Category Archives: Beef

Pastrami Cured & Smoked Beef Tongue

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Beef, Charcuterie, Meat, Spices

≈ 11 Comments

Transforming a tough, throw-away part of the animal into something beautiful and delicious is the true measure of a cook. A few weeks ago I had dinner at my favorite Austin restaurant, Foreign & Domestic. The special that night was thinly sliced pastrami cured beef tongue, and it was outstanding.

The experience motivated me to try making it myself. I had toyed with the idea of tongue pastrami for a long time. Last year I made it with the traditional brisket and wanted to substitute tongue, a much cheaper and leaner cut of meat.

We ordered some tongues from Richardson Farms. Five pounds of locally raised meat for $14 was a steal. I prepared a sweet and savory brine flavored with salt, homemade pickling spice, garlic, sugar, brown sugar, and honey. Adding some sodium nitrite gave the meat a beautiful pink color and the familiar pastrami-like flavor.

I cooled the brine and submerged the tongues in the liquid where they pickled for 3 days. Then I rinsed them off, coated them in ground black peppercorn and coriander seeds, and smoked them for about 8 hours.

That’s the tongue pastrami overview so you can prepare yourself 3 days in advance. Here’s the step-by-step procedure adapted from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie:

Brine:

  • 1 gallon water
  • 1 1/2 cups kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 8 teaspoons pink salt (sodium nitrite)
  • 1 tablespoon picking spice
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  • One or two beef tongues
  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds, lightly toasted
  • 2 tablespoons black peppercorns, lightly toasted

1. Combine the brine ingredients in a pot large enough to hold the tongues. Bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and let the brine cool to room temperature.

2. Submerge the tongues in the brine. Place a plate on top to keep the meat covered with the brine and prevent it from floating. Refrigerate for 3 or 4 days.

3. Remove the tongues from the brine. Rinse them, pat dry, and set aside. Get rid of that brine!

4. Grind the coriander and peppercorn mixture in spice grinder or food processor. Coat the tongues with it on all sides.

5. Hot-smoke the tongues until they reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees. (Try to keep the smoking temperature as low as possible so the tongues can smoke for a long as possible. We smoked ours overnight)

6. Let the tongues rest for a few hours after smoking. To prepare the meat for eating, slice it as thinly as possible. Heat it in a pan, or steam it before serving.

Facing My Hot Dog Phobia

15 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in Beef, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Meat

≈ 4 Comments

Charcutepalooza’s July emulsion challenge destroyed me. It was challenging both emotionally and in terms of technique. You see, I was one of those fussy little kids that refused to eat hamburgers (even from McDonald’s) but loved hot dogs. One of my favorite places to eat was at the Newport Creamery, a Rhode Island institution known for its crappy ice cream. But their hot dogs were my favorite. They were grilled to perfection and placed on a toasted split top bun, typical of New England. The casing was well-charred,  but the hot dog still had that satisfying, juicy snap.

My love of hot dogs abruptly ended at age 10 when I learned their dark secret. My older sister told me how they were made from the pig scraps that no one wanted to eat. I pictured a massive factory where they collected huge quantities of snouts, lips, and unmentionable pig parts, ground them into a paste, and then stuffed it into casings. Of course this wasn’t far from the truth, and I was traumatized. It would be 17 years before I tried a hot dog again.

Since then I’ve given hot dogs a fair chance, but I still associate them with pig scraps of dubious origin. So I was somewhat excited, if apprehensive, to make my own. Also, I was relieved that Ruhlman’s Charcuterie recipe called for beef because I was sick of working with pork. So I purchased some beautiful short ribs from Winters Family Beef. I sliced every last piece of meat from the bones and saved them in the freezer for stock. I would know exactly what was in my hot dogs— beautiful, local, and humanely raised beef cured for almost 48 hours with the help of a healthy dash of nitrates.

I was riding a wave of confidence from last month and uncharacteristically started the challenge ahead of time. It was soon clear that the heat, surpassing 100 almost everyday this summer, was creating problems. Even though the meat was thoroughly chilled, the meat paste still got warm, stuck to everything, and clogged the grinder. That paste lodged itself into every possible crevice. I ended up putting the meat back into the freezer to chill many more times than Ruhlman’s recipe called for.

By the end, it seemed like a thin layer of garlicky, fatty meat paste covered every surface in my kitchen. The worst part, however, was stuffing the sausages. I still don’t have a stuffer, and it was nearly impossible to pass the meat paste through the funnel and into the casing. The result?  Misshapen hot dogs, and the meat was unevenly distributed and formed large air pockets.

I got pretty cranky at that point. I had set aside about four hours to complete the challenge, but it actually dominated my entire day. I only had six pathetic hot dogs to show for myself, and I reluctantly smoked and then grilled them. The fat liquified from the heat and collected in the air pockets. I pictured hot dogs with the texture of oatmeal interspersed with large, gooey patches of white tallow. Who knew making hot dogs, maybe the most popular sausage in the country, would be so hard?!

