cooking

[Benchwayze]

Thanks Greg. Now I know where to start l'll follow my nose!
Enjoy a dram or two!

John

 

[Just4Fun]

just how big is your oven...............................................??

We have 2 electric ovens that are just the standard size but also have a huge brick oven in what we call the bakery. Even that is not big enough for a whole elk of course, even if we wished to cook one, so we'll just have a joint.

Would one buy the whole elk when a chunk would do; and is elk as tasty as buffalo BTW?

One doesn't buy elk. If you are not a member of a hunting club you have to know someone who is.
(Actually I have seen elk for sale in a supermarket: twice since I moved here in 1990.) It is easier to buy Kangaroo meat - which often appears in my local Lidl - than elk. Though to be honest I suspect the Kangaroo is not local produce.)

I have never tasted Buffalo so cannot compare it to elk.

 

[Benchwayze]

Someone mentioned clotted cream. I could eat the cream, but the scones and the jam preclude a Cornish tea. Never mind eh?

A full belly doesn't leave room for Covid! Hmmm

We have 2 electric ovens that are just the standard size but also have a huge brick oven in what we call the bakery. Even that is not big enough for a whole elk of course, even if we wished to cook one, so we'll just have a joint.


One doesn't buy elk. If you are not a member of a hunting club you have to know someone who is.
(Actually I have seen elk for sale in a supermarket: twice since I moved here in 1990.) It is easier to buy Kangaroo meat - which often appears in my local Lidl - than elk. Though to be honest I suspect the Kangaroo is not local produce.)

I have never tasted Buffalo so cannot compare it to elk.

That's how it used to be in UK with venison. My area manager at the time was a rifle fanatic and he got me a lovely joint of venison just before one Christmas. He wanted me to take over the branch as manager, but I had other plans. I cooked the venison before I told him.

John

 

[Trainee neophyte]

How can you turn pork into ham? I have some leg of pork in the freezer and I like ham. Or have I missed something?

Not at all - ham is bacon is cured pork. It's all the same stuff, but cooked slightly differently. It's exceptionally easy to make, and way, way nicer than the slimy, square stuff you get from the supermarket.

I would start small - buy a piece of belly pork and turn it into bacon - see if you like the end result. You will need salt, sugar and saltpeter, which is potassium nitrite, also known as just nitrite or "cure". The Americans refer to it as either #1 or #2 cure - what they are talking about is whether it is pure saltpetre or saltpetre mixed with salt, but I forget which is which.

Anyway, to make a brine: for 1kg of meat, you need 421ml of water, 50 grams of salt, 25 grams of sugar and 5 grams of saltpetre. Disolve everything in the water, and then submerse the meat in the brine. NB that is not much water - I use a polythene bag which is sealed using a vacuum sealer to get all the air out. The meat should sit in the brine (never exposed to air) for one day for every half inch of meat to the centre of the joint, plus one day. For eg, if your joint is 4" thick, then the brine will penetrate from both sides, so only needs to travel 2" to get to the centre, which takes 4 days at half and inch per day. Then add your extra day for safety, and you get 5 days in the brine. Then, you need to take it out, rinse it off, and leave it uncovered in the fridge for a week so the salt concentration can even out. Otherwise it will be more salty at the edges than the centre.

Finally, cook your ham. You can boil it, which works if the brine was really salty, but with the recipe above it should be perfect if you just bake it. I do it with a little water in a pan, in the oven and covered with tin foil. Bake until your meat thermometer says it is cooked.

If you made bacon, then slice and fry it. If you want gammon steaks, slice and fry, bake, braise etc.

Finally, you can add lots of other flavours, use beer or cider instead of water, and generally experiment. The recipe I have given will make really, really good cured pork (or beef or lamb or any other meat), and you can try out other flavours as you go along. We used to always put juniper berries in the bacon, but discovered we prefer the taste without it. We tried cider, but didn't really rate it.

 

[space.dandy]

Not at all - ham is bacon is cured pork. It's all the same stuff, but cooked slightly differently. It's exceptionally easy to make, and way, way nicer than the slimy, square stuff you get from the supermarket.

Technique aside, I thought 'a ham' was specifically pork leg, rather than any other cut?

Anyway, to make a brine: for 1kg of meat, you need 421ml of water, 50 grams of salt, 25 grams of sugar and 5 grams of saltpetre. Disolve everything in the water, and then submerse the meat in the brine. NB that is not much water - I use a polythene bag which is sealed using a vacuum sealer to get all the air out. The meat should sit in the brine (never exposed to air) for one day for every half inch of meat to the centre of the joint, plus one day. For eg, if your joint is 4" thick, then the brine will penetrate from both sides, so only needs to travel 2" to get to the centre, which takes 4 days at half and inch per day. Then add your extra day for safety, and you get 5 days in the brine. Then, you need to take it out, rinse it off, and leave it uncovered in the fridge for a week so the salt concentration can even out. Otherwise it will be more salty at the edges than the centre.

Given that these are largely techniques for preserving meat in days before fridge/freezers, do you know how your instructions might need to be modified to cure without refrigeration? Fridge space is quite precious and I'd like to give it a go 'old school'.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Someone mentioned clotted cream. I could eat the cream, but the scones and the jam preclude a Cornish tea. Never mind eh?

A Cornish cream tea should be with splits, not scones.

