When buying cold cuts at a butcher shop, we can never be sure what they contain or how they were prepared. In response to the growing interest in homemade products, we have decided to shed some light on this topic.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Methods for making homemade cold cuts
- Occupational safety and hygiene in the home butchery
- Equipment and accessories for homemade products
- How to start making homemade cold cuts?
- Summary
METHODS FOR MAKING HOMEMADE COLD CUTS
In our culture, cold cuts are one of the basic food products. In recent years, however, many eating habits in Poland have changed, and a shift toward unprocessed, organic food without artificial additives and preservatives can be observed.
At first glance, preparing homemade cold cuts at home seems like a time-consuming and complicated task. In reality, all you need is to equip yourself with the right tools and follow a prepared guide for your home butchery to take off.
Making homemade cold cuts should begin with an answer to the question: what type of meat do you intend to prepare? This is important because we will use different equipment when preparing various types of homemade meat products.
Generally, meats prepared at home are divided into:
- smoked – which require a smokehouse or a smoking oven;
- scalded – prepared in jars, a pot, or a ham maker;
- dry-cured – using casings and skins.
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HYGIENE IN THE HOME BUTCHERY
It may seem obvious, but we prefer to explain how to ensure safety during the production of homemade butchery products.
Above all, remember that the workstation must be perfectly clean. It is best to clean it both after the last production and before the next one.
An apron, special gloves, or professional butcher shoes will be useful to protect your clothes from dirt and are easy to clean. Furthermore, you should properly care for the cleanliness of individual devices and accessories. Hygiene also applies to the meat itself and its storage. It is best to buy meat from a trusted producer—so do not be afraid to ask for health and safety certificates!
EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES FOR HOMEMADE PRODUCTS
The equipment needed for making homemade cold cuts depends not only on the type of product but also on our level of knowledge, skills, and the scale of operation.
Although it sounds complicated, this broad topic can be divided into clear categories:
- CLEANING AND CUTTING
Cutting and cleaning is the stage where every meat processing job begins. Several tools are essential for this, primarily knives. With their help, we divide the meat into smaller pieces and clean it of unnecessary fragments like cartilage, bone, or excess fat. Sharpening steels are useful gadgets to help keep the blades in proper condition. Remember that the knife should cut the meat, not tear or shred it. Never let a knife become completely blunt, as it is very difficult to restore it to use.
- GRINDING
When considering the purchase of a meat grinder, it is worth considering what functions it has and how much replacement parts cost. We recommend manual meat grinders by the Alfa brand, which are firstly cheaper to operate (meaning electricity bills), and secondly, we can use them long after electric equipment fails.
The traditional ALFA grinder is made of high-quality cast iron in such a way that the grinding and crushing mechanism is impossible to damage. The only thing you need to care about is replacing the blades and correctly choosing the plates. In a good range of butchery accessories, you will find everything to ensure the grinder works flawlessly even after years of intensive use.
- STUFFING
To prepare sausages, we can use a manual grinder equipped with a special attachment – a funnel. On one end, we tie the casing that will be stuffed, and the other end is attached to the funnel. A wide selection of casings and skins is available from specialized suppliers of butchery accessories.
If you want to operate on a larger scale, a sausage stuffer would be a profitable purchase. Working with a stuffer is more efficient, but such a purchase costs several hundred zlotys.
- SMOKING
If you want to prepare homemade smoked products, a home smokehouse will be necessary. There are several options on the market:
Traditional smokehouses – those fueled by wood. Wood chips, such as cherry or beech-alder, are perfect for this. Wood smoke gives the products an incredible aroma, but this type of work requires constant attention and more commitment.
Electric smokehouses – their advantage is the ability to move and transport them from place to place, but in our opinion, the meat loses some flavor.
Essential accessories for smoking are solid hooks. Ideally, they should be made of stainless steel.
- TEMPERATURE
In a home smokehouse, two thermometers are necessary: a boiler thermometer to check the water temperature and a probe thermometer to measure the temperature inside the product.
- TYING
Butcher's twine – also known as kitchen twine, is used for manual tying of products intended for smoking or boiling.
Remember to choose certified twine intended for contact with food.
HOW TO START MAKING HOMEMADE COLD CUTS?
Once you have chosen the right equipment, it is time to move on to the practical part: preparation.
SMOKING
We start by sourcing meat from a trusted source. The type depends on taste and what product we want to prepare. It could be tenderloin, bacon, pork neck, or ham.
The meat should then be cleaned and formed into pieces weighing 1.5 - 2.5 kg. Next, we prepare a brine based on curing salt and spices.
When the brine is ready, inject some of the solution into the meat using a syringe, then pour the remaining part into a container and place the meat so it is fully submerged. The prepared meat must wait for 5 days in a cool place (4-6°C). It should be turned daily so the marinade is absorbed evenly.
When the curing process is complete, gently rinse the meat, pack it into meat netting, and let it dry overnight in a hanging position. The next day, hang the meat in the smokehouse. Cherry or beech-alder wood chips will bring out wonderful aromas and flavor from the smoked meat.
SCALDING
Add spices to a pot with a cup of water. You can use ready-made mixes for homemade products. Bring the broth to a boil and set aside to cool. Next, add curing salt and place the meat inside. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 48-60 hours. Approximately every 12 hours, pour out the water (the juices that seep out) and turn the meat over. After this time, transfer the meat to a netting and place it in a pot of water so the meat is completely submerged. Scald for about 2 hours without bringing to a boil. The ideal temperature is 80°C. Then, when the water cools, bring it to a boil once more without removing the meat and cook for 5 minutes, then take the meat out and set aside to cool.
DRY-CURING
What does this process involve? Generally speaking, it is about removing excess water from the meat, making it suitable for long-term storage.
The dry-curing process begins by marinating the meat in sugar for several hours. Drain the juice the meat releases every now and then. Then transfer the meat to a brine. The marinating time varies depending on the type of meat and the product we are preparing. Meat pieces intended for sausages, which we will grind later, will be prepared for a shorter time than larger pieces like smoked pork neck or tenderloin.
The next step is marinating in spices for another several hours.
How to dry such prepared meats? It is best to use meat netting or casings, which ensure the meat dries evenly and takes on a nice, even shape.
A good dried cold cut must be properly seasoned. Depending on what you are preparing, you can use herbs such as rosemary, thyme, wild garlic, or marjoram, and spices including black or colored pepper or your favorite paprika.
A practical solution is choosing a ready-made spice mix for homemade meats.
The drying temperature should not exceed 20°C. Therefore, it is best to dry homemade meats from October to March in a closed room. The drying time averages 6-10 days, but the final decision depends on your taste.
SUMMARY
The production of homemade cold cuts is a vast topic. Today we have presented only a handful of general information. If you feel inspired and ready to act, all that remains is to assemble the necessary accessories and raw materials.
A guide on how to prepare the perfect sausage will appear soon. See you soon!
