If you are looking for salt beef bagels, the kind you'd find in New York in the US or Brick Lane in the UK
then you have come to the right place, because these are incredible!
These are our salt beef bagels. Now the process
can take up to a week
but each bit is really simple. I've done all the stages for you.
I was going to say, because my week is jam packed!
What we're going to have is our brisket of beef
which we're then going to cure in a brine we make from salt, sugar and some spices.
Then we cook that in a stock with some vegetables and then once it's cooked then we serve it in the bagels
with mustard, mayonnaise and gherkins. So not many ingredients and a very simple process
but it does take a lot of time. And a hell of a lot of salt. We'll come back to that in a minute .
First of all the beef. So this is a brisket of beef,
which is a tough cut so you need to cook it for a long time.
But before we cook it
we need to brine it. So to do that we make our brine which involves lots and lots of sea salt.
I was told salt was bad for you
Well it is
You would never eat that but it's a method of
preservation and obviously it's very important in that process. Sugar
to balance it out. Now it's really healthy!!
And to add to that we've got some spices. Added flavor.
We've got some star anise, we've got some cloves
and we've got some pepper corns.
Plus a couple of bay leaves, so lots going on. All we need to do now
is dissolve all of that salt and sugar in 2 liters of water
like that.
That needs to boil. When it boils you get the brine and then you need the brine to cool down
until it's complete cold
and when it's completely cold
you're left with something that looks like this.
I have done it all, because it takes a little while to get cold.
You can put the brisket
into the brine. Here's one that's been in there
for three days. You can keep it in the brine for up to a week and the longer you keep it in there
the saltier it will be. Feel how different the texture is.
What the brine does is kind of draw out the moisture.
It's drawn out all that moisture. And at this point
you need to put it into a cold water bath, just like a big bowl of cold water. And that will get rid of the excess salt
in a couple of hours or so and then put it into a stock pot.
With the stock pot we now need to add lots of flavor.
So: carrots, celery, onion, garlic.
Between us if we can just kind of roughly chop all of that up.
I had the most amazing salt beef bagel a little while ago on Brick Lane
But those ones are intense! it's all about Brick Lane
Start the day with a salt beef bagel
And finish it with a curry! Yes, great food on Brick Lane, but you're right... Very salty!
The same process is used to make corned beef.
It has a very similar texture.
Can you peel that and crush those garlic cloves? The thing is, because it is a stock it
doesn't need to be too precise, just rough and ready. So where are salt beef bagels from?
It's a Jewish thing I believe,
very big in New York. So start putting all of those in and around our beef.
If you could run back and get some cold water.
No running in the kitchen, it's dangerous!
Some celery as well
that all goes in.
This is just adding flavour, it's a basic veg stock to go around our beef
and a very coarsely chopped onion.
Water!
Just enough to cover the beef.
So lots of vegetables. Obviously we're not going to put any salt in this. That beef is
salty enough.
There's a lot of beef here, how many is this going to serve?
There will be plenty, because it goes a long way because it's quite a strong flavor, so there would be enough here
for a good four or six bagels at least. At this point we bring it up to the boil
and simmer it very very gently for about
3 hours. So this whole process takes quite a while. Fortunately,
here's one that's been going for
about three hours and you guys are going to make some mayonnaise that goes with
our bagels
you must have mustard mayonnaise and gherkin. So just combine that mayonnaise with
half of the mustard
This is whole grain mustard?
Yeah, it's not quite as strong but has a really good flavor and the flex of mustard seeds looks great.
All the mayo - give it a mix up.
now Mike, come and have a look at this beef. Just take a string off. And because it's been
salted for that time and cooked for that time it should literally just fall apart.
So if I cut through that, can you see now how fiberous it is?
Absolutely awesome and exactly what you want. So I'm just going to break it up. Do you want to slice our bagels in half?
You lift the bagels up.
Right, bagels are being lifted up
Sink, crumbs... It's all about that presentation. Right now you can lay your three on there.
We're going to put loads of these gherkin spears
on there like so,
A good dollop of our mustard mayonnaise.
I can't wait to eat this Ben, I'm sure it's going to taste amazing.
I want to have some of that!
You need to wait! You need to wait! You need to wait!
Plenty of this beef
just pile it up there,
a little bit of parsley.
There we go, our salt beef bagel. It takes a while but it's well worth the effort. Sorted.
I'm going first lads.
Don't eat too much
Going to get some of that mustard on.
Never quite understood bagels
Why it's got a hole in the middle? It's just wasteage!
Now tell us what you actually think of the taste!
I love salt beef bagels. I begged them to put me in this video
You did
That is so good!
So good you didn't even finish eating before speaking!
Nope, why waste valuable tasting time
You got mayonnaise in your beard.
Oh my god!
It might take a while.
But the actual cooking time - minimal.
You've got to give this a go.
I don't care if it's rude to talk with my mouth full. I'm just so excited about this bagel.
I love this!
I love them. I like them.
which is why you should like our Facebook page - Sorted Food.
Swoosh!