Balyk is translated from Turkic as "fish", but this word is also used in relation to salted and then dried meat. Cured meat is cooked by many nations, the Spanish delicacy "jamon", the Georgian "basturma" have won the love of the whole world. You can make a balyk at home from a tender, tasty and high-quality tenderloin.
Pork balyk
Any type of meat is suitable for cooking balyk: pork, beef and even chicken. The Turkic peoples dry lamb and horse meat. The main thing is that the meat should be fresh, juicy, pink in color, without veins and bones. Pork loin is suitable for balyk. Before processing, fresh meat should be kept in a cold place for 5-6 days, then separate the flesh from the bone.
It is more convenient to butcher meat with a long knife. It is cut along the spine on both sides and the bone is removed, the loin is cleaned, excess fat is removed, leaving a beautiful piece of fillet with a thin layer of bacon.
For salting, a brine is prepared from 1 liter of pure filtered water and 110 g of salt. They put it in syringes and inject it into the meat (100 ml of solution will be needed for 1 kg of meat), then rub the piece lightly with salt, put it in a bowl and put it in the cold for 3-4 days. Every day, the pork balyk is turned over so that it is salted evenly. The finished loin is washed from salt, tied with twine and hung out to dry. At home, you can dry it near heating radiators, then put it in the refrigerator.
Balyk. Original recipes
It is well kept and has an excellent taste of balyk, marinated with the addition of vinegar. The meat is cut into pieces, 20 cm long and 10 cm wide, each piece is beaten off, sprinkled with vinegar (table or wine), rubbed thoroughly with salt mixed with sugar and spices (coriander, black pepper, dried mint, marjoram), stacked tightly into an enamel pan, press down with oppression. 1 kg of meat requires 1 tbsp. tablespoons of salt and sugar, marinate the product for a day. The released juice is drained every 6 hours.
Then the pieces should be dipped in table vinegar for five minutes, squeezed, dried with a paper towel and hung to dry in a ventilated room, you can use a fan. The air temperature should be 25-40 ° C, in summer it is necessary to cover the balyk from flies with gauze. If the pieces are thin, then the meat will be ready in 2 days, in order for a large piece of meat to dry out, it will take a week. If you like dry balyk, dry it for 10-12 days.
Spicy lovers can add cayenne hot pepper to the seasoning mixture, soak the meat after salting with liquid smoke diluted with cognac. This procedure will take another 12 hours. If a whole large piece is pickled, weighing about 0.5 kg, before drying it is put under the load for a day or two. Then wrapped in cheesecloth and hung in a warm room until tender.
Horse meat is ideal for drying, it is dryish in itself. The horse's peritoneum is cut into squares 20X20 cm, rubbed with salt and pepper, and refrigerated for a week. On the second day of salting, when the meat starts to juice, you can add sodium nitrate (if you can get it) at the rate of 0.1 g per 1 kg of meat. It will give the finished product a rich color. Salted meat is wiped off with a towel, strung on a string and hung out to dry. Homemade horse meat balyk will be ready in 1-2 months.
