I'm a happy camper! I am! Really, really happy!
Why am I so happy, you might ask? It's because I've finally gotten my grubby little hands on 2kg of freshly smoked, custom-made smoked meat :D
Ever since my garlic allergy reared its ugly head, I haven't been able to eat proper smoked meat because there's garlic in the spice rub they use to dry-cure the meat. However, I discovered that there's a smokery about 30 minutes away from the house. Our local pub buys their smoked salmon and smoked duck breast from there and they're good.
The guy that runs it has a blog and we got talking about the possibility of him making some for me. He was intrigued about the concept and decided to have a go at it. He found a recipe online and he's been working at it for the last week or so :) What you see in that picture is half a brisket that's been dry-cured for a week, then smoked for 10 hours. All that I needed to do was to steam it for 2-3 hours:
Even though it's fully cured and smoked, the steaming process renders out all the fat and truly changes the texture and taste. It mellows out the smoky taste and makes the meat incredibly moist.
I only steamed a quarter of the brisket for 2 hours. There's still a bit of fat that could have been melted away, but we were too hungry by that time :)
All that was left was to cut it into thin slices, pile it on some rye bread with lots of mustard and enjoy a sandwich with coleslaw and some pickles :)
It was toe-curling good. I must have more.