Get the recipes for Salt Beef, Glazed Rootbeets and a plain Sourdough-Bread..
Inspired by the work at The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde in Denmark, Culinary Historian Bi Skaarup and the restaurant near-by: Snekken
Salt Beef
Prepare a brine of 2 litres of water, 200 gr salt, 75 – 100 gr of honey and add junipers, wild garlic, thyme, fresh ginger and some dried rose hips. You can go wherever you fancy with the flavourings. Bring the mixture to boil and let it cool. Take half a brisket (the boned belly from an ox) and place it in a heavy-duty re-sealable freezer bag and ladle the brine over it. Reseal and place in the refrigerator for at least 10 days (turning it around once every day). To use it, open the bag and clean the meat for excessive brine under cold running water (don’t overdo this as the meat will then turn “hard”). Place in a pot filled with cold water and set to boil – preferably on an open fire – and cook it slowly for at least 2 – 4 hours until really tender (when a skewer may be passed through with alarmingly little resistance). To the water may be added sliced onions, carrots, kale and wild herbs like nettles, thyme and wild garlic. Be sure the meet is covered during boiling (add extra water if necessary).
Tip: don’t discard the soup in which you have boiled the beef. It is great to use next day for boiling a lot of roots and serve as soup with sourdough bread.
Glazed Rootbeets
Two onions and 300 gr rootbeets are peeled and chopped (1cm3). Braised until half tender, 2 dl white wine (or a mixture of apple vinegar and water to taste) is added together with 3 dl chicken fond. Cook until liquid is reduced by half and taste with salt, pepper and honey.
Sourdough-bread
Starter
Mix 150 gr white flour, 75 gr whole grain flour and 75 gr rye flour with 9 dl of water from the tap plus a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of honey (1 dl flour to 2 dl water). Whip it carefully and let it stand in a glass container on the kitchen-table for app 10 days. Keep a lid on but only partially, as the mixture needs to breathe. Carefully stir at least once a day. About 10 days afterwards the mixture should be bobbling and smell like homebrewed dark beer.
Bread
Mix half of the starter (conserve the rest in the refrigerator) with 5 ½ -6 dl water and 10 gr fresh yeast, 200 gr coarse wholegrain flour (as course as you can get it) 700 gr sifted flour and 1 tablespoon salt. Use the Kitchen Aid for about 10 min. Then place the dough in an oiled container in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Turn the dough out on the table, cut one third away for next batch and keep in the refrigerator. The dough is then split into two, and formed into loaves. Left to raise again for 1 – 2 hours, the reset a bit and bake in a very hot oven. Set it to 250° C and place a pan in the bottom with. When the loaves on the baking sheet are loaded, tip a dl water into the pan in the bottom (the steam is what makes the bread deliciously crusty). Bake for 5 min and then turn the heat down to 230° C and bake for 25 min. Fabulous while fresh from the oven, but try to reserve some and toast it the next day.
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