Salting Pork

[Janne]

After smoking.
Traditionally, meat was brined, long time smoked, then boiled before eating.
A Saami trad dish is Suovas. Dry salted ( 1-2 weeks) then /dried reindeer ( Caribou for you).
Serve with thin bread, or the newfangled way, with potato mash. Not Smash though!

The only food I know of that is smoked after cooking is an old Swedish dish, where lrftover cooked meat is made into sausages, then smoked.

 

[Robson Valley]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, all of the thousands of salmon and cords of shell fish
are all thoroughly smoked before any cooking ever happens. Mostly alder wood, not kakked up with salt.
They have had more than 15,000 years since Beringia to carry on those traditions.

Staples like that are powerful drivers for food diversity.
Modern texts abound with all the resources from the PacNW kitchen gardens.
Yes, and potatoes from Peru.

 

[Robson Valley]

I never boil meat before smoking, either. Makes the meat soggy and damn difficult to light.

Long low and slow in a smoker BBQ. If you want that, you can't rush it at all.
Plan to do something else for the many hours that your meat will be cooking and tenderizing.
In the autumn, we get the BBQ running (NOT a grill) and buzz off to shoot a few grouse!

 

[Janne]

I do not think anybody smokes meat after boiling?

In Sweden I used to both cold or hotsmoke, fish or meats, but here I only do a hot smoke. In Norway I hot smoke Mackerel fillets I dry salt for an hour or two. In a round Weber. Coals with freshly cut Juniper branches on one side, separaded by a Al foil 'wall' fillets on the other side.
One hour. Eat with hands, drink nice semi dark local beer.

The BBQ method for meat is nice too.

 

[santaman2000]

I do not think anybody smokes meat after boiling?......

Loads of folks here do. I’m not one of them.

 

[Janne]

Interresting. Wonder which etnical background they have? No European cuisine does that. Not sure about Albania or Moldova.


Is it first brined/salted, then boiled, then smoked?

 

[santaman2000]

Everybody I know who does it, does so for the sole purpose of shortening the time on the smoker. Even some of the tv “chefs” advise it. So I think it’s just an American (or maybe the NA continent) that does this abomination. I’m with RV though. I’ll just spend the time and do it right. If I’m in a hurry I still prefer just to up the heat a little instead.

 

[Billy-o]

There is European Deli in Vancouver that sells lots of Eastern European things like pickles and jams and, especially, hot and cold smoked fish. Perch, Dace, Rudd, Mackerel, Bass (which personally I regard as a bit of a sin). Name it, but anyway, all the fish.

I am a regular there and enjoy chatting with the staff. So, assuming they were imported from Latvia or Croatia or some place, I asked where they got their stock of fish from. Turned out to be smokery in suburban Toronto

 

[Janne]

You have plenty of Halibut in the seas outside Vancouver I believe?
Delicious smoked !

Hot smoking fish is easy.

The smoked fish you mention. Lots of Poles and Ukrainians around Toronto.
I visited a Polish supermarket there. Heaven.

 

[Robson Valley]

A couple of decorated World War II veterans, Polish immigrants to Canada, post war.
Pork side rib racks always boiled in mustard water then smoke-cooked. Same with the home done hams.
I've watched the whole performance but I can't say if a handful of salt went into the water or not.
I don't know if they did bacon or some other Polish family did that.

The Pacific halibut are the big ones. The IGFA record is near 400 pounds.
BBQ halibut steaks with hickory smoke BBQ sauce brush.

 

[Billy-o]

Seems it is declining now that the post war immigrant population is dying off or moving out to Rice Lake or their cottages, selling their furniture, the delis are going too. When I started coming here first, in the early 90s, the place was littered with them.

Halibut ... grilled or panfried with salt and the mildest olive oil, maybe a leaf of thyme, parsley or coriander, or a hint of lemon. Same with all those big beasts like Cod, Bass, Tuna, even Mackerel. The meat tastes so good it seems such a shame to bury it under Kraft chemicals.

Orange Roughy was one I liked. Haven't seen it for years. I think we ate them all. It is difficult not to feel guilty about eating a fish that might easily have been a hundred years old.

Salmon on the other hand, souse it in mayo, ketchup, mustard and curry sauce, batter and deep fry it, hit it with Tabasco, put custard on it .. .anything to stop it tasting like bloody Salmon .. again.

