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| My home-cured salmon with dill |
I didn't forget it's Wednesday today. Word of the Week for today is "Curing".
Curing is a form of preserving or flavoring food especially of meat or fish, and dates back to ancient times. The process involves adding mainly salt, sugar and herbs. In very simple terms, the idea behind curing is that adding salt to raw meat removes water and moisture thereby eliminating an environment where bacteria can grow and multiply. Salt also slows down oxidation, preventing the meat from turning rancid.
There is a lot to read and learn about curing and smoking on the internet. Just based on some simple research, I managed to do some home-curing and have lived to blog about them. Check out how I cured salmon - click here. Also, I am in the process of curing a pork belly to make pancetta - click here for more. Or go to the "Curing Meat" label/section on this blog.
If you have any questions on Curing, let me know and I'll be happy to do more research on your behalf as I am also interested to learn more in this area. Just spare me the lame (caught the pun?) healing and disease-curing jokes that my friends are texting me on!
My chef said I can tag onto his order for salmon for the restaurant so I'm going to be getting some good deals! That can only mean more curing projects - and more posts - from me!
Word of the Week features a culinary term each week, usually on a Wednesday. I picked up this practice from the culinary school and have continued with this learning journey after I graduated. See previous Word of the Week:
Mirepoix
Chiffonade
Confit
I still use your recipe every once in a while when friends drop by, simply to impress them.
ReplyDeleteHmm..music to my ears. Thanks, Experimental Cook!
ReplyDelete