A Lake District hotel is attuning its food smoking skills to the creation of intercontinental delicacies with the addition of pastramis and cured meats to its restaurant menu.
The four-star Wild Boar Inn Grill & Smokehouse, a traditional coaching inn set in a tranquil valley close to Windermere, has been drawing on history to produce its own unique recipes for a range of pastramis and smoked tongue using its prime beef.
The origins of pastrami date as far back as the Ottoman Empire before it became a signature dish in Jewish cuisine in Armenia and Romania. It is thought that wind-dried beef had been made in Asia Minor for centuries, and Byzantine dried meat is probably one of the forerunners of the pastirma of modern Turkey.
The Wild Boar’s own mix is based around mustard seeds and paprika, with garlic, coriander, black pepper, cloves and allspice helping to bring out the flavour of the meat. Prime cuts of beef are initially soaked and cured in a briny mixture of salt, sugar and water before a dry mix of around a dozen different herbs and spices are added.
The meat is then given time to rest and marinate before it is cold smoked at around 16 degrees Centigrade for 24 hours to ensure that all the flavours are maximised and locked into the meat. The pastrami is completed with a hot smoking and is then ready to serve.
Miroslav Likus, the head chef at the inn owned by English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues, explains: “The introduction of cured meats and our very own pastrami is a natural extension to the range of produce we already smoke here at the Wild Boar, and our chefs are taught by the very best: the team from Smoky Jo’s in Penrith.
“We were really enthused to create our own beef pastramis with a range of tastes and textures for our diners to enjoy. A good pastrami is all about preparation and you can make it as spicy or salty as you wish. We’ve been inspired to try lots of different recipe themes before settling on the perfect mix of ingredients to make a top quality pastrami which appeals to our guests.”
The name pastrami is thought to be of Romanian and Turkish origins on variations of ‘pressed meat’. Pastrami was introduced to the United States in a wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the second half of the 19th century.
The Wild Boar Inn has its own smoke house, which supplies the restaurant with meats, cheeses and fish and offers food smoking courses. The hotel also has an on-site microbrewery, the Brewhouse, where guests can experience real ale fermenting sessions under the expert guidance of a master brewer. Guest can try clay pigeon shooting and archery in the hotel’s private woodland.
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