Torstis Corner

Raw spieced meat

You can use meat from many different game animals for this dish. Carre file is probably best but nice steaks from the hind leg will also do perfectly well. If you do not mind to pick pieces of membranes and tendons from between your teeth, you could use almost any part of the animal, the taste will still be the same and that is what often counts for the true gourmet.

My personal preference is fallow-deer and roe-deer. Then we have moose and reindeer as a good option and even though I have never tried to prepare them this way, I suspect that the breast meat from capercailzie, black grouse and willow grouse would be delicious too.

My limit for experiments with raw meat is when an infection with trichinae could be suspected. In Sweden this concerns only wild boar and bear. Be sure to find out about the game in your particular country before making this dish.

Clean the pieces of meat, commercial NZ venison in the back and our local "pet" roe-deer in the front from membranes and fat. Do not use meat that is dirty or affected by the chock wave from the bullet that killed the animal. Meat that has been tenderized properly is always best but it is in no way a must.

The meat is in fact basically salted. The salt will draw out a lot of fluid from the meat after some hours. Since we remove the meat from the brine that forms after a certain time, the amount of salt is not important. In this case we have 700 grams of meat and 50 grams of salt. A little more or less of salt does not matter much.

Now, even if salted meat can be very nice to eat we will add something more to make the dish really delicious. I always add the same amount of sugar as I use salt. 50 grams of salt also means 50 grams of sugar. Then I also always use some pepper, crushed pepper. White or black does not matter much, nor does the amount of these two particular peppers. They can only taste a little or they can taste a lot of they do not overwhelm the taste of some of the other spices.

Some other peppers as well as bay leafs can, if used too liberally, dominate the taste too much so be careful when using them.

Thyme, rosemary and juniper berries are some of the options I use beside of the basic spices; salt, sugar and pepper. A good starter for the novice is to use salt, sugar, pepper and garlic and nothing else. This is a bullet-proof introduction for the novice. Remember to crush and chop the spices, we forgot to do it when taking these pictures since we were so occupied with trying to get the right light for the camera.

You can put all the ingredients in one of those plastic bags intended to use in the freezer. They are most often a bit undependable and they can very easy leak. For safety reasons, use double bags, or use specially reinforced bags for hunters, as we do here.

Otherwise one of those plastic boxes that you get when you buy ice cream, or some other food stuff in larger quantities, will do just as well. Whatever you use, put all the desired ingredients in it, enclose well and shake a little so that they mix well.

If you like some luxury you can add a spoonful or two of cognac, sherry or port. Or perhaps a smoky single malt whisky.

Now, just put the entire mixture of meat and spices in your refrigerator for say 48 hours.

Shake the container or turn the bag over twice a day. That's all that there is to it so far.

About 48 hours is enough in the marinade that has formed. If the pieces of meat are very small then 24 hours in the bag or container is enough. This is what our dish look like after 48 hours in the marinade and refrigerator. Again, we forgot to crush and chop our spices for the sake of illustration. Make sure you don't!

Scrape of most of the marinade and the spices, you can if you wish also wipe of the piece of meat with a towel.

Cut very thin slices of the raw spiced meat. Taste it and then you can decide if you want to serve it as a first course, as an open sandwich or do something else with it.

Now I will, as a bonus for you, reveal a secret of how to make it even better.

When the meat has been prepared to this final stage and is ready to be cut and served - don't do it! Just put the meat on several layers of paper towel and the whole package back into the refrigerator uncovered for a few days - or a few weeks.

The few first days you can change the towel every day, then the meat has started to dry out so much so an ordinary small plate will do. The humidity from the meat will steam of and follow the laws of nature and condensate on the refrigerators evaporator (cooling element).

Within two weeks you will have a pretty dry piece of meat where the taste has concentrated a lot. This is a kind of jerky that you can take to a hunting trip, serve as snacks to a drink or just eat when you are a bit hungry.

You can take out and eat the meat any time, it doesn't have to be completely dry, do as you prefer. Just remember to turn the meat now and then, the side that is in contact with the plate will not dry as fast as the upper side.

Place the meat close to the cooling element. Finally, our refrigerator holds a rather low temperature, around 3 centigrade (some 36- 7F). Most folks have a lot warmer refrigerator in order to preserve vegetables well and it could affect the drying process of the meat in one way or the another, I cant tell for sure.

In any case, when the meat has hade it in the marinade, a day or two in the fridge in a "dry" condition will smooth out and improve the taste. If you want to serve it on Saturday, start to make it no later than on Tuesday. This may sound a bit complicated but it is not. Just do it!