Eventually I was rewarded for my struggles. I was shocked when I bit into my sausage, and it tasted and felt like a real hot dog! My worst fears weren’t realized as the meat seemed to reabsorb the fat. They were the best hot dogs I’ve ever had, although I haven’t eaten too many. I think knowing exactly where the meat came from helped. But would I make these again? Hell no!

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Recreating the Best Pastrami in New York

17 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Beef, Books, Fat, Meat, Michael Ruhlman

≈ 4 Comments

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Here in Austin, I’ve noticed that some customers go to the grocery store and get all excited about cold, water-logged Boar’s Head pastrami. It pains my soul. I wonder if they don’t know what it’s like to go to Katz’s Deli in New York City and order a pastrami reuben. The old guy behind the counter heaves a huge pastrami out of the steamer and hand carves off a pile of thin slices for your sandwich, wielding a massive knife. If you tip him he’ll give you a couple of extra slices on the side to sample. The beef is sweet, salty, and melt-in-your-mouth-tender. You also sense some garlic, mustard , and smoke while the coating of coriander and black peppercorns adds another layer of flavor.


When I left New York for Austin, I feared I’d never have access to legit pastrami again. So when I read about the Charcutepalooza brine challenge for March, I betrayed my Irish heritage and went for the pastrami challenge instead of the corned beef. Pastrami is essentially corned beef anyways, but there are more herbs and spices in the brine. Most importantly, it is traditionally cold smoked and then steamed instead of boiled.

Making pastrami is no small task; it took a 5 pound brisket from Richardson Farms, 3 days of brining, and 4 hours of smoking.  I made big plans to brine the beef before work. Upon reading Ruhlman’s recipe from Charcuterie more closely that morning, I realized it called for some emotionally prepared pickling spice made ahead of time. In a rush, I improvised and threw in pinches of whole spices called for in the recipe, maybe throwing in a little extra of my favorites like mustard seeds and black peppercorns. I submerged the brisket in the brine, and placed the pot in the fridge.


 Three days later I pulled it out, rinsed and dried off the brisket, and coated it in the crushed peppercorn and coriander seed  mixture commonly associated with  pastrami.
 
Ruhlman’s recipe explained that the last step was to smoke the brisket as long as possible until the center reached 150 degrees. My inexperienced smoking partner and I were afraid we’d overcook the meat with our make-shift smoker grill set up, but we actually managed to keep the fire low and smoke the meat for 4 hours until it reached the correct temperature.

The result was everything I dreamed it would be! A beautiful pastrami that was delightfully smokier than anything I’ve had before, and the coriander peppercorn crust was pleasantly crisp and crunchy. Right out of the grill/smoker the meat was a little too salty, and I vowed to make a weaker brine next time. Over the past few days, however, the saltiness has become less pronounced, and I wonder if it’s all part of the pastrami-making process since it’s a preserved meat product after all.


So I’m thrilled to know I can make a suitable substitute for Katz’s Deli pastrami whenever I get the craving, and it’s a fun activity too. Now I’m sort of inspired to try making the other New York foods I miss: bagels, Polish dumplings, and Shanghai soup dumplings. We’ll see.

Save Your Bones for Stock!

18 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by in Beef, Chicken, Crock Pot, Lamb, Meat, Slow Cooker, Soup

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The blustery weather has me craving soups and thinking about making chicken and beef stock. People tend to get emotional about making stock, buying three whole chickens to toss into the stock pot, but this seems like a big waste to me. Home cooks from around the world originally made stock as a way of using up all parts of the animal, including the bones.

Unfortunately people don’t seem to have many bones lying around their kitchens these days. For convenience sake, many prefer to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and other tasteless cuts of meat. It’s a shame because whole chickens, lamb shanks, and beef short ribs are more flavorful and inexpensive, making it affordable to buy locally raised meat. Purchasing these cuts also has the added bonus of providing bones to make stock. Instead of throwing bones out, I stockpile them in my freezer.

Here is my easy and fool-proof method for making stock while I’m at work: I throw the bones in the crock pot, along with some salt, vegetable scraps, bay leaves, and peppercorns, and cover them with water. Adding a touch of vinegar, white wine, lemon juice  helps draw out the minerals in the bones. Then I let the mixture simmer for up to 24 hours, and then strain the liquid into a container.

I freeze the stock in 1 cup or quart containers for use in soups and sauces later. This method doesn’t create an award-winning stock, but its much more richness to dishes than store-bought stocks that are often so strongly flavored that they dominate any dish to which they are added.

Besides simply tasting better, homemade stock is extremely nutritious. Canned broth and bouillon cubes can contain added coloring, “natural flavorings,” MSG, and tons of added salt. Homemade stock provides us with a wealth of easily absorbed minerals that promote digestion, liver function, and boost the immune system. It’s true that eating homemade chicken soup makes you feel better when you’re sick!

 

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