Footy Finals Fever 2016

Well, it’s been a while between drinks for us (literally and figuratively!), due to some exciting new developments at Smoked & Cured, which has meant no newsletters for quite some time… However, we’re back, and just in time to say carn the Doggies! Over the past 3 months, Christine and I have welcomed one of my oldest childhood mates, Brenton and his wife Ellie, to the Smoked & Cured business. Since then, we’ve been busily working on relocating our business to our new warehouse in Reservoir… It’s been a massive task, working almost around the clock to pack up, tidy up, set up and all the while ship orders out and keep the doors open. But after a grueling slog, we’re just about finished, and we’re very excited about what this means for the store’s future. But just on that, we’re very grateful for everyone’s patience with their orders over the past couple of months. We appreciate we’ve been hard to catch, but we have been truly grateful for everyone’s patience and kind words of encouragement.

So 23 trips to Masters & Bunnings later, we’re just about ready to open our showroom at the Warehouse to the public. Hopefully in a couple of weeks… It’s just a tiny little room in an industrial estate, but just having a physical location where we can show off our products and most importantly, have a chat with our customers, is something we’re really excited about!

– Ben

Footy Grand Finals… TV – check, Couch – check, Beer – check, Jerky…?
 

The Ultimate Jerky Kit

While neither Brenton or I are Doggies supporters, we are certainly on the ‘everyone’s second team’ bandwagon and are very excited to see the old Footscray in the AFL GF. Who doesn’t love an underdog story, and the doggies have just about the best one out there.

So while planning our AFL GF day, we realised we had everything we needed, except for one crucial thing… Jerky. We’ve been curing and smoking since and it got us thinking – if we got invited to a Grand Final party and there wasn’t jerky… well… our hosts would have some explaining to do! So we’ve thrown this pack together. If you’re a jerky fan (and let’s face it, who isn’t?) or have ever wanted to really start taking the hobby seriously, check it out. There’s plenty of bonus value in there and everything you need to make the perfect jerky for your next sporting do, and make sure your guests have the best snack possible to go hand in hand with a cold one… At$729 + shipping it’s terrific value. For full details, click here.

– featuring Masterbuilt 30″ Sportsman Elite Electric Smoker –

The Hot & Cold Pack

Due to numerous enquires… this Hot & Cold pack is BACK! This package is perfect for those who want to enjoy the versatility of both hot and cold smoking food. On its own, the 30″ Masterbuilt Electric Smoker is capable of hot smoking meats, fish and vegetables to perfection. Combine the Masterbuilt Smoker with the A-maze-N pellet fuelled cold smoke generator and you can now easily cold smoke cheese, salami, fish and other food at home. The A-maze-N cold smoke generator just sits on the bottom tray inside the Masterbuilt smoker, just remove the side chip loader allow enough air flow for the cold smoker.

It includes the Sportsman Elite 30″/100cm Masterbuilt Smoker with the window door as well as the 5×8″ A-maze-N cold smoker and a bunch of other goodies. Click here to find out more about this package, it’s only $739 plus delivery!!

These guys are great. We’re back in stock in time for Christmas. The perfect stocking filler of Kris Kringle gift. Anyone can use them. Convert any BBQ, weber, grill or campfire pit into a temporary smoker. Just poke a few holes, take off the label and throw onto the coals… You’ll be surprised with the results. Sure, they’re never going to be as good as the real thing, but every time Brenton or I bring one of these around to a mate’s place, everyone leaves impressed. Check out the online reviews – they’re a very popular product and an ideal gift under $20.

We’re taking over 20% off for the month of October, so check them out!

Flavorwood Smoke Cans

NEW COMPETITION!   WIN $50!

Introducing the new Smoked and Cured recipe competition. We’re going to feature a new winner in each newsletter (which we promise will be once more making a regular appearance in your inbox) and each winner will not only get the glory of being featured by Smoked and Cured … but also, we’ll be giving them $50 to spend in our store!

To enter, send your recipes to recipes@smokedandcured.com.au

Please include ingredients, quantities, methods and most importantly… a photo!

To kick things off, we’d like to highlight Gus Klekner’s Cold Smoked Bacon recipe he sent to us a few months ago. We tried this out and were left gobsmacked. This is THE BEST smoked bacon recipe we’ve found. There is no smokier bacon than cold smoked bacon!! This is because when you’re cold smoking the smoke is fully penetrating the meat J as opposed to hot smoking where the smoke flavour can only penetrate so far, especially once a bark or skin has formed… Thank you again Gus, and please enjoy spending the $50 as a sign of thanks!

Make sure you try this one out for yourselves! For information on our products that can help you with this recipe, please give us a shout!

 Ingredients:
Pork Belly 6kg (skin on)

Brine
– 4L Water
– 90g Cure #1 6.25%
– 250g Kosher Salt
– 250g Brown Sugar
– 15x Juniper Berry
– 15x Black Pepper Whole
– 3Tbsp Garlic Powder

Method:

1. Blend Brine ingredients in cold water, then heat the brine until all salt/sugar has been dissolved. Allow to cool in fridge
2. Cut the prok belly into uniform sizes to allow it to hang easier and also make it easier to vac pack (see pic).
3. Pour the brine into a large container and submerge the belly in the brine – keep in the fridge for 11 days – rotating the meat every couple of days (Gus’ tip: fill some sandwich bags with water to put on top of the meat so they are fully submerged)
4. After 11 days in the brine, rinse and wash the belly then hang to dry in the fridge for approx. 3 days to develop the pellicle (thin outer skin which helps to better absorb smoke flavour)
5. Cold smoke overnight using MBC Blend (Maple/Beech/Cherry) pellets in an Amazen cold smoke generator. Other flavours to try include Apple, Maple, Cherry and Oak. Ensure the temperature does not exceed 35 degrees C. (Note: You can use the Masterbuilt Smoker as a cabinet for cold smoking – email us to find out more)
6. Leave belly hanging in the fridge during the daytime
7. Repeat this process for 2 more nights
8. Hang belly in fridge until 20-30% weight loss is achieved (for better results, use a Cure & Smoke Banquet Bag to allow your belly to dry age correctly in a refrigerated environment)
9. Vacuum pack for storage
10. Thinly slice with a deli slicer and eat as pancetta in stews, omelettes, pasta and of course home made burgers. And of course you could just fry some up in the pan for cold smoked bacon and eggs…Thanks again to Gus – simply delicious!

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Every newsletter we write, we really enjoy going through our product reviews to pick our 3 winners of the $20 store credit. Thank you for taking the time to review our products and for giving us the feedback, they really help.

Congratulations to Lee, Bill and Randy! Could Lee and Bill please contact us so that we can apply your $20 credit? Please remember to submit your name in full for any reviews as it helps us identify you as the winner.

Best Yet

Posted by Randy Knispel on 12th Sep 2016

I own a Masterbuilt 30″ smoker in the USA, bought it 5 years ago, good unit, but the Sportsman Elite takes smoking to a new level. Used it last week for a pork shoulder, and some vegies. All were excellent. It is sooo easy to use, the remote and the window really make checking your food easy. And since everything comes out of the smoker, you can clean it up very easily. Great Unit!

smokin’ goodness

Posted by Lee on 1st Aug 2016

From the moment we sprayed this on the steak, we knew it was going to be amazing. Liquid Smoke imparts a depth of flavour we thought we could only get from a smoker. Yum!

Amazing

Posted by Bill on 5th Oct 2015

Aged a whole rump for 28 days,so tender and the taste is amazing.[rich,full flavour]. Well worth the wait and the cost.[same meat can cost $80/kg,so a few dollars for a bag is a bargin]