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.

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.

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.

Cattle Feeding, Fixing Things, Bitter Melon, Bulk Meat & Home Kills, Home Brew Beer

Cattle Feeding

Companion Steer

Today we moved the cattle (all three) into our best grazing paddock. This is the one in which we have grown tomatoes and melons in different patches over the last 15 or 16 years. The small section allocated as the Tomato and Melon bed this year is protected by an electric fence. Part of the paddock was slashed nearly three months ago and with the ample rain, has grown a solid cover of various grasses. The animals ran into the grass and the sound of ripping grass and munching was evident. This is probably one of the most pleasing sounds.

Fixing Things

Rechargeable Torch

Over the years we have collected a few expired, rechargeable torches. They were kept for spare parts as we always purchased the same make and model. While scavenging for a spare part, the realisation dawned that with a simple modification some standard rechargeable AA batteries could be utilised to replace the originals. It is a shame it took so long for this to become apparent. Now we have a bank of working rechargeable torches to choose from.

Just to boost our stockpile in this area we found an almost new waterproof torch washed up on the beach during a recent walk with the dogs. The battery was one of those large 6 volt non rechargeable models. After carefully prising open the black battery box and removing old batteries it was a matter of fitting an alternative. There were two spare 3 volt batteries from an old non digital camera that provided the immediate solution. When these die they will be replaced with an assembly of rechargeable batteries.

Having been spurred on by the success with torches, when our very expensive can opener ceased operation it was dismantled and the broken component replaced. It was just a matter of finding a piece of scrap metal to serve as a handle. This can opener removes the lid by cutting inside the rolled lip without leaving any sharp edges. The task took less than an hour. The dollar saving was substantial.

Unfortunately, we live in a throw away world where repairs are more expensive than replacement. This never takes into account real cost on the environment of replacement nor disposal of the expired item. There is an image in our minds of large amounts of raw material being dug out of a giant pit. An enormous factory is built and fed by electricity generated by a power station belching smoke. At some point, a pristine cardboard box exits from a door to be loaded onto a container ship and delivered to our house. Very shortly afterwards this $10 item stops functioning and goes into landfill nearby. Maybe we could skip a few steps and save all that hassle. Just on principle, we are prepared to expend a little time and attempt to patch and repair.

Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon Vine

The Bitter Melon seeds we planted had a bit of a chequered start. Something managed to nibble away at the seeds as they poked their heads above the ground. Nonetheless, these things are pretty hardy. They struggled on through this early adversity and are now thriving. Seems they must be a very hardy plant.

Once the fruit is available they become an addition to any stir fries. The bitterness when cook is apparent but not abhorrent. This provides a nice little dimension in flavour. Wikipedia provides a substantial amount of detail on its medicinal and culinary values. 

Bulk Meat – Home Kills

Although one of us is a vegetarian, meat still plays a part in our food requirements especially with cats who love their mince and dogs who love some meaty bones. Often it is possible to pick up scraps of meat and bone from the supermarket where they are packaged and labelled as pet pieces. We are fortunate to have access to a number of small farmers who happily sell an entire beast as a home kill. The price per kilogram is the equivalent to the pet pieces but is much more than the farmer producer would expect to obtain through the normal commercial sale.

The animal is sent to the abattoir and the carcase forwarded to our local butcher. The butcher is most helpful organising the cuts to suite our needs ie no corned beef or sausages and more mince and pieces for the dogs. There is an option to pay a little extra and have everything pre-packaged in small packs and individually labelled. We choose to collect the cuts in bulk, package and label ourselves.

Frozen Home Kill

The usual arrangement is for our solitary human omnivore to start with the best cuts while the dogs and cats start at the other end. All seem to be happy with this arrangement.

Our only lament is for the arrangement we had on our previous property where a skilled neighbour would attend the property and dispatch the animal in question while it quietly grazed, eliminating any stress. The body would then be hung for the appropriate time in a cool room and then cut to suite by this home butcher.

The last comment we have on home kills is on the feeding regime. If you must eat meat, a grass fed animal is the best for you. Grain feeding is an unnatural diet for cattle, sheep and pigs. This overloads their system with Omega 6 fatty acids which find their way into your diet. So unnatural is the grain diet that in order to prevent ketosis and other issues, the grain is supplemented with a low level antibiotic and other additives. More importantly, a grass diet usually means that the animal has lived a natural existence.

Home Brew Beer

Home Brew Fermenter

There are some very tasty beers available on the market and some of these are expensive. Alongside them is a swag of mediocre brews at varying prices. Although we like to try some of these quality items from time to time it is a practical and enjoyable measure to brew the bulk of our requirements ourselves.

Some people have superb palates and every nuance of the flavour profile stands out for them. We are not in that category but we can discern rubbish when it enters a glass. Hence, we don’t go to outrageous lengths to make the ultimate beer. Our makings are perfectly acceptable to the average set of taste buds.

The perfectionist home brewer will start with grains, hops, yeast and water and with considerable skill produce a superb beer to be savoured by the experts.

The next level down is to buy a high quality (and price) kit beer with some additional bits and pieces such as hops and/or special grains to enhance the kit and bring it closer to its suggested style. Some home brew shops have developed these recipes from arduous and selfless testing as well as input from their customers. Home brewers are a generous crowd who are willing not only to share their secret recipes, but also the outcomes.

Moving down the scale, the next level and probably the most utilised is the standard beer kit from the supermarket or home brew shop. Extremely inexpensive and able to pass muster as a good beer assuming the various hygiene processes are followed.

Lastly, there is the old family recipe handed down from first born to first born involving the basic of all ingredients: brown sugar, water, golden syrup and hops with a little molasses for flavour. A robust ale not to everyone’s taste, more for a memory of leaner times.

After trying the family recipe for a time we moved onto the basic supermarket kit some of which were pretty reasonable and of late some are very good. For such specialist items as homemade Guinness we use a local brew shop’s fully tested combination of extras and output a brew which in blind tastings gives the real stuff a run for its money.

Hygiene is a critical factor in producing a good quality result. Sterilising the fermentation vessel and the bottles is mandatory. A little aging (6-18 months) adds a lot of flavour, particularly with the heavier beers such as stout. Wheat beer though doesn’t improve with age, best drunk within a couple of weeks, after that it doesn’t change.

The best time to brew is in the cooler months when the fermentation naturally takes a little longer. Put down a few batches initially to provide a buffer that has some bottles receiving that needed bottle aging. Bottles, both full and half size, suite us best although some enthusiasts skip this tedious step and use CO2 to gas up their kegs which are kept on tap in their own refrigerator. For the enthusiast this takes out a number of additional steps but may create difficulty in tracking consumption.