red hot pepper (5 g) is made. Cubes of beef are rolled in it, left for 10 minutes to soak with spices and laid out on the wire rack so that they do not touch. The oven is heated to 40 degrees, a grate is placed in it and left to dry for half a day.

Grilled dry

For this method, the beef will have to be cut even more thinly - two centimeters wide, and in shorter strips - along the length of the grill grate. Spices (cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper, salt) are mixed in a ratio of 2: 5: 5: 60. All the pieces are rubbed with the mixture, laid out at intervals on the wire rack and dried for about seven hours. The disadvantage that such dry-cured meat has is its short shelf life. Two weeks, no more. However, it is eaten much faster. In the same way, you can dry pork, only cumin is taken instead of red pepper, and the meat is chosen more quickly.

Dry-cured pork

Most of the people are sure that it is contraindicated to dry pork: they say, it is fatty, it is not completely saturated and quickly disappears. You just don't know how to cook it! In our opinion, the only drawback of pork (dry-cured meat) cooked at home is that it cannot be made in a large piece. But if you cut it into small slices, it will be delicious! The pieces should be no larger than 4 centimeters. Each is rolled in a mixture of coriander, a set of Italian or other spicy herbs, white and black pepper (the amount is left to your discretion), a tablespoon of coarse salt and a teaspoon of sugar. All this is enough for half a kilo of pork. The pieces are put in a tray, sprinkled moderately with vodka (half a pile is enough) and settle for 14 hours on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. The juice must be drained! Then the excess liquid is removed, and the marinated meat in a gauze bag is hung on the cornice in the kitchen for one and a half to two weeks. Enjoy your health!

Dried chickens

You can also cook dry-cured meat from poultry. The recipe, again, should not cause any particular difficulties. The simplest of the possible options: a carcass of any size is taken, carefully rubbed with salt inside and out, wrapped in parchment (in the absence of it, it can be wrapped in cellophane, but you have to ventilate it), pulled tight with twine and hung in the pantry (or in the garage, if it doesn't stink there gasoline. Actually, anywhere, if only it was dark and cool). After a couple of months, you can eat. And it can be stored for up to three years.

Dried with garlic

It is clear that the method described above is, rather, a way of harvesting, rather than preparing a treat. If you want something tasty, you will have to try, since you can cook dry-cured chicken meat only separately from its skeleton. That is, the carcass will have to be thoroughly washed and all the meat parts must be separated from the bony ones. The pulp is cut into thin strips, the garlic is finely chopped and ground in a mortar with salt at the rate of half a glass of the latter per head of garlic. With this mixture, strips are rubbed, laid out in bags (our people recommend old, but clean nylon socks) and hung up warm, but in a draft for 10 days.

Juniper chicken legs

Many in childhood dreamed that scientists would breed chickens with ten legs - then the children would get more tasty parts of the body. For those who have remained faithful to children's ideas and did not exchange them for dietary rules, this is our recipe.

We take the legs, wash them and rub generously with salt (for 10 kilograms of legs - 300 g of salt), mixed with cinnamon (a teaspoon) and sugar (5 tablespoons). All the wealth is laid out in a voluminous vessel, sprinkled with juniper berries (1/5 kilogram). Another 300 g of salt is dissolved in hot water (10 l) and boiled with cloves and peppercorns. The legs are poured with a filtered solution, a weighty press is placed on them for 3 hours. At the end of the salting, the legs are strained, soaked and dried for a month in a fairly cool (about 10 degrees) room. That's when happiness comes!

Home-made natural meat products are tasty, healthy and economical. Natural jerky meat will serve as a full-fledged substitute for store-bought sausages and will be prepared from those products that the hostess selects for her family.

If dry-cured meat is being prepared for a certain holiday or event, for example, it needs to be prepared for the New Year, it should be borne in mind that the whole process will take at least 10 days.

Drying at home: how to choose meat

You can also dry pork and beef at home, and even chicken. It is better to choose pieces from an entrecote part or a ham. You can buy both fresh meat and fresh frozen. Considering that pork is much softer and more tender than beef, it is better to take a piece of lean or low-fat pork from the lumbar or cervical region of the carcass, where the meat has small sebaceous veins, for self-cooking of jerky in a home kitchen. The most important condition when choosing meat is freshness. Pastured cuts with an expired shelf life will not work for jerky.
Important! You should not choose pieces thicker than four to five cm, otherwise it will be necessary to increase the time for their preparation at each stage by several days.

Dried pork at home

For one kg of pork, the following amount of products will be required:
- salt 250 g for dry pickling + 250 g for brine;
- garlic, 5 - 6 cloves;
- spices (bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander seeds, sweet paprika, hot paprika, ground black pepper, rosemary, sage) 50 - 60 grams.

1.Cut films and veins from a piece of meat. Wash and dry.

2. Sprinkle salt on the table or board and dip the meat in it several times, pressing down hard, so that the meat is in a dense shell of salt.

3. Put in a saucepan and refrigerate for three days. Inspect the meat every day and drain the liquid from it, if all the salt has dissolved too early, then add it.
4. After three days, boil a liter of water, put salt, a few leaves of lavrushka, five to six peppercorns, a pinch of coriander seeds.

Cool the brine to 35 - 30 degrees and lower the meat there.

5. Keep the pork in the brine in the refrigerator for another three days.
6. Remove the meat from the brine.

Put it on one board, cover it with the other and place it under the load slightly at an angle to remove excess liquid.

It is better to place the board with meat in a sink or on a drip tray. Leave the pork in this form for 3 to 5 hours.
7. Prepare a mixture of spices for breading meat. It must include garlic, black ground pepper, hot and sweet red paprika, rosemary and (or) sage and other spicy herbs as desired.

Grind the mixture with a mortar, break the bay leaf with your hands.

Many of the spices not only add flavor and aroma to jerky, but also have preservative and aseptic properties, act as natural preservatives, keeping the product fresh.
8. Breaded pork liberally in spices.

9. Place the meat in spices in a dense cloth.

A layered gauze pad will work as well, but a linen cloth or towel is best.
10. Wrap the meat in the cloth as tightly as possible.

Send it to the refrigerator. Inspect the meat in a day.

If there is not enough breading mixture, then it must be added, if necessary, replace the damp cloth with a dry one. Soak the jerky in the refrigerator for another 48 hours.
11. The resulting product should be stored in a refrigerator in a dry cloth or in edible paper.

The resulting dried pork is an excellent product for cutting meat on a festive table, you can surprise your loved ones and cook dried pork for the New Year or any festive feast. On weekdays, sandwiches with homemade pork jerky will help you to have a snack at work, and will help out at a picnic.