Before you cook delicious meat, you need to choose it correctly. The meat must be young. Only in this case, you can expect that the dish will be tender and juicy.
Meat is an extremely beneficial product for the body. According to nutritionists, a person will become strong and healthy if meat dishes are present in the diet.
It contains proteins, the main building material of the body. In addition to nutrients, cholesterol is also contained. According to the recommendations of nutritionists, meat dishes should be eaten in a day.
How to smoke meat in a home smokehouse
Many people like smoked products, they often buy them, without thinking that they easily cook at home. To do this, you need to equip a smokehouse in the country.
To begin with, I will tell you how to make a smokehouse in a summer cottage, because without this device cooking smoked meat is problematic.
For the device of the smokehouse does not require high-tech tools and a lot of time for work. For a smokehouse, you need a steel barrel, a couple of bricks, several metal bars and a bayonet shovel.
How to make a smokehouse at home
- Mark the place of the future hearth, trench and a small depression. Here we put the barrel.
- Getting to work with a shovel. We dig a hole 40 cm deep and 70 cm wide.
- At this level, we dig a trench about two meters long. She plays the role of a chimney.
- We lay out the hearth at the edges with bricks, on which we later install a barrel without a bottom.
- Before smoking, cover the products, the chimney and the hearth with a steel sheet. We put steel bars across the barrels. We hang the meat with hooks for them.
Your personal smokehouse is ready. We proceed to cooking. In such a smokehouse you can cook sausages, fish, lard.
Smoked step by step recipe
- Before smoking, prepare the meat. Rub the piece evenly with the salting mixture. The composition of the mixture is a kilogram of salt, 100 grams of garlic, 40 grams of sugar.
- We put the meat in a stainless container and carefully pour it with a mixture for salting. Leave for a week in a cool place.
- After a week, a brine will appear. If it is not a lot, you can add your own. A brine is prepared by adding 1.5 kilograms of salt to 10 liters of boiled water.
- During ripening, pour the brine into a container. The liquid should cover the meat. After a month, the product is ready for further cooking.
- Before smoking, we take the meat out of the container and immerse it in cold water for several hours and soak it. Dry at night, and smoke during the day.
- We use dry sawdust and firewood for smoking. I use hornbeam, ash, beech and alder.
- Raw firewood cannot be used. They slowly burn and emit raw smoke, which leaves soot on the surface of the meat.
- When the meat becomes golden brown, and the surface is compacted, take a sample.
Smoking a large chunk requires a lot of effort. Smoking a bird is much easier. It is enough to pickle and smoke in a day. Marinade is prepared from a glass of water, 10 heads of garlic, a spoonful of salt and black pepper.
How to stew meat so that it is soft and juicy
Stew is a dish that has a lot of fans. Almost everyone will enjoy this dish with joy. True, not everyone knows how to cook it so that it is soft and juicy.
Before stewing meat, you need to find out several cooking features. It is customary to stew lamb and beef in large pieces. The beef is taken from beef, the shoulder part of the shoulder blade or the side part of the back leg. IN lamb and pork give preference to the shoulder blades and brisket.
- Before stewing, large pieces are fried until a crust appears. After they put it in a pan, fill it with half water and simmer over medium heat until tender.
- The taste and aroma of the stew can be easily improved. To do this, during the stew add chopped and fried vegetables and spices. We are talking about carrots, parsley, onions, cinnamon, pepper, bay leaf.
- There are recipes according to which kvass, wine, citric acid, tomato paste are added to meat. Wine, spices and herbs are usually added a quarter of an hour before the end of the stew.
- If the meat is cut into small pieces, they are placed in a bowl with fried vegetables and completely poured with boiling water.
- Extinguishing is not friendly with a strong boil. Otherwise, it will lose aroma and juiciness.
- Large pieces are turned over during the quenching process. So it comes to readiness evenly. In total, cooking takes at least two hours.
- After stewing, the broth is sure to remain. A wonderful sauce is prepared on its basis.
Home Recipe Video
In some cases, a side dish is prepared with meat. And this is no accident, because the dish turns out juicy and soft.
Step-by-step recipe for braised beef in a pan
- beef - 500 g
- bow - 2 heads
- fat - 50 g
- carrot - 1 pc.
- sugar, tomato paste, crackers
- greens, salt, parsley root, spices.
- Cut the beef into slices. Then beat off, slightly salt and pepper, roll in breadcrumbs.
- Send prepared beef to a preheated skillet and fry until golden brown.
- Upon completion of frying, transfer to a deep saucepan, top with chopped and fried vegetables: onions, carrots and parsley.
- Add a little salt, tomato paste and pour warm water.
- Cover the dishes, simmer for at least 60 minutes. After adding spices, sugar and crackers, reduce heat and continue to quench.
