Friday, November 27, 2009

Corned Beef


Untrimmed brisket with brining crock

A couple of weeks ago at the Norwich Farmers’ Market, Ray Williams from Back Beyond Farm (http://www.backbeyondfarm.com/) had fresh beef brisket for sale.  I purchased a half brisket and brought it home to make my own corned beef.  It was so good, I picked up a second brisket this past weekend and am trying a slightly different brine to cure this one.

They sell corned beef in the supermarket, but these products are made in large industrial plants where time is at a premium, so speed dictates, and taste and flavor are secondary.  Instead of submerging the beef to be corned into a vat of brine with aromatics, and allowing the process to proceed at a natural pace, which can take from 1 to 2 weeks, the muscle is injected with brine, tumbled to distribute the cure, and cryovaced in plastic for delivery to the retailer.  Any curing is done in the bag.

I believe there is also a canned corn beef, but I can’t comment on how it is produced or how it gets in the can, so I avoid it. 

Different cuts of beef are candidates for salting including silverside, flank, bottom round and brisket, with the latter being the preferred piece.  The brisket is the piece of meat that covers the breast or lower chest of the beef, is where the majority of the beef’s weight falls when it lies down, and is one of the eight primal cuts on American beef.  As the brisket on a mature animal can weigh 10 to 15 lbs, it is often separated into two pieces, the “flat cut” and the fattier “deckle,” “point,” or “triangular” cut.  It is a tougher cut and is usually braised when cooked fresh. 
Trimmed flat cut
The “corn” in corned beef refers to the coarse salt crystals used to cure the beef, which are about the size of a kernel of corn.  Beef was salted to preserve it, the salting drawing out the moisture in the meat, allowing it to keep longer.  Corned beef is made by pickling the meat in brine comprised of salt, sugar, herbs and aromatics, allowing it to cure for a week or two in a cool place.  Thereafter it is rinsed off and poached at just about a simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until fork tender.  It can be served hot, but when cooled it can be sliced thinly and makes great sandwiches.
Brine coming to a simmer before being cooled

Here in the northeast we traditionally accompany corned beef with boiled potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets and cabbage, all cooked in the same broth the beef cooked in, for New England boiled dinner, and, of course, corned beef is an Irish specialty on St. Patrick’s Day.

Corned beef is a cousin to pastrami, which is corned beef rubbed with black pepper and spices and smoked.  It is usually served as a cold cut on sandwiches, whether cold or warmed up.  Coarse mustard and dill pickles make a common accompaniment. 


Here's the recipe I used:


Corned Beef (or Tongue)

4-6 lb brisket, flank or beef tongue
1 bouquet garni
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion,  chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1/2 bulb of garlic

For the brine:
5 quarts of water
1 lb light brown sugar
3 lbs coarse sea salt
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp juniper berries
5 cloves
4 bay leaves
A sprig of thyme
3 tbl saltpeter or Instacure #1

Put all the brine ingredients in a large pot and stir well to dissolve the salt and sugar and bring to the simmer.  Remove from the heat and cool completely, refrigerating the brine so its very cold.  Place your brisket or tongue in a non-metallic container and cover the meat completely with the cold brine.  You will need to use a plate or something to keep the meat submerged.  Place in a cool place for 5 to 10 days (pieces less than 6 lbs should be brined for the shorter time period)

Remove the meat from the brine, rinse well and soak in cold water for 24 hours.

Place brined beef in a pot, add the rest of the aromatics and fresh water to cover.  Poach very gently on top of the stove (or in a 275 degree oven) for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until completely tender and yielding when pierced with a fork.

Serve warm with potatoes, cabbage, beets, turnips and carrots cooked in the broth.


Saturday, November 21, 2009

Bread # 3


Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve examined bread flours, yeast, pre-ferments, and mixing of bread dough.  Now its time to understand fermenting the dough, retarding the dough, shaping the loaves, proofing and baking the final product.

