How to dry meat at home step by step. A great alternative to store-bought sausage: learning how to dry-cured meat at home. The curing process of meat

Dried or cured meat is a product with excellent taste and high protein content. it good snack, a nutritious snack on the road and a wonderful addition to various dishes. Unfortunately, not many people know how to dry meat at home in order to preserve its taste. Let's fix this gap!

Advantages meat delicacy, prepared on their own, are obvious: the preservation of nutrients, rich taste, the absence of artificial additives. In addition, homemade jerky is an economical and easy way to cook it deliciously. All that is needed for this - a large number of salt, spices (although if you don’t like them, you can get by with just salting).

How to dry different types of meat at home?

You can dry-dry any meat in your own kitchen: beef, lamb, pork, poultry and even game. But in order for the delicacy to turn out in any case tasty, tender, really melting in your mouth and also retain all its nutritional properties, you should use slightly different cooking technologies and spices.

How to dry meat at home: a recipe for beef, lamb, game

Tough, lean meat, not as fatty as pork, it is advisable to marinate in brine before curing. It will turn out more fragrant and tender.

Ingredients:

• 500 g of beef, or veal, or lamb;
• 1 liter of water;
• 2 tbsp. l. salt;
• 1 st. l. Sahara;
• 2 bay leaves;
• 1 st. l. mixtures of ground peppers (black, red, white, allspice);
• 1 handful of juniper berries;
• 2 tbsp. l. hops-suneli;
• 1 st. l. coriander;
• 5 black peppercorns.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the meat and clean from tendons and films.
   
2. Prepare the brine. Boil water and add bay leaf, peppercorns, sugar and salt to it. Boil everything for 2-3 minutes, turn off the heat, cool.
   
3. Put the meat in the marinade and soak in it for at least 5 hours, then put it in the refrigerator with the brine for three days.
   
4. After this time, drain the marinade.

   

5. Put a weight on the meat so that all the juice flows out of it.
   
6. Rub the juniper berries in a mortar and mix together with all the spices. Rub the meat with this mixture on all sides, wrap in 2-3 layers of gauze and refrigerate for 7 days.
   
7. After a week, take the future delicacy out of gauze, rub it again with spices and hang it in the pantry or on the balcony. Be sure to wrap it in gauze to protect it from insects. If there is no balcony or loggia, the meat can be stored in the refrigerator, turning every day. If the gauze gets wet, it needs to be changed.
   
8. The product will be ready in 12-18 days.
9. It can be stored in the refrigerator for about three months.

How to dry poultry meat at home?

This method allows you to cook a delicious dried delicacy faster than using a marinade, but it has a shelf life of only 1 month in the refrigerator. Drying poultry meat using the oven is not recommended. It is very tender and with such processing becomes too dry and tasteless.

Ingredients:

• 500 g of chicken meat;
• 2 tbsp. l. coarse salt;
• 2 tsp black ground pepper;
• 1 st. l. sweet ground paprika;
• 4 cloves of garlic.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the whole piece of meat, dry it, put it in a glass container (for example, a baking dish) and sprinkle liberally on all sides with salt mixed with seasonings, garlic and pepper passed through a press.
2. Stretch a layer of cling film over the dishes and press down with a plank with a load.
3. Put everything in the refrigerator for a day.
4. At this time, the meat will actively secrete juice. Do not drain it: the product will be more tender.
5. When the day has passed, remove the semi-finished product from the refrigerator, rinse it from salt, dry it with a paper towel, rub it again with spices and garlic and again put it in the cold, wrapping it with gauze.
6. Leave the chicken in the refrigerator for another day.
7. The finished delicacy is wrapped in parchment paper and store in the cold for no more than 1 month.

How to dry meat at home?

This method of preparing a dried delicacy is ideal for pork, which is high in fat. Thus, the meat cooks much faster than when dried in the refrigerator, but it also turns out drier. However, if you use it to make soup or stew, it quickly restores its properties.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of pork;
• 2-3 tbsp. l. coarse salt;
• 3 art. l. mixtures of dry vegetables (carrots, onions, garlic, dill);
• 3 art. l. fragrant herbs;
• 1 tsp ground pepper.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the meat, remove the tendons, dry.
2. Mix salt with herbs and spices.
3. Liberally rub a piece of pork with the resulting mixture on all sides and put it in the refrigerator for two days. Rotate periodically (2 times a day is enough).
4. After this time, remove the meat and cut into thin long strips (the thickness of the pieces should not be more than 1 cm).
5. Lay the pork on the rack in the oven in a single layer. You can use a baking sheet, but then be sure to line it with cotton cloth or parchment paper.
6. In the oven, set the temperature to 50 0 C, be sure to open the door slightly and dry for 10 hours.

