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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 07:21
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default Charcuterie The Thread

over in the apps section Capmikee started a great thread on gravlax and it snowballed into a very exciting conversation about Charcuterie a subject that is a winner in this low carbers heart!

this is my new (about 2 years now) found food hobby and I am telling you the rewards to making your own are just endless.

here is how this is defined please check it out and jump in with your ideas, questions, adventures and most of all pictures and recipes!!!!

Charcuterie clicky

this is the thread where it was all started so you can see how we got on a roll with this conversation gravlax clicky

hope you enjoy this thread as much as I know I will

I have tons of ideas to share especially about smoking! I am a briney smoke fiend of a woman and love to mix woods and spices and go crazy

as I mentioned in my post on Caps thread I gave Charcuterie as Christmas gifts this year and at work one day I smelled my food (usually I only smell nuked frozen meals so it was taunting me) next thing I knew I was being offered a plate that was made with my ham hocks I gave a coworker He was beeming

I dont give cookies I give Charcuterie

check it out and let's talk
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 07:29
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

btw we can and hopefully will include things like bacon, ham, ham hocks, pickles, kimchi's all types of things that are cured pickled smoked and otherwise preseved !

the nice thing about this for people like us is the control we have with the added ingredients. If you do not want nitrates in your bacon dont put them there. No sugar leave it out! spicy add it! bland go for it! smoked not smoked type of smoke

we are also able to eat very expensive wonderful foods for a fraction of the cost, such a labor of love this is! and you do not need much in the way of gadgets I use a cooler to do my brining and up until we bought a smoker I used my grill and even had the technique for oven smoking down!

salt spices meat veggies and time that is it

Imagine your own bacon. I did and now I can not imagine buying it again! I mean it took a cooler a few pork bellies and some very average ingredients to make the most outstanding bacon I have ever had! mine cost so little compared to the butcher shops country bacon and the flavors were miles better. I will post my recipe for smoked bacon that was a version of what was in this book clicky here he uses a lot of sugar but I nix that and revamp recipes to my low carb ways... very easy to do

this is safe, fun and addictive!

some people knit I cure
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 09:46
bike2work bike2work is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,536
 
Plan: Fung-inspired fasting
Stats: 336/000/160 Female 5' 9"
BF:
Progress: 191%
Location: Seattle metro area
Default

I have that book too, but haven't started yet. I've made plenty of pate and confit (didn't realize those were considered charcuterie) but haven't yet embarked on the bacon and salami path.

Sugar is a preservative. If you leave it out, don't you risk spoilage or not killing all the bad guys to begin with?

One thing that's stopped me from trying this yet is that I'm not sure I have a suitable place to hang the salami or whatever. It can't go outdoors because of wild temperature swings (-2 degrees Farenheit to 68 degrees F last week alone!). And everything indoors is room temp. I don't have any place that's cool like a cellar.
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 10:11
bike2work bike2work is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,536
 
Plan: Fung-inspired fasting
Stats: 336/000/160 Female 5' 9"
BF:
Progress: 191%
Location: Seattle metro area
Default

Ruhlman is finally back to talking charcuterie again today (sort of):

http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/

Last edited by bike2work : Wed, Jan-28-09 at 10:16.
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  #5   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 12:40
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
Default

I loved watching Alton Brown smoke things. I saw him make a cold-smoker out of an old high school locker. That was so fun. He made another one out of a cardboard box.

I did eventually make a "hot" smoker out of some flower pots.

That's the extent of my "charcuterie" knowledge, however I am living vicariously through you all.

I think I don't want to deal with the mess and complexity right now.
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  #6   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 21:40
capmikee's Avatar
capmikee capmikee is offline
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Posts: 5,160
 
Plan: Weston A. Price, GFCF
Stats: 165/133/132 Male 5' 5"
BF:?/12.7%/?
Progress: 97%
Location: Philadelphia
Default

I'm re-posting my lazy salami recipe. I realized today that I forgot an important ingredient: fish sauce.

2 lbs raw hamburger
1/4 lb extra fat (optional)
1 cup homemade kimchi, with juice
1 generous bunch fresh parsley
Juice of one lemon
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1/4 c homemade olive oil mayonnaise (optional)
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/2 Tbsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for a couple days. Or leave at room temperature for about 6 hours.
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  #7   ^
Old Wed, Jan-28-09, 21:43
capmikee's Avatar
capmikee capmikee is offline
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Posts: 5,160
 
Plan: Weston A. Price, GFCF
Stats: 165/133/132 Male 5' 5"
BF:?/12.7%/?
Progress: 97%
Location: Philadelphia
Default

That was partly inspired by the Nourishing Traditions recipe for Laab Isaan. It's something like this:

Shredded raw steak
A whole lot of scallions, thinly sliced
A whole lot of cilantro, finely chopped
Juice of a couple lemons
1/4 cup fish sauce
Chili pepper flakes.

Mix together and let sit.

