Meat is a glorious thing, my omnivore friends. Meat on a stick? Pure perfection. Homemade deli meats between two slabs of rye? A thing of utter beauty. This chapter is designed to fulfill all of your meat-filled dreams.
The Jewish deli staples of corned beef and pastrami are the stuff of crowd-pleasing, make-ahead sandwich extravaganzas. And your barbecue guests will be truly dazzled when you offer them handmade weenies, whether deep-fried in a cornmeal crust or hot off the grill. For extra credit, I encourage you to pair them with your own handmade buns.
I love offering frozen tinfoil-wrapped packages with a band of pretty paper for birthdays and the holidays. I promise you that a gift of well-salted, well-cured flesh will be one gift that will not be returned.
Grab your hunting stick: we’re in hot pursuit of real meaty flavor.
“Corning” meat is another term for a long, slow brining process—and it’s delicious both hot (with potatoes, cabbage, and beer) and sliced cold for sandwiches (don’t forget the mustard). Any meat that will sit in the fridge uncooked for a week should have a dousing of Instacure #1, the pink curing salt (known as sodium nitrite) available at some butcher shops or at SausageMaker.com. Not only will curing salt help prevent dietary cooties, but it will also help the beef keep its delightful color.
Makes 3 to 3½ pounds
TIME COMMITMENT About 5 days
¾ cup kosher salt
¾ cup sugar
6 cups water, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons Instacure #1
1 large bay leaf
2 teaspoons brown mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
1 teaspoon caraway
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 star anise
4 pounds well-marbled (“first cut”) beef brisket
4 new potatoes, cut into cubes (optional)
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks (optional)
½ head cabbage, cut in half, core intact (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS In a container large enough to hold all of the liquid and the meat, stir the salt and the sugar into the 6 cups of water to dissolve; the solution will be cloudy. Add the Instacure #1, bay, mustard seed, celery seed, caraway, garlic, peppercorns, and anise, and stir. Put the meat in the brine, making sure it is completely submerged: add more water as necessary to cover. An inverted plate on top of the meat can help push it down into the liquid. Cover with a sealed lid or plastic wrap and let the beef rest in the refrigerator for 5 days, stirring on day 3 to redistribute the spices. The beef will be fully cured when it feels stiff and resilient when poked; it should have the firmness of very well-done meat throughout.
Once the meat is cured, drain it, and discard the brine and all the solid ingredients. Place the meat in a large stockpot and cover with fresh water by 1 inch. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 1½ hours. If you’re making a meal out of this, add the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage to the pot after an hour. The meat’s internal temperature must be 150°F.
To serve, remove the meat from the pot with tongs, draining off as much liquid as you can. Trim away large hunks of excess fat and slice the meat against the grain and on a bias. Plate a few slices along with the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. For sandwiches, serve the meat hot or cold and sliced as thinly as possible.
HOW TO STORE IT Refrigerated, corned beef will keep for up to 1 week. It can also be wrapped tightly and frozen for up to 4 months.
Jewish bacon, anyone? You may or may not already know that pastrami is just corned beef that has been smoked, rather than boiled, and that the flavor difference between the two is mile high. Please note that while your pastrami will be ready to eat fresh from the grill, its initial saltiness will really bowl you over. It truly takes a day for the flavors to meld properly. Aside from that, the only trick here is in getting the slices really thin. To do so more easily, freeze your finished, cooled pastrami for about 20 minutes to firm it up, then go at it with your sharpest knife. If you’re using a gas grill rather than charcoal, I suggest using some hickory sawdust to add to the smoke flavor (I get mine from SausageMaker.com).
Makes 3 to 3½ pounds
TIME COMMITMENT About 5 days
3 to 3½ pounds Corned Beef, fully cured and drained but not boiled
2 teaspoons finely crushed black peppercorns
INSTRUCTIONS Rinse the beef well and pat it dry. Place it on a rack over a dish or plate and refrigerate, uncovered, for 30 minutes (while the charcoal heats). The goal here is to allow as much air flow as possible to help the surface of the meat dry and absorb smoke better.
Meanwhile, light enough real hardwood charcoal to fill half of a charcoal starter chimney. After 20 to 30 minutes, the coals will be profoundly white from heat and the flames will have completely died down.
Rake the coals to one side of the barbecue grill and open up the grill’s vents underneath.
If you’re using a gas grill, heat one side of the grill to low heat. Scoop 3 cups of hickory sawdust into the middle of a large sheet of aluminum foil. Wrap the foil around the sawdust as if you were wrapping a present; the result should be a flat, square pack. Flip it over, and using the tip of a knife, stab about 15 small holes into the package to allow smoke from the sawdust to escape. Place the foil pack, holes side up, directly onto the grill’s lava rocks or grill plate.
