How much to salt lard in brine for smoking. Salt the lard yourself

Lard is a product that can be consumed in everyday food, or can be used to prepare an “elegant” and tasty delicacy for the holiday table. In this article I will outline Cold smoked lard recipe based on my experience.

Cold smoked lard recipe

Ingredients

fresh lard - thickness from 2.5 cm
rock salt
wood chips for smoking

Salting lard for smoking

Lard should be chosen with a thickness of at least 2.5 cm, since when salted, dried and smoked, it will dry out and excess moisture will leave. Before salting, rinse the lard well under running water and dry it with rags or napkins. Cut into pieces for smoking.

Salting lard for smoking does not differ from the usual salting of lard for storage. You need to salt in food-safe containers; personally, I salted in a stainless steel pan. Pour salt into the bottom of the dish, about 2-3 mm, carefully wipe each piece with salt, lay it tightly and also sprinkle each layer of lard with more salt, put a slight pressure on top. We put the lard in the refrigerator for 10-14 days, sometimes the pieces need to be turned over - move the lard that is on the bottom to the top, and the lard that was on top to the bottom. If desired, you can use spices.

After salting the lard, remove excess salt, rinse under cold water, dry, if necessary, tie it. Next, you need to dry it in the shade in a light draft, the time depends on the temperature, usually it takes from 5 to 24 hours.

Cold smoking of lard

After drying, place the lard in the smoking chamber and smoke for at least 8 hours; when smoking, the temperature should not exceed 35-40C. It is better to smoke on alder chips with the addition of apple, beech and cherry. Some pieces can be rubbed with crushed garlic and hot pepper for taste.

When the lard is smoked, it must be left in a draft for at least a day so that the aromas of the smoke are evenly distributed throughout the lard. Cold smoked lard is best stored in paper, airtight packaging in the refrigerator. Storage time depends on the salting time and smoking time. I personally stored smoked lard according to this recipe for a month and a half in the refrigerator.

Buying salted lard in the store is not always profitable. You can prepare a homemade product with minimal investment of effort and money, its taste will be individual, depending on the recipe.

There are many different methods, and there are also guides on how to salt lard for smoking.

The raw material itself influences what flavor the product will have and whether the product will be of high quality. Tip: You should not cut too thick or very thin slices of bacon for pickles. You can make beautiful and tasty lard at home if you cut it with a layer and pieces of meat.

How is lard salted?

The product can be prepared using the dry method, the hot method, the wet method, or salting the lard in brine. To minimize the time required, the bacon is boiled and eaten after an hour. But it is better to leave it in the broth until it has cooled completely. Cold wet and dry salting will take 4 or 5 days. With finely chopped raw materials, lard will become salted faster.

For cooking, use sea salt or use iodized salt. Spices are added to taste. You can add a little pepper, cumin, garlic, bay leaf. Storing the finished bacon is possible in the refrigerator, or it can be frozen in the freezer. To preserve the taste and appetizing smell, the products are hermetically packaged.

What you need to know about the dry method?

To quickly and without unnecessary fuss prepare lard using the dry method, you need to learn how to salt lard at home. It can be consumed after preliminary cleaning of the salty layers from the pieces. Cleaning is done using a knife. Some gourmets wash and dry salted lard.

For a kilogram of lard you will need a little black pepper and one kilogram of salt. Any seasoning or ready-made pickle mixture will do. Pork lard will need to be prepared by stripping the skin, rinsing and wiping. The cutting is carried out so that the pieces are of the same size, convenient for the cook. It is better to divide the layer into rectangles.

Pepper and spices are mixed with coarse salt. Lard is rolled in this mixture on each side. The skin is also sprinkled. Salt should cover the pan by 0.5 centimeters. The lard is laid out so that the piece does not adhere to the piece. The top of the bacon is sprinkled with a mixture of salt and seasonings, with the addition of bay leaves if desired.

Lay the lard in a second layer. The raw materials are sprinkled with the remaining salt. How many days to salt lard depends on the method and the quality and size of the raw product. When preparing the product using the dry method, the covered lard should stand in a warm place for about a day and five days in the refrigerator. If you freeze the bacon, it will last longer than usual.

