How to cure a salmon into gravlax
How to cure a salmon into gravlax
Scandinavian-style cured salmon, or gravlax, is easy to prepare in a day. Salt and sugar draw out the liquid in the fish's flesh, while citrus zest, herbs and spices provide flavor.
The filets are sandwiched around the herb, zest and curing mixture.
After weights are added, the curing mixture starts to liquify and after 6 hours at room temperature, the filets are refrigerated for 24 hours.
The salmon filets are rinsed, dried and sliced thinly on the before serving.
Sauerkraut is easy to make at home; it mostly requires cabbage, salt and time.
First, clean and core the cabbage.
Next, finely shred the cabbage to about the thickness of a nickel.
The key to good sauerkraut is controlled fermentation; this is acheived by cool temperatures and lactic acid-loving bacteria. Your hands and the container need to be immaculately clean so that the cabbage does not pick up bacteria that may rot it instead of fermenting.
A large, enameled stockpot is a good place to make sauerkraut should you lack a wooden barrel or a piece of glazed crockery. The heavy metal will help to keep the temperature steady and the enamel will prevent the salt and lactic-acid brine from reacting with the metal. Under no circumstances should you use a bare metal pot to make sauerkraut, as the acidic brine would leach metals out into the cabbage.
After thoroughly coating the shredded cabbage with salt and layering it into the crock of your choice, make sure that there is enough brine covering the cabbage. (This may take an hour or so for the liquid to leach out of the leaves and cover the future sauerkraut.) A little extra brine may be made from boiling water and salt, cooled and then added to the shredded cabbage before covering the whole assembly with plastic wrap and a heavy plate. The plate will serve to keep the mixture submerged so that fermentation is undisturbed.
After a few weeks of fermenting at 50F, the finished sauerkraut is a pale, creamy color and full of rich, briny flavor. It is recommended that sauerkraut is rinsed and drained before use to control the salt levels in the dish.
Sauerkraut is a classic fermented dish popular in Germany, France and all over northern and central Europe that was invented as a way to preserve cabbage over the winter.
Fresh sauerkraut is high in vitamin C and was frequently taken on long sea voyages by European explorers to help prevent scurvy.
The version that is most popular in the U.S. involves very thinly shredded cabbage. It is salted to draw out its juices and then sits in the resulting brine for 4 to 6 weeks as it cures and ferments. The bacteria that ferment the cabbage help to turn the sugars in the leaves to lactic acid, which imparts the distinctive taste.
There are many variations on the sauerkraut theme, including using red cabbage for a bright pink result and adding various spices to the brew. Caraway seeds and juniper berries are traditional additions; black peppercorns and slices of apple are also found in many recipes.
Reference: How to make sauerkraut
Ham is a cut of meat taken from the hind leg of a hog.
Ham can be bought fresh, but most host ham is sold already processed in some way. The salting, smoking and aging of pork was an invention of the Gauls and was an ancient European method of preserving backyard pigs that were slaughtered in the autumn and preserved for winter.
Ham can be dry-cured by coating it with salt -- as in the case of Italian prosciutto -- and may also be smoked like Spanish Serrano ham or Bayonne ham from France. It can be brined in a process called sweet-pickle curing (when sugar is added it's called sweet-cured) or injected with brine like the majority of mass-produced hams. So-called country-cured hams from the American south include Virginia's famous Smithfield ham.
Charcuterie is the French term for prepared pork meat (and offal) products as well as the delis that sell them. The goal of charcuterie is to use up scraps that would otherwise go to waste and to extend the life of pork meat, and the artisanal and industrial methods for doing so have been developed since the 15th century. As the French are fond of saying, "Tout est bon dans le cochon."
Charcuterie includes cured meat, fresh or smoked sausage, pâté, andouille sausage, black pudding, rillettes, hams, headcheese and other ready-to-eat pork products that are made using a variety of methods, from poaching to smoking to salt-curing. In addition to France, countries such as Italy and Germany also have strong pork traditions.
Tasso is highly spiced cured and smoked pork shoulder that is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "ham."
This Cajun specialty is generally not eaten on its own, but used to add a deep kick to dishes like gumbo and red beans.
Scarce outside of Louisiana, it is made by rubbing cured pork shoulder with cayenne, filé powder, garlic and other herbs and spices before smoking it for as much as 48 hours. This gives it a firm texture and incredibly smoky, tangy flavor that adds rich seasoning to a dish.
Related article: What is gumbo? (Cookthink)
