Gravmeat

[Erikht]

I posted this on Rivercottage.net, but it seems fitting to put it down here as well. This is a recipe for making meat in the same way as gravlaks. I usually make this with venison, but beef should work as well.

1 kg tender meat(loin of some sort)

Table salt
Sugar
10 white peppercorns
10 juniper berries
10 lingon- or cranberries

2 cl gin.

Rub the meat with a mixture of salt and sugar, in a 50/50 mix. It should be a thin, white layer all over the meat.
Crush the peppercorns and juniper berries, and rub them into the meat with the cranberries. put the meat in a container(the usual glass/plastic/enamel routine).
Dag the gin over it, carefully. Cover with plastic. Put it in the bootom of the fridge.
Keep the meat in the fridge for 3-4 days. Turn it twice a day.

Cut the meat thinly. Eat it like carpatio or on rye bread with mustard and black pepper.

[Twoscoops]

Sounds interesting. I had some cured elk in Estonia last year, and something like this may have been in there. How would you describe the flavour?

[Erikht]

A bit like raw meat, but at the same time more develped in taste. Almost a cheesy taste to it, and since it is lactobacterias that sort of matures it, that is understandable. That makes the sugar very important.

[Franco]

What would you serve it with? in particular any traditional sauce?

Franco

[Erikht]

It can be served in many ways. I prefer it sliced, on ryebread with mustard and pepper. Some serve it thinly sliced(it should always be thinly sliced)with a waldorf salad. If you slice it very thin(or put the pieces between two sheets of waxed paper and use a rolling pin)you can make it like carpatio.

An old fashioned way of serving it would be with the norwegian flatbread, sour cream, lingonberries, beer and aquavit. Any unleavened bread will do, and if you excange the lingonberries for cranberries and the aquavit for some good shots of whisky, you got a good, british variety.

[aris]

Is venison an expensive meat in Norway as it is in the UK, or is it an every-day meat you can buy from any supermarket?

Whenever I visit IKEA, i buy some really nice reindeer sausage (it is pre-cooked a bit like mortadella) which is really nice.

[Erikht]

The price of the venison depends, because in Norway you don't have to be a licensed game dealer to sell it. So if you buy it in the butcher shops, it's very expensive, but when you buy it directly from a farmer and buy a whole carcass(as in "whole" and "carcass". He skins it. I will drive up to the farm and get it myself, and then do the rest), you can get it quite cheap. I pay less for venison than I do for beef. Pork and mutton are usually cheaper, though.

You can not buy it from supermarkets. We(Norwegians)are a nation of misers, and would never dream of buying anything but the cheapest of the cheap in supermarkets. Norwegian food commercials are all about price, never quality. But if you know how to make stuff yourself, it's a good country.

[aris]

That's very interesting - thank you! With the taxation levels in scandanavian countries, I suspect alot of people have no choice but to be miserly.

[Erikht]

That is not a valid excuse. You get all that money back in free schools, free universities, free health care, sick leave with salaries, maternety leave with salaries, paternity leave with salaries, etc, etc.

The fact is that an average norwegian family uses 11% of the family's income on food and drink. The entire week is paid for on monday at lunch time.

I hope and think this will change. After WW2 we were one of the poorest countries in Europe, and the baby boomers now in control grew up looking after "this weeks special". Finaly they are starting to look for quality. Unfortunately most of them wouldn't recognise it. The most popular food in Norway is frozen pizza. At 3� for one!

And honestly, the taxation level is not that much higher than the rest of Europe. The problem with scandinavians is that we believe that the world owe us a living. We want scandinavian salaries and greek prices. But the world doesn't work that way.

[Deer Man]

Would it be feasable to add cure #2?

[Erikht]

I would not add anything to the recipe in the begining. I can see no problems in using a cure instead of the recipe on top, as long as sugar is involved. The sugar helps lactobacterias to grow fast, wich in turn makes it to acidic for bacterias like the butholic. They also helps to mature(ferment, really) the meat.

[Deer Man]

Hi Erikht, I intend to give it a try, I am slightly concerned with the ammount of time in the cure, 4-5 days. Is this long enough to cure all the way though and will it be safe to eat? Does the Gin not kill any bacteria good or bad after all gin is 40% proof!

"The sugar helps lactobacterias to grow fast, wich in turn makes it to acidic for bacterias like the butholic."

In comparison Salamis take weeks to cure, Iam sure it is safe, a little reasurance would be nice Would this method work in a vacum packer as all the air is extracted and bacteria need air?

I intend to use Roe and Muntjac saddles. I will let you know how I get on!

[Erikht]

As you said yourelf, Salamis takes weeks. But think of it more like gravad lax, wich usually takes only a few days. I have never vacumpacked it. The really dangerous bacteria, the butholic, does not need air to multiply. Just remember to do it in the fridge, it will be too cool for much bad to happen to it. You wouldn't be afraid to leave the meat for 4 days in the fridge without a cure, after all.

I have never eaten muntjac, as we don't have it here, but I am sure both will be excellent. I would de-bone the saddles, though.

Good luck, I am looking foreward to hear how it went.

[Deer Man]

My Roe has been hung for 10 days under refrigeration, is it still safe in the fridge curing for 4-5 days?

[Erikht]

There are several schools of thought about that.

As a basis, the minimum for venison should be 40 "daydegrees". A "daydegree" is what the meat gets if it's hung for 1 day at one degree celsius. 40 "daydegrees" equals 4 days at ten degrees Celsius, or 10 days at four degrees celsius(this is the normal temperature in a fridge). At lower temperatures, yhe meat can take a longer time, wich is why sometimes meat is hung for a month or more(This would not be roedeer, though.). Your best indicator is your nose.

The second school thinks that 40 "daydegrees" is some sort of a maximum, but I feel most people here is of a different college all together. But if any of you disagree, please don't hesitate.

I would say, that if the meat is good(and it should be), it should not be a problem to give it 4 or 5 days at this stage. If you just want to keep it, not cure it, it would be advicable to hang it in the fridge, so it doesn't marinate in a pool of blood.

The curing should be no problem. The meat will mature, and to a certain degree ferment. The salt and sugar(and temperature) keeps the bacterial growth in chech. The period is very short, that quite frankly, this seldom goes bad. Bacterias like the butholic are usually a broblem in products like salamis, or fermented fish, wich might be in the weak brine for months before it is eaten, and then has a smell like really strong cheese. This produkt should be compared with grawlax, and I have never heard about a butholic poisoning in Norway in modern times because of gravlax. The last time somebody died from this here was in 1978, and he had kick-started fermented fish by putting the cask in the sauna. You will put mature meat in a weak brine in the fridge for 4 days. This is two very different things.

I have recheched the recipe I gave. The procedure should be copletely safe.