Polendvitsa is a wonderful invention of Belarusian cuisine and is a salted piece of meat followed by natural drying. The result is an incredibly tasty meat delicacy, which has a significant advantage over store-bought ones. sausages. For its preparation, the most natural ingredients and spices are used, and no artificial flavor enhancers, dyes or other harmful substances.
How to pickle Polendvitsa at home in a rustic way?
Ingredients:
- Polendvitsa (pork loin) - 2 kg;
- salt - 500 g;
- black peppercorns - 50 g;
- cumin - 50 g;
- garlic - 1 large head.
When starting to pickle polendvitsa at home according to this recipe, peel the garlic and finely chop it with a knife, and grind the black peppercorns thoroughly in a mortar. Mix the garlic mass and chopped pepper with cumin and salt. The pork loin can be left as a whole piece or cut into two parts, then rinsed and dried thoroughly. Now roll the meat on all sides in the spicy mixture, rubbing it in thoroughly and breading again. Spices and salt should completely cover the surface of the meat pieces.
Place the meat in an enamel or glass container, sprinkle with the remaining spicy mixture, place a weight on top, cover the container with a lid and place it in the refrigerator for six to seven days, turning the meat daily.
After the time has passed, remove the Polendvitsa to a colander placed over the pan and leave for a while to allow the juices to drain completely. Then we wrap the polendvitsa in a piece of gauze, folded at least in four, tie it with thin, clean twine and hang it in the kitchen near the stove or on the balcony. We leave the meat for about three weeks. The holding time depends on the desired degree of softness of the finished product.
This kind of polendvitsa, prepared at home, turns out to be much cheaper and tastier than store-bought. At the same time, you will be completely confident in its naturalness.
Chicken Polendvitsa at home - recipe
Ingredients:
- chicken breast fillet - 1 kg;
- non-iodized salt - 0.5 cups;
- purified water - 3 l;
- bay leaves - 2 pcs.;
- ground bay leaves - 1 teaspoon;
- clove buds - 6 pcs.;
- garlic - 2-4 cloves;
- dill seeds - 1 teaspoon;
- mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon;
- horseradish - 40 g;
- dried parsley - 40 g;
- dried dill - 40 g;
- granulated sugar - 15 g.
To prepare chicken polendvitsa at home, pour purified water into a saucepan, add ground and whole bay leaves, clove buds, mustard and dill seeds, add salt, heat the mixture to a boil, boil for about five minutes, and let it cool completely. Place the chicken breast fillet in the cooled brine and leave it for five days in a sufficiently ventilated place, ideally on the balcony.
After the time has passed, remove the chicken meat from the brine, let it drain, and dry it with napkins.
Peel the garlic cloves, grind them through a grater, mix with granulated sugar, horseradish, dried parsley and dill and rub thoroughly with the resulting spicy mixture. chicken breast. Then we wrap it in parchment paper and leave it for twenty-four hours at room temperature. Then we place the meat in a colander over a saucepan, press it with something heavy and leave it for another day to get rid of the juices. After this, we clean off the remnants of the spicy mixture with a knife, wrap the meat in a piece of gauze, folded at least four times, tie the package tightly with twine and hang it in the kitchen or balcony and dry it for ten to fifteen days.
Step 1: Prepare the polendvitsa.
We will prepare Polendvitsa using the “dry” method, without soaking it in brine. Clean a piece of fresh meat from films, wash it well under running water and dry with paper towels.
Mix salt (half the specified amount) and sugar in a cup or any other suitable container, sprinkle the meat on all sides.
Place the meat in a container and refrigerate for 16 hours.
After the specified time, remove the meat from the refrigerator, drain the juice, remove the salt and sugar, and wipe dry with napkins.
Sprinkle the dry meat with salt on all sides, place it in a container and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
After a day, remove the meat from the refrigerator, remove the salt, and wipe it dry with napkins. Rub with chopped or dry garlic, sprinkle with spices on all sides, put in a container and put in the refrigerator for another day.
A day later, we take the meat with spices out of the refrigerator, wrap it in two layers of gauze (instead of gauze, you can use nylon socks, for density it is better to take a pair), and bandage it.
So, the final stage of preparing Polendvitsa is to hang the meat in a dry, warm (but not hot, no higher than 20 degrees) ventilated room for at least 5 days, maximum two weeks. The longer the meat dries, the drier it will be.
After just 5 days, the polendvitsa will be ready - a dry crust will form on top, and inside it will be juicy and soft.
Step 2: Serve the Polendvitsa.
Cut the Polendvitsa into thin slices and serve. It is also suitable for festive table, and on breakfast sandwiches. Amazingly delicious with fresh, crispy bread.
Bon appetit!