There is a great variety of meat delicacies in stores, but many take doubts about the quality of the products and their health benefits. Many housewives prefer to cook jerky at home.

The preparation of this delicacy, often called basturma, is a very time-consuming and painstaking task. However, even one thin slice of fragrant, soft (beef, pork, lamb, poultry and any other) meat, melting on the tongue like fresh marmalade, will be a reward for efforts. And the praise of the guests who have tasted the delicacy cheers up the author of the work for a long time.

To get a truly unique, tasty and healthy dish, first you need to learn how to choose raw materials.

Dried meat at home will only become a delicacy when:

• Successful raw materials from young animals are used;
• Patience accumulates;
• The rules and the sequence of preparatory stages are carefully studied.

The process of creating a blank for basturma can be divided into the following sequential manipulations:

1. Selected in the market, the meat is salted in the supermarket. There are two ways of salting raw materials:
   1. Dry, when raw materials are treated with a dry mixture of spices, aromatic herbs and salt;
   2. Wet, in salt water, which includes salt, sugar, according to the recipe or at your own discretion - spices.
   3. The minimum holding time is one day. But at the request of the chef, it can be extended to 3 or more days;
2. A piece (or several) taken out of a saline solution or mixture is pressed down with a weight for 2-3 hours;
3. Before proceeding to drying, the meat is sprinkled and rubbed with a herbal mixture, with spices and spices. You can do without it if you prefer to eat the finished product with mustard, ketchup, hot sauce etc.;
4. Grated (or pure) meat is wrapped in a clean, dry towel and sent to the refrigerator for a week;
5. After 7 days, the meat is ready to eat, but it is advisable to ventilate it and dry it a little in a draft.

Dried meat at home is a delicacy accessible to everyone and a spectacular dish for any feast, and just like that. For cooking jerky it will take a whole month, a piece of good pork, salt, apple cider vinegar and all kinds of spices to taste.

First stage.
Buy a suitable chilled piece of pork, preferably a rectangular shape, wash and dry it. Weigh and calculate the required amount of salt and other ingredients.

Pour salt into a large bowl and put this piece of meat. Sprinkle the whole piece with a layer of salt.

Then transfer the meat in salt to a container and place in the refrigerator for 72 hours, i.e. three days.

Second phase.

After 3 days, remove the meat and wash it from salt and from the released liquid under running water and place in a brine from apple cider vinegar and ground peppers. Hold the meat in the brine for 10-15 minutes, during which time the excess smell should be removed and the meat will be ready for drying.

Stage three.
On a flat dish, mix the ingredients I suggested for breading: salt, garlic seasoning, coriander and grain mustard, or your own seasonings to taste: any peppers, spices, garlic, herbs, etc.

Without wiping the meat, put it in a breading and bread it so that there are no open places left.

Transfer the breaded meat to parchment paper (baking paper) and wrap it tightly in several layers. Secure the paper so it doesn't open. As the meat dries, it will shrink in size. Put the meat wrapped in paper in a container lined with napkins and place it on the top shelf of the refrigerator for 27-30 days.

After a month, the jerky will be ready to eat.

If you plan to store this jerky, then transfer it to a layer of fresh paper and keep it in the refrigerator.

Before use, remove the salty spicy breading from the meat and cut it into thin slices. Note: the photo shows cilantro growing at home in a pot.

Serve jerky with fresh herbs and black bread...

Bon appetit and emotions!

To cook dry-cured meat at home, you do not need any unusual ingredients or expensive ingredients. You will need a minimum of products, spices and seasonings, and then they will certainly be found in every home. You will only need to go to the store for a high-quality solid piece of meat. And if you have your own household, you can generally cross out a trip to the store from your to-do list.

How to choose meat

How to cook dry-cured meat at home and what type of meat to choose? Connoisseurs say that for this cooking method, you can take pork, chicken, and beef. It is important that both frozen meat from the store and fresh meat from your own farmstead are suitable.