How to cook lard in brine?

Salting lard in brine is quick and easy. Sea salt will be most suitable for this method. Whether it is possible to season the pieces with iodized salt, everyone decides for themselves, but it must be coarsely ground. The brine method will be most suitable for products that have a layer.

To prepare 1 kilogram of bacon according to the old recipe, you will need 800 ml of water, a glass of salt, 3 garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves, peppercorns or other seasonings.

Before salting lard in brine, the raw materials should be washed and dried. Cut the product into pieces with a diameter of 4 or 5 cm. When stirring vigorously, the salt must be allowed to completely dissolve in the aqueous medium. Add spice and garlic. Take a clean, dry glass jar and add the product piece by piece into it. Brine is poured on top. After keeping the lard on the refrigerator shelf for about a day, the first sample is taken.

Recipe for lard with garlic and pepper

There are many recipes for preparing delicious bacon. Pepper and garlic are often added to products. In villages, the container for pickling is a barrel or box. In urban environments, glass jars or foil wrapping are suitable.

The lard is washed and dried with a towel or clean rag. The pieces are cut by eye. Garlic is peeled, its quantity is measured by taste. The cloves are divided into quarters. Cuts are made in the lard, which need to be stuffed with garlic. Rub each piece with a mixture of salt and pepper. The stuffed raw materials are packaged in bags with more salt on top. The packaged products are laid out in bowls or pans. Leave in a warm place for a day. You need to keep the lard in the refrigerator for about a week or a little more, and you can eat it. How long it is left in the cold depends on the thickness of the pieces.

Hot method and onion skins for bacon

A tasty and aesthetically pleasing product is obtained using the hot method. It is better to salt lard in onion skins. Two handfuls of onion peels are washed and boiled in a saucepan. One and a half kilos of raw materials are cut so that one side is 5 centimeters, the other can be longer. 7 tablespoons of iodized salt are added to the husks. Lard is added to the boiling broth.

If you add liquid smoke (3 tablespoons), the product will be even more appetizing. The pieces are cooked for about 20 minutes. After removing from the stove, the product sits in the saucepan for half a day. Having taken it out, each piece is rubbed with pepper and garlic. You can use it right away. Store the dish in cling film or foil in the freezer. Frozen lard can last for many months.

Cooking bacon before smoking

To smoke lard, it is salted before the procedure. 3 peeled garlic cloves need to be chopped into pieces. You will need a glass of salt and ground pepper. The bacon grated with a mixture of salt and pepper is placed in containers. The product is covered with garlic, the remaining salt, a couple of bay leaves, and half a teaspoon of dry mustard are poured on top. Pour boiling water. The cooled product lasts 3 days in the refrigerator.

We tell you how to prepare a marinade for smoking lard. These recipes are better suited to the hot smoking method. But they are also quite suitable for cold weather.

As you know, the process is much shorter than cold smoking, but there are some nuances here too. For example, in order for the lard to ultimately turn out tender, but not too soft, it is recommended to keep the lard in the marinade for no more than one day. The second point is that the lard should be fresh and not stale, otherwise the result will taste rubbery. And the third rule: after marinating the lard, you must let it air out in the fresh air. Airing will allow you to get rid of excess, unnecessary moisture, while the product itself will be “saturated,” so to speak, with oxygen, and therefore will become even more tender.

This, one might say, is one of the classic marinade recipes for smoking lard. For preparation you will need the following ingredients:

2 liters of water;
200 gr. coarse salt;
a few hot peppercorns;
3 bay leaves;
2 cloves;
cumin - to taste, but better with a pinch of knife.

First you need to prepare it, which should turn out very rich. Boil 2 liters of water on the stove and mix with salt. The saturation of the solution can be checked as follows: immerse a small chicken egg in the saline solution. If the egg floats to the surface, then there is enough salt.