A few minutes before the grill is ready, take the meat out of the refrigerator and rub the crushed pepper all over its surface. Make sure the grill grate is clean, and place the meat on the “cool” side of the grill (the side without coals), with the thickest part of the meat closest to the coals and the fattiest side up. Cover the grill and position the vents over the meat.
Smoke the meat for 2 to 2½ hours, until its internal temperature reaches 150°F. If you’re using a charcoal grill, you may need to light more coals after 1 to 1½ hours of cooking time; if the grill lid feels hot and at least a slight trickle of smoke is piping out from the top vents, the coals are still hot enough.
Allow the meat to cool completely, wrap it in foil, and then refrigerate for 1 day before eating.
HOW TO STORE IT Well-wrapped, it can stay refrigerated for up to 1 week. Frozen, wrapped in foil twice and sealed in a zip-top bag, the pastrami will keep for up to 4 months. Refrigerate for 24 hours to thaw.
Hot dogs? HOT DOG! Once upon a time, these and other sausages were frightening tubular vessels for all of the leftovers and scraps of the butcher shop. But if you’re diggin’ in on your own dogs, you can use the same good-quality meat that you would serve for supper. I debated the pork/beef dichotomy of the dog, but I eventually settled on beef only. Here’s why: hot dogs are an emulsified sausage, meaning that all of the meat and fat have to come together into one solid suspension to create the right smooth texture (think about putting together a mayonnaise). This means keeping your meat “batter” very cold at all times—a tricky thing for the home cook, and beef is more forgiving. It also means no hot appliances for the stuffing, so forget your KitchenAid and use a cake decorating kit instead. If you can’t find sausage casings and Instacure locally, buy them online at SausageMaker.com (though note that, here, the Instacure is optional: it’s just used for color).
Makes about fifteen 6-inch hot dogs
TIME COMMITMENT About 4½ hours
2 pounds ground chuck
4 (3-foot) pieces ¾-inch natural sausage casing (22–24 mm sheep casing)
4 cloves garlic
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon Instacure #1 (optional)
8 ice cubes, plus more for the water bath
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS If you’re grinding your own beef, do so the day before and make certain it chills for 24 hours.
Fill a small bowl with water and put the sausage casings in to soak for at least 30 minutes while you put the hot dogs together. Place a bowl (preferably metal) large enough to hold the meat in the refrigerator to cool.
We’re going to grind the hot dog forcemeat in two batches. For batch number one, finely mince 2 cloves of the garlic in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add 1 egg, and half each of the paprika, mustard, pepper, sugar, salt, and Instacure, if using. Blend well.
Add 2 ice cubes to the food processor and crush them with the spices, about 40 seconds. Then, add 1 pound of the very cold meat and grind it until it is a fine paste and the spices are incorporated, about 60 seconds. Turn off the motor and nestle 2 more ice cubes into the meat mixture. Process to crush the ice for another 40 to 60 seconds; when it is sufficiently ground, the meat will be a smooth paste. With the machine running, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the oil and let it mix in entirely, about 20 seconds. Using a rubber spatula to scrape it out of the bowl of the food processor, transfer this batch of forcemeat to the chilled bowl and put it in the refrigerator to keep cold.
Grind the second batch of meat and spices the same way. Scrape it into the bowl with the other forcemeat, return to the refrigerator, and let chill for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash the casings. Drain off their soaking water, then take 1 piece of casing and affix one end to the nozzle of your kitchen faucet (or if it can’t fit your faucet, a funnel). Turn on the water and allow it to run through the casing, using your hands to help guide the water out the other end. Flush the casing out completely for about 1 minute. Repeat with the remaining pieces of casing. Return the cleaned casings to the bowl and cover with fresh water.
Now, fashion a double ice bath. Find two mixing bowls—one large one to hold an ice bath, and one small enough to fit inside it that can hold at least half the meat. When you are nearly ready to start stuffing, fill the bottom bowl about ⅓ full with ice and water and place the smaller bowl in the ice bath to chill completely.
Ready your hand stuffer (if you have one) or fit a sturdy pastry bag with a long tip and a wide hole. Take 1 casing from the bowl and slide one end onto the nozzle of the hand stuffer or onto the pastry tip. Continue to slide the length of the casing onto the nozzle or tip, leaving a tail of about 2 inches.
