在香港，小編估計比較少人聽過或食過，因為很少食店會供應，而超市也沒有這食品，但在外國卻很常見，甚至是街頭小食也有。
I think there are very few people heard or even tried duck breast proscuitto in Hong Kong, also very few restaurant will provide this food, and can’t find it provided in supermarket as well, however, this food is so common in foreign counties and you can find it in food truck too.
風乾鴨胸火腿是風乾肉類中最容易及最快可以食用的，醃製需時1－2天，而風乾只需2-3星期就可以了。
Duck breast proscuitto is the most easy and the most shorten time to do compared to other type of proscuitto, it only takes 1-2 days for curing and air-dried around 2-3 weeks.
做法 ：
1. 洗淨鴨胸及印乾
Wash it well and dry it using paper towel
2. 在枱上鋪好一張保鮮紙，先將鹽及黑胡椒灑在保鮮紙上，放上鴨胸，再在鴨胸上灑滿鹽及黑胡椒至整件鴨胸給鹽及黑胡椒包住
Place a plastic wrap in the table, put some salt and black pepper in the plastic wrap and place the duck breast in, and put more salt and black pepper to cover the whole duck breast
3. 小心地用保鮮紙包實所有東西，就可以放入雪櫃醃製
Carefully wrap well the plastic warp all over the duck breast and put into the refrigerator
4. 1-2天後把醃好的鴨胸取出，在水清洗後，印乾，就可以進行風乾
Take it out from refrigerator after 1-2 days and wash it under water tape, dry it using paper towel and hang it out for air drying
5. 大約2星期就可以切成薄片，用來做送酒佐口小食係一個不錯的配合
After dried for 2 weeks, you can cut it into think slice and good to eat with wine.
Tips : 如果讀者怕鴨肉的羶味，可以配藍芝士一起食用，藍芝士不僅帶走鴨羶味，還給你口腔爆發不同的味道。
If you don't really like the duck taste, you can try to eat with blue cheese, it can give you a complex taste within your mouth.
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In this post, I also wanna talk a bit about WHO’s just announced that processed meats caused cancer, however, don’t panic about this, WHO’s actually meant processed meats made in factory, as I mentioned in earlier post, factories make processed meats with sodium nitrites, nitrates and artificial flavouring, since when the cured meat occured, the meats will absorb and transform those chemicals with its protein and this is what caused cancer afterwards. On the other hand, our homemade processed meats without these chemicals, once you are careful while process the meat in temperature, humidity, hygiene and acidity, you should safety to enjoy it. Since we are just using salt and sugar to help the meat to get rid of water to prevent growth of bacteria and herbs just add natural flavouring for meats. For the smoking meats, generally will use grill stove or outdoor smoker and process smoking with coal and wood to get the flavour, but barbecue with coal, it will be caused the risk of cancer itself no matter added wood or not. Actually, the stove-top smoker that I’m used that without process with coal, just heat up the wood and get its smell, and, the cooking temperature is low compared with general direct cooking, so it’s safety as well.
The most popular curing pork are bacon and sausages. Of course, you can make ham as well, but I can’t find boneless pork leg, on the other hand, you have to buy beef casing in order to make ham.
Well, we talk about bacon and pancetta (Italian bacon), both are using pork belly, it’s easy to find in supermarkets or butchers, and they are the most easiest way to enter homemade curing world. Bacon and pancetta curing method are the same, but after curing, bacon have to be smoked and pancetta have to be air-dried for a month.
First you need a large pork belly in square or rectangle shape, but if you wanna just try first, you can also buy a small one, but the curing time are the same.
