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Sunday 5 September 2010

Mincing and rendering porterhouse steak.

A few weeks ago I bought a mincer. Since then I have minced up some prime beef and the flavour is so unlike the stupormarket beef it is quite unbelievable. I mean, all they do is grind up fresh beef too right? The cut and being able to hand pick what you are about to grind up really does make a difference.
I bought a slab of porterhouse steak with a thick rind of yellow fat. i trimmed most of the fat off and minced the sliced meat.
Rather than being wasteful, I decided that if I rendered the fat, i could use it in soap making. It ended up being full of flavour so I decided it would be better to cook with it.
First I ground up the fat. It really isn't that much effort to do it and quite fun.
Then I placed the minced fat over a medium heat.
What happened next really surprised me. The fat came out like I was melting a candle. It was so fast. I remember buying really cheap mince once and seeing it render like this lol. These next pics took place over about 5minutes.

Next I strained it all through a sieve. All that connective tissue, gristle and scrappy bits still didn't go to waste. The chooks gobbled it up!

Here is the jug i was left with.
I did attempt to wash the fat with clean water, then left it to separate and rise to the top in the fridge. it was still very beefy smelling and tasting.
When I chose the piece of porterhouse, I chose the one with the yellowest fat. That is usually a sign that the animal was pastured on green grass and therefore the fat contained high levels of vitamins. The same ones that make your chicken eggs bright orange or yellow and good butter and cream yellow. Here it is beside a block of butter.
My Dad often mentions eating bread and dripping when he was a kid. Now I can understand as this would be tasty spread on bread with a sprinkle of salt!

2 comments:

  1. Oh, yes, bread and dripping. Had some of that as a kid. Now my knowledge of what it is doing to my body makes me resist but go on- try it. You know that you want to. ;)

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  2. I will :) You haven't read the latest? Now "they" say that it is mostly unsaturated fats clogging arteries.

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