Prepping for holiday feasts
The holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve always seems to zip by at a breakneck pace. So whether you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah or just taking a seasonal excuse to eat, drink, and make merry with friends and family, advance preparation will be particularly helpful for home chefs. From curing bacon to jarring veggies, we tapped some local pros for their ideas. Home-cured pork belly bacon By Jason Hanelt, executive chef at Sonsie
Visit Hanelt's home in Jamaica Plain during the fall or winter, and you'll probably find a large cooler chilling on his deck. It's not full of game day brews, but pounds of pork belly that the chef annually cures in the cold air to yield homemade bacon seasonally spiced with clove, cinnamon and more. Hanelt, former chef de cuisine at Boston's late, great Hamersley's Bistro, recently stepped into the kitchen at Sonsie in Back Bay, becoming the stalwart Newbury Street restaurant's first new executive chef in more than two decades and revamping the menu with globally inspired flair. But he's shared his bacon cure recipe — perfect for augmenting sides of Brussels sprouts or other wintry plates — that anyone with a backyard or front stoop can pull off. HOME-CURED PORK BELLY BACON 2 fresh skin-on pork bellies
(about 15 lbs. each)
2 boxes Diamond Crystal kosher
salt
3 lbs. dark brown sugar 6 cinnamon sticks (crushed) D c. cloves (whole) A c. whole coriander D c. of yellow mustard seed 12 bay leafs (whole)
2 T. chili pepper flakes
c. allspice
DFirst, mix the salt and sugar together to break up any clumps
of sugar. Then mix together with the spices.
Cut pork bellies into thirds. Sprinkle a layer of cure mixture into the bottom of your cooler (a couple of good handfuls). Place a piece of pork skin-side down on top of the cure and rub with a couple good handfuls of cure on top. Rub it in well, being sure to get the sides, and cover it evenly. Place another piece on top (skin-side up) and rub again with cure. Repeat this process layering skin on skin and flesh on flesh.
Weigh the bellies down with a plate, wrapped in plastic wrap, and put the lid on the cooler. Once a day, flip the stack of pork bellies, as it will throw some liquid and you want all the pork to spend an equal amount of time in this “brine.” If you have a warm day, throw some ice packs in the cooler. The temperature of pork should not go over 42 degrees during this curing process, as harmful bacteria can grow and spoil the meat.
After 5 days, cut off a piece of belly and fry it in a pan to taste it for salt. The bellies should taste a little salty (like bacon) and feel firm to the touch. If needed, let cure for another day or two.
When salty and cured, remove the bellies from the cooler and wash under cold running water. Lay them out in the refrigerator, on plates or sheet pans, to dry for a day or two. This drying allows them to form a pellicle, or skin, that looks and feels a little leathery. This skin actually helps the bellies absorb additional flavor when smoked.
If you have a smoker, Hanelt recommends smoking bacon outside on a really cold day for up to 8 hours. If you don't have a smoker, he suggests putting a small electric burner in the bottom of your grill, adding wood chips to a pan on top (applewood suggested) and smoking the bacon that way.
Portion the slab bacon into gift-sized pieces, triple wrap in plastic wrap, then wrap in butcher paper and tie with butchers twine. Keep in the freezer and have it ready to go! Holiday brined ham By Mike Stark, executive chef at Ruckus
At Ruckus, a new fastcasual restaurant in Chinatown, Stark helps guests cut through the outside chill by offering steaming hot bowls of flavorful ramen — in a colorful graffiti-covered space fueled by a hip-hop soundtrack, no less. At home, though, he heats up holiday feasts with a beautiful roasted ham that he brines for several weeks with warm spices and Japanese whiskey. With a new baby on the way, this chef-dad knows advance planning is everything — so he's shared his secret brine with us.
Holiday brined Ham
2 gal. water
1 c. plus 1 T. salt 6 T. sugar
D c. honey
2 c. whisky or bourbon (recommended: Yamazaki 18-year Japanese whisky) 1 c. tamari A c. Szechuan peppercorns D c. black peppercorns J c. yellow mustard seeds (toasted) J c. coriander seed (toasted)
4 star anise pods (toasted) 2 4-inch cinnamon sticks 2 bunches cilantro, washed 2 stalks lemongrass (roughly chopped) A lb. ginger (peeled, roughly chopped) 15 cloves garlic
1 c. chopped leek (white
part only, washed)
2 t. Insta Cure No. 1 salt
3 T. canola oil
12-14 lb. fresh ham
(deboned, tied, skin on)
To make the brine: Add canola oil to a pot large enough to hold all ingredients.
Sweat lemongrass, garlic, ginger and leek over medium heat until translucent (about 7 minutes). Carefully add whisky and bring to a boil to cook off alcohol. Add water and bring to a slow boil.
Add tamari, salt, sugar, honey, dried spices and Insta Cure salt. Stir to dissolve. Simmer for 5 minutes, turn off heat and add cilantro.
Remove from heat and chill. Once cold, pour brine over ham in plastic container.
To make the ham: Rinse and pat dry ham and set into a 5-gallon plastic container. Toast spices in a dry skillet over medium heat, until fragrant (about 3 minutes). Brine ham for at least one week and up to four weeks, gently agitating every few days. The day before cooking, remove ham from brine and wipe clean with a towel, set on a rack to dry overnight uncovered. Discard brine.
Set oven to 300 degrees with rack in middle position. Roast ham until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees, basting ham every hour (for about 4 hours). Turn oven to 500 degrees to caramelize the exterior of ham (about 10 minutes). Remove ham from oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Remove twine and slice ham as desired.