To prepare Polendvitsa, you can use any spices that you like best for meat: dried ground horseradish, dried parsley and dill, a mixture of Italian herbs or Herbs of Provence spices;
To prepare polendvitsa using the “wet” method, first boil the brine (1.5 liters of water, 1/4 cup of salt, Bay leaf, 3 pcs. cloves, 3 pcs. black peas), bring to a boil and cool. The meat is placed in a container with brine, placed in the refrigerator and soaked for 5 days. Then take it out, dry it, rub it with garlic, sprinkle it with sugar and spices, put it in a container and leave it in the refrigerator for a day. Take it out of the refrigerator, place it in a large dish, place a plate on top, on which something heavy is placed to remove excess moisture from meat (a few hours are enough). The released liquid is drained, the meat is dried, wrapped in gauze and hung to dry.
Polendwica is a traditional Polish and Belarusian delicacy made from pork. In Belarusian this dish is called palandvitsa, in Polish - polędwica. This is the name given to a long cut from the back, consisting of only flesh without bones.
Traditionally, pork, beef or horse meat were used to prepare Polendvitsa. Immediately after autumn slaughter, the meat was kept in blood for several days (it served as a kind of marinade), then it was properly covered with salt mixed with spices and saltpeter, placed in tarred boxes and stored in a cold cellar or on a glacier. In the spring, the meat was taken out and smoked, after which it was ready for consumption.
Modern recipes for polendvitsa prepared at home do not require compliance with such complex rules - only remarkable aging: after all, it should take at least a week for the delicacy to be completely ready, but you want to try what happened right away!
Making Polendvitsa: A Modern Basic Recipe
To prepare delicious polendvitsa at home, it is important to choose the right three main ingredients: meat, salt and spices.
The recipe for this dish requires choosing high-quality pork fillet. The long dorsi muscle is best suited for this purpose. If you wish, you can try cooking veal, poultry or even horse meat in a similar way - the taste will be completely different. The fillet should be dense, whole, smooth; if individual pieces of meat are adjacent to it, it is better to cut them off and use them for preparing dishes according to other recipes.
It is best to salt meat with coarse salt. It is important that it does not contain any additional additives: iodized, fluoridated and other similar salts are not suitable for this purpose.
As for spices, universal recipe there is none here, and everyone adds what they like best. The required set of spices includes only bay leaf, black pepper and allspice. If desired, you can add a mixture of pepper, coriander, cumin, cloves, dried garlic and other seasonings to this composition.
So, to prepare delicious homemade Polendvitsa, you will need the following ingredients:
- pork (or other selected meat) - 1 kilogram. If there is more or less meat, the amount of other ingredients increases or decreases proportionally;
- salt - 2-4 tablespoons, depending on taste preferences, quantity and type of meat;
- garlic - 1 large head;
- 2 bay leaves, broken into small pieces (no need to turn into dust);
- black pepper or a mixture of peppers - 1 teaspoon;
- cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, any other spices - 1 teaspoon each.
If necessary, the meat should be washed and then thoroughly dried with a napkin before salting. Coarse salt is rubbed into the piece from all sides, after which it is placed in a suitable-sized container and put in a cold place for 2-3 days. If meat juice forms at this time, it must be drained and the meat turned over from time to time so that it is salted evenly.
After 2-3 days, the future delicacy is taken out of the refrigerator, a mixture of selected spices is prepared with a small amount of salt (you can add a couple of drops of cognac or a few juniper berries), thoroughly and evenly rub the piece on all sides, then wrap it in gauze or other clean natural fabric white and hang in a warm, dry place. The kitchen is ideal for this, especially the corner above the stove.
Thus, the meat should be dried for at least 3-4 days - or better yet, a week, so that it dries properly, is saturated with salt and the aromas of spices. If desired, you can keep the polendvitsa longer - two or even three weeks, as if drying it. In this case, the consistency of the dish will be denser and drier, but it will be stored longer.
Dried polendvitsa is stored wrapped in the same gauze or cloth in the refrigerator. The given recipe is considered basic, it can be supplemented or changed at will, and the finished delicacy can be consumed not only as received, but also baked in the oven or smoked.
How to pickle polendvitsa using the wet method?
Besides classic recipes Polendvitsa prepared using the dry method (as described above), you can pickle it at home using the wet method - that is, in brine. In this case, the meat turns out more tender, soft and juicy.
First you need to prepare the brine. You can use your own recipe for this or use the following (proportions are given per 1 kg of meat):
- 1 liter of water;
- 5 grams (0.5 teaspoon) sugar;
- 100 grams of salt - again coarse, without impurities or additives.
Boil the water, add salt and sugar, let it simmer for another 4-5 minutes, then cool to 2-5 degrees Celsius. The amount of salt can be increased as desired, since with such proportions the meat turns out lightly salted.
The meat is prepared in the same way as described in the dry recipe - that is, washed and dried. The piece is poured with cold brine and placed in a cool place for 8-10 days. After removal from the brine, the meat is placed under a weight for 3-4 hours to get rid of excess moisture, dried, rubbed with a mixture of spices, wrapped in cloth, tied tightly with thread or twine, and then placed in a cold, dry place (for example, on a balcony), where and dry for two weeks. After this period, the meat is dried for another 8-10 days at room temperature.
