Home Meat Slicer?

springlering62

Anyone got any experience with a home meat slicer? PITA? Recommendations?

Lidl has whole Preferred Selection prosciutto hams again for the holidays. I love the sliced stuff, but it’s almost two bucks an ounce. I eat it for breakfast, fried on lunch sandwiches, on pizza, chopped in spaghetti. I blow through the stuff.

I figure, even allowing for bone and skin, slicing my own could be as little as a third the cost. One ham alone would more than cover the cost of the slicer IF it’s not a huge bunch a trouble? And, last year they marked the hams down half price after the holidays, too. 😱

I’d also use it to slice beef for beef jerky again. I prefer homemade, but it is such a PITA to slice the beef, I just give up after a few batches, even after discovering my Ninja Foodi makes the most amazing beef jerky- in a third of the time, too!

Any wise experience appreciated.

My downsized-kitchen storage is limited, so appliances have to be worth their weight in gold to earn a permanent spot.

acpgee

We do have charcuterie in the house regularly, because we drag big blocks home from vacations in southern Europe. I also make my own jerky and biltong, and salt cure duck and goose breasts which besides being delicious, is a useful prosciutto/bacon substitute for non pork eating guests. Currently we have a big blocks of cecina de leon and mojama in the fridge from a recent vacation in Spain.

I considered a deli slicer for salami and cured meats but decided I don't have enough storage space in the kitchen. Apparently, cleaning a deli slicer is no fun either.

In the end I bought a sujihiki knife where I can achieve paper thin slices of hard charcuterie as well as regular raw meat for jerky and bulgogi. I bought one with a 24 cm blade, but would recommend a 27 cm blade if you prefer to slice big blocks of meat in one long slice from handle to tip instead of sawing back. I store knives one a magnetic rack, rather than in a kinfe block so would have had room for a longer blade. Maybe not ideal compared to a deli slicer, if you need to do bulk quantities such as weekly batch preparation of lunchboxes for a lot of kids.

For jerky, do you use the trick of popping the meat in the freezer for an hour or two to firm it up before slicing by hand?

acpgee

if you love prosciutto and jamon, slicing just before serving has better flavour, which is why tapas bars slice fresh from the whole leg. If you ever buy the stuff sliced fresh at a deli, ask to taste a piece that is freshly sliced and compare with an oxidized piece you pull out of the fridge a couple days later and see if you appreciate the difference.

springlering62

I guess I’m a Cretan. I just like the el cheapo stuff as is, from the fridge packets. No opportunity here (that I know of) to taste fresh sliced, and wouldn’t have room for a whole leg in the fridge, besides which it would spoil because my husband loathes the stuff.

I just always loved ham in any form, from fried spam to biscuits with fried country ham. Spaghetti with pancetta in Brussels with was a revelation 😮, and I like that I can wallpaper my pizza with prosciutto for less calories than my husband’s meager serving of calorie laden Hormel pepperoni.

I have tried slicing partly frozen beef but always get uneven cuts that don’t dry evenly. I did get a new knife, after realizing that my forty year old king literally didn’t cut it any more, which might help, but need to check your knife suggestion out, too.

I just got back from a month in Germany, where breakfasts are most often a crusty bun with cheese and meat. I was overjoyed (and overwhelmed)with the sliced meat selections in the Lidl there. Sooooo many lovely hams to choose from. I tried an ultra low calorie sliced ham someone recommended. I would have rather eaten the wrapper, lol.

Maybe this should be a ham appreciation thread, lol.

acpgee

If you need to hand slice charcuterie keeping knives sharp really helps. If you don't have the equipment for that, use the unglazed rim of the bottom of a plate. Hold the knife at 15 degrees and gently rub 2cm circles slowly down the length of the knife. My first boyfriend in college was a chef, and he was taught the technique from a sushi chef.

Have you tried biltong as an alternative to jerky? It is beef sliced after salt curing and dehydrating in a big slab. Don't know if that is a lesser evil than hand slicing raw meat.

I was in Valencia three weeks ago and breakfast was mostly baguette rubbed with tomato and lots of thin slices of jamon drizzled in olive oil. Yum.

