The Great Salt Lick, or Cleaning out the freezer
Have you ever wondered what might be the saltiest recipe on earth? Let me save you from anguish - here it is. Cured Duck with Braised Red Cabbage. What's that you say? The word cured should have spelled it out for me? Yeah, I guess. I mean, since curing means treating meat with salt it pretty much should have told me how it would turn out. But the recipe jumped out at me, called to me practically as I had just taken out a bag of frozen pheasant breasts to thaw for the week and was busy trying to find a recipe for the purple cabbage that Sophie had picked out at the grocery store, when this recipe appeared in my search. Two birds with one stone. Or, eight pheasant breasts with one salt block. Whatever.
When I started out with the bag of pheasant breasts, they were a pretty light color, sort of like pork tenderloin. After 24 hours in the salt/sugar mixture, they felt hard as rocks and looked like hunks of beef jerky:
After 24 hours of work, with dinner only a few hours away, and not wanting to waste the pheasant, I forged ahead and put them into the oven to cook for three hours. A few changes to note:
1. I modified the original recipe, cutting the salt and sugar in half because that's what I had and also recipe as stated seemed like enormously excessive.
2. I used eight pheasant breasts instead of a whole duck.
3. I rinsed the salt/sugar mixture off of the pheasant breasts before putting them into a roasting pan. I didn't know what to do, but Kathy, who is the cooking boss of me, told me that's definitely the right way to go. Can you imagine actually ingesting all of that salt? It would kind of be like that time I bought mom a French cookbook despite the fact that she doesn't like putsy cooking. Then, I thought it would be a good idea to use that cookbook to prepare a special Christmas meal - salt crusted beef tenderloin. Which, of course, produced the saltiest and most expensive slab of meat we'd ever eaten. I don't know how much of the salt/sugar mixture is actually absorbed into the meat, but I can guarantee you that this recipe will give you your recommended amount of sodium for a very long time. According to the AHA a healthy American should eat no more than the equivalent of 1 t. of table salt a day. Point of reference - this recipe as written contains 198 t. of salt. And that's for two people.
Better grab a glass of water, I feel REALLY thirsty. Moving on.
While the pheasant was in the oven, we got to work on the cabbage. I normally don't buy cabbage and I don't eat purple cabbage willingly, going as far as picking it out of "salad blends". But I started this newtrick thing at the grocery store where the kids get to each pick out their very own special vegetable. Any vegetable they want. This is an attempt to distract from their usual requests which always include Fudge Pops and candy. The moment we got out of the car Martin staked his claim to BROCCOLI, which started a fight almost as grand as who gets to ride on which part of the shopping cart. From the front door to the produce area, we talked about all the vegetables that a gal could choose, none of them sounding satisfying to Sophie. Our cart pulled up next to the vegetables and Sophie yelled "PURPLE", pointing to the purple cabbage. In the cart it went. And I sighed, my own trick backfiring on myself since now I'd actually have to eat it.
If you haven't made it before, purple cabbage is really pretty.
After we cut it up and soaked it in water to rinse it off, we drained the water into a cup, exclaiming that I had MAGICAL POWERS and could turn water blue. The kids were almost as impressed as the time I told them that I could share my brain powers with a balloon by rubbing it on my head and then the balloon could decide to stick wherever it wanted, since it could think and all after sharing my incredible brain power.
After three hours of roasting, I pulled the pheasant out of the oven and found that it too had magical powers, having transformed itself into jerky. I contemplated throwing it away, but the kids who were starving, begged for a taste. They loved it, devouring several pieces and asking for more. I chipped apart the remaining breasts and put them into a casserole covered in water. After a few minutes, I drained, rinsed and again covered it with water, hoping that the meat would absorb a little moisture and taste a bit less salty. I did this a few times, then put it in the fridge with the liquid until I was ready to warm it for dinner.
A few more items to note:
- Adding water to jerky produces wet jerky, not softened up meat.
- Rinsing jerky in water does not reduce the saltiness, but since it's already gross wet jerky, you don't really want to eat much of it anyway, making the salt content only a minor concern.
- Cabbage cooked in a vinegar mixture is stinky.
- I used only one jalapeno in the cabbage instead of three and it still was hot enough to burn our lips.
So, take this as a public service and sodium alert announcement - this recipe should never be made. Not ever. Not even in an attempt to clear out the freezer.
When I started out with the bag of pheasant breasts, they were a pretty light color, sort of like pork tenderloin. After 24 hours in the salt/sugar mixture, they felt hard as rocks and looked like hunks of beef jerky:
After 24 hours of work, with dinner only a few hours away, and not wanting to waste the pheasant, I forged ahead and put them into the oven to cook for three hours. A few changes to note:
1. I modified the original recipe, cutting the salt and sugar in half because that's what I had and also recipe as stated seemed like enormously excessive.
2. I used eight pheasant breasts instead of a whole duck.
3. I rinsed the salt/sugar mixture off of the pheasant breasts before putting them into a roasting pan. I didn't know what to do, but Kathy, who is the cooking boss of me, told me that's definitely the right way to go. Can you imagine actually ingesting all of that salt? It would kind of be like that time I bought mom a French cookbook despite the fact that she doesn't like putsy cooking. Then, I thought it would be a good idea to use that cookbook to prepare a special Christmas meal - salt crusted beef tenderloin. Which, of course, produced the saltiest and most expensive slab of meat we'd ever eaten. I don't know how much of the salt/sugar mixture is actually absorbed into the meat, but I can guarantee you that this recipe will give you your recommended amount of sodium for a very long time. According to the AHA a healthy American should eat no more than the equivalent of 1 t. of table salt a day. Point of reference - this recipe as written contains 198 t. of salt. And that's for two people.
Better grab a glass of water, I feel REALLY thirsty. Moving on.
While the pheasant was in the oven, we got to work on the cabbage. I normally don't buy cabbage and I don't eat purple cabbage willingly, going as far as picking it out of "salad blends". But I started this new
If you haven't made it before, purple cabbage is really pretty.
After we cut it up and soaked it in water to rinse it off, we drained the water into a cup, exclaiming that I had MAGICAL POWERS and could turn water blue. The kids were almost as impressed as the time I told them that I could share my brain powers with a balloon by rubbing it on my head and then the balloon could decide to stick wherever it wanted, since it could think and all after sharing my incredible brain power.
After three hours of roasting, I pulled the pheasant out of the oven and found that it too had magical powers, having transformed itself into jerky. I contemplated throwing it away, but the kids who were starving, begged for a taste. They loved it, devouring several pieces and asking for more. I chipped apart the remaining breasts and put them into a casserole covered in water. After a few minutes, I drained, rinsed and again covered it with water, hoping that the meat would absorb a little moisture and taste a bit less salty. I did this a few times, then put it in the fridge with the liquid until I was ready to warm it for dinner.
A few more items to note:
- Adding water to jerky produces wet jerky, not softened up meat.
- Rinsing jerky in water does not reduce the saltiness, but since it's already gross wet jerky, you don't really want to eat much of it anyway, making the salt content only a minor concern.
- Cabbage cooked in a vinegar mixture is stinky.
- I used only one jalapeno in the cabbage instead of three and it still was hot enough to burn our lips.
So, take this as a public service and sodium alert announcement - this recipe should never be made. Not ever. Not even in an attempt to clear out the freezer.
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