Dried Polendvitsa. How to make Polendvitsa at home, step-by-step recipe with photos

When buying various smoked and dried delicacies in the meat department of the store, I try not to think about chemical additives, flavor enhancers and other “inevitabilities”, without which not a single ready-made delicacy can do - as an “additional price” for taste, as a payment for pleasure. Nevertheless, sometimes I allow myself these joys, but I don’t risk giving such products to my child.

About the homemade Polendvitsa recipe

I must admit that this is not forgivable to me, because my family knows a luxurious recipe for making dried meat - polendvitsa, or pork balyk, or basturma in Belarusian. I ate homemade Polendvitsa as a child, at my grandmother’s, and I remember well how my grandmother would “bury” a whole pork ham in salt, and in the kitchen, in front of the stove, parcels of Polendvitsa would hang and wait in the wings. And the smell was such that it made my head spin.

From the editor. Polendvitsa is dry-cured pork, a dish of Belarusian and Polish “peasant” cuisine. Prepared for Catholic Christmas, some are saved and laid out on the Easter table.

Polendvitsa was prepared from the most delicious part - pork tenderloin, the most tender pork fillet. In the recipe for Polendvitsa, apart from a piece of meat, nothing was used except salt and spices, so there was no need to talk about dubious quality. Cooking was a fairly elementary process: the meat was salted in an aromatic mixture of salt and spices and hung to dry. The hassle is minimal, everything happens as if by itself, it just takes time.

Anyway, I finally got ready and cooked. The result stunned even me, a skeptic). I am very pleased - the homemade Polendvitsa turned out to be soft, aromatic, and moderately salty. Just like when I was a child with my grandmother. And my daughter said that next time I should take a piece of pork three times longer. =)

On a note:

• the set of spices can be anything, the main thing is to maintain the proportions of salt and sugar;
• It is very important to dry the meat thoroughly before wrapping it in gauze, otherwise the fabric will stick and the pork may begin to deteriorate;
• if you want to dry not a tenderloin, but a loin or carbonate, cut them into 2-3 parts, since the meat is quite thick, it dries for a long time and unevenly due to its thickness; Tenderloin, in my opinion, is the ideal choice.

Ingredients

• pork tenderloin 700 g
• sugar 1 tbsp. l.
• salt 3 tbsp. l.
• cognac 2 tbsp. l.
• coriander seeds 1 tbsp. l.
• mixture of ground peppers 0.5 tsp.
• garlic 4 cloves

How to make Polendvitsa at home

1. 
   First, I prepared a fragrant mixture for pickling the polendvitsa. I mixed coriander (in order for the seeds to better release their aroma, you can first grind them in a mortar or using a rolling pin), salt, sugar, and a mixture of peppers. Peeled and finely chopped the garlic.
2. 
   She poured cognac into them and mixed everything.
3. 
   I generously rubbed the pork tenderloin on all sides with the resulting mixture and placed it in a suitable sized container.
4. 
   I placed oppression on top. I left the meat at room temperature for a day (this is recommended to do, provided that it is not summer and the temperature will not exceed 25 degrees). During this time, I turned the meat several times for more even salting. After a couple of hours, you will notice that almost the entire piece is covered with liquid - this is how salt works: it removes excess liquid from the meat. There is no need to drain it under any circumstances. During marinating, the tenderloin will become denser and change color.
5. 
   After 24 hours, remove the meat from the container with liquid and dry it well with paper towels. I left the coriander seeds and pieces of garlic on the surface. Place the pork on clean gauze, folded in 3-4 layers.
6. 
   She wrapped the meat in gauze and tied it tightly with strong twine, giving it a round shape.
7. 
   Now all that remains is to hang the pork tenderloin in a well-ventilated, warm room. I hooked it on the wall high above the gas stove. I dried it for 4 days, then removed the gauze, wrapped it in a clean cloth and placed it in the refrigerator for another day. In general, 4 days is a convention, you may need no more than 3 days, or maybe 14 days, depending on the temperature and humidity in the room and your preferences (drier, softer). I checked the readiness by checking that the meat was evenly colored, dense and elastic.
8. After a day in the refrigerator, the Polendvitsa was absolutely perfect - aromatic, homemade , natural and very tasty. It is recommended to store Polendvitsa in the refrigerator in a cloth or parchment paper. We didn’t have to store ours for long - just a few days =)

Pork polendvitsa is a unique delicacy prepared according to a Belarusian recipe. This is dry-cured meat, which is also widespread in Polish cuisine. However, anyone can make such a dish if they wish. After all, there are no special secrets in preparing pork-based polendvitsa. The main thing is to choose high-quality meat and be patient, since you definitely won’t be able to get a meat delicacy quickly. However, the delicacy is definitely worth the effort that chefs put into creating it!