So, put the brine solution on the fire, bring it to a boil and add all the previously prepared spices to it. Make sure that the solution continues to boil all this time, leave it on the stove for 8-10 minutes, and then remove from the heat. While the brine is cooling, prepare the lard. Rinse a piece of lard under cold water, and when the brine has cooled, put the lard in it. The saucepan with the marinade does not need to be put in the refrigerator; It will be enough to leave the lard in a draft or simply in a well-ventilated place, for example, on a balcony or veranda.

You need to marinate the lard for smoking in the marinade for a day. After a day, remove the lard from the marinade, dry it thoroughly and you can send it to smoke. Bon appetit!

Recipe No. 2 Marinade in brine

Translated from Turkic languages, “tuzluk” means saturated saline solution. To prepare the marinade you will need the following components:

lard with meat layer – 2-2.5 kg;
water – 2 liters;
coarse salt – 400 gr.;
small head of garlic;
4 bay leaves;
10 peppercorns.

Cooking method:

First, rinse the lard well under cold water, cut into large pieces and leave on a paper towel to dry.

While the lard dries, prepare the brine. To do this, pour cold water into a saucepan, add salt, put pepper and bay leaf and leave to boil on the stove.

Peel the garlic and pass through a garlic press. Place one piece of lard into a wide container, alternately rubbing each piece with the garlic mixture. After this, pour lard with warm brine (its temperature should not be higher than 20-25 degrees) and leave in a cool place for 3 days. Don’t be afraid that there is too much salt - the lard will absorb exactly as much as it needs. In other words, there is no chance of over-salting the lard.

After three days, remove the lard from the marinade, dry it thoroughly again on a paper towel and you can send it to the smokehouse. The result will be very, very tasty. Bon appetit!

Recipe No. 3 Marinade for smoked lard with onion skins

Onion peels, together with the main ingredients for preparing the marinade, will ultimately give the finished dish a delicate, golden-brown hue, and also flavor it with a slightly noticeable smell.

To prepare the marinade according to this recipe, you will need the following components:

lard (can be with or without meat) – 2 kg;
1.5 liters of water;
3 handfuls of onion peels;
120 gr. coarse salt;
bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
6 small cloves of garlic;
black peppercorns - to taste.

Cooking method:

Lightly freeze the lard, then rinse it well under cold water and cut into large pieces.

Pour 1.5 liters of water into a separate saucepan, then put it on low heat and wait until the water boils. Immediately after boiling, reduce the heat (but so that the brine continues to boil), add spices, simmer for 10 minutes, and then add onion peels.

You need to cook the marinade for another 5 minutes, then add the prepared pieces of lard and cook for another 10 minutes over low heat. After 10 minutes, remove the marinade from the heat and leave to cool (do not remove the lard). Immediately after the marinade temperature reaches room temperature, cover the saucepan with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for a day. After a day, remove the lard from the refrigerator and you can start smoking. You should immediately clarify: this marinade recipe is more suitable for cold smoked lard.

Lard smoked after soaking in such a marinade will turn out tender, dense (but not hard) and very tasty. Bon appetit!

Recipe No. 4 Marinade for smoked lard with soy sauce

Soy sauce, a well-known and beloved product in Asian cuisine, is a concentrated brine with a characteristic taste and aroma. Soy sauce itself is quite salty, so the use of additional salt is not recommended, except just a little. It should be noted right away that the final taste of the dish will differ from traditional smoked lard, but if you want something unusual, then this recipe is definitely worth a try.

To prepare marinade with soy sauce, you will need the following ingredients:

1.5 kg. lard;
120 ml. soy sauce;
small head of garlic;
salt - a pinch;
spices - to taste.

Cooking method:

For this recipe, you don’t need to use spices at all; just soy sauce will be enough.

So, peel the garlic and pass through a garlic press. Mix the resulting garlic mass with salt and spices. Pour soy sauce into the stirred mixture and mix well again.

Wash the lard and divide into portions, coat each piece with the resulting garlic-soy mixture, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2 days. After 2 days, remove the lard from the refrigerator, ventilate for 2-3 hours, after which you can put the lard into the smokehouse. Bon appetit!

Salting lard is the first important step in preparing a delicious smoked product. The final result largely depends on how correctly and efficiently the salting is done. This recipe is for those who want to master home smoking, but do not know how to salt lard for smoking.

