Ruse-style Boiled Meat (Rusensko vareno)

ORIGINAL

Ingredients: 2 kg pork, 1 kg veal, salt, black pepper. Method: Grind the meat with a meat grinder, salt it, sprinkle with ground black pepper and mix well. Pack the seasoned mince tightly into jars. Sterilise for 1 hour. From http://www.az-gotvia.bg/recepta/rusensko-vareno

OR (Rusensko vareno) — the family version: Ingredients: veal 3 kg, mottled ("shareno") pork 3 kg, salt 90 g (15 g per kilogram), black pepper 25 g (4 g per kilogram), cumin 30-35 g, bay leaf 6-7 small leaves, allspice 6 small grains (otherwise no way to measure them). Also: bacon fat (сланина), mustard - everything to be blended.

Preparation:

• Clean the meat of membranes, grind through the finest grid of the machine possible (hole 2-3 mm).
• Grind all the spices finely.
• Fill into dried jars up to the rim of the neck (I make them in small 0.400 g jars), taking care during filling that no air remains, since the mince shrinks when cooked anyway. Close them.
• I always run the lids of jars with meat products with the back of a knife along the rim, to seal the silicone well - this way the chance of "bulging" (bombage) is lower. I always check that they don't spin.
• Place them in the vessel in which they will be boiled and cover with cold water - the water level should be at least 5-6 cm above the lid.
• Boil for about two to two and a half hours from the moment the water comes to the boil (once it boils, reduce the heat - mine is a large tin box with a thermoregulator).
• Take them out, turn them onto the lid and leave for 30-40 min. Then stand them upright and leave to cool in a cold place.

Notes:

• From the fat in the meat - however little it is, there is always a "ring" above the jelly, white, visible. When you open the jar, make a circular motion with a wide knife between the mince and the glass so the cooked meat comes out easily, turning it over onto a plate. This way the fat stays on the knife and is removed.
• Here you can also use the small cuts of meat left over from deboning leg, shoulder, ribs etc. This is a very suitable way to use up these small pieces.
• Incredibly tasty, both to eat on a slice of bread and to bread and fry. The meat in the jar is a firm mass that slices very neatly without crumbling - cut "slices" from the Rusensko after taking the whole thing out of the jar - this is easy because it shrinks inside and a tasty jelly forms around it - dip in eggs/breadcrumbs/eggs and bread it.
• Years ago we put 18 g/per kilogram of meat, but for us it comes out salty. According to taste it can be reduced or increased. From this amount of meat you get 15-16 jars of 0.400 kg.

http://pep-4o.blogspot.bg/2010/12/blog-post_31.html