Ingredients

So, what ingredients are needed for a homemade polendvitsa recipe? Nothing supernatural! Here is a list of these products:

• pork loin – 1.5 kg;
• paprika – 2 tsp;
• salt – 0.5 tbsp;
• garlic – 4 cloves;
• granulated sugar - ¼ c.;
• marjoram – 1 tsp.

How to cook Polendvitsa in Belarusian

It is quite possible to prepare Polendvitsa yourself at home. The proposed method is usually called “dry”, and it is the simplest.

1. The pork loin must be cleaned of films, washed, and dried with napkins.

1. In a bowl you need to combine granulated sugar and half the amount of salt specified in the recipe. Sprinkle a piece of pork with this mixture on each side.

1. The meat is transferred to a deep container and placed in the refrigerator for 16 hours.

1. After the specified amount of time, you need to drain the released juice from the container with the meat. Sugar and salt are removed. Pat the pork dry with a paper towel.

1. The dry piece is thoroughly sprinkled with salt on each side again, but without sugar. The workpiece is again sent to the container and put away in the cold, but this time for a day.

1. After 24 hours, the meat is removed from the refrigerator. The salt will need to be cleaned off again. The piece must be dried again with napkins. Now the workpiece is rubbed with chopped garlic. It must be sprinkled with seasonings. It is again placed in the cold for a period of 1 day.

1. After a day, the meat should be removed from the refrigerator and wrapped in clean gauze. The workpiece is bandaged.

On a note! Often, at home, at this stage of preparation, polendvitsa is wrapped not in gauze, but in a nylon stocking. This is also acceptable provided that the material is clean.

1. Taking note of the step-by-step recipe for Polendvitsa in Belarusian style, the pork should be hung in a warm and dry room. But it is important that it is not hot here. The room must be ventilated. Here the meat is kept for 5 days.

1. After the specified amount of time, the meat delicacy with a dry crust formed can be removed, cut, and served.

Video recipes for making pork polendvitsa at home

Preparing Belarusian Polendvitsa is quite simple, but it’s worth using the suggested video recipes. They will greatly simplify the process:

Polendvitsa is an incomparable representative of Belarusian cuisine. It is a salted piece of meat followed by drying. For its preparation, only natural ingredients are used and no flavor enhancers, dyes or other harmful components are used.

How to properly pickle polendvitsa at home?

Ingredients:

• lean pork (preferably tenderloin) – 950 g;
• coarse salt - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• garlic cloves – 5 pcs.;
• sugar – 15 g;
• bay leaf – 2 leaves;
• crushed cumin – 1.5 teaspoons;
• ground black pepper.

Preparation

Start the process of salting polendvitsa at home by rinsing and drying the fillet. Rub thoroughly with salt and place in a saucepan under pressure. Place the container with the contents in the cold for 4 days. Then remove the fillet and soak up the remaining moisture with a napkin. Puree the garlic through a press, chop the bay leaf, rub a piece of meat with garlic, bay leaf, pepper and cumin.

Fold the gauze in half and wrap the meat in it like a roll (cover the edges too). Tie the resulting piece with a rope on top and hang it to dry in a fairly warm and well-ventilated place. Drying can last up to one week. The top of the Polendvitsa will dry well, but the inside will still be soft.

To make the finished meat delicacy drier, feel free to age it longer. Wrap the finished polendvitsa tightly in parchment and store in the refrigerator.

Salting Polendvitsa in brine at home - recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation

Place salt, spices and sugar in water and boil. Rinse the tenderloin thoroughly, remove the film and place it in a container, filling it with cooled brine. In this form, the meat needs to stand in the refrigerator for about ten days. Then remove the meat, wash thoroughly and soak up excess moisture with a towel. Chop the greens and grind the garlic on a fine grater, combine them. Coat the meat well on all sides, wrap it in parchment and leave it in the container for 24 hours without putting it in the refrigerator. Then remove the spice mixture from the meat, wrap the future polendvitsa in several layers of gauze, tie it with twine and let it dry by hanging it (exclusively in a draft) for 10-14 days. This method of salting Polendvitsa will certainly please you more than buying even the most expensive sausage in the store.

Polendvitsa- This is a wonderful alternative to store-bought sausage. This delicacy came to us from Polish and Belarusian cuisines. Previously, some terribly complex procedures were used to prepare this delicacy - they kept the meat in blood, beat it, put it in tarred boxes for almost six months, and then smoked it in the intestines. You can, of course, get confused, but I offer a simplified recipe for homemade Polendvitsa. I simply dry the meat without smoking, that is, the end result is a dry-cured fillet (I use pork, although you can use beef and even horse meat).

A suitable fillet for Polendvitsa is a long, rounded muscle that runs from the thigh bone to the back. This is not usually a shortage in butcher shops.

I offer two options for preparing homemade Polendvitsa - “dry” and “wet”. I liked the second method better, the meat turned out more tender, but the first one also has a right to exist. With the dry method, the meat is not tough at all, but the consistency is a little denser, as they say, not for everyone...