Given the fact that pork is more tender, juicy and soft, it is recommended to give preference to it. Dry-cured pork meat at home will cook an order of magnitude faster than dryish beef or gourmet chicken, which you have to tinker with.

Of course, the main selection criterion that any housewife should be guided by is the freshness of the products. We buy meat only from trusted producers or at the local market, from a butcher friend. It is better to choose pieces that have small streaks of fat.

cooking options

There are two methods for preparing this dish. Dry-cured meat at home can be made by pouring a piece of meat with fragrant brine with numerous spices. The second option is hanging and drying the meat. Let's look into the nuances.

Option one

Before you start cooking, it is recommended to thoroughly rinse the meat under running water and dry it with a paper towel. All unnecessary veins and films should be removed immediately.

Ingredients

• One kilogram of low-fat pork.
• A pound of coarse salt (250 grams will be used for salting meat, and the second half of the salt will be needed to prepare the brine).
• Five to six cloves of garlic.

From spices we need

• Peppercorns.
• Pepper red or black (to taste).
• Coriander powder or seeds.
• Sweet paprika.
• Hot pepper.
• Sage.
• Rosemary.
• Bay leaf.

In general, you should get about 50-70 grams of spices and seasonings.

Cooking process

The first stage, if you cook homemade dried meat at home, is always salting. 250 grams of salt, which we measured out specifically for this case, must be poured into a bulk dish. We put a piece of meat there and roll it well in salt. It is important that the meat is well strewn and soaked with it. Without removing the layer of salt, we send the meat piece to the refrigerator. There he must spend three days.

Many people ask: how to make dry-cured meat at home so that it is well salted? We advise you not to leave it unattended and drain the resulting liquid every day. Salt is added only if it has quickly and completely dissolved. If it is visible on the surface, then it is not necessary to add it. Many housewives simply drain the liquid, not paying attention to the state of the salt. And this is very important, and it is not recommended to lose sight of this moment.

Cooking pickle

Here the situation is even simpler than with salting. Pour one liter of water into the pan and add the whole list of seasonings and spices that were listed above. Bring to a boil, turn off and wait for it to cool down. Drop the meat into cold brine and put it back in the fridge. Pork is in brine for another three days.

Then we take out the meat, put it on a cutting board and put a load on top. There we will get rid of excess fluid. Under the yoke, pork is from three to five hours. During this time, you can easily prepare a breading mixture consisting of a well-known set of spices.

Having taken the meat out from under the yoke, do not skimp and carefully grease the piece with spices. They will not only give the pork a unique aroma and taste, but also help keep it fresh for a long time. Many of the listed seasonings have aseptic and preservative properties.

We put a piece of pork on a linen towel and send it to the refrigerator for another 24 hours. We check the breading. If it is quickly absorbed, then add more. We do exactly the same as we did with salt. We are waiting for another day. Ready. This is how dry-cured meat is prepared at home (the recipe with brine is presented to your attention).

Option two

Now we will tell you how to make dry-cured meat at home without brine. For this you will need:

• One kilogram of pork balyk or pork neck.
• 150 grams of salt.
• 100 grams of vodka.
• Two or three bay leaves.
• Black peppercorns.
• Ground black pepper.
• Coriander.
• Paprika is pungent.
• Chili pepper (optional)
• 20 grams of garlic.

How to cook

As we have said, any preparation raw meat at home will begin with salting. But if in the recipe with brine we simply sent the pork to the refrigerator to salt, then in this case we need to put it under oppression first. Together with him, the meat will be salted for 24 hours.

Then the oppression will need to be removed, and the meat left in the refrigerator for another four days. The liquid that will be formed in the process does not need to be drained. We add one hundred grams of vodka there and simply turn the meat over several times a day. This is how dry-cured meat is salted at home (a recipe without brine is an alternative cooking option).

We get meat. We do not wash, but simply wipe it from salt and liquid. Rub with a mixture of herbs and spices. We wrap a piece in a towel, wrap it tightly with twine and hang it in a cool place. You can hang it right in the kitchen, but it's better to do it in a cool dark closet or on the balcony. Some hostesses advise to alternate places.

The meat is cured for five days. We take it out, cut it into thin slices and serve it to the table. This dish is great for slicing for the festive table or for making sandwiches. Agree, this homemade delicacy cooked with my own hands, will be where healthier than sausage or ham from the store.

