Home Kill Beef - Cured Beef Results

In a previous post on Cured Meats 6 different recipes were attempted. Three of those were tested this week as they appeared to be ready.

The River Cottage Pastrami was excellent with large crunchy pieces of herbs and spices still attached to the exterior. The only variation to the recipe was the exclusion of two steps. The cold smoking was bypassed as Jean felt that it may introduce unnecessary carcinogens  into her diet. Since she is the only meat eater in the family that seemed a fair request. Also skipped was the simmering in salted water. The meat was dry cured sufficiently that it didn't need any cooking. Taste wise it was excellent with good herbal flavours and textures and not excessively salty.

The River Cottage Biltong was also excellent, not too dry and chewy. And when sliced thinly melted in the mouth.

The Leith's Meat Bible's Bresaola was also quite good but a little over salty. The fault here may have been not adjusting the salt volume to the meat weight. The piece of beef used was quite thick and the central part was still well coloured. The feeling was that a good rinse with water to remove some excess salt and hanging for another month would provide a more well rounded flavour.

Once the samples had been shaved off and tasted the next step was to thinly slice, vacuum pack and freeze. There was far too much meat for one person to consume in just a few weeks. After some investigation it was clear that the cheapest vacuum packers can be of dubious quality. The other conclusion was that purchasing a vacuum packer made little sense if it was not used frequently.

The vacuum packer was easy to borrow as the boss at our work property had purchased a good quality unit a couple of years previously. We did purchase replacement bags with the conclusion that this is an expensive way to store food. The positive side was that the bags can be cleaned and reused although a little bit shorter each time once the seal was cut off. The cost of borrowing was a few sample packs.

The electric meat slicer was more of an issue. It is something that is not used frequently. There are cheap ones available but being unsure of how well they performed we preferred to borrow one to test the quality. Extensive communication with friends yielded no result and then by chance we came across a former work colleague who had a very old, high quality, restored Hobart commercial slicer. And what a gem it was. All three cured meats were sliced paper thin with ease.

The former work colleagues had become enamoured by meat curing and were heavily involved in making all forms of flavoured, air dried and  smoked meats. This including constructing smoking and drying facilities with thermostatically controlled fans and burners. A pleasant couple of hours of slicing and cleaning was followed by lunch. We left with not only a pile of our own sliced and vacuum packed meat but also various samples of their sausages. A pleasant way to spend half a day.

As an aside these people also had an new Aldi slicer which they were about to throw out as it was completely useless for cutting cured meats. Just too flimsy for these drier cuts leaving a ragged edge and not robust enough to produce consistent thin cuts. So it seems size and quality do make a difference in certain areas.

In another month or so the remaining three larger cuts of meat using three other recipes will be due for testing.

Cattle - Roaming Off the Property

No, not ours (this time).

Returning from an excursion to Dungog and travelling by the back route about 3 or 4 kilometres from home down in a sharp turning gulley stood a magnificent Black Braham Bull. Not old and age is hard to judge but lets say a 'youngin' probably just a yearling. Seemed nonplussed by our pause to examine.

This is where it's time to weigh up options. Keep driving and let someone else worry about the problem. Push it into the nearest paddock just to get it out of harm's way. Start looking for an owner and offer assistance.

When you think about it, what would you want someone to do with your strays?

Option three was about to become an adventure in sleuthing. Somewhere in the database of useless information laying dormant was a vague comment from someone years ago about a bloke called Stan Doftrees, who's property was within a 100 metres of where we sat, having some strange breed of cattle. Being a predominantly Bos Taurus region that could mean he has Bos Indicus and a home for this little bloke.

Up the drive and to the house for a bit of door banging before confronting a mature lady who admitted she was grandma and only visiting while Stan was away. Who's grandma was not divulged.

"There is a young Braham bull on the road nearby with a large Purple ear tag. Would that belong here?"

Never assume people know stuff so always provide two or more points of reference e.g. eartag colour.

"Oh dear I don't know if he has Brahimi cattle"

Now at this point you could correct the pronunciation but then what if  Brahimi is a new cross breed of some obscure origin.  Or she could also be referring to the chef of the same name. Best stay mum or grandmum in this case.

The problem is then shared with another current occupant of the house a generation younger. No relationship to grandma or Stan is provided but there is additional information is i.e. there is a Braham bull somewhere on the property but is grey. Which is an interesting comment as she refers to  the colour of the good looking dark Grey Staffordshire slobbering on my foot as being Blue.

