I just thought it may be helpful to share a recent minor discovery regarding food preparation. I seem to recall Raw Kyle and others previously discussing difficulties in slicing beef wafer thin for genuine carpaccio-style beef - a problem I have always suffered myself. I've always been aware that most carpaccio has been sliced so thinly by utilising a 30min - 2hour pre-freezing of the meat before slicing. As someone who does not consume frozen meat, this has always been a stumbling block for me. It's always seemed to call for expensive cuts of fillet or tenderloin too which is financially not viable! I've spent many unfulfilled hours searching for industrial quality meat slicers capable of achieving the desired results on fresh meat. However, I have tonight enjoyed some absolutely wonderful 'parma' beef (as I like to call it in respect of my favourite famous Parma ham).
This was achieved by, firstly, using a sharp carvery knife on my cheap cuts of raw, fresh, never-frozen beef brisket. I sliced it as thin as normal which is not acceptable for true carpaccio. However, the trick then is to take a wooden kitchen spoon and, using the back of the spoon head, firmly roll it over the individual slices for a few minutes gradually pressing and expanding the meat fibres outwards. Amazingly, this results in the most incredibly thin slices of fresh beef. I then seasoned these slices and placed them in my Excalibur dehydrator at the lowest possible setting (<95 F) for 2 hours.
The taste of the resultant meat was amazing! I served a selection of slices on a cheese board as finger food and it tasted like greasy fried bacon!
If anyone's interested, I'll post some pics when I make my next batch (which will be VERY soon!).