Buy pork loin from a freshly slaughtered pig at the market. If the slaughter was done a couple of days ago, then you can immediately start salting, and if the lard is still “alive”, i.e. resembles jelly, leave it for at least one day to harden.

Place the lard in a large jar or pan for salting. When you place the product in the container, do it with the skin side down. Fill the spaces between the pieces of loin with salt. High-quality salting of lard will require at least twenty days.

After this, remove the lard from the jar and clean it of salt.

Smoke the lard over a gentle smoke for 5-10 days. The longer the smoking time, the longer the lard can be preserved. It is considered completely ready when it is covered with a dark golden crust. Ready smoked lard can be grated with pepper and/or chopped garlic.

As you can see, salting lard for smoking, although a critical step, is not difficult to do. Salting, like smoking lard, can be done easily and simply at home. This delicious, smoky lard goes very well with jacket potatoes and pickles.

The article discusses popular recipes for making smoked lard, following which you can get a fragrant delicacy at home.

What you need to know about smoking lard?

Any lard is suitable for smoking, but the product with layers of meat is especially tasty. For uniform heat treatment during hot smoking, it is recommended to cut the product into pieces no more than 4-5 cm thick (for convenience when slicing, you can measure the pieces using 3 fingers).

A salted product is used for smoking. Lard can be salted using the dry method or using a marinade. If you plan to ➤ SMOKE LARD, which subsequently needs to be stored for a long time, it is better to salt it in a marinade with heat treatment.

Methods for smoking lard

Depending on the equipment used, recipe and method of processing the product, the following smoking methods are distinguished:

In the smokehouse. A traditional way to produce tasty lard that has absorbed the aroma of natural smoke. Depending on the temperature in the smokehouse, there are two subtypes of this method:

Cold smoking. For cooking, large industrial or small home smokehouses are used. The cooking time can take up to three days, during which it is necessary to maintain a uniform concentration of smoke in the smokehouse. Cold smoked lard is characterized by a reduced water concentration, long shelf life, and a deep smoky aroma.
Hot smoking. It involves the use of factory-made or home-made smokehouses, in which, in addition to fumigation with smoke, the product is subjected to heat treatment. The cooking time for lard in hot smoked smokehouses is about 5 hours. The finished product takes on a beautiful brown-golden color, but remains juicy inside. Ready-made hot smoked lard can be stored under normal conditions for several weeks, and in the freezer - up to a year.

In improvised containers that replace the smokehouse. In the absence of a smokehouse, lard can be prepared in a container that can serve as a simplified and less functional replacement, for example: a deep frying pan, grill, metal bucket, etc. Wood chips are placed at the bottom of the container, above which grates or fastenings for crossbars are installed. The product is fixed on them. This is an easy option for getting a smoked delicacy within 2-3 hours. However, it requires additional materials and the quality of the finished delicacy is most often inferior to a similar product prepared in a specialized smokehouse.
Unnatural smoking. This is the name for the method of cooking lard, which is similar in appearance and taste to the product from a smokehouse. In this case, the desired effect is achieved by cooking, grating and marinating the product with the addition of liquid smoke. It is used when there is no smokehouse or when it is necessary to prepare a significant amount of lard in a short time at home.

Regardless of the cooking method, to obtain the desired result, you need to use a fresh product without signs of spoilage. Smoking will not help preserve lard that has begun to deteriorate or has become saturated with unpleasant odors (for example, after lying in the refrigerator for a long time).

Let's look at the basic recipes for smoking lard at home.

Recipe 1. Cooking lard in a home hot smoked smokehouse

To prepare the product, you need a factory smokehouse made of regular or stainless steel. You can familiarize yourself with the range of high-quality smokehouses of the KEDR Plus, Alder Smoke and Privolzhsky Mechanical Plant LLC (MPZ) brands in the catalog of our website.

A factory smokehouse is usually a metal container with wood chips placed at the bottom. Then the device is installed on a heat source: a fire, barbecue, gas burner, etc. Modern models are equipped with special shelves for laying out the product, made in the form of a stainless steel grid with the ability to load in one, two or three tiers.