The upshot of all this is that there is still no home but a suspicion that it may belong here and if all else fails this will be the temporary home i.e. option 2.

Back down the driveway to try another neighbour and as luck has it 50 metres on Mary Widdow is exiting her driveway on route to another location.

"Braham cattle? no don't know anyone who would own that but I'm just popping down to see Farmer Gate. I'll call a few people from there".

As Mary Widdow puddles off down the road past the happily munching Brahmin we decide to try another nearby neighbour. Con Tractor knows everyone but he may not be home. Being correct about him not being home wasn't helpful and neither was his gardener.

Consensus that we try another neighbour in the other direction before executing option 2. As chance would have it Ma Gee who lives opposite Stan Doftrees is arriving home and is idling in the drive about to open her gate.

"No, don't know anyone with Brahmins".

Well this looks bad, at least two of the people spoken with have been in the area for a decade or more and should have a fair idea of who has what. Beginning to wonder how far this boy has strayed.

The neighbour next to Stan Doftrees is who we target next. Good fortune smiles and he is exiting his driveway with son in tow.

"Mary Widdow just called me to say there was a Brahmin steer on the road".

"No, not a steer, a bull"

"Oh OK then that belongs to Stan Doftrees. Give me a hand getting him into a paddock?"

And so it passed. Job done. But is this an indication that nowadays we don't take an interest in our neighbours? Surely not. I've always said that Bos Indicus become invisible in a region of Bos Taurus. That would be the only explanation.

Home Kill Beef - Making Tallow

Preparing the beef cuts for the various cures entailed trimming off all the fat. On the brisket this was huge. It seemed a waste not to make it into Tallow which Jean tells me is very good for you. Being a saturated fat it is supposed to be good for the cell structures in our bodies. See Doctor Bruce Mackie's Abstract here and some further research material here

There is a slight problem for me as I'm a vegetarian. It may be bullet bighting time.

The other uses for Tallow are candles, Soap, Bio-diesel and Lubricant. What a versatile product.

The extraction process involved a small amount of water and the lowest possible heat setting with lots and lots of time. Using a Bain Marie is a better idea. Even my lowest stove stop setting still created excessive bubbling but it still worked out fine.

A by-product of all this was a jelly (after cooling) that will make great soup stock.

If you look at the last picture in the sequence, this is the leftover meat, sinews etc. It went in for a second rendering for another 4 hours with a little water and produced almost as much Tallow on this second run.

The remaining material went to the chickens and ducks although it was a tossup between them, the dogs and Jean. Apparently it was very tasty.

Simmering on very low heat in a small amount of water.

Chook or dog food from leftovers



Tallow on the top and a thin layer of jelly on the bottom

These leftovers for reprocessing just to extract the last of the tallow

Home Kill Beef - Making Various Cured Beef Product

While Jean went off to move cattle across the river and do the other chores it was down to work in the kitchen for me. It has been quite a few years since we made and cured meat products and the stirrings inside me led to accumulating a few different recipes over the last couple of weeks in anticipation of receiving the results of the butcher's hard work.

After a lot of research the styles were narrowed down to those that didn't have anything except beef, salt, herbs and spices. Would love to have done some sausages etc but the absence of Pork limited the range.

Still  there were six to be made. On day one four styles were produced and then on day two another two. Produced means started not finished. Each recipe requires different steps and timings.  

The list is as follows:

Leith's Meat Bible supplied a good Bresaola recipe.

Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn gave another Bresaola recipe from their book Salumi

Culinaria Greece had a Pastrourma recipe but without quantities and required a bit of imagination.

Found a very interesting Pastourma recipe on the web.

And finally River Cottage from an episode aired recently provided the idea for Pastrami and Biltong.

A freezer normally used in wine making has a thermostat set to 4 degrees C and the shelves reinserted. One thing became clear and that was we did not have enough of the right sized containers. Jeans Scone bowl was pinched as were a few salad bowls and other mixing bowls.

In order to keep track of everything each shelf has the product in progress plus a plastic sleeve which contains the handwritten recipe on one side and on the reverse side a tick list with a day per line to ensure all the relevant turning and rubbing and whatever is all done according to plan.

As you can see from the photographs each recipe is different, one requires weights, others are dry salted and herbed and others are soaking in either wine or vinegar.

