Cheesefiend
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Posts posted by Cheesefiend
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First of all you want to pick up a nice piece of fatty beef brisket, the fattier the better as it adds flavour.
INGREDIENTS
For the brine
275g (9¾oz) soft light-brown sugar
350g (12oz) coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons black peppercorns (whole)
½ tablespoon crushed juniper berries
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
4 cloves
6 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
Plus any other spices etc that you fancy, and most importantly:
55g (2oz) Prague powder no.1 (you can find this fairly cheap online https://www.homecuring.co.uk/products/cure-1-prague-powder-number-one If you don’t use this the meat ends up a weird unappetising grey colour. This also helps break down the stringy connective tissue in the meat).
2.5kg+ (5lb 8oz+) piece of beef brisket. Size doesn’t really matter too much as long as you have plenty of brine at the right concentration of salt. The piece in the pics was almost 8lb and I used the same recipe.I toast all the spices in a frying pan to open them up a bit. I then put all the ingredients for the brine into a very large saucepan, pour in 2.5 litres (4½ pints) of water and gradually bring to the boil, stirring to help the sugar and salt dissolve. Once it comes to the boil, simmer for two minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool completely.
Pierce the meat all over with a skewer, making sure it’s well perforated. If in doubt, keep stabbing it. The more holes it has the more flavour will soak in.
Put the beef in a large, sterilised plastic box or bucket (something non-reactive/not metal) and cover the meat with the cold brine; it must be totally immersed. The best thing I've found for weighing it down is a small plastic chopping board and some large (cleaned!) pebbles. Put them on top of the meat and it will stay below the level of the brine.
Leave in a very cool, dark place and turn the meat once a day so that the salt mixture penetrates throughout. I keep it in the cupboard under the stairs. Re-cover with chopping boards & weights/pebbles. Leave it for at least seven days. The liquid will get darker over time, nothing to worry about.
After 7-10 days it should look like this:
Take the beef out of the brine and rinse it well in cold water, getting rid of as many seeds etc as you can. Some people soak it overnight but I’ve never felt the need.
Roll and tie the meat with butchers string. This will be harder than fresh as the meat should now be fairly flat, and a fair bit stiffer due to the salt curing it.
You will now need the following ingredients for the stock:
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 celery stick, roughly chopped
1 leek, cut into chunks about an inch long
1 bouquet garni (buy the teabag style ones from the herbs and spices section in a supermarket if making it yourself is too much of a faff)
1 bulb of garlic chopped in half sidewaysPut the beef in a pan and add the stock veg etc above, then add enough cold water to cover the meat completely. You may need a very big pan (or cut the beef roll in half or use two pans).
Bring the water to simmering point, then leave to poach *very* gently for three to six hours, or until a skewer goes through the meat with hardly any resistance. The longer and slower it’s cooked the better. Top up with a small amount of water if any beef starts poking up to the surface.
While this is simmering, I make Russian dressing as it is tangy and spicy and goes perfectly with the beef.
Russian Dressing
Approx 2 Banana shallots or 4 round shallots, very finely chopped14 tablespoons (!) mayonnaise
4 tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon horseradish sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce (try not to use Tabasco, as it’s too vinegary)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Tiny bit of ground black pepperMix it all all until uniformly pink, then use greaseproof paper or a funnel to syphon into a squeezy ketchup bottle or similar. Keeps in the fridge for about a week. This seems like it makes a lot of sauce (and yes, it does) but you will also have loads of amazing beef to eat through too.
When the beef is done you can then either slice it or tear it apart with a pair of forks.
Serve hot with mustard and boiled potatoes, or my absolute favourite as a Rueben sandwich. I leave it to cool then only cut off what I need (sliced thinly but piled high) and microwave the meat for 30seconds. I then add it hot to a couple of slices of toasted sourdough bread with a pile of sauerkraut, topped with melted Swiss cheese (a catering blowtorch-style burner is ideal for this) and a splodge of Russian dressing (recipe above).
Enjoy! It’s the best beef I’ve ever eaten and will knock anything from the shops into a cocked hat.
Keep the unused beef wrapped tightly in cling film to keep it moist and it will store in the fridge for a week, if it lasts that long. -
On 01/11/2018 at 11:32, old_n07 said:
No problem, mine are due next week so I'll let you know what they are like - my HL's are about 5 years old and the cups could do with a freshen up and hopefully they will seal better around the arms on my specs.
Have your squishy gel replacements arrived yet, and if so, how do they fit/feel?
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Musto outlet stores sometimes have shooting jackets for less than half price. I’ve seen them for less than £200 if you don’t mind previous or older season tweed patterns.
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10 minutes ago, benbobailey said:
Hello Cheesefiend,
I have a Brady case complete with key and in good condition. It has a paper AYA label which you can cover or remove if not required. Wasn't planning to sell but I will offer to you for £60 delivered, if it is any use.
Regards,
Billy
That sounds absolutely perfect! I’ll even leave the label for my AYA. I’ll send you a pm now
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Hi all,
I have a small car so I’d like a hard case that I can put in the boot so that I don’t have to have gunslips on the back seat/footwells. It needs to fit 30” barrel o/u or a 28” SxS. I’m ok with tatty stuff as long as it works, and I would prefer leather or canvas/leather rather than plastic with foam egg stuff inside. Lockable with key/code would be a bonus. Does anybody have anything they could let go of that would fit the bill?
cheers
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Cheers gents, I’ll try and pattern it. Recoil isn’t a problem with this one. It does seem very tight for my liking, particularly on the 2nd barrel, so may open it up a bit all round.