煙肉的做法 (Bacon) ：
1. 先清洗一下，用紙印乾，然後把豬皮慢慢地用刀分開，豬皮可以留作其他用途的，不要棄掉；
Wash it and dry it using paper towel or cloth, cut out the lard using sharp knife carefully, keep the lard for other usage
2. 用小刀小心地去除腩肉底部的膜 (如有)
Cut out the sheet underneath of the belly of the pork (if necessary)
3. 先量度腩肉的重量，而鹽的分量是腩肉的2.5%
Measure the weight of the pork belly and prepare the salt around 2.5% of meat weight
4. 準備一個密封的袋或可用真空機幫助，把腩肉放入，然後加入鹽、黑胡椒、蔗糖、月桂葉、蜜糖或楓糖 (用於煙肉），以及乾杜松果(可以不加，視乎個人喜好)，把醃料平均地塗滿整舊腩肉，密封好袋口，一定要封好，不然醃料的汁液會留出的。
Prepare a vacuum bag or ziplock bag, put the pork belly in and add salt, black pepper, brown sugar, bay leaves, honey or maple syrup (bacon only) and jupiter berries (personal preference), mix all the seasonings well and cover the whole pork belly, vacuum it or zip it well (make sure no water can be escaped)
5. 然後放入雪櫃7天，但每天也是翻一次，最好按摩一下腩肉。
Put it into Refrigerator for 7 days and flip it over every day, better massage it too.
6. 醃肉7天後在雪櫃取出後，先在水喉下沖先及用手把醃料沖走，然後準備一個大碗，加入水及冰，把沖洗好的腩肉放入並浸水3小時。
Take it out after 7 days curing, wash it and get rid out all the seasonings under tape water, then prepare a large bowl, add water and ice and put the pork belly in for 3 hours
7. 浸好後可以取出並印乾水份，最後可以進行煙燻了。 熱燻100°C，1小時，請不要離開，要一直保持這個溫度才可。
After 3 hours, take out and dry it using paper towel or cloth, and you can start smoking at 100°C for 1 hour, please keep in eye and maintain in constant temperature.
8. 煙燻好放涼後就可以切片存放
After Smoking, just cool down and you can cut into slice and keep it in refrigerator.
由於醃好的肉比較硬身，小編建議使用切肉機幫助，切成薄片。 小編找了很久才找到這個非一般輕巧的小型切肉機，除了切肉外，也可切硬的鄉村包，真的很方便，當您時常也做自己不同的醃肉時，這真是個好幫手，這部切肉機比中國製造的還要便宜很多了 ：
Since after cured, bacon is quite hard, better use meat slicer to assist for cutting into thin slices. Since most of the meat slicer is bulky and require much space, finally, I found one that very compact and light, and the most important is cheaper alot than made in China one, you can also use it to slice for sourdough as well :
2. 準備好紮肉的綿線，把腩肉卷好，依以下方法紮好
prepare a butcher string, roll it well and follow the below step to tie the knot well
3. 準備好綿袋或魚湯袋(小編用2個袋以防止蚊蟲在肉上產卵)，把袋掛在沒有陽光及比較潮濕的地方，例如 ： 星盆附近，等待風乾一個月，切成粒就可以用來煮食了。 最重要是注意風乾的時間，如果在香港，最好在深秋至初冬時候進行，因為溫度必須保持在10-18°C及濕度在60-80%進行，否則必須買來特製專用來做風乾熟成的雪櫃來控制其溫度及濕度，或者買來一般的酒櫃加以改裝可控制濕度來進行，不然就不可進行風乾，特別是在炎熱的天氣，這樣會容易滋生奪命細菌，請大家不要掉以輕心，食物安全是很重要的。
Prepare a cotton bag or soup bag (I’m using double soup bag to prevent any eggs from bugs and mosquitos), hang the bag in a place that moisture but out of sunlight. After a month, you can take it out, cut it in chunk and cook it. But it is very important about to proceed this in a right temperature and humidity, in Hong Kong, you can do it during late Autumn and early Winter, keep the temperature around 10-18℃ and humidity around 60-80%, if you can’t kepp it, I would strongly advice you to buy a dry aged chiller to control temperature and humidity or buy a wine chiller which modify it to control humidity to proceed the air dry process, otherwise, I don’t suggest you to make it, especially on hot weather, it is really easy to grow harmful bacterias that really kill youself, so please please take it seriously, food safety is really important.
Pastrami is using beef brisket, it’s not easy for me to find, hope that you can find it nearby you. This time, luckily I found a small one nearby my living area, although it’s to small to make pastrami, but I still wanna share with you about the processing.