If you’ve made traditional white bread in a loaf pan, the “fermenting” part of bread baking is what you know as the first rise.  During this time, the yeast in the dough is feeding on the sugars in the flour, producing carbon dioxide, alcohol and acids.  These chemical reactions contribute the bread’s flavor and aroma.  The carbon dioxide becomes trapped by the gluten network we created through kneading, and the bread rises.

Bacteria in the dough consume maltose, a sugar that yeast can’t digest, producing lactic and acetic acids, which provide a tangy flavor to the bread.  However fermenting bacteria won’t contribute significantly to the bread’s flavor unless it has at least eight hours of fermentation, so to receive the full benefit, one must retard the bread, by refrigerating it for a period of time.  Retarding can be done after the initial fermentation or after the loaves have been formed. 

While most bread recipes call for an initial rise to double the dough’s original bulk, I prefer to allow the dough to rise to triple its original bulk.  During this rise, I “turn” the dough once or twice.  In turning the dough, I gently lift it and fold the drooping sides into the center of the bowl, redistributing the yeast and its food supply, evening out the dough’s temperature and reinvigorating the yeast.  The gluten is strengthened by this action, and most of the air cells remain trapped in the dough. 

Once the dough is fully risen, its time to divide the dough into to pieces that you will later shape into the loaves to be baked.  Most of the breads I make do not use a bread pan, but are free-standing loaves, either shaped like a football with tapered ends or round loaves.   I do have some willow bread baskets that I use to proof my round loaves, and these leave distinctive coiled markings on the outside of the loaves when they are baked.  Other loaves I allow to proof on a couche, a piece of floured canvas used in professional bakeries, and which can, within its folds, hold several loaves.

The divided dough is allowed to rest for about 10 minutes to relax the gluten, which makes forming the loaves easier.  Shaping the loaves is an art form that varies from bakery to bakery.  Depending on the bread, shaping can be easy or very complex, but suffice it to say that one of the main objectives is to create a surface tension on the outside layer of the dough.


Once shaped, the loaves need to proof, or rise again before being baked.  Usually they rise to close to double their original size before being placed in the oven to cook. 

I use a baking stone in my oven on which I place my proofed loaves to bake.  I also score or slash my loaves with a razor blade to control the “oven spring,” that final rise that occurs in the oven before the heat kills the yeast.  By scoring the loaves, one weakens the surface tension is those areas the razor cuts, and this tends to control where the dough expands during these first few minutes of baking. 

Lastly, I spray my loaves during the first 10 minutes of baking with water from a spritzer.  Wetting the surface facilitates heat transfer to the loaves from the oven while also keeping the exterior flexible to maximize oven spring.  The result is a higher, lighter loaf with a crackling crust.



Como Bread
Pane di Como


Makes 2 round loaves


Biga: (Pre-ferment)
2/3 cup, 150 g, water, tepid
1 tsp, 5 g, instant yeast
1 1/2 cup, 250 g, unbleached bread flour


A day before you plan on baking, pour the water into a large bowl, add the yeast and flour and mix a stiff dough.  Turn out and knead a couple of minutes, round the dough, place it in an lightly oiled container, allow to sit at room temperature for an hour or so, then refrigerate until the next morning, removing the biga from the refrigerator an hour before you plan on mixing the rest of the dough.


Bread dough:
Biga, 450 g
1 3/4 cup, 400 g, water, tepid
1 1/2 tsp, 10 g, instant yeast
3 1/4 cup, 500 g, bread flour
2 tsp, 12.5 g, sea salt


Scrape the biga into a large bowl and pour the water over it, stirring to break the biga  up.  Stir in the yeast, flour and salt until a dough forms.  You can add just the water and flour and allow to rest for 25 minutes before adding the yeast and salt, if you wish.


Either knead the dough by hand for 10 to 15 minutes.  The dough will be sticky, so use some extra flour, but not too much.  If you use a stand mixer, knead with the dough hook on medium speed for 10 to 12 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth.  To check that the dough is properly kneaded, tear off a small piece and stretch it into a "bakers' window" until it thin enough that you can see through it.  If it tears, continue to knead a few more minutes.


