Meat and Game birds

One of my favorite meat is beef. I like making Japanese cuisine, especially curry. It is easy, savoury ,and flavourful. For this assignment I choose brisket to become the main ingredients for my curry.

Brisket cuts come from the lower part of cow on top of shank, and near the chuck and plate

As we know, cow are really productive, almost all parts of their body can be consumed, and some are very useful in many aspect. The price of the beef cuts is  $34.7/ kg and I paid $10.62 for 300 gr of meat. The best way to cook brisket is by moist heat method where it slowly break down the connective tissue and make it tender and moist. The lower part of the cow (brisket,shank, flank) can be very tough because the muscle in that area work more than upper parts meat. That’s why cooking it with moist heat (stew, braised, steaming,boiling) is the best method to used, since it will tenderize the meat with cooking the meat in the liquid.

The recipe of my favourite Beef curry can be found on this link : http://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-beef-curry/

Charcuterie

- Pâtés : baked forcemeats, not always containing one or more types of garnish. Include products baked in crust

- Terrine :  baked forcemeat in an earthenware dish, the products baked without a crust

- Galantine : a ground meat mixture (forcemeat) wrapped in the skin of the products made from a chicken  or duck . all galantines is almost poached and some roasted.

- Rilletes : a dish made of pork cooked slowly until it gets very tender, then shredded, mixed with its own fat, seasoned, and packed intro crocks or terrines

A forcemeat defined as a mixture of seasoned,ground meats used as  a stuffing or filling. There are 3 types of forcemeat:

1.     Straight forcemeat : a mixture of seasoned ground meat in a form of sausage meat ( the basis of most traditional pâtés and terrine), while a country-style forcemeat is made in the same way but the grind is coarser.

2.     Gratin forcemeat: this type of forcemeat differs from a straight forcemeat in that a portion of the meat is seared and thus partially cooked, and cooled before it is ground. Usually contain a starch binder called a panada

3.     Mousseline forcemeat: consist of white meat or seafood processed ro a pureé and combine with heavy cream and egg.

3 method of preservation beside Charcuterie:

- Curing:

      ~ dry curing : the cure ingredients (salt,seasoning,sugar, and prague powder) are mixed together           and packed. ex : sausage

      ~ brine curing : a solution of salt and other curing ingredients in water. example: poultry products

- Smoking :

      ~ Cold smoking : the temperature inside the smokehouse is kept at or below 85F (30C)

      ~ Hot smoking : the temperature inside the smokehouse as high as 165F (74C)

     Example : Gavlax, Smoked salmon, Smoked duck, Smoked trout.

- Freeze-drying :  freezing the material and then reducing the surrounding pressure to allow the frozen water in the material to sublimate directly from the solid phase to the gas phase. example: bacons

-Gelatine :

powdered  gelatine ( left) , sheet gelatine (right)

                       

    

with 100 ml water (powdered gelatine) sit in the room for 1 hour

with 100 ml water (sheet gelatine) sit in the room for 1 hour

with 200 ml (powdered gelatine)sit in the room for 1 hour

with 200 ml (sheet gelatine)sit in the room for 1 hour

Result : the powdered gelatine is more watery compare to the wobbly sheet gelatine . even though, the volume of the water increase for the sheet gelatine,it still hold in its shape but wobbly . compare to the powdered gelatine who become completely watery when the volume of the water increased, the shape become completely like congee. 

Alternative to gelatin : 

  1. Agar-agar  : cooked and pressed seaweed (available in powder, flaked or bar) 

                           1 tsp agar-agar = 1 tbsp gelatin

  2. Carrageen  :  seaweed found in coastal waters near Ireland, France, and North America. best when used for making softer gels and puddings. To prepare carrageen, rinse it thoroughly, and then soak it in water until it swells. Add the carrageen to the liquid you want to set, boil for 10 minutes, and remove the carrageen. One ounce of carrageen will gel 1 cup of liquid.