Some of the inputs

Pastrami

Biltong drying

Home Kill Beef - Bringing Home the Meat

The Home Kill was collected today from the butcher. The final price came to 3.65/KG including purchase of the animal. In addition extra bones for the dogs were provided.

The butcher packed the steaks into parcels of two with labels, although on some cuts the labelling was only in ink and some packets slipped from 2 pieces to 3 and on the Scotch Fillet 4 pieces. The roasts were a bit large and these were cut into 2 or 3 by us and repacked. The offal was cut but in a single bag, as were the dog bones and trimmings. These bulk packs were repackaged into more suitable sizes.

A few large roast are going to be cured with spices and these were set aside for later processing. No sausages or corned beef were requested. Anything that couldn't be steaked or roasted went into mince a more useful commodity for us.

185 kilograms of meat is a lot to pack away and freeze. In the past the whole lot went into chest freezers and then had to be stirred around every day until it all froze. If they are not stirred a solid bloody block of ice becomes a hammer and chisel exercise.

This time two upright freezers were employed. Rather than pack densely all the packages were seated into cardboard trays kept from dog and cat food can purchases. They now get a second life and later will serve a third purpose as blood flavoured compost for the worms. The trays were placed on shelves in a single depth for maximum air flow. There wasn't enough upright freezer space and a few packs went into the chest freezers interspersed with other frozen products.

48 hours should be enough to have them set solid. After that the chest freezers will be employed to hold sample packs of each cut for easy access and a single upright will be packed solid with the remaining meat. The upright will then not need to be opened except to refill the chest freezer with mixed samples every few months. Uprights are notoriously inefficient because the cold air flows out when the door is opened. The advantage of uprights is the easy accessibility to the different products.

In hindsight the upright that was purchased some years ago was a poor choice. A larger chest freezer would have been a cheaper buy price, cheaper to run and stored more product. Some time in the near future it will be downgraded to use in wine making and as a backup to the chest freezers and a large chest freezer acquired as its replacement.

And finally the clean up was performed before retiring to the house to prepare dinner.

NZ Compost Update, Mushrooms, Chicken Food

Got very close to finishing building the massive 4'6" cubed compost but things kept getting in the way of putting down the last few layers. The lawn is completely mown and the Elderflower, Buddleia and Mulberry are all pruned with pruning's mulched in the compost. Finally this morning the last layers were added.

Steam has been emanating from the central hole for days and too wispy to catch in a photograph but a probe dropped down the hole measured the temperature at 66.8 C. Now that should sterilize any wanton seed.

A few of the Mushroom containers appeared to produce spore and some time was spent sterilising batches of Lucerne to use as a bed. Before adding them to the hothouse.

Oyster Mushroom Spore - I think/hope

Lucerne Hay

And the day is not finished without unloading the ute which carried the 160 KG of mixed grain for the chickens and another 100 KG of Oat grain which will be sprouted for the cattle. Grass is getting scarce and they need to keep up their strength even after gorging themselves on Pumpkin.

Of the last 100 KG of Oats they only got through about half before the rains came and the Autumn grasses took off. The remaining grain went to the chickens.

We don't expect any luxurious growth now until well into September or later. Their diet will be a little sprouted Oats and a small biscuit of Lucerne in addition to what can be picked out of the paddocks.

Home Kill Beef

Recently some friends in the valley offered us a calf as a home kill. They run two Murray Grey cows and breed two calves most years who are fathered by a local farmer's bull. In this area there is a lot of bartering of services and goods.

One the calves is normally used as a home kill and the other goes to the markets for some pocket money. Usually, half the meat that comes from the home kill is shared with their daughter. But recently the daughter turned to vegetarianism and now a home kill lasts twice as long.

This deal works well for us. Firstly the calf is still feeding from mum and is what is known in some places as being 'sappy'. Secondly, the final price per kilogram is estimated at $4 after calf costs, abattoir fees and butchering costs. As an indicator of price, the local supermarket sells meaty bones for $5 per kilogram. Thirdly the provenance is known  i.e. grass fed, well treated, no chemical usage.

For the calf owners it means a guaranteed price and cash in the hand. With cattle prices still fluctuating greatly this is the best way to sell.

This is being written as the calf goes in to slaughter. It will hang at the abattoir for a week and then be transported to the butcher for cutting, packing and labelling.

We visited this butcher to agree on the type of cuts. Both avoiding commercially corned beef and sausages. Rather than sausages there will be more mince as the cats and dogs are happy with this. Nor will the beef pumped with corning material instead it will come as plain roasts.