"Dry" method:

• Pork fillet – about 1 kg
• Coarse salt - a couple of tablespoons. l. with a slide
• Garlic – 6 cloves
• Bay leaf - a couple of leaves
• Ground black pepper - to taste
• Sugar – 1 tbsp. l.
• Ground cumin – 1.5 tsp.
• Gauze or linen - according to the size of the fillet (so that you can wrap it 5 times)
• Rope – about 1 m

First, mix salt and sugar and rub the meat with this mixture. Place in a bowl (if you have to bend it, that’s okay). We cover the meat with a plate on top, put pressure on it (a bottle of water or a stone, or a weight - whatever you have). Leave the meat for three days at normal room temperature (in hot weather it is advisable to find a cooler place). Once a day we shift the fillet to the other side.

After three days, we take out the meat, blot it from excess moisture and rub it well with chopped garlic and crumbled bay leaf. Sprinkle with all the spices, rubbing them in a little and sprinkle with a couple of pinches of salt.

Now all that remains is to wrap the fillet in gauze (as tightly as possible) and tie it with a rope, not forgetting to make a loop by which we will hang it. We send it to dry. I had a polendvitsa hanging in the kitchen near the stove. Warm dry air from the stove and good ventilation thanks to the balcony did their job in 4 days - after this period the polendvitsa was ready.

The readiness time of polendvitsa depends on many factors - humidity, fillet size, temperature, and ventilation of the place where it hangs. I don’t like meat that is too dry, so I check it for doneness in the following way: I squeeze the fillet with my fingers, and as soon as I feel that it is covered with a hard, dry crust, but is still soft inside, I immediately remove it.

It is better to store polendvitsa not in cellophane, but in parchment, in the refrigerator.

"Wet" method:

• Meat – 500 g

Brine:

• Water – one and a half liters
• Mustard seeds – 0.5 tsp.
• Bay leaf – 2-3 leaves
• Cloves – 3 pcs.
• Coarse salt - 1/4 tbsp.
• Dill seeds – 0.5 tsp.

For rubbing:

• Garlic cloves – 6 pcs.
• Dried parsley – 2 tbsp. l.
• Dried dill – 2 tbsp. l.
• Sugar – 2 pinches
• Horseradish – 1 tbsp. l. no slide

Throw all the seasonings into the water, boil, and turn off. Let it cool and brew. We put the fillet in the brine and put it in a cool place with good ventilation for about a week or a little less (the balcony is fine if it is not super hot). We take out the fillet and blot it to remove excess moisture.

Grind the garlic, add the rest of the seasonings and sugar. Rub the fillet with this mixture, wrap it in parchment and leave it in the kitchen for a day. The next day, put the meat in a colander, cover it with a plate, put pressure on it, and the colander itself in some bowl so that excess liquid drains into it. After 24 hours, use a knife to remove seasonings and spices from the meat, wrap it in gauze or linen cloth, wrap it with twine and hang it to dry in a dry place with good ventilation (on the same balcony).

After about 1.5-2 weeks, Polendvitsa can already be eaten. We wrap it in parchment in the same way and store it in the refrigerator.

Short description

Pork Polendvitsa – 1 kg

For the marinade:
Salt – 100 g
Sugar – 5 g
Water – 1 l

Spices for sprinkling:
Ground black pepper – 5 g
Coriander – 5 g
Whole cumin – 5 g
Ground allspice – 2 g
Nutmeg – 2 g
Ground bay leaf – 2 g

Based on the requests of Internet users, pickling polendvitsa is very popular. It’s understandable, easy to prepare, requires a minimum of time, and in the end one of the most delicious products. So I’ll continue the topic and present for your judgment and taste another method of salting this product that I use. Salting of polendvitsa can be done in different ways, depending on what product we want to get as a result based on our taste preferences. If we salt it, we will end up with meat with a dense, dry consistency. Wet curing involves more tender meat, “ham”. Although here, too, the dryness of the final product can be controlled based on the drying time.
Today we will prepare Polendvitsa using the wet salting method.

I purchased a large, thick polendvitsa, but to speed up the salting and drying processes, I cut it into two halves.

But before that, I prepared the brine for pickling, because... it should be cold 2-5° C. For the brine, boil 1 liter of water, add 100 g of salt and sugar, boil for 4-5 minutes. (You will get 10٪ brine, from my experience the polendvitsa turns out lightly salted, but if you like it saltier, then the amount of salt can be increased based on the composition).
Then cool and place in the refrigerator to cool. Pour the cooled brine into the polendvitsa and leave it in a cold place for 8-10 days.

At the end of salting, take out the polendvitsa and place it under a load for 3-4 hours to remove excess moisture.

Then dry with a paper towel and

hang in a ventilated, cool 5-8° C place for drying for 14-15 days, and then dry for 7-10 days at room temperature. Although the curing and drying time can be longer if you want a drier product, based on your taste.

Bon appetit!