I feel a Fall Salmon tourism plan emerging ... there are lots of runs here in the Autumn, and several nearby hatcheries ... just like on BBC 2 in the 70s Nice walking, and if anything will put you off eating Salmon, it is the carnage at the head of the river where they spawn. Shabby corpses strewn everywhere. Big fat indolent Bald Eagles waddling about eating an eye here, farting there. Like there is a Heironymous Bosch for migrating fish.

 

[Janne]

I can 'just' tolerate smoked wild salmon. Can not touch the farmed stuff after a bad experience.
We bought some farmed Canadian, put it in foil with herbs, a dash of dry white wine. Oven.
When we opened the parcels we found it had shrunk to around 1/5 of its original size, and was floating in oil.

Disgusting. And very expensive, not much food was to be eaten for that money.

Cheap Pork can be a little bit like that, loads of fat in the meat, but, it does it juicy and tasty.
My family cultures are Pork based.

 

[Robson Valley]

The farmed salmon was likely atlantic salmon, originally derived from east coast stock.
It realy is a second-rate choice. Let me cook your fish. Grilled Coho steaks. Grilled halibut.
Baked Spring salmon with rice stuffing.
Kraft Hickory smoke BBQ sauce goes with fish. Don't knock what you have not tried.

I like fish. Every night for supper? Bring it on, even if I must cook it myself.
I can always eat more fishy stuff than you can afford.
Same goes for bacon. I always cook 2X and eat half at the stove.

Got a nice thick fillet, skin on? Do this:
Preheat the oven to 325F
1C mayo + 1/3C fine dice fresh dill
1 tsp lemon juice + 1/4C fine dice chives/g. onion
S&P + 1/2 tsp garlic powder
> spread a layer in a pan
> lay in the fillet, skin down
> spread a layer of goop over the fosh
> bake 30 minutes.
= = =
Eat all the pan-fried, bacon-wrapped scallops while the salmon bakes.

 

[Janne]

Coat lightly in flour with a bit of added Cayenne pepper
Coat with egg ( white + yolk forked together)
Coat with unflavoured breadcrumbs.

Panfry in 50/50 mix of butter and oil.
Medium to low heat, do not overcook.

Want to be fancy? Use Panko breadcrumbs.
Want to be Ethnic? Use Matzo breadcrumbs

Eat with home made Cranberry sauce. Or better, homemade Lingonberry sauce if you can pick those. You call them Partridge berries, or Cowberry, or Mountain Cranberry.

The classic way to eat Cod family fish, or Halibut.

 

[santaman2000]

Best fish is either blackened or on the half shell (no, I don’t mean shellfish) Second best is A-la Veracruzano.

 

[Janne]

You could try to say that to the Lofoten folks...........


It took me years to make them realize you can eat Mackerel.
Nobody has tried eating them though, I have tried many times..
I tried to give my three best friends Mackerel Sashimi, the full experience with real Wasabi root and Tamari sauce, but they almost puked when I showed them how to eat it.
They have read you can eat crab, but none would even imagine trying it.

Think banjo duel people. But they are very nice. Traditional.

 

[Robson Valley]

We have wild cranberry here. Make your own condiment.
You can't add enough Gran Marnier to make that edible.

What are good herbs to go with preserving pork?
Making sausages, patties, egg rolls?

 

[Billy-o]

Kraft Hickory smoke BBQ sauce goes with fish. Don't knock what you have not tried.

Damned stuff tastes like paint

 

[Robson Valley]

Condiments on fish need only the thinnest of brushings.

I use apple for all porky BBQ things as well as chickens and lamb shanks.
The Bradley brand Smoker company has a huge apple wood plantation west of here.
I'd like to buy pork and make my own bacon with apple. Don't know the first thing about the process.
But I do know there are locals doing big batches of bacon and sausages for family.

 

[Janne]

We have wild cranberry here. Make your own condiment.
You can't add enough Gran Marnier to make that edible.

What are good herbs to go with preserving pork?
Making sausages, patties, egg rolls?

Cranberries are quite different from Lingonberries. More acidic in a sharp way. We got those in Scandinavia too, but nobody picts them.
Next time you venture into civilisation, try to find a swedish lingonberry sauce, Felix brand. Felix Lingonberry Sauce.
If the town is truly civilised, it will have an IKEA store with a Swedish Shop attached.