The only short coming is that the offal that comes with the carcase will not be from this calf as it cannot be kept with the hanging carcase. Instead there will be fresh offal from another animal on the day.  Any charcuterie will be performed at HHF when the meat arrives.

Ideally, it would have been best to have slaughtered the calf in situ and avoid the transport but no such butchering facility is available locally.

This is the first time with this butcher but we felt confident after the visit that all should proceed well. A bonus is that cuts are automatically packed in twos and labelled. Something that isn't part of our regular butcher's offering.

Devastation

The Pumpkin Patch has experienced a major set back. We had already harvested a crop and then the mild Autumn resulted in the vines taking off and running amuck with an even bigger crop. The main fruit was a local Dry Pumpkin a wonderfully long keeper and some additional Mosque de Provence also made a comeback. Some had hardened off and were ready to harvest but most were almost there.

Then The cattle broke in yesterday. Not their fault. I'd become lazy and hadn't flicked the switch and turned on the electric fence around the patch. Not much harm done. A few Pumpkins eaten and a little trampling of the vines.

Then overnight they broke in again. I hadn't fully checked the fence perimeter and there was a major short in the farthest corner. This time they made a meal of it. Well and truly a meal. They ate all the giant Mosque de Provence and quite a few drys. The worst part was they trampled the vines.

There are still enough pumpkins remaining to keep us out of trouble but probably over half of the bumper crop is gone.

Just in case you're asking the cattle were very full. They had a great time not only with the Pumkins but also cleaning up all the weed and grass growth.

So the lesson is never not have the fence energised and always test the voltage to make sure it has a sufficient kick. Complacency results in devastation.

Our Cattle

The two steers (Warren and Hector) must have been feeling good today. Something came upon them and they raced up and down the paddock in high spirits stopping occasionally for a bit of playful head butting before kicking their heels in the air and running off again. Who says dairy steers are valueless?

At first Martinique showed her maturity and just stared but then she let loose and had a canter.

The photographs are just before they started playing.

Hector (Sweetie Boy)

Martinique

Warren (Whinging) in the background

A Walk on the Hill to Check the Cattle

The rain appears to have gone for the moment and we need to check one final herd of cattle for the neighbour. 20 cows, 21 calves and a bull. A nice steady walk up the hill and back before coffee and scones. The dogs love these walks even though afterwards they lay around feeling knackered. We enjoy the exercise as well as the opportunity to look down on the Williams Valley and our place from a different perspective.

Looking down on HHF

HHF

This herd has access to a number of paddocks. The owner (neighbour) decided to save us having to move the them by opening a few areas. They have chosen to be on the highest paddock. Within sight but just far enough away that the undulations hide some of them and we need to get closer to perform a reliable count.

A few black dots on the ridge line are what we want to count

This is some of them but not enough, a closer look required.

We plod along getting closer. At this point we split up with Jean heading towards them while I go down the hill and wait just above the fence line. We expect them to see us and not worry but the sight of the dogs will make them move and the best route will be along the fence line I'm above. It should be easy for me to count as they step past.

Despite repeated counts we come up short. It's not easy counting them at 100 metres away because black on black is black. Binoculars help but in the end we are two animals short. Looks like a much longer walk is required to check all the accessible paddocks.

And here comes the first of the missing animals

But before we wander off in what would have been the wrong direction a cow comes into view on the horizon shortly followed by another and we have a full count. Seems easy.

In the mean time the dogs have been running about chasing rabbits and having a ball. It's hot work and plunging in the dam is the next activity despite what seems to us to be a cold event.

Nikki

Run, get hot, swim, get cool, run again. They never pace themselves. It's just flat out all the time, then they're buggered and sleep well. Hopefully not too sore.

We get back home in the late morning to enjoy that coffee with scones, butter and honey. The rest of the day the dogs lounge in their nests while we get on with the usual much needed weeding in the vegetable beds.

 

 

 

 

 

Checking the Neighbours Cattle

We have been baby sitting next door's farm while they attend a wedding overseas. They decided to make a holiday of it and stay away for two weeks. It involves only having to cast an eye over the five herds every two to three days. This is done by rotation and some herds which don't have calves only need a weekly look.

Most of the time it's possible to tell if there is a problem with cows and calves because one or the other will be vocal if there is an issue. But not always and a visual scan and count can't be beaten. Cows and steers on their own are usually safe enough but a regular eyeballing can't be beaten especially in steep or rougher country.