Dried meat is not just a snack, but a real gourmet delicacy. Absolutely any raw material is suitable for drying, but it is beef jerky that is the most popular. meat dish in many countries of the world. Beef can be marinated in a variety of spices, there are dozens of options, but for such a dish you should choose beef tenderloin because even after drying, such meat remains soft.

Felted beef at home is not only an exquisite delicacy, but also quality product, because in the cooking process we do not use preservatives, but only spices and spices. Homemade jerky is also good because it can be stored for a long time and deliciously feed unexpected guests. Cooking such a delicacy is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance, the main thing is to know some of the subtleties of cold drying beef.

Fresh chilled meat is suitable for jerking, it is better if it is tenderloin or neck. When you do use a frozen product, it should only be thawed naturally, no hot water or microwave.

Ginger can be added to the general blend of spices, which will improve the taste of the final product.

Dried meat should be in a well-ventilated area with room temperature. In summer it can be hung on the balcony, only from the sunny side, and in winter - near the gas stove or above the battery.

Dried meat is adored by almost everyone for its peculiar taste and spicy aroma. Such a product in each country has its own name - jamon, basturma, speck, prosciutto. Using the dry drying method, you can make beef jerky at home.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef tenderloin;
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper;
• 700 g of sea salt;
• 1 tsp red pepper;
• 1 tsp dried garlic;
• 3 tsp paprika;
• 1 spoon of Provence herbs;
• 2 spoons of cognac.

Cooking method:

1. We clean the meat, wash it, and if you got a large piece, then cut it into several parts.
2. We prepare a mixture for dry salting. To do this, mix salt with black pepper and cognac.
3. We lay out part of the prepared composition at the bottom of a wide container, put pieces of meat on top and fill them with the remaining salting. We tightly wrap the container and put it in the refrigerator for a day, do not forget to drain the liquid.
4. We take out the meat, dry it and coat it with a mixture of seasonings remaining in the bowl.
5. We wrap the workpiece with several layers of gauze, tie it with a thread and hang it on the balcony or in the refrigerator, that is, in the room where the temperature does not drop below 4 degrees.
6. We dry beef from ten days to two weeks.

Basturma is a traditional dish Armenia, which is made from a large piece of beef and a spicy seasoning called chaman. It is quite difficult to dry a large meat roll at home, so it is better to cut it into thin strips.

Ingredients:

• beef tenderloin;
• 5 spoons of chaman spice;
• 5 tablespoons of coarse salt;
• 1 tsp black pepper (ground);
• 4 tablespoons red pepper (ground);
• 1 tsp allspice;
• 2 heads of garlic;
• 1 bay leaf;
• a pinch of zira.

Cooking method:

1. Take a wide container, close the bottom with paper napkins, put bay leaves on top and sprinkle them with salt. We spread the prepared meat on a spicy substrate, add it, close it with napkins and set the oppression. To do this, you can take an ordinary plank, put it on the meat, and put a jar of water on top. We put the whole structure in the refrigerator for a week, and every day you need to check the beef, turn it over, add salt and change napkins if they get very wet.
2. Ready to coat. To do this, we grind the chaman into a fine powder, pour it into a container and gradually begin to pour in water until the mixture acquires the consistency of liquid sour cream. Leave for 30 minutes and then mix with the rest of the spices.
3. We take out the meat, dry it in the wind or with a fan. We remove excess salt from it, put it again in a wide container and carefully coat it with the prepared mixture of seasonings. The thickness of the coating should be from 0.5 to 1 cm. We close the dishes with cling film and put in the refrigerator for a day.
4. After this time, we take out the meat for final drying. To do this, hang it on threads in a dry, well-ventilated area. Depending on the humidity of the air, basturma can dry up to a week. On the finished jerky, the coating holds well and does not sprinkle much when cut.

You can cook dried meat in one day using the usual oven. We offer you a recipe for a traditional American snack - meat jerks. A minimum of time and costs, and as a result, rich and dense meat is obtained, which can be stored for a long time.

Ingredients:

• 800 g of beef meat;
• 1 spoon of salt;
• 1 spoon of ground chili pepper;
• 1 teaspoon dried garlic.

