This is the second video of three showing the production of pastirma. In the first video I trimmed the meat and prepared it for salt curing. In this video I take you through the process of salt curing, drying, and creating the spiced coating for the exterior of the meat.
To summarize, the meat is heavily salted and pressed using 16 pounds of weight to force the water and blood from it. After around three days, fluid no longer seeps from the meat. I then soak the meat in clean water for two hours to reduce the salt from the surface. After soaking, I poke a hole in it, thread a string through the hole, and hang it to air dry. The room I use for drying is around 50-60 degrees F and well ventilated. After three days, I prepare a spice coating and apply it to the surface. After drying, but before adding the spices, the meat weighs is 3.1 pounds, down from the original 6.2 pounds.
The spice coating is prepared by blending
0.5 c sweet paprika
0.5 c ground fenugreek
1 t cumin
1/8 c ground cayenne pepper
½ c whole garlic cloves
in a food processor with ¾ c water. A coating of around 2 mm is applied and the meat is hung to dry. The aroma is extremely strong; I suggest that the drying be preformed somewhere that is very well ventilated.
You can find part 1 of this video series here: https://steemit.com/cooking/@spbeckman/hpmem030
You can find part 3 of this video series here: https://steemit.com/cooking/@spbeckman/vwx6ua2j
In case DTube isn’t playing nicely with my video, I am posting a link to the YouTube version here.
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