Pork Stew: Tips on Choosing Ingredients and Cooking Recipes

The stew is delicious canned meat that is loved by children, students, people of all ages and professions.For the first time, the stew was cooked in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte - several glass bottles with a wide neck were filled with fried meat and boiled for a long time, the resulting blanks were removed for 8 months, and when opened, the product was perfectly preserved and was very tasty. The inventor was Nicolas Upper, who for this was awarded the State Prize and the title "Benefactor of Mankind".

To date, the meat for the stew is not fried, but stewed and braised in various ways with the addition of garlic and spices, jars are used instead of bottles - these are just two changes that the stew has undergone for as many as 200 years.

Stew cooked at home, can not be compared with anything. It is nourishing, juicy, fragrant - and asks for a dish or bread. For a sandwich, just 1 tablespoon is enough to satisfy your hunger when there is no time for lunch or you don’t want to wait for the main dishes.

How to choose the meat - Consider a few tips from experienced chefs.

1. Buy fresh or chilled pork. For the preparation of blanks for the winter perfectly suited blade part of the carcass.
2. You can use meat, frozen 1 time. To do this, you need to defrost it in the refrigerator or in a saucepan with cold water for 8 hours (one night).
3. Salo only take white. When buying, make sure there are no bloody streaks and no yellow patches.
4. You can buy lard instead of fat.
5. Salt stew should be the usual table salt - stone and iodized will not work.
6. Bay leaf should be taken without black dots, not less than 3 cm in size, but not more than 7 cm. It can be of different shades, but certainly a uniform color of green on the front side; If you use yellow bay leaves - the stew will have a bitter taste.
7. Use pepper-peas, if desired, it can be crushed.
8. Garlic must be sliced ​​and boiled for 5 minutes.

Preparing meat and fat for stews is an important step that cannot be ignored.

1. Before cooking, meat and lard should be well washed and remove all excess: film, remnants of skin, veins and large veinlets.
2. Then you need to drain the excess water.
3. Give the meat a little dry.
4. Cut across the fibers into pieces 3 cm wide, then into ready-made pieces of 5 cm.
5. If you decide to sink lard yourself - buy white fat with a pleasant smell. Wash it thoroughly and remove any remaining skin and blood. Put one piece in a pan with cold salted water and put in the refrigerator overnight, rinse again the next morning, and only then drown.
6. Fat should be cut into 2 times smaller than meat - then the finished stew will be pleasant to the taste.

In the preparation of the stew is not much difficulty: just follow the recipes step by step. There is a mass of cooking methods - choose any one you like.

Harvesting pork stew for the winter is a great way to preserve the finished meat for a couple of years ahead. You can also prepare stew 1 time for three years at once, so as not to spend 5 hours every year in the kitchen preparing it. Here the best recipe for the oven. Every practical mistress knows that Pork stew is a great, fast and nourishing meal during the cold season, and always keeps a few jars in stock.

The advantage of this recipe is that a baking tray can hold a large batch of half-liter jars at once, on average for cooking 5 kg of meat at once.

Required products (based on 1 kg of pork):

• pork neck 1 kg;
• lard or lard 150 g;
• bay leaf 3 pcs .;
• 3 bell pepper;
• 3 cloves of garlic or 1 small onion;
• salt (to taste).

Below is a step-by-step recipe for cooking.

• To prepare the stews in the oven, it is not necessary to sterilize the jars; you should thoroughly wash with 72% of household soap.
• First of all, place bay leaf on the bottom of the jars, then a layer of meat, salt, add black pepper (1 pc. Or 1 pinch of ground pepper), onion or garlic with slices, meat again, salt, be sure to put lard on the top layer.
• Fill with warm water. The content should not reach the edge of the neck banks 4 cm.
• Gently lower the plug to the bottom of the jar and make one circle clockwise so that the water is evenly distributed over the tank.
• Take a baking tray with sides, place a thin cotton fabric on the bottom, pour 1 cm of cool water, then place the jars apart 3-5 cm apart.
• Pull the rubber bands out of the covers and cover each jar. You can use reusable screw caps - they immediately go without rubber bands and eliminate the need to use a seamer.

• Carefully place the baking tray with the jars in the oven and turn it on 200 degrees.
• As soon as the stew boils, reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and simmer for three hours (the stew should boil slowly). Carefully monitor the water level in the tray, adding it as needed.
• Prepare a hot kettle to add water to the baking tray every 20-30 minutes, as it will evaporate. It is necessary to add hot water, if you add cold water - the banks are cracked due to the temperature difference.
• After three hours, turn off the oven, open it, and let the main heat come out.
• Take a towel, gently reach for the jars one by one, putting it on a wooden chopping board or on another towel (so that the jars do not slide - you can soak it and squeeze it well), return the rubber bands to the lids and roll the machine.
• When the whole batch is ready - lay a warm blanket on the floor and place the jars upside down at the bottom 3-5 cm apart, wrap with a second warm blanket or blanket.

Ingredients (based on 1 kg of pork):

• 1 kg scapula;
• 150 grams of fat or 100 grams of finished lard;
• 1/3 tsp salts;
• 2 pcs. peppercorns;
• 1 bay leaf and 1 onion;
• At your request, you can add marjoram and thyme on 1 pinch - they will give the finished product an appetizing flavor.