I recommend serving with boiled beans, pasta or fried potatoes. Put a little meat with a side dish on a plate, pour the sauce remaining after stewing, sprinkle with chopped herbs.
How to deliciously fry meat in a pan
I will tell you how to fry the meat in a pan so that it is juicy and soft.
- The best meat for frying is pork. It is better to bake lamb and beef or stew.
- Defrost in a deep saucepan without water for three hours. It should not thaw completely. If ice remains inside the piece, this will not interfere with cooking.
- Wash thoroughly before frying, remove veins and dry with a napkin.
- I do not recommend salt at the beginning of cooking, because a lot of juice will be lost and it will not turn out soft and juicy.
- Fried in well-heated oil. I send the pieces into the pan after light white smoke begins to appear.
- If you want to quickly fry the meat, cut into small pieces. If there are many pieces, fry in portions. Each piece should bathe in oil. As a result, it becomes covered with a crust, which will prevent the loss of juice.
- Cooks make a mistake by laying out in the pan a lot of pieces of finely chopped meat. Pieces that are on top do not touch the oil and quickly lose juice.
- If large pieces are fried, they are carefully beaten and bathed in breadcrumbs. I use a mixture of flour and eggs for breading.
- Large pieces in breadcrumbs season with spices before frying. Small pieces without breading are at the end.
- For spices, I use coriander, pepper, parsley, garlic, celery and dill.
Choose a free minute, remove the meat from the freezer and cook for the family. Undoubtedly, everyone will be happy with such a treat.
How to cook meat
Agree, it is difficult to refuse a portion of baked or stewed meat. However, if you constantly consume such dishes, there is a desire to try something light. Cooked meat will come to the rescue.
- To make the boiled meat juicy and tasty, it is dipped in boiling water. Deware the product over low heat.
- If cooked in one piece, the mass is chosen no more than two kilograms. Otherwise, it will boil poorly or unevenly.
- Cooked brisket, shoulder blades, parts of the legs. Cooking time depends on the size of the piece, part of the carcass, age. For example, young chicken meat is cooked for no more than an hour. Beef - 3 hours. In addition to meat, a wonderful broth is obtained.
- Readiness is checked by puncturing a piece in the thickest place with a needle or knife. If the knife passes easily, and transparent juice comes out of the hole, the meat is ready.
- Digestion is not recommended. Otherwise, during cutting, the piece will crumble. If you intend to eat later, do not get out of the broth.
- Old beef is greased a few hours before cooking mustardand washed before cooking.
- If the chicken does not soften, it is removed from the pan, lowered into cold water for several minutes and returned to the broth.
- To beef cooked faster, it is pre-beaten and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar are added. For 2 liters of water, three tablespoons are enough.
- If the meat smells unpleasant during cooking, put in a pan several pieces of charcoal.
How to cure meat at home
Jerky is a popular cold appetizer. It is distinguished by its nutritional value and excellent taste.
I know two ways to dry. The first is perfect for rural residents, because it will require a barn, an attic or any other dark room. They are sluggish in spring or autumn, since the temperature of bringing should not exceed 10 degrees above zero.
Recipe number 1 - rustic
- meat
- water
- salt
- sugar
- vinegar
- spices
- Take a piece of meat and remove large tendons. Cut into long strips along the fibers. The thickness of the strips does not exceed 5 cm.
- Make a strong pickle. Dissolve 200 grams of salt in one liter of water and add some spices. Stir, put on a stove and let it boil.
- Dip the meat strips in boiling brine for several minutes. After take out and dry.
- Hang the cooled strips in a dark room with moderate humidity for drying. The cooking process will end in about 20 days, a little longer than chicken basturma.
Recipe number 2 - urban
Now I’ll tell you the urban way of drying.
- meat
- water
- salt
- sugar
- vinegar
- spices
- Remove bones and tendons from meat. Cut into strips with a thickness of not more than 1 cm. Additionally, strips can be beat off.
- Cooking the mixture. For a kilogram of meat, take a teaspoon of sugar and ground pepper, a tablespoon of coriander and half a stack of salt.
- Wipe each strip on both sides with vinegar, roll in the prepared mixture and lay tightly in an enameled or stainless container.
- Place dishes with meat in the refrigerator for a quarter of a day. Then take out the container, turn the pieces over and put in the refrigerator again for 6 hours.
- After this time, rinse the meat in diluted vinegar and hang in a ventilated place, covered with gauze. Drying will end in 48 hours.
Before you dry the meat, be patient. Believe me, it will be required, because you will want to taste the food as soon as possible.
Amazing and mouth-watering meat dishes are present on any family table. Without them, it is difficult to imagine a New Year's and festive menu. In the article, I tried to maximally disclose the topic of cooking meat. I hope I succeeded.
Remember, to make a good meat dish you don’t have to be a kitchen genius. The main thing is that a good recipe is at hand. Good luck in conquering the culinary peaks!