Pork carbonade

Pork carbonade or carbonade meat is usually pork that is cooked in a special way and is intended for long-term storage. In general, the very name carbonade (although some mistakenly call this product carbonate) has French roots - carbonnade, and from the Latin language carbo is translated as coal.

It is believed that the name carbonade appeared due to the method of preparing this dish. The fact is that earlier extinguishing with dry warm air or steam, necessary for the manufacture of pork carbonade, could only be carried out with the help of coal - in a quiet coal heat.

Another prerequisite for making pork carbonade is the presence of a certain type of meat - fast to cook. That is why carbonade is mainly made either from pork tenderloin. Sometimes fillets are also taken for these purposes, but then the product is called a pork neck. By the way, the low calorie content of carbonade is due to the use of these rather fresh parts of the animal's carcass.

In any case, the pure meat is pre-cleaned from the existing films, while trying to preserve the fat layer. After that, they create a dense breading with flour, although often a coating with a rare cloth with flour or an emulsion can be used, which includes table salt, saltpeter, spices (black pepper), as well as food dyes.

In order to improve boiling, the pork carbonate is shaped into a narrow elongated bar or cylinder which corresponds to the size and cross-section of the natural cut. But this is true only if other parts of the animal's carcass are used. The calorie content of carbonade is approximately 135 kcal per 100 grams of meat.

For modern meat processing, the manufacture of pork carbonate provides for the subsequent baking of meat after boiling. However, there is also raw smoked and raw pork carbonade. By the way, in cheap varieties of this meat product, soy protein can often be contained, and to increase the mass, ordinary water is often pumped into it.

Pork carbonade is highly valued by foodies around the world. For example, Belgian cuisine has a dish called Carbonade in Flemish - but this is what it is called in Wallonia and throughout the rest of Europe, and the Flemings themselves are used to calling it simply carbonado. This dish is a pork tenderloin cut into pieces and braised in a beer sauce.

By the way, any cook can cook pork carbonate, using not only pork, but even beef or veal for this. A variety of spices, as well as vegetables, combine perfectly in this product. Also, meat with a marinade based on tomato juice or crushed bulb onions is excellent.