Lard can also be prepared in an electric smokehouse, but the resulting product is inferior in taste and aroma to lard prepared with natural wood chips.

Ingredients

lard, pre-cut into pieces
pepper
garlic
Bay leaf

Product preparation

Prepare the marinade. To do this, fill a suitable container with water. Its quantity can be arbitrary, but sufficient for all the pieces to be completely hidden in the liquid. To better dissolve the salt, the water can be heated. Then they lower a chicken egg into it and begin to add salt, stirring, until it floats to the surface. This serves as a signal that the required concentration of the substance in the solution has been reached. Be careful: if the salt concentration is too high, the meat layers will become too tough.
Now add garlic, pepper and bay leaf. If desired, add any other spices and place the solution in a cool place until it cools completely.
Then we dip the pieces of lard into the marinade, press with a lid with a weight or in another way and leave in a cool place for 4 days to a week. This is necessary for effective salting.
After the specified time, remove the lard from the marinade, place it on a wire rack or hang it on hooks until it dries.

Smoking

You can prepare smoked lard outdoors or at home (for smoking at home, smokehouses equipped with a water seal system are used).

Procedure

A handful of fruit tree chips is placed at the bottom of the smokehouse (if necessary, chips from several tree species are combined in different proportions to obtain the optimal taste and aroma of the finished products). Apple tree chips are suitable for smoking lard.
To make cleaning the smokehouse easier, it is recommended to wrap the wood chips in a loose envelope made of heat-resistant foil. After smoking, it is completely removed from the smoking chamber, the bottom of which remains clean. If you don't have foil on hand, you can sprinkle a little clean sand on the bottom.
To smoke lard, it is better to use smokehouses equipped with a tray. It will prevent fat from getting onto the wood chips, which will prevent carbon deposits from forming during smoking. In addition, hot air and smoke will cool slightly as they flow around the pan, resulting in pieces of food that will cook evenly and not burn.
A grate for food is placed on top of the tray. When smoking lard, it is not necessary to lubricate it with oil: the fat from it will prevent burning. To prepare a significant amount of delicacy, smokehouse models with the ability to load in two or three tiers are used.
The lard is carefully distributed on the grates. In order for the smoke from the wood chips to be evenly distributed throughout the smoking chamber, the pieces must be laid at intervals of 1.5 - 2 cm.
The water seal trough is filled with drinking water.
A hose is put on the smoke exhaust fitting, the other end of which is placed in the hood or window.
The smokehouse is then covered with a lid and placed over a fire or other heat source. About 10 minutes after this, the chamber will begin to fill with smoke.
The cooking time for lard in a smokehouse set over medium heat is from 30 minutes to 1 hour. You need to remove the product from the smokehouse when a golden brown crust forms on the pieces. If you are using a smoker at home, you need to turn off the stove and wait until the smoke stops.
Then the product must cool completely. To achieve optimal hardness, it is recommended to keep hot smoked lard in the refrigerator for 1 day. After this, the product can be served.

Recipe 2. Cooking smoked lard in a cauldron (at home)

If you don’t have a smokehouse with a water seal, you can prepare smoked lard at home in a large cauldron.

Ingredients

black pepper

In addition, you will need a shelf for laying out the product inside the smokehouse (preferably in the form of a lattice), a lid that allows you to tightly close the container, and also wood chips (apple tree chips are suitable for smoking lard; if this is not available, you can use cherry chips).