All curing meats method are the same, just coat different seasonings on it only. Also, because it is limited place in Hong Kong and also talk about the food hygiene, I suggested you to make dry curing instead of brining since dry curing finally will turn to wet brining during processing.
做法 ：
1. 首先，買回來的牛腩先清洗，切去多肥肉及底部的薄膜
First, wash the beef brisket and cut out the fat and the sheet underneath
2. 把牛腩放入密封袋，加入鹽、蔗糖、黑胡椒、蒜粉、芫茜籽碎並平均地塗滿整件牛腩
Put the brisket into vacuum bag, add salt, brown sugar, black pepper, garlic powder and ground coriander seeds, and coat all the seasonings in the beef brisket equally
3. 把袋密封好，放入雪櫃醃製7天，每天也要翻一下讓醃製平均
seal and vacuum the bag and put it into refrigerator for 7 days and flip it over every day
7天後的情況
4. 準備一個大碗，加入清水及小量冰塊，取出醃好的牛腩，在水喉下沖洗並用手把多餘的醃料刷走，放入碗內浸3小時
Prepare a big bowl, put some water and ice, take out the beef brisket from refrigerator, wash it under tape water and get out all the rubs, soak it in the water for 3 hours
5. 3小時後取出，印乾，並重新把黑胡椒碎、芫茜籽粉、芥辣粉、蔗糖、甜椒粉、蒜粉、洋蔥粉、少許油再次平均塗在肉上
Take out after 3 hours, dry it using paper towel or cloth, rub again with ground black pepper, coriander seed, mustard powder, brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, online powder and oil.
6. 可進行冷燻，今次用乾燻方法 (如果讀者用小編這款煙燻機的話，先用錫紙放在底部，放入3湯匙木碎，另外再用錫紙包著油鍋，才把食物盤放上，所以當煙燻進行初時，先把通風氣孔開啟，當霧煙時，就可以把通風氣孔關閉) 60度，5-7小時，視乎讀者的牛腩大小。 記得，做煙燻時不要走開，一定要監察住溫度，如果溫度過高，就要轉細火或關火一會，待溫度降回才開火繼續。
You can now smoke it for 60degree for 5-7 hours, but it’s depends on the size of your brisket, this time, mind one is very small, so I just took 45 minutes (If you are using the same smoker as mind, place the aluminum foil in the bottom and put 2 tablespoons wood chips at the centre, then use another aluminum foil to cover the drip pan and put on the top of the wood chips, place the food pan on the top afterwards, open the vent holes when begins, then completely close it when you see the smoke comes out) . Don’t forget, please monitoring the temperature while smoking, if temperature too high, turn down the heat or close the heat a while until temperature goes down the aforesaid temperature range, then open heat again to continue.
7. 放入密封袋並抽真空，最後進行低溫慢煮，65度，48小時就完成了。(視乎牛肉大小調整時間)
Vacuum seal the beef brisket and sous vide for 65 degree for 48 hours. (Depends on the size of pastrami, please adjust the time accordingly)
p.s. 由於我們沒有用到亞硝酸鹽，所以自家製的牛肉不會是超市所見到的粉紅色的。
Since we didn't use sodium nitrites for our curing meat, so you can't see pink colour like factory one.
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We mentioned smoking after cured for the next few posts, why need so? since cured meat is still raw, it’s not cooked, cured meat just prevent bacteria growth on the meat, other than fish, other meats not prefer to eat raw, so better cook it or smoke it afterwards.
煙燻食物在西方國家比較普遍、多樣化及復雜，但中式煙燻卻簡單得多。
Smoked meat is more familiar in western countries, it’s more fun and complicated, but it’s just only one style for chinese smoking method.