Consider the cooking process.

• Rinse all the necessary products thoroughly with cold water.
• Cut the meat across the fibers into 3 cm strips, then into 5 cm squares.
• Fat cut into slices 1x1 cm and melt in a saucepan with a thick bottom, filling with water flush with lard. You need to heat for about three hours, removing the cracklings and removing the lard, but you can buy ready lard and simplify this step. When lard is ready, place the pork, pepper, onion, and laurel in the same pot.
• After 30 minutes, salt.
• Simmer another 3 hours and 30 minutes.
• Sterilize half-liter cans and caps.
• Arrange the pork stew in jars.
• Lay a towel on the bottom of the clean pan.
• Put the jars, cover with lids.
• Sterilize on the stove for exactly 20 minutes.
• Allow to cool slightly and take out the jars one by one with a towel.
• Roll up the machine or tighten the caps. Put the entire batch down on a blanket on the floor and cover it with a warm blanket.
• After 24 hours you can clean up for storage.

One of the easiest ways is to cook in an autoclave. It is enough to immediately load all the ingredients for cooking the stew, pour water into the jars filled with rolls, put them in the autoclave - set the cooking parameters and press the button. Very tasty stew with jelly cooked in 40 minutes.

Ingredients:

• pork 1 kg;
• lard 70 g or 50 g of lard;
• salt to taste;
• garlic 3 cloves;
• bay leaf 2 pieces.

Cooking:

• pork cut into 3 cm pieces across the fibers and 5 cm along the fibers;
• fat cut into about 2 times smaller;
• put garlic and bay leaf on the bottom of a well-washed jar, then a layer of meat — salt to taste;
• add 1 pea of ​​black pepper, again a layer of meat, again pepper 1 of a pea, again a layer of pork - salt to taste;
• the top layer should be from fat and not reach the edge of the banks 3 cm;
• roll up each can;
• put the jars in the unit and fill with cold water so that the jars were covered on the hangers;
• close the lid, set the pressure to 1 atm;
• set the cooking temperature to 110 degrees;
• in 40 minutes the juicy and fragrant stew will be ready.

The crock-pot has a non-stick coating, so the stew in it turns out to be incredibly tender and juicy, with layers of flavored jelly.

Ingredients Required:

• pork shoulder or pulp 1 kg;
• salt - to taste;
• Lavrushki leaf 2 pcs .;
• Two black peppercorns.

Cooking:

• cut the meat with a sharp wide knife across the fibers into 3x5 cm pieces;
• cut fat in 2 times smaller;
• mix the meat and bacon evenly and place the slow cookers in the bowl;
• select Baking mode and cooking time 20 minutes;
• then add pepper, bay leaf and garlic;
• mix well with a wooden spatula right in the bowl;
• select the mode of "Quenching" and the duration of cooking 5 hours;
• then lay out the finished stew in sterilized jars and roll up or twist with metal lids;
• clean in a clean, dry dark place, put the closed jars upside down and wrap the blanks with a warm blanket;
• in a day, the stew can be removed for long-term storage in the cellar, a refrigerator.

The only drawback of this recipe is that only 3 half-liter jars fit into the pressure cooker, but a huge plus is the stew cooked in this way, very soft and juicy.

Ingredients:

• pork neck 1 kg;
• lard 100 g or 70 g of lard;
• bay leaf 3 pcs .;
• Peas 3;
• garlic 2 cloves.

Cooking:

• thoroughly wash the half-liter jars with soap (72%);
• sterilize each jar;
• put a towel on the bottom of the pressure cooker;
• fill all 4 half-liter jars with layers - bay leaf on the bottom, a layer of meat, a layer of fat, salt;
• then alternate layers of meat and fat, the top layer should be lard;
• roll up the banks and make a pressure cooker at some distance from each other;
• pour cold water over the cans hangers;
• close the valve and pressure cooker lid, set on the stove, turn on the middle heat;
• after the valve is triggered - make fire minimal;
• cook for 2 hours on low heat;
• turn off the stove, wait until the pressure cooker is completely cooled (about 8 hours) and remove the prepared stew;
• You can immediately remove the workpiece for long-term storage.

Stew goes well with almost any side dish, be it boiled potatoes or rice. In the cold season, hearty dishes are very relevant, and such meat will be an excellent basis for thick borscht or any other soup. When at the dacha there is no time to cook, it is very convenient to open a jar, cook pasta - and a hearty lunch is ready.

Despite the myriad of ways to make homemade braised pork, they all have similar features:

• meat with lard should be processed for a long time by cooking, put into clean sterilized or thoroughly washed jars and rolled up with metal lids;
• 0.5 l cans are the best for storing stews - such portions are ideal for adding to any dish;
• The stew life at home is 3 years, so sign each jar - day, month, year of cooking;
• Please note - if you store the stew at a temperature of 20 degrees, the shelf life will be reduced by 2 times.

Braised pork is useful everywhere: on trips, hikes and even during repairs in the kitchen, when there is absolutely no strength and desire to cook complex dishes.

In the next video, see the recipe for stew "for lazy."