Bresaola
Make your own cured beef bresaola. Ideal treat to share on platters or make a nice appetiser.
Equipment
- Mortar and Pestle
- Plastic container with lid
- Muslin Cloth
- Butcher's String
- Butcher's Hook
Ingredients
- 4 kg Beef Eye-Round (lucerto)
- 75 cl Red Wine (We use the local Gellewza but a Merlot or Cabernet are just as good)
For the cure
- 120 grams Sea Salt (3% of weight of beef)
- 12 Sprigs Rosemary
- 12 Bay Leaves (torn)
- 1 Tbsp Black Peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp Red Peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp Green Peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp Juniper Berries
- 1 Tbsp Coriander Seed
- 1 Tbsp Fennel Seed
- 4 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 Tsp Sodium Nitrate (optional)
Instructions
- If this hasn't already been carried out by your butcher, ensure the beef is trimmed of any sinew or fat on the outside.
- Using the mortar and pestle, apart from the salt and sodium nitrate, roughly crush all the ingredient to make the cure. The aim is to release the natural oils and not to make a fine powder.
- Mix the crushed cure ingredients with the salt and sodium nitrate.The sodium nitrate is optional as it serves as a preservative to retain the red colour of the meat.
- Place the meat in a small container and coat it with the salt cure mix. With clean tongs turn a few times, cover the container with a lid or clingfilm and refrigerate.
- For the next 4 days turn the meat every day with clean tongs each time. You will notice that the salt will be drawing out the water within the meat. No need to discard the liquids.
- On the fifth day of curing, fill the container with the red wine and refrigerate. Marinate the beef in the red wine for 5 days turning the meat every day with clean tongs.It is important that the meat is fully covered with wine at all times. Consider using a smaller container or top up with more wine. Also you can weigh down the meat with a small plate.
- After 5 days of marinating, remove the beef from the wine brine and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Roll up the meat in a few layers of muslin cloth and tie it up with the butcher's string.The tighter you make the string the better to shape the meat.
- Using a butcher's hook, hang the rolled up meat in your fridge for the next 4 weeks.It is essential that the rolled meat makes no contact with other items in your fridge. This encourages cross-contamination and can spoil your meat.
- After 4 weeks hanging in your fridge, the meat will feel firmer and should be ready to be unwrapped.Unwrap the meat from the string and muslin cloth. You will notice white mould on the surface of the meat. As long as the mould has not turned green, you have nothing to worry about.To stop the growing of the mould we normally rub the finished bresaola with white vinegar. This cleans the surface from the mould and sterilises the bresaola.
- Slice thinly to serve and wrap with clingfilm and refrigerate to store.
Notes
In the photos above you can notice that we prepared more than one piece of meat as we make bresaola in batches.
Also we fortunately have an extra fridge for our dry-curing projects. In this case we put up the temperature of the fridge to 8-10°C as most fridges are set at 4-6°C. This way the ambient temperature is slightly higher and helps the curing. If your fridge is set too cold you might not get the desired curing result and might need to wait longer than the suggested 4 weeks for the beef to dry.