dry cured venison bresaola
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ok, this is the easiest air dried/cured recipe you can do. it dries so fast, and it is a solid piece of muscle, your chances of messing up and doing something that would cause folks to get sick are seriously minimized. nearly idiot proof.
so let's begin.
first take a one pound chunk of backstrap (the loin)
remove silverskin and and fat.
make up a dry cure. the backbone of this should be:
1tbsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar (or honey, syrup, something sweet)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp pink salt. (use 1/2 if you are worried)
pink salt is a type of salt with nitrites in it, also called insta cure #1
to this basic cure, you can add whatever else you want. 1tbsp cajun seasoning, whatever. up to you.
then rub the cure all over the strap and put into a vacuum seal bag or a freezer bag that you have squeezed the air out of.
here are 6 of them ready to go into the curebres1.JPG640 x 427 - 75K -
in the pic above there are six bags, so six flavors.
1:rosemary and juniper berries
2:cajun
3:crushed hot pepper flake
4:northwoods
5:curry
6:herby as all hell
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once they are sealed up in the bags, put them in the fridge for a week. every day turn them over. the salts will cause some liquid to come out of the meat and make a brine, by turning it over, you are redistributing it.
after a week, remove them from the fridge, rinse them VERY well. try to rinse off all that salt, some of the herbs, black pepper etc, may be stuck to it, thats ok.
after this dry the meat with paper towels. it will look just like a loin, but slightly more red.bres2.JPG448 x 299 - 48K -
to hang them, you will want to wrap them in cheescloth or something to keep the outer 1/2 inch from drying excessively and getting too dry.
this makes for a more even drying of the whole piece.bres3.JPG448 x 299 - 63K -
then you are good.
hang them in a dark area, with good air flow.
best conditions for this is 60 degrees and about 65-70% humidity.
usually a dark basement with a humidifier does the trick.bres4.JPG640 x 427 - 134K -
the little tags you can see are identifiers. each one has the number (1-6) of the recipe i used as well as the grams of the piece WITH cheescloth and twine and everything on it.
you MUST know the pre drying weight in order to know when it is done.
it is done when each individual piece weighs 30% less than it did on the day you hung it.
for most of these, that is only a week worth of hanging time.
it is also handy to do the math ahead of time and write the finishing weight on the tags so you know when you weigh them, the numbers you are looking for. -
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after work today, i weighed the smallest one.
ten grams away! might have to get up at midnight to take a small slice! -
That looks good! Time to start hunting again.