I guess this is a quick and fairly cheap job to do with the right tools (and in the right hands)? I’ve got a day on the pheasants in a fortnight so don’t want to be without the SxS.
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This is the exact link I got mine from and the price does go down from time to time.
Honeywell Howard Leight 1013530 Impact Sport Foldable Ear Defender, SNR 25(Green) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001T7QJ9O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_unh4BbXN2XJF9
I remember seeing a link on indentifying the dodgy ones, something to do with the battery compartment layout I believe.
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It’s is nice and light compared with my other guns. It’s currently choked half and full as I believe is fairly standard, but I’m not that confident with them being that tight. This will be mainly used for walked-up pheasant. I’m wary that once the chokes are physically changed there’s no going back. Do most people leave them as is, or get a gunsmith to open them up a bit?
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10 hours ago, Paul1440 said:
...hearing someone unwrap a sweet at 200 yards.
😂 this is so true. See also: stubbly chin rubs / synthetic fibre swishing
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Here’s my submission to side by side club, a No.4 the same age as me.
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I didn’t realise that with steel butt plates, I thought they’d be much harder on the shoulder. Gun fit being the worst culprit makes sense, my dad is 6’5” and inherited an ancient pair of Spanish SxS with at most a 13” stock. A 50 bird round of sporting with one of those gave me huge deep purple bruises and made it look like I’d been trampled by a horse.
I’d not heard about the 1/96 rule before. I shoot 28g 65mm through mine, even though it has longer chambers. I’m lucky in that the stock is pretty long and fits well so not really being able to hit anything with it is really the only thing that bothers me.
I’ll get it out of the cabinet after work and try to post some pics here.
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2 hours ago, old_n07 said:
No problem, mine are due next week so I'll let you know what they are like - my HL's are about 5 years old and the cups could do with a freshen up and hopefully they will seal better around the arms on my specs.
Great - I’ve found these too but not sure how they measure up to the Valholl ones.
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6 hours ago, old_n07 said:
You can get replacement cups for them off Amazon that are gel like the ones on the MSA Sordin ear deffenders
Thanks! 👍
I had no idea such a thing existed, so that’s really useful to know. I’ll see if Father Christmas can bring me a pair.
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I occasionally put Napier gun grease for choke threads, on the o/u: sides of the action, and on the semi-auto: bolt feet and rails.
Most of the time I just use a paradox rod to get the muck out of the barrels and then pull through cotton patches with wood/metal Legia spray which seems to do the business for both cleaning and lubricating. Then I give everything external a quick wipe with cheapo yellow dusters and legia spray. Any tight spots, trigger group, ejectors etc I use cotton buds with some more spray on to clean.
The only other thing I use is a couple of drops of Bisley gun oil in the side by side barrels, and leave the gun upside down in the cabinet so the oil doesn’t potentially soak into the stock.
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Mine still have the original set of batteries in. For the money they’re great, pretty cheap on Amazon ~£35. My only complaint is the cups are a little bit on the shallow side and the seal can sometimes fail, especially if worn with sunglasses. Maybe my ears are just big, I don’t know.
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Hope this works, I seem to have trouble with pics sometimes.Here are some of my sloppy fridge magnets (20g is a nice size):
My semi-auto pickup stick with 8mm neodymiums embedded in the shaft, covered with epoxy resin:
Larger neodymium magnet on the end with countersunk hole:
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3 minutes ago, PhilR said:
If it's 18mm I'll buy it if Cheesefiend doesn't want it. It'll fit my DT10 stock.
Ive just checked and my existing pad is 18mm so the same. I was hoping for the 25mm as I’ve got arms like a gibbon, and any extra LOP I can add is a bonus.
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Hi,
what depth is this in mm?
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I’ve only just seen this thread - I tried this myself a while back. I bought the 8mm x 3mm neodymiums (50 for a fiver or something like that) from eBay and once you’ve cut off the plastic casing they sit on top of the primer cap and are flush with the metal unless there’s a lot of brass. I didn’t bother with resin, just a quick squirt from a glue gun around the magnet keeps everything neatly in place.
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9 hours ago, WelshAndy said:
Thanks for that - not the part I need unfortunately, but some of those bits may be handy in future.
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40 minutes ago, wabbitbosher said:
I’ll have a look and see if I have a dead 391
dont use it with that bolt ! That looks Dead !
Great, I appreciate that. Please send me a pm if anything turns up.
The wife is convinced that it’s a potential death trap that could kill everyone within a quarter mile radius just by looking at it. I’ll put the Beretta to one side and get some practice in with my sxs in the meantime to see if I can learn to actually hit anything with it.
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Good idea - this was a ‘bosher bargain in the first place
@wabbitbosher - could you please let me know if you have / could get an elderly 391 that needs putting out to pasture?
Salt beef project
in Food and Drink
Posted
No problem! Hope you enjoy it, and if your teeth are anything like mine you might want to get some toothpicks beforehand.