Caporegime
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 34,515
- Location
- Warwickshire
Any tips for the perfect brine solution?
Brining works well with a chicken, but I thought I'd try it with pork belly at the weekend. We made pork belly with spiced roast potatoes (cumin, chili powder + garam masala, reheated from previous night's meal), broccoli, and a white wine and shallot velouté.
Pics (plus obligatory apology for poor phone photos):
For the brine:
- A pint of water.
- 120ml salt (sea salt works well as it's tasty).
- 120ml sugar.
- A dozen peppercorns.
- I used star anise and a couple of bay leaves, but use any combination of herbs and spices you fancy to suit your taste and the meal.
I only brined it for 24 hours then dried it for another 24 (a lot of recipes say brine for three days) but it was really, really tasty. Packed with flavour, soft meat, crispy crackling. 4 hrs at 130C fan and then five minutes under a medium grill to bubble up the crackling. Make sure the skin has dried out thoroughly after brining though.
The veloute was made by adding a caramel-coloured roux to chicken stock, then in another pan I sauted some shallots in butter and then added a glass of white wine that had been reduced by half (or just reduce it in the shallot pan).
The only other thing I'd say is, when carving the pork, turn it skin side down and carve the meat then break the crackling neatly by pressing firmly on the top of the knife.
Any other brine lovers? I'm definitely going to try it again, maybe with beef brisket or a gammon.
Brining works well with a chicken, but I thought I'd try it with pork belly at the weekend. We made pork belly with spiced roast potatoes (cumin, chili powder + garam masala, reheated from previous night's meal), broccoli, and a white wine and shallot velouté.
Pics (plus obligatory apology for poor phone photos):
For the brine:
- A pint of water.
- 120ml salt (sea salt works well as it's tasty).
- 120ml sugar.
- A dozen peppercorns.
- I used star anise and a couple of bay leaves, but use any combination of herbs and spices you fancy to suit your taste and the meal.
I only brined it for 24 hours then dried it for another 24 (a lot of recipes say brine for three days) but it was really, really tasty. Packed with flavour, soft meat, crispy crackling. 4 hrs at 130C fan and then five minutes under a medium grill to bubble up the crackling. Make sure the skin has dried out thoroughly after brining though.
The veloute was made by adding a caramel-coloured roux to chicken stock, then in another pan I sauted some shallots in butter and then added a glass of white wine that had been reduced by half (or just reduce it in the shallot pan).
The only other thing I'd say is, when carving the pork, turn it skin side down and carve the meat then break the crackling neatly by pressing firmly on the top of the knife.
Any other brine lovers? I'm definitely going to try it again, maybe with beef brisket or a gammon.
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