Spoon ⅓ of the forcemeat into the cold bowl above the ice bath (keep the rest in the refrigerator), being careful not to allow any of the ice water to seep into the bowl with the meat. Now fill the hand stuffer or pastry bag with the forcemeat and fold down the top of the bag. Holding on to the casing, start squeezing hard enough to force the meat through the tip and into the casing. A lot of air will be squeezed out at first. Joke about it. Let that pass and then, once the meat is coming out in full force, tie a snug knot in the casing right up against the edge of the meat. You will get the hang of this.
Keep squeezing, trying to fill the casing firmly but not too snugly—it’s up to you how plump you want your hot dogs to be, but they should at minimum feel solid and hold their shape. Keep filling the pastry bag and then the casing with meat until you have at least a 2-inch tail of unused casing on the finishing end. Knot the tail next to the meat tightly.
To make individual hot dogs, twist sections into the long dog you’ve just created. A 6-inch segment will fit a standard bun. Twist the first dog into shape simply by twisting the casing about 5 turns. To make subsequent dogs, be sure to twist in the opposite direction (for example, if you started by twisting the casing clockwise, twist counterclockwise the second time, clockwise the third time, and so on). You will end up with a string of links—just like in old cartoons. Coil in a single layer, not touching, on a rimmed baking sheet and move to the refrigerator; keep uncovered.
Continue the stuffing process with a new casing and keep stuffing until you run out of meat. Make certain that your meat remains cold while you work, moving it in batches from the refrigerator to the ice bath and adding ice to the bath as necessary. Discard any unused casings.
Allow your finished hot dogs to set up in the fridge, for at least 1 hour and up to 24.
To cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil and then turn down the heat until the water stops boiling. Add the hot dogs to the pot, cover, and let them sit in the very hot water (not boiling!) until they reach 150°F inside, about 15 minutes, depending on their size. At this point, your hot dogs are ready to eat or store. Cooked hot dogs can be reheated in warm water, about 12 minutes. But grilling or pan searing them will yield the best flavor.
HOW TO STORE IT Wrapped tightly, they will keep refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 4 months. Separate finished dogs from one another by simply snipping them apart with kitchen shears.
Mmmmm … carnival food. After eating these things, I recommend a few trips on the Tilt-A-Whirl, followed by a couple paper plates of elephant ears. But seriously, food on a stick always tastes better, right? And I assure you these will not disappoint. And while we are quick to file this under the header “junk food,” if you start with your own wholesome homemade hot dogs or nonmeat pups, and fry properly in fresh oil, these aren’t really so naughty after all. The only trick lies in proper frying technique: make sure your oil is the right temperature, and be sure to size up your dogs-on-sticks against your wok before you start cooking to make certain that they will be able to lie flat in the oil. Do not use elongated hot dogs: nothing larger than the standard-issue seven inches. (Insert joke here.)
Makes 6 corn dogs
TIME COMMITMENT About 45 minutes
½ cup masa harina
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of finely ground black pepper
1 egg
¾ cup milk
6 (7-inch or smaller) hot dogs, homemade or store-bought
6 long wooden barbecue skewers
6 cups neutral vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS In a very large bowl with a wide bottom, combine the masa harina, flour, sugar, salt, and pepper and whisk together. Crack the egg in a separate cup or bowl, beat it lightly, and add it to the flour mixture, along with the milk. Stir with a fork or whisk until smooth. Set this batter aside to rest.
While the batter is resting, blot the hot dogs with paper towels to get them as dry as possible. Insert skewers into the tops of the hot dogs lengthwise, pushing the skewer about halfway through. Sprinkle the skewered dogs with a thin coating of flour (this will help the batter adhere) and rub the flour over the surface of each hot dog evenly.
Set up a cooling rack covered with paper towels, and pour the oil into a large wok; it should be at least
1½ inches deep. Heat the oil over medium-high to high heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until it is shimmering and just beginning to smoke. You may also test the oil’s readiness by dropping in a teaspoon of batter. It will fry to golden brown in about 20 seconds. (Remove it from the oil with a slotted spoon.)
Have a sturdy set of tongs standing by. Dip a single dog completely into the batter (you may need to use a spoon to coat it all the way up to the stick), twirl to let the excess drip off, and then gently place the dog in the oil. It’s a good idea to keep the stick out of the oil as much as possible, but it’s okay if some of it dips in. The total frying time will be 1 to 2 minutes, but you will need to gently turn the corn dog a couple of times with the tongs to fry it evenly on all sides. Fry one corn dog at a time, pulling them from the oil when they’re golden brown.
Transfer the corn dogs to the cooling rack for about 2 minutes, then serve right away.
HOW TO STORE IT Wrapped airtight, these will keep refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for up to 4 months. To reheat, bake on a rack in the toaster oven set at 325°F for about 10 minutes.
