What is Charque? According to Brazilian law, charque is a meat product obtained from beef, with the addition of salt and subjected to a drying process.
List of ingredients from the Technical Regulations for the Identity and Quality of Charque.
According to official Brazilian regulations, the following steps are required for the preparation of charque:
1) deboning and cutting;
2) wet salting or brining, by injection or immersion;
3) adding dry salt. Apply pressure to dry, inverting regularly;
4) removing excess surface salt by washing in water;
5) drying (desiccation), hanging on clotheslines, in an oven or outside, covered or not, with sunlight passing through;
6) preparation, fractionation, pressing and packaging of the product.
How to Make Charque at Home
Making charque at home is a very simple process, requiring few ingredients, time and patience.
Basic steps for preparing homemade charque:
Choosing the meat: traditional charque uses cheaper cuts, such as rump, round steak and brisket, but to make it at home you can choose good quality beef, with less fat, such as flank, round steak and rump.
Cutting the meat: cut the meat into pieces approximately 3 cm high, with varying lengths, but generally around 10 cm. Longer cuts can be difficult to handle and fit into homemade containers.
Salting: in a container, preferably non-metallic to avoid reaction with the salt, cover the bottom with a layer of coarse salt, place the open meat on the salt and cover it completely with more salt.
Rest: let the meat rest in the salt for 7 days. Remove the liquid if it is accumulating at the bottom of the meat. This process aims to remove water and incorporate a lot of salt into the meat, protecting it from contamination.
Tumbling: turn the meat daily so that the water is eliminated evenly. Take advantage of this process to eliminate excess accumulated liquid.
Washing: after the salting period, wash the meat in running water to remove the external salt.
Drying: hang the meat in a well-ventilated and