Has anyone bought smoked emu and native meat smallgoods?

[Bluetongue]

Wow Shalem that sounds fantastic. Good on you. I've never attempted anything so adventurous. Thanks for describing your process.

[Shalem]

Well Bluetongue, a few things have been influential in making it "adventerous".

(a) My KitchenAid appliance & its attachments do most of the hard work for me. It makes a lot of processes almost effortless.

(b) I've been fortunate enough to live near a gourmet store that sells a huge variety of items (which is great being a gourmet cook of all kinds). Coincidentally, this store also sell frozen native fruits, natives spices & sauces.

(c) The more I do more of my own home cooking, the more I'm finding manufactured stuff is "putting me off", without sounding rude I hope.

I'm sorry to say but this includes a number of bush products I've tried like sauces etc. I agree with a couple of other members of the forum who seem dissappointed at the pitiful amount of bush element in some products (not all products), especially when the bushfood name takes up the major part of the product title on the front label.

I'm glad that with my experience of cooking in general, the access to 100% native products, the use of my KitchenAid appliances & dehydrator, and bushfood cookbooks, I no longer have to be disappointed as there's lots of opporunities for me to make my own "whatever" bushfood (to feed my family & gain cooking experience, not to do it as a business).

I'm finding home made tastes so much better and I have complete control over what I'm putting into it. I also don't have to spend so much time & effort hunting around for a bushfood product that's difficult to source.

[eataust]

You can even smoke small quantities of stuff in a wok, although you need to be careful not to burn out the bottom!

There's a resource doing the market scene these days that sells products for home meat preservation. They also sell cheesemaking and home brewing requirements, which is how I know about them.

http://greenlivingaustralia.com.au/ - this mob _isn't_ them, but the ingredients look vaguely familiar.

Ah! This is they: http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/

I'm one of those a little disappointed at the actual quantities of bushfood in the commercial "native produce" products on the shelves these days. I guess it's a commercial reality that you can't supply too much of something that's in short supply, but I say it's not much of a bushfood experience if all you're getting is the same mouthful of MSG, salt, pepper, and fake flavourings that you get in any other generic mix.

I firmly exclude places like Herbie's Spices from that sort of condemnation. Their mixes are EXCELLENT :)

[Shalem]

Thanks Eataust, that brewer website's terrific info for the jerky and sausages! Especially right now the timing's great....I'm getting stuck into using my KitchenAid sausage stuffer.

Come to think of it there's an online store called bakeandbrew and they do the same, ie selling brewery & sausage stuff, but they sell a whole heap of other non-related items too so that's why it didn't twig that there's some connection between brewery & sausages.

Never would've thought a brewer shop had anything to do with sausage making, so how 'bout that!

ps- wow now I've also got cheese making to add my cooking schedule (Lol!).
ppss - wonder if anyone in the forum's bought those cheese making kits?! (....maybe I wasn't joking in the ps)

[Shalem]

Hey Eataust, about smoking stuff in a wok, just saw a chef on foxtel cooking show demonstrate how to set up a wok smoker at home:

Use a wok (or an old wok), can line with alfoil to stop it getting black. Add smoking chips, half cup water, place a bamboo steamer on it and food inside. He smoked salmon, then tomatoes (separately). I could give emu a go like this.

I hope one of these days I can get stuck into making the smoked emu!

[eataust]

I'm close to buying a cheesemaking kit - I bought just the rennet to experiment with cheesemaking. I've put it off because I'm hoping to find a local source of milk so I can make my own green cheeses (ie cheese made from unpasteurised, unhomogenised milk). Otherwise you have to buy a lot of milk to make a little cheese, which seems a false economy to me except as an experiment :)

Mine was a fun experiment but you do need some precision with temperatures. I guessed with mine, and didn't end up with the cheese I expected, and had to suddenly adapt it into a ricotta instead. Which was pretty tasty but not the expected result ...

I bought emu salami from one of the delis at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets in Canberra over the weekend. A lovely soft, mild salami. Eaten with great gusto by everyone who visited and I've run out already :)

[Shalem]

emu salami, eh? Heard of other emu smallgoods but not that one. I'd like to make smoked/cured meats/smallgoods but there's just not enough time to do all the cooking I want.

green cheese, eh? Shivers that'd be interesting to see. Guess you're buying one of those kits from the country brewer site you sent me.

Once again, wish I could buy one of those and experiment with cheesemaking too but just too much other cooking to get through. Though I've tried some cheeses that don't need rennet & or a cheese kit, such as:

ricotta cheese
labna (lebanese yoghurt cheese balls)
marinated cheeses

These were all really simple to make just with normal kitchenware.

Yeah & know what you mean about needing lots of milk....I think I worked out the amount of milk I used to produce the small amount of ricotta wasn't worth making a habit of, especially when I can buy 2kg lots (& other bulk cheese) from a gourmet store. But it was still fun to try & good to know I can make some up in an emergency.

[Shalem]

Tukka book's got a recipe on how to make smoked emu using a kettle bbq (pity I don't have this bbq but was considering getting one).

thanks to JumpedAngel for highlighting this book.

[island1]

One of the butchers in Ulverstone Tassie makes a beautiful wallaby salami. Not too hot, but a nice flavour.