MsCzar

A second vote for semi-freezing meats before knife slicing. Once every few months I'll buy beef on sale, semi-freeze and thin slice into various marinades before portioning and freezing. I do own a hand crank meat slicer, but honestly, it's a thorough pain and for the relatively small amount of meat I slice and not worth using and cleaning.

That said, were I regularly eating homemade jerky and sliced meats and cheeses, I would probably treat myself to an electric meat slicer. The pro models have better blades and you may want to check out a restaurant supply store rather than shop consumer models.

springlering62

I watched several videos of “professional jambon slicers” (this is a profession in Spain, apparently) and decided, for the amount of effort and reward gained, I’ll stick to my pricey slices.

The guy spent a long time-in time lapse- slicing a ham leg, and ended up with a paltry plate full.

Not at all what I envisioned in my Prosciutto Fantasy. The one where I rolled around on a bed of thin ham, tossed some up and playfully caught it with my teeth.

Besides there’s a stinking big set of bones, rendering a meat slicer useless.

Weight loss daydreams will get you every time.

I did learn that the Boar’s Head, which I also rather like, is considered a sniffily inferior, partially cooked rather than completely air dried, faux prosciutto.

acpgee

https://food52.com/blog/14205-how-to-hand-slice-a-prosciutto-leg
I imagine you could keep a leg a long time, and you don't need special equipment. I notice that the knives sold for slicing jamon are cheaper than a sujihiki.

acpgee

When we went on vacation in Bologna in October, a typical cafe dish would be deep fried biscuits (gnocco or crescentina) with charcuterrie (mortadella, salami, prosciutto). Second photo is me trying to replicate this at home with tigelle (biscuits cooked on a dry griddle instead of deep fried) with cecina de leon and jamon iberico we dragged home from a more recent vacation in Valencia.

acpgee

Is the Spanish Boar's head similar to Italian giuncale? That is made fron pig jowls which is a much fattier cut than the legs used for prosciutto.

springlering62

Not being a gourmand like yourself, I don’t have a clue. To me, it tastes like prosciutto, but then again, the only prosciutto I get is grocery store or deli slice. I used to buy a thick slice and chop it into little cubes to fry and put in spaghetti, which was delicious.

But my husband is a dyed in the wool “ground beef only in spaghetti” so that died a fast death.

When we go to restaurants, I try to be adventurous,
Him, not so much. We were at a tiny restaurant in Bruges and I ordered wild boar, which he laughed at til he saw the plate. He asked for a bite and then I got “wish I’d ordered that, too”. I get that a lot.

To me, a good grocery store prosciutto is salty, tangy, and has a faint taste of black licorice.

We have an absolutely fabulous European smokehouse and butcher near us that we used to fill up our freezer once or twice a year. They don’t do a prosciutto but they do something they call a Westphalian ham, which is similar, but smaller, maybe a tenderloin judging from the shape?

You had to stand in line to get in, sometimes for hours during holidays, and we often found ourselves chatting with chefs from big name local restaurants, including one from the Ritz.

They had just doubled their size a couple of years ago, but the smokehouse caught fire and the whole complex burned to the ground last year, leaving a big gaping hole in the local quality meat and smoked goods market.

Their homemade beef bacon was to die for, too, as were the lovely lovely pre seasoned thick pork “steaks” they sold.

springlering62

Oh wow! I looked them up and they reopened about a month ago!

When 3/4 of the line around you is speaking an Eastern European language, and others have driven hours to get there, even two or three states away, you know it’s something special. I’m so happy they’re back!

Patakmeats.com if you’re ever in the Atlanta area.

acpgee

@springlering62
Has your hubby tried spaghetti carbonara? I never met a man who doesn't like spaghetti with bacon in a creamy sauce (egg yolk and olive oil based).

The dogmatic recipes use guanciale, the less dogmatic use pancetta. If you can't get either, I think streaky bacon (smoked or unsmoked) gives a perfectly delicious result. When i make it for kosher/muslim people I use salt cured duck breast. If you don't do your own curing, buy a product called air dried duck at the Chinese supermarket. They are typically spatchcocked so packaged as flat whole birds which are cured in salt before being hung to dry.

Also if you can't source pecorino, just replace with more parmesan but it should be freshly grated and not that powder from a factory.

Here's a recipe that uses pancetta.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/may/10/how-to-cook-perfect-spaghetti-carbonara

The patakmeats site looks great.