Salt Cured Meat (as In Tender Povi)
From elgourmand 12 years ago
- 2hrs to make
- Serves Some
Here in Samoa beef is cheap but, it’s bloody hard to get a really decent cut of meat. The beef, pork & “lamb” has great flavour but is usually broke your teeth style povi. I can pay seven (maybe ten) times the price and get “imported”? Read more beef but that is still not KC stockyard beef, or what you might get at Fleming’s in L.A. or Shula’s in Indy. Yes, I have managed to dine at both places recently. I digress. The seven or ten times meat is just a bit less tough than the cheap stuff. What to do with this very tasty, but pretty tough meat we get in Samoa? I was in search of a tender hunk of povi (meat in Samoan). The milk thing works but then you can’t grill or char-broil it, cause it has too much liquid in it. Meat tenderiser = Yuck. Grated green papaya = Yuck X 2. Pound it to death = Eat mince. Come on folks, it’s 2012. Why can’t we get a tender steak out of a tough cow? Flash back to the mid 1500’s, maybe earlier. Sorry about this but that’s what a few over proof rums will do. At more places on the net than I can remember I found the salt tenderiser system. If you want the super scientific version, visit Jaden at http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.htmli Besides, Jaden’s a hoot. If you just want tender meat, read on. I didn’t believe it; but was getting desperate. It works. I admit that my first couple of tries the meat was a bit more salty than I like it but not grossly so. A bit of playing around and it got better. Would you believe tender rare beef heart? It can be done. See less
Ingredients
- • One hunk of povi (meat). It works best if this is in a steak, rather than a roast shape. Uniform thickness is a plus. Also, 2” (5cm) or less in thickness work best. shopping list
- • A mess of salt. shopping list
- • A suitable container for the povi. shopping list
- • Some water. shopping list
- • A mess of paper towels or clean dish cloths. shopping list
How to make it
- 1. Put ¼” (about 0.75cm) of salt in the container. This ain’t rocket science.
- 2. Put the povi in the container.
- 3. Put ¼” (about 0.75cm) of salt over the povi See Photo. Do not skimp on the salt here.
- 4. Cover lightly.
- 5. Leave set for 1 hour for each inch (2.5cm) of meat thickness. Not more or less.
- 6. Rinse all the salt from the meat.
- 7. Rinse the rest of the salt from the meat.
- 8. Soak in warm, not hot, water for 15 minutes per 1 inch (2.5cm) of thickness. This is optional but will reduce the salt content and won’t waterlog the meat.
- 9. Pat dry.
- 10. Set on a paper towel, cover and let weep for 30 minutes.
- 11. Pat dry again.
- 12. Cook & enjoy. See Photo
- Okay, this is not going to work for you if you’re on a salt restricted diet. For the rest of you, it will be a whole heap less salty than you can possibly imagine. It will be tender.
- How do you get a tough pork chop? Beats me and they claim they be from the US. This works exceptionally well with pork chops and such. We all seem to expect pork to be just a tad salty.
- What’s to lose? Buy a couple of the cheapest steaks or chops you can find, salt them down, rinse them and cook them. If they don’t measure up, give them to your neighbours. Oh, your neighbours wouldn’t like them either? Sorry about that; My neighbor would eat the back side out of a skunk.
- Of course if you are rich and famous & live somewhere where you can buy great KC type povi, why bother with all of this. I wouldn’t. I’d eat at Shula’s twice a week.
People Who Like This Dish 1
- hollyeats Shaftesbury, UK
- elgourmand Apia, WS
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