Four days after slaughtering the sheep, most of the meat from had been portioned up, packaged, and frozen. But I kept some of it aside for further processing. The flanks were sealed up in a bag of salt to brine for bacon, the hind legs hung up in the deep fridge with a fan for ventilation and bowls of salt to regulate humidity. When all that was sorted out, I took the loin and tenderloin, trimmed away the fat, and cut it into strips to be made into jerky.
I made a marinade with soy sauce, brown sugar, black pepper, garlic, and honey. I would have added chilly flakes too, but I couldn’t find them. After the lean strips had been in the marinade for a day and a night (they had already been dry ageing in the fridge for four days), I lit a fire in the pit. Carefully arranging the strips on square wire mesh, I added fresh medronho (Arbutus unedo) leaves onto the charcoals to make smoke, then lay the mesh fencing onto a grill above the fire.
It took most of the day to get the whole lot smoked in this way — I constantly turned and rearranged the meat to ensure an even cooking and smoking. When the strips had lost enough moisture that they would not bend when picked up, and had a nice smokey layer on the outside, I took them off the grill and put the next batch down. That was a Sunday that Jackie was working, so I had to divide my attention between that job and running around after the toddler. This was just a few days after his evening walkabout that I wrote about last week.
In the end, I decided to make a screen time exception, and set down my phone under the shade of a pear tree with the Lion King to keep him entertained while I tended to the smoking. We’ve managed to reduce toddler screen time to about fifteen minutes per day, but when there are important jobs that need attention, or when he gets really sick, we let that rule slide…
If I had been more organised during the previous weeks, I would have already built a mini smoking shed, which would allow for a more maintenance free and even smoking, but with all the other jobs, I never got round to it. Still, I’m happy with the results of the jerky, even though it took so much effort. When I had everything smoked, I took the smoked strips to the salt table (where I dry salt to rotate in and out of the fridge for humidity regulation) and lay them down in the sun to finish drying.
By the end of the day, they were ready. The flavour from the marinade got all the way into the meat, as did the smoke. I weighed them into bunches of about 100 grams and sealed them in vacuum bags to be kept as snack food.
The next thing to deal with was the bacon. After a week of brining, the flanks were ready for final processing, which would normally be smoking. I was away from the valley on that day doing another job, and Jacky was too busy with work to set up the fire and smoke them properly, so we tried the oven method; which is essentially to bake the bacon at a hundred degrees. The problem was that our gas oven is impossible to regulate effectively, and it was too hot. In the end, it turned out pretty good, not quite like pig bacon that you might buy from the shop, but not in a bad way.
It certainly tasted like bacon, if not exactly like it. There is less fat than regular bacon, but still enough to give it the characteristic look, like a smaller version of what you’d expect. A few days later, we substituted it for guanciale and made our most authentic carbonara yet, which was delicious. I had wanted to use the cheeks to make a sheep version of guanciale, but what with all the extra time I spent removing the hide without a knife, I wasn’t able to make use of the head. It’s unfortunate, but a hide for a head is not too bad of a trade-off I suppose, for a first time.
Eating the meat is still a bit surreal, I expect it will be for a while, we only eat it once or twice per week. Life continues to go on as it did before. The other animals in the flock have adjusted, I see a slightly different dynamic emerging, a more peaceful coexistence. Franky was always the most belligerent member of the flock, and her bellicose behaviour encouraged Crusoe to be less tolerant of the smaller animals. Crusoe seamed confused for a few days, but has since become more certain again, and seams to enjoy her new position as the matriarch of the group. Being able to observe the animals so closely is definitely another big perspective that the vast majority of consumers never get. I feel the opportunity to see everything so up close is invaluable.
Immediately after the bulk of the butchering was complete, I began the next big project; hay making. I decided to cut the hay earlier than I had originally planned, because the owner of the land was concerned about the risk of fire. Either way, the grass was mature, having all gone to seed, and there was a moderate selection of wildflowers thrown in the mix.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Olive Branch to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.