Transfer the dough to an oiled container, cover and allow the dough to double (or triple) in volume.  It will be very light and airy.  This can take 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  You can retard the dough at this point by placing it in the refrigerator.  You will need to turn it or deflate before refrigerating, and you may need to do so a second time in a few hours.  If not retarding, or after retarding, divide the dough into two pieces and allow to rest on a floured surface for 10 minutes before shaping.


Shape the dough into rounds, pulling across your board to stretch the outer surface of the dough taunt.  I place my rounded dough into floured willow baskets to rise, but they can also be placed on parchment paper and covered with plastic wrap to proof.


Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and place a baking stone on the second rack to preheat.  This can take up to an hour.  Place a cast iron skillet on the rack below the baking stone.


When the loaves are proofed, either slide the parchment paper onto the baking stone or onto a sheet pan in the oven.  If using baskets, the loaves can be turned onto the baking stone next to each other.  Place ice cubes in the cast iron skillet and quickly close the oven door.  Bake until the crust is glossy red-brown, 30 minutes or so.  Cool completely on bread racks before slicing.









Saturday, November 7, 2009

Bread #2


Biga

Flour, yeast, water and salt are the ingredients in bread.  Sounds simple, and in many ways it is, but the combination of these ingredients and the way they are handled can produce a large variety of different breads, each distinctive from the other.  How does this happen?  How can these four ingredients produce such a wide diversity of products with different crusts, different crumbs and different tastes? 

Let’s start with the flour.  Wheat is the most commonly used grain in bread production.  It’s main advantage over other grains like millet, barley, corn and rye is its’ gluten proteins.  These proteins are compact when dry and insoluble in water, but when they are wetted they change their shape, become elongated, and form and break bonds with other gluten proteins.  As they are both plastic and elastic, they allow the bread to change its shape under the pressure of kneading, while at the same time allowing it to return to its original shape when the pressure is removed.  The web created by the gluten strands are so strong that when carbon dioxide is released by fermenting yeast, it doesn’t break through the dough, but gets trapped inside, causing the dough to rise. 

Flour is composed of the outer bran, the fiber part, the inner endosperm, the starchy and protein part, and the germ, which contains multiple nutrients.  Through the milling process, the bran and germ, while full of nutrients and flavor, but which can go rancid in a short period of time, are removed from most bread flours.  However, stone ground flours, as the stones crush the grain more thoroughly than steel rollers, contain some bran and germ, thus they make more flavorful breads. 


Whole-wheat flours have not been sieved to remove the bran and germ, and while more nutritious than white breads, they are heavier, denser and darker in color.  Many whole-wheat recipes contain a combination of white and whole-wheat flour to make then lighter and more appetizing. 

The degree to which flour has been refined is known as its “extraction rate.”  This number represents the amount of the whole grain that remains after milling.  Whole-wheat flours are usually about 90% or greater.  White flours are between 70% and 72%, while many European flours are 72% to 78%, making them somewhat more flavorful than American flours. 

Different wheat flours contain different amounts of protein.   The higher the amount of protein, the “stronger” is the flour.  Bread flours, which include 12.5% to 14% protein, make the lightest, highest, chewiest loaves.  Cake flours, which have lower amounts of protein (7%), make tender baked goods.   All-purpose flours fall between bread and cake flours, in the 11-12% range.   King Arthur makes an Artisan European style flour that is 11.7% protein and their White Whole Wheat flour, ground from white, not red, wheat, is a great substitute for the heavier red winter whole-wheat flours. 

The other major ingredient that affects the final bread is the amount of hydration used.  Bakers use a system known as “bakers’ percentages” in calculating their recipes.  In this system, all ingredients are a percentage of the amount of flour in a recipe.  So a standard 65% hydration rate means that the water in the recipe is equal in weight to 65% of the flour used.  The higher the hydration rate, the softer, less elastic the dough, and an open-textured loaf is produced, while less water produces a firmer, denser loaf.


Next week we’ll discuss yeast, mixing and proofing techniques that also have an impact on the taste and texture of the bread produced.