Cooking method:

1. We cut the beef pulp into thin plates, a couple of millimeters thick. To make the meat easier to cut, it can be slightly frozen.
2. Then carefully flavor each piece with a mixture of pepper, salt and garlic.
3. We cover the baking sheet with parchment and lay out pieces of meat on it, put in the oven for 3 hours at a temperature of 110 degrees. Turn the beef pieces halfway through drying.
4. The finished product should be stored in sealed packaging.

Homemade beef jerky

A simple cooking recipe tasty snack let you enjoy gourmet delicacy. And for this it is not necessary to buy expensive ingredients. All you need is fresh meat, vodka and spices. Instead of vodka, you can use other alcoholic drinks, such as cognac.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef tenderloin;
• 5 tablespoons of sugar;
• 5 tablespoons of salt;
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
• 1 tsp black pepper (peas);
• 150 ml of vodka.

Cooking method:

1. We take a food bag, pour oil, vodka and spices into it. Mix everything well, put the meat and tightly tie the bag.
2. We shake the package so that the marinade envelops the pulp, and put the workpiece in the refrigerator for three days.
3. We take out the meat, dry it with a paper towel, but in no case do we rinse it under water. Let the appetizer dry and after that you can enjoy a delicious delicacy.

How to dry meat in wine

Bresaola is an Italian delicacy made from beef that has been soaked in wine before drying.

Unfortunately, such a product cannot be found on our shelves today, but do not despair, because you can cook this appetizer at home.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef tenderloin;
• 1 kg of sea salt (coarse);
• nine tablespoons of black pepper (coarsely ground);
• a spoonful of oregano;
• a spoonful of thyme;
• a spoonful of dried garlic;
• a spoonful of rosemary;
• a spoonful of hot paprika;
• a spoonful of dried juniper berries;
• 250 ml dry red wine.

Cooking method:

1. To prepare jerky, it is better to cut the beef tenderloin into two equal parts.
2. Pour salt and coarsely ground black pepper into a container (for this you can take ordinary peas and grind them).
3. Put the pieces of meat in a separate container and sprinkle them well with a mixture of salt and pepper, pour wine. We cover the workpiece and put it in the refrigerator for a week. During this time, the meat should change its color.
4. We take out the beef, dry it with napkins, as it should be absolutely dry.
5. Now we take the remaining spices, mix and carefully coat the meat - you should get a “fur coat” wrapped around the meat tenderloin.
6. We put the pieces of meat on gauze, wrap them in several layers, tie them with food thread and hang them in the refrigerator for a week.

Bouquets of dried beef flowers

Don't know what to give your man? Give him a bouquet, but not of flowers, but of jerky. What macho will refuse meat, and even more so from such a delicacy? "Flowers" with delicate meat petals, among other things, it is very convenient to decorate salads and snacks on festive table. Creating a bouquet is quite simple if you know how to thinly slice the meat.

To do this, take a piece of dried beef and thinly cut it into slices that will serve as buds. Then we cut them lengthwise into small strips, that is, we make stems. From thin slices twist the buds and, using toothpicks, string them onto the prepared stems. We put the bouquet in a vase or tie it with a beautiful ribbon.

Storage of the finished product

Many people think that beef should be stored in the same way as all other dried products. Despite the fact that the delicacy has a long shelf life, it can deteriorate if a number of conditions are not met.

1. Dried meat is best stored in airtight containers. For this, ordinary containers with a lid, vacuum casings or a sealed food bag are suitable.
2. It is recommended to mark the packaging with the date of manufacture in order to know the degree of freshness of the product.
3. Different types of jerky should be stored separately.
4. Water and fat have a huge impact on the quality and shelf life of the dried product. Therefore, if you notice droplets of moisture or fat on the meat, then remove them with a paper towel. Best of all, put the napkins between the pieces of beef. They will absorb moisture, but you need to change them as you get wet.
5. Depending on where you store the meat, its shelf life also depends. If you plan to keep the product in a cool place, for example, in a pantry, then such meat can be eaten for a month, but not longer. For six months, you can store meat in the refrigerator and for a year - in the freezer.

There are many recipes for beef jerky and each country makes it differently. So, in South Africa, cane sugar is always used for marinade, in Pan-Asian cuisine they do not represent such a delicacy without soy sauce, well, the Turks always dry the meat mixed with dry fenugreek and others hot spices. Try and you realize one of the proposed recipes. You will definitely like the result!