The Laotian restaurant around the corner from us serves "Beef Laab" and it's a lot like this, but I think it's cooked. It's soooo good.
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  #8   ^
Old Thu, Jan-29-09, 18:12
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

Cap those sound fantastic I am printing them off, my heart is won by anything with kimchi/or and fish sauce

my plan was to post my bacon today but I am so sick I can barely be here to begin with

(stupid bugs out there argh!!!! Funny though I can be this sick and still want to think and talk about food oh well I am not going to knit I have to live with this)

anyway I am down to the last pound (I did a wonderful batch of alder cherry smoked bacon I am going to miss it want to make it again but I have so many ideas! ) so sometime this weekend I will go hit my butcher up for some bellies and hocks, show off our bacin makin process, maybe if I can manage to have the patience post pictures (but no making fun of my lack of skill please)
cheap, wonderful, easy and not messy!!!!

I am not sure if I want to do pepper bacon or maple this time

but right now I am going to go and take some drugs and hopefully sleep off this sickness before I let it over come my being
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  #9   ^
Old Fri, Jan-30-09, 12:33
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

my husband is off buying pork bellies for me. Good guy!

this is the last bit of bacon I have from my last batch

check it out!

not perfect but out of this world in my house!

all I did was read the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and found some stuff online from the State Cooperative Extension and a few other web threads. there are blogs on making bacon!

but what it boils down to for me is the smoke

so I use just Kosher salt to brine and with this batch I shook some pur maple extract and a vanilla bean into the salt brined it for 5 days (I found his rec of a week to be way too long for my small bellies) rubbed the brine off and let it dry for 24 hours (his recipe uses pink salt and maple sugar I just left them out salt cures bacon that is all you need really)

smoked in a combo of 1 part cherry 1 part alder and 1 part apple with a big piece of cinnamon bark tossed on at the end of the smoking

I used time and temp from the book hot smoke about 3 hours until the internal temp is 150f

I am not kidding you if you have not tried to make bacon well you have not lived!
anyway here is a pic sorry about the quality hopefully I will improve in time


mmmmm home made bacon bits from the trimmings


and finally the reason why you would go to the trouble of your own charcuterie is a fresh hot crab dip made from dungeness and the bacon bits and smokey salty fat drizzled on top (diet food )
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  #10   ^
Old Fri, Jan-30-09, 15:04
capmikee's Avatar
capmikee capmikee is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 5,160
 
Plan: Weston A. Price, GFCF
Stats: 165/133/132 Male 5' 5"
BF:?/12.7%/?
Progress: 97%
Location: Philadelphia
Default

Thanks for the pictures!

Do you use a meat slicer?
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  #11   ^
Old Fri, Jan-30-09, 15:20
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

I wish I had a meat slicer but I can not justify the space or the cost!

besides we can just say my slices look "rustic" and I burn more calories hand slicing anyway

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  #12   ^
Old Fri, Jan-30-09, 15:21
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

my pictures are so dark but if I use the flash the food looks orange, any tips anytime I would be grateful
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  #13   ^
Old Fri, Jan-30-09, 16:17
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

I wonder if you can use some type of AS to get a little sweet into the bacon

I would like to try the real maple syrup and see if it matters I dont think that my body would notice 1/4 cup maple syrup in 5lbs of bacon but I am wondering if I would notice anything taste wise either
the recipe in the book is really sweet 1 part salt 1 part maple sugar and 1 part maple syrup (and pink salt I use it for some sausage but bacon does not need it in my opinion)


I have not used sugar in my brine yet just salt and sometimes molasses


I have four small bellies so I am going to use 2 parts salt 1 part maple syrup (and not worry about that much sugar in all this bacon)


also I want to try one with an AS anyone have any ideas? (some other time however) I was going to just water down my extract and add sweetener but I am not sure what one would work with meat and am kind of afraid to try honestly what if there is some horrid reaction like there is in baking sometimes and it tastes bad

any suggestions?

Last edited by HiDelight : Fri, Jan-30-09 at 17:27.
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  #14   ^
Old Tue, Feb-03-09, 08:14
HiDelight HiDelight is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 422
 
Plan: Atkins maint
Stats: 200/125/125 Female 5'3
BF:not fat anymore!
Progress: 100%
Location: In my garden
Default

my bacon is ready to come out of the brine and the drying phase! See how easy this is? (I took pics of the process and will post them when it is done) Thursday is smoke day! I have some company coming to bake cookies (birthday request that I teach my little sister of my heart how to make my famous rose cookies) So because we need actual food to go with the cookie baking, I am going to toss some Cornish hens in a sour orange (sort of a Cuban mojo style) brine in the morning that day and then smoke them along with the bacon. I wanted to make the purple cabbage kimchi to go with it (that Capmikee posted man you have great ideas thanks so much! ) but do not think I will have time. Some sort of tang is needed to go with the smoked hens.
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  #15   ^
Old Tue, Feb-03-09, 10:12
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
Default

Quote:
my husband is off buying pork bellies for me. Good guy!

Hey, where are you finding them? I've looked all over my city and can't find them. I had a smoked pork belly at a restaurant once and it was to die for!

By the way, I love how you use the endive for dip scoops. A friend of mine did that for me at a party and I thought that was soooo clever.

Oh, I saw a guy in San Diego has a business making artisinal salomie. It looked interesting.
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