First talk about western one, there are two smoking method, hot smoke and cold smoke, dry smoking and wet smoking; hot smoke temperature around 100-130 degree and cold smoke around 60-90 degree. However, we suggested you to process hot smoke at home only since the temperature is high, it can killed bacteria; Alternatively, cold smoke meats require professional equipment and wide knowledge of techniques, cold smoke meats also require long time to process and the temperature of cold smoke meats caused bacteria growth rapidly during the time being, so it is very dangerous to do so at home, it will killed you. So once again, it is so important that don’t try to cold smoke meats at home, if any accident happened, I will not take any responsibility, none of my business at all. However, you can try to cold smoking cheese, nuts, paprika etc, this is relatively low risk.
Dry smoking means without any liquid, just use wood and/or coal; on the other hand, wet smoking will add some alcoholic drinks that flavouring and tendering the meats .
In western countries, also have another method called smokeless meat, which is a liquid smoke, it is a concentrated smoke comes from real smoked wood in the water, it’s good for those people without smoker at home, you can find in high grade supermarket in Hong Kong, but I can found one flavour for sale only. This liquid smoke used to inject the liquid inside the meat, it will have smoked flavour, normally will use for sous vide and bake cooking method. However, liquid smoke also widely use in factory for bacon, they are just machine spray the liquid in the surface of pork belly, so what you buy from supermarket, the bacon is raw as well.
這就是煙燻液體，在香港一大型超市才有售，但亦只有一款木材味道而已
然而中式煙燻一般只是短暫進行，材料一般只是白飯、糖及茶葉，所以煙燻的味道是淡淡表面的。
Chinese smoke food just a temporary flavour since it’s smoke about 15 -20 minutes only, normally using cooked rice, sugar and tea leaves for smoking flavour.
近年也興起煙燻槍，由於煙燻槍只是一陣子的煙霧，所以味道一瞬間就會消失，這只是餐廳的小把戲而已。
Recently, smoking gun also popular in the market, it’s just a smoke cloud a very short time before serving the food, so there’s only a minutes flavour only, I can say it’s just a toy or show off for restaurant.
Many people think that smoking food must process in outdoor with kettle grill or desktop smoker, but it is not, you can do it using smoked meat without grilling, so the meat not comes out with black colour only, if so, if you are doing wet smoking, it will not becomes crispy skin, better put to the oven for roasting it until skin turn brown . Smoked meat is very popular in other countries, so they have stove top smoker for sale, it’s not really messy but safe.
There are many kinds of woods for smoking in western countries, for this stove top smoker, we are using wood chips, not the whole wood and come with 2 common wood chips in the box. Just explain the most popular woods below that you can reference for and select your favourite flavour for smoking of your meats.
We talk about pasta and bread in earlier posts, but better having it with some curing meats, then more perfect, right? In Hong Kong, many people will eat with chicken sausage or spam, etc, it really unhealthy meal.
Curing meats are unhealthy food in most of the people’s mindset, if you buy from supermarket, yes, of course, it is unhealthy, it’s because all factories are added large amount of salt for curing meat that can extend it’s freshness, and also add sodium nitrite (pink salt) to ensure the colour of the meat and artificial flavourings. No matter package one or from Deli department.
In fact, there are many people made their own cured meats in foreign countries, not prefer to buy in supermarket. Well, maybe you will think that they have a big house, of course they can do it. However, just use some space for your refrigerator can do so.
Actually curing is very easy, but you have to be patient for waiting the curing occurred. You can enjoy it after cured for some meats, but most of the meats have to do smoking, steam or cook afterwards, I will deeply talk in individual posts later.
There are two curing methods : dry cure and wet cure (brine)。Dry cure can use salt and/or with other flavourings; wet cure (brine) require to use a warm water with salt and other flavourings, but both are the same results at the end.
About the curing salt, the best is kosher salt, you can easy to find in high grade supermarket in Hong Kong, only HK$4x, but can use many times. On the other hand, we only use brown sugar or raw sugar for curing.
There are two very important points that you have to aware of. First, clean your hands, all the equipments and utensils throughly before process curing to make sure the food hygiene. Secondly, even you are operating a restaurant, unless you have the "Food Factory Licence", otherwise, all homemade meats not allow for sale or provide in your restaurant, only can be enjoy the food yourself and/or share among families and friends.
溫馨小廚 