Smoking

For cooking in a cauldron, you can use pickled lard (using the method described in the first recipe), as well as dry-salted lard. To prepare it, you need to generously sprinkle pieces of the product with salt, pepper and other spices to your taste, and then put them in a cool place for 2 weeks.
Before use, pieces of dry salted lard are cleared of salt, and the lard must be dried after soaking in the marinade.
Then wood chips are placed on the bottom of the cauldron. To make it easy to clean the wood chips later, you can wrap it in a loose envelope made of heat-resistant foil. Subsequently, the ashes can be easily removed from the cauldron.
Pieces of lard are placed on a wire rack and carefully placed in a cauldron.
Unlike factory smokehouses, equipped with a water seal system that prevents smoke from entering the premises, when using a cauldron, you will have to use improvised means for this. For example, you can make a batter from flour and water. It must be applied to the edges of the lid and cauldron. When closed, they must form a hermetically sealed seal that must not be broken until the end of cooking.
Then you need to light the maximum fire on the gas stove (or set the maximum value on the electric stove). After 15 minutes, you need to turn off the stove and leave the lard in the cauldron for 2-3 hours. In this case, the lid must not be lifted until the product has completely cooled down.
Before use, it is recommended to keep the lard in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

Recipe 3. Making smoked lard at home using liquid smoke

Using a concentrated liquid smoke additive, you can prepare smoked lard using a simple method that does not require much time and effort. If you comply with all the requirements and recommendations, you will get a product that will be slightly inferior in appearance and taste to lard prepared in a cold smoked smokehouse.

Ingredients

Red pepper

Per 1 liter of marinade

100 g salt
3 tablespoons liquid smoke (about 50 ml)
onion peel from 2 large onions

Preparation

First you need to boil the onion skins in water for 5-7 minutes, adding salt and liquid smoke in turn.
After this, the pieces of lard are placed in a container of a suitable size and poured with hot onion marinade so that the entire product is under the liquid (it is advisable to use pieces with meat layers).
Then the lard should be placed in a cool place for deeper absorption of the marinade at least overnight, but preferably for a day (the larger the size of the pieces, the longer it will take for optimal marinating).
After the specified time, remove the lard from the marinade and remove the remaining liquid. To do this, you can spread the product on a wire rack for about an hour (you can use hooks instead of a wire rack) or dry the product with napkins. Then carefully rub each piece with pepper. If desired, you can add dry garlic and other seasonings. After processing with spices, each piece is wrapped in cling film and placed in the refrigerator.

After a few days, the lard is ready for use.

Recipe 4. Smoking lard in the oven

A distinctive feature of this recipe is the need to pre-cook the lard, thanks to which it acquires special tenderness. In this case, the smoking time is reduced, since the semi-finished product is actually smoked. A tall tank or pan is used as a container for processing lard with smoke. Small metal rods are hung across the container, from which the product is suspended using metal hooks.

Ingredients

lard (about 1.5 kg)
salt (300 g)
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
2 liters of water

In addition, food foil and wood chips are used.

Preparation - Product preparation

Put the water on the fire and bring to a boil. Dip the chopped lard onto the food and cook after boiling for 3 minutes (no more).
Place pieces of the product in a pan or food containers, add chopped garlic and onions, then pour in the broth in which the lard was cooked.
After cooling, place the product in the refrigerator for 4 days.
After the specified time, remove the container with lard, take out the product and place it on a wire rack (or hang it on hooks) to dry for several hours.

Smoking

Wrap 2-3 handfuls of wood chips in a loose foil envelope and lower them to the bottom of the tank.
Again we place the rods over the container and hang the lard on them.
Cover the tank tightly with foil pressed against the edges.
Turn on maximum heat for about 1 minute. After heating the tank, reduce the flame to the minimum level and continue cooking for one and a half to two hours.
After the specified time, turn off the heat, but leave the product in the tank until it cools completely. After this, the lard will be ready for use.

Smoking lard at home: tricks and useful tips

For uniform cooking, it is recommended to use small pieces of product weighing up to 0.4 kg.
The product should exude a pleasant aroma of smoke, and not the smell of spices, so they should be added in a volume no greater than when preparing ordinary salted lard.
You can preserve the delicacy for several months at normal temperatures only if it is a cold-smoked product (if you prepared hot-smoked lard, it is better to wrap it in cling film and place it in the freezer).
The readiness of the product is determined by its color: as soon as the lard has acquired a brownish-red hue, smoking can be stopped.
If during cooking the pieces of lard have acquired an arched shape, they can be placed skin side up on a flat surface and pressed down with a flat-bottomed press (a weighted cutting board will do). If necessary, the product can be continued to marinate in this position by filling it with brine.