Belarusian recipe for dry-cured pork polendvitsa passed on from generation to generation, therefore, despite ancient history, and today we can try this meat delicacy. For this, choose sirloin or loin, always fresh and not defrosted. Since it is still raw, it is important to know the exact proportions of salt and the right technology step-by-step preparation of sun-dried polendvitsa in Belarusian style with photos. Those who encounter dry-cured sausage or meat for the first time find it hard to believe that these dishes can be eaten without fear for their health. But meat was prepared this way for many centuries, when there were no refrigerators or sausage factories. Salt is a natural preservative; it destroys bacteria, keeping the product fit for consumption. In the recipe, pay attention to the temperature at which the polendvitsa should be dried. It is good to dry meat in autumn, winter and early spring.
Ingredients for preparing dried Polendvitsa in Belarusian style
Step-by-step preparation of dried Polendvitsa in Belarusian style with photos
Slice the Polendvitsa into thin layers, serve as a snack or make sandwiches. Bon appetit!
When buying various smoked and dried delicacies in the meat department of the store, I try not to think about chemical additives, flavor enhancers and other “inevitabilities”, without which not a single ready-made delicacy can do - as an “additional price” for taste, as a payment for pleasure. Nevertheless, sometimes I allow myself these joys, but I don’t risk giving such products to my child.
About the homemade Polendvitsa recipe
I must admit that this is not forgivable to me, because my family knows a luxurious recipe for making dried meat - polendvitsa, or pork balyk, or basturma in Belarusian. I ate homemade Polendvitsa as a child, at my grandmother’s, and I remember well how my grandmother would “bury” a whole pork ham in salt, and in the kitchen, in front of the stove, parcels of Polendvitsa would hang and wait in the wings. And the smell was such that it made my head spin.
From the editor. Polendvitsa is dry-cured pork, a dish of Belarusian and Polish “peasant” cuisine. Prepared for Catholic Christmas, some are saved and laid out on the Easter table.
Polendvitsa was prepared from the most delicious part - pork tenderloin, the most tender pork fillet. In the recipe for Polendvitsa, apart from a piece of meat, nothing was used except salt and spices, so there was no need to talk about dubious quality. Cooking was a fairly elementary process: the meat was salted in an aromatic mixture of salt and spices and hung to dry. The hassle is minimal, everything happens as if by itself, it just takes time.
Anyway, I finally got ready and cooked. The result stunned even me, a skeptic). I am very pleased - the homemade Polendvitsa turned out to be soft, aromatic, and moderately salty. Just like when I was a child with my grandmother. And my daughter said that next time I should take a piece of pork three times longer. =)
On a note:
- the set of spices can be anything, the main thing is to maintain the proportions of salt and sugar;
- It is very important to dry the meat thoroughly before wrapping it in gauze, otherwise the fabric will stick and the pork may begin to deteriorate;
- if you want to dry not a tenderloin, but a loin or carbonate, cut them into 2-3 parts, since the meat is quite thick, it dries for a long time and unevenly due to its thickness; Tenderloin, in my opinion, is the ideal choice.
Ingredients
- pork tenderloin 700 g
- sugar 1 tbsp. l.
- salt 3 tbsp. l.
- cognac 2 tbsp. l.
- coriander seeds 1 tbsp. l.
- mixture of ground peppers 0.5 tsp.
- garlic 4 cloves
How to prepare Polendvitsa at home
First, I prepared a fragrant mixture for pickling polendvitsa. I mixed coriander (in order for the seeds to better release their aroma, you can first grind them in a mortar or using a rolling pin), salt, sugar, and a mixture of peppers. Peeled and finely chopped the garlic.
She poured cognac into them and mixed everything.
I generously rubbed the pork tenderloin on all sides with the resulting mixture and placed it in a suitable sized container.
I placed oppression on top. I left the meat at room temperature for a day (this is recommended to do, provided that it is not summer and the temperature will not exceed 25 degrees). During this time, I turned the meat several times for more even salting. After a couple of hours, you will notice that almost the entire piece is covered with liquid - this is how salt works: it removes excess liquid from the meat. There is no need to drain it under any circumstances. During marinating, the tenderloin will become denser and change color.
After 24 hours, the meat was removed from the container with liquid and dried well using paper towels. I left the coriander seeds and pieces of garlic on the surface. Place the pork on clean gauze, folded in 3-4 layers.
She wrapped the meat in gauze and tied it tightly with strong twine, giving it a round shape.
Now all that remains is to hang the pork tenderloin in a well-ventilated, warm room. I'm hooked on the wall high above gas stove. I dried it for 4 days, then removed the gauze, wrapped it in a clean cloth and placed it in the refrigerator for another day. In general, 4 days is a convention, you may need no more than 3 days, or maybe 14 days, depending on the temperature and humidity in the room and your preferences (drier, softer). I checked the readiness by checking that the meat was evenly colored, dense and elastic.- After a day in the refrigerator, the Polendvitsa was absolutely perfect - aromatic, homemade , natural and very tasty. It is recommended to store Polendvitsa in the refrigerator in a cloth or parchment paper. We didn’t have to store ours for long - just a few days =)
