Meat

Brining meat takes us as humans right back to basics in terms of some of the first things we as a species learned both to store food, and ensure it was healthier to eat in terms of killing germs and other bugs which could not survive such a high saline solution. Basically here is what you want :

• 1 US/UK gallon water (4 liters)
• 1.5 cups non-iodized salt (kosher, pickling, sea)
• 1.0 cups white or brown sugar, maple syrup, honey or whatever (I always use honey from a local apiary)
• herbs and spices to your preference

You simply mix this ideally first in a pot on the stove and bring to near-boiling just for the sake of fully dissolving the sugars and salts.

My wife found this wonderful item at the annual spring yard sale at one of the churches up the road. It says "Edelstahl Rost Frei" on the blade so is probably a German unit that I would say is 30 to 50 years old, and looks like it could have just as much use left in it. The body is extremely well engineered cast aluminum, with a stainless steel blade, and a few plastic parts that given how long they've clearly already held up, my money is on them lasting a good time longer still.

We'd actually been looking at meat slicers but the only good ones seem to be hundreds of dollars. The lower end models have a lot of plastic on them and look fairly shoddy. I will give this a good cleaning and try it out soon on one of the ham roasts I'd brined up recently. I bet it would also work fantastically on my home made bacon! My wife says this is what she immediately thought of.

Brining meat is really easy to do with a big bucket, and enough fridge space to hold it. The basic recipe is just :

• 2 litres water
• 3/4 cup non-iodized salt (kosher or pickling)
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon herbs (we used thyme and oregano combo)
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large onion, chopped

See below for a complete video

Today I decided to take a walk down to the Asian supermarket - the 168 Market here in Ottawa. It is just outside of Chinatown and not very far at all from my house. Wow, what an incredible experience! I hadn't been there in about 7 or 8 years, but after this visit I decided I will most certainly make regular visits from now on. It is like taking a vacation in the Far East because it is a pretty large supermarket, and there are virtually no products at all that are recognizable to a westerner like me! Mystery and excitement in every aisle!!! Even better is the fact that the prices are so reasonable.

I was especially impressed with the butchery and fish counter. I eyed some pork neck that was being sold in large chunks for 99 cents a pound, and after spending a half hour or so going through the whole store to check out every shelf, I came back and got a chunk. The butcher cut it up into several smaller chunks, and weighed it at 1.815 lb or 824g, which came to $1.80. I'm all about being frugal, and that seemed like a really good deal. So I was excited to get it home for a little experiment!