 

[stevek]

We normally have to provide christmas dinner for around 12 people but this year its just the two of us. What I have been doing the past few years to great effect is to bone and roll a turkey, you can find videos on the internet and once you know the few tricks it gives a really good result, the boned turkey is rolled around suusage meat stuffing. You trasform a quite big bird into somthing half the size, when sliced its a mixture of light and dark meat, and its never dry and always tasty. As I said, just us two this year and my wife is Veggie so its a little frozen turkey joint in a tin foil tray for me this year,,,but a lot less work.

 

[Benchwayze]

A Cornish cream tea should be with splits, not scones.

Thanks Phil. Makes no difference to me of course. If there is starch in a 'split' then I can't indulge. However every cream tea I ever had in Kernow was served with what looked like scones. When the lock down is over I am coming down to Penzance. Maybe I shall order a tea with splits! Cheers and Merry Christmas.

John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You'll have a hard job finding one with splits, now, everyone expects scones. When I was a child we never saw one with scones. Splits are now not all that common in bakeries.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Technique aside, I thought 'a ham' was specifically pork leg, rather than any other cut?



Given that these are largely techniques for preserving meat in days before fridge/freezers, do you know how your instructions might need to be modified to cure without refrigeration? Fridge space is quite precious and I'd like to give it a go 'old school'.

More salt. Possibly more saltpetre. You need to look into making specific types of hams and sausages, using the specific methods for aging the meat. It would help if you have access to a cave, or unheated basement. If you use facebook, this may be of help: https://m.facebook.com/groups/thesaltcuredpig/
They used to have a website: thesaltcuredpig.com, but recently gave it up. I tried to search the Way Back Machine to see if they had any content, but it wasn't working for me. Perhaps you may have better luck.

The really old school way to salt meat was to have a salt barrel. Fill the barrel with enough salt that it completely covers the meat, and stays solid no matter how much liquid comes out of the meat. The meat will last for ever, but will need much soaking before it is edible. I think that the recipe above has enough cure to keep the ham safe as it is hung in a cool place and dries out naturally. I think. You definitely need a second opinion before you try it, as botulism poisoning isn't something you want to experience. I have never tried keeping cured meat because I don't have a handy cave, and it is just too warm here even in the winter (18°C as I type). I believe @Steve Maskery has tried his hand at some long term curing - perhaps he can help. I eat everything I cure immediately, or cure it and keep it in the freezer, which is cheating.

 

[Just4Fun]

A Cornish cream tea should be with splits, not scones.

Oh that's interesting. I make splits occasionally but I have always known them as "Devonshire splits", purely because that is how I have always heard them named. Is there any difference between a split from Devon & a split from Cornwall?

 

[marcros]

Oh that's interesting. I make splits occasionally but I have always known them as "Devonshire splits", purely because that is how I have always heard them named. Is there any difference between a split from Devon & a split from Cornwall?

I imagine so...

 

[Nigel Burden]

My mother and grandmother were from StKeverne. The family left Cornwall in about 1925, but I'd never heard mother mention splits. I never knew my grandmother. Whether there were regional differences in Cornwall I wouldn't know.
Perhaps Phil will enlighten us. Whatever, jam first, cream on top.

Nigel.

 

[Suffolkboy]

Two adults and two kids here but I'm a big eater a d I like a blowout on Christmas day. Never been over struck on Turkey so we're having a haunch of Wild boar and a wild goose with all the trimmings.

Made a Christmas pudding about six months ago that I have been feeding with rum weekly so I should be fast asleep by say... 6pm.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My mother and grandmother were from StKeverne. The family left Cornwall in about 1925, but I'd never heard mother mention splits. I never knew my grandmother. Whether there were regional differences in Cornwall I wouldn't know.
Nigel.

Many regional differences, I expect. I've known people in my lifetime who hadn't been more that ten miles from where they lived. I've known people from twenty miles away whose accents and vernacular I couldn't understand, come to that.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Just chopped the garlic, olives and anchovies for the lamb to go in for its nine hours overnight. The goose goes in in the morning.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Many regional differences, I expect. I've known people in my lifetime who hadn't been more that ten miles from where they lived. I've known people from twenty miles away whose accents and vernacular I couldn't understand, come to that.

Same here in Dorset. There's not many with strong accents now, only out in the sticks. It was certainly more common back in the mid 1950s when I was a kid. I would find it difficult to understand some of my fathers generation though. Oddly enough I didn't find it too difficult to understand an old chap and his son from Traboe, and their accents were stronger than Jethros. I don't think either had been out of Cornwall, and Jimmy the old chap, I don't think had been much beyond Helston. I think mothers family only went as far as Helston about once a year though.

Nigel.

 

[Nigel Burden]

The wife made the mince pies and sausage rolls yesterday and some Rocky Road today.

We tend not to buy or make too much these days. Years ago it could get that by the end of Boxing day I didn't want to see another sausage roll, mince pie or chocolate for another year.

Nigel.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My parents when first married lived in Penryn - my mother said in those days (early '50s) she could tell by their accent whether an old person came from Penryn or Falmouth (about two miles apart).

 

[Nigel Burden]

Mother and her sisters didn't have strong accents, my fathers Dorset accent was stronger. I never knew my maternal grand parents. Whether the fact that mothers father was a Welshman, and her mother was Cornish had an effect on their childrens accents, I don't know

Nigel.