One group of 13 cows high up on the back of a hill which can't seen from our house and is a solid 30 minute walk up a steep mountain have been a bit elusive and only 11 have been counted. But coming back from Dungog the other day I noticed that there is a clear view of the side of the hill and the cows could be seen but not well enough to perform a head count.

Today I drove around to the Dungog Road with a pair of binoculars and performed a successful count. Thinking I was on a roll I went around to another section of the property which is visible from yet another road to see if I could tick off a second herd. Yes and no. The cows and calves tallied but no bull in sight. It was a bit worrying to see that one of the cows was in season and no bull paying attention. The concern resulted in a long unplanned walk. The bull was contently grazing as far away from the cows and calves as he could get oblivious to the fact his services were needed. Obviously he had had enough of mums talking about their babies.

All was not lost as a third herd was ticked off from that road position as they stood displaying themselves clearly up high on this side of the hill. Yesterday I was able to sign off on the fourth herd which had grazed up to our back fence.

Just one more herd to count off tomorrow and we are all done for the owners return in a couple of days.

Harvesting

The bed in the paddock that we refer to as the Tomato Bed is continuing to produce a steady flow of produce and the Mango trees are ripening their fruit. Being February the Fig tree is ripening its load. Normally it rains in February and the Figs explode. But not this year. Our preference is to have the rain but as with all things there is some good in everything. As is the way it all comes at once.

Corn and Mango

The one and only Pimply Squash

Figs

Friends have received their gifts of Watermelon quarters as we just can't keep up with the abundance. Everyone seems pleased at their windfall. We hate to waste this sweet produce and when it is of this high quality we gift it to various people. If it is just not quite perfect the chooks have a bonus. As it is they love cleaning out the left over skins leaving only a tissue thin shell.

Our cattle are back on sprouted grain and a small biscuit of Lucerne. There is a fair bit of roughage about on HHF but it is of poor quality and the supplementary feeding will keep them in top shape and content. We were lucky that we stocked up on Lucerne in Spring as it is getting more and more expensive and harder to acquire. Grain is 60 cents per kilogram and about 2 KG per animal is good value to keep them happy and well.

Some of the larger land holders with big herds are forced to buy in large loads of grain or pellets to supplement their feed regimes. There is hay available from Victoria but the freight cost is astronomical.

The rain forecast indicates little volume in the next 28 days, just a medium chance of small showers. About 250 mm over a week would be ideal. After rain it takes another two to three weeks to get the grass to edible height. Possibly mid to late March before ground feed resumes. That is the best case and it could be later. Then of course if it is later we enter April and the Summer grasses slow down growth. Could be a miserable Autumn and Winter for the farmers.

Harrowing Pastures

The purpose of harrowing is to spread the the manure mounds more evenly across the pasture.

Without harrowing there are resultant green patches which cattle will avoid eating unless forced by the lack of other feed in the paddock. In order to force the cattle to nibble at these green mounds they must remain in the paddock for a longer period. This additional stay results in overgrazing the areas between green patches until finally they have no alternative but to nibble around the decomposing manure. The overgrazing slows down the recovery rate of the pasture (think of it as solar panels) and can lead to the dying out of some species and the increasing dominance of less palatable species (unwanted weeds).

Cattle manure is “free to good home” fertiliser. All that is required is to spread it evenly around the paddock and encourage a rapid incorporation into the soil. Leaving it as mounds over stimulates those patches while leaving the remaining pasture short of the free nutrient.

The harrows below are dragged behind a lightweight 4WD RTV and are small enough to work behind a quad bike. The paddocks on this property are about a hectare in size and the harrowing activity takes very little time and is performed as soon as the cattle have exited the paddock while the manure is still fresh and soft and spreads like butter.

Chain harrows in need of some repair

The harrows have a metal ring at the apex of the chains that is dropped over the tow ball for a quick connection. Once the harrowing is finished they are left at the entrance to the next cell. A white electric fence post is used as a marker for their location. Without the marker they are known to disappear in rapid growing grass.



The typical pattern left after harrowing. The manure is spread over  much larger area. These streaks disappear in just a few days.

A close up of the manure pat after harrowing

If there is excessive woody growth in a paddock and it needs slashing the slashing is completed first and then the paddock harrowed. Using a mulching mower rather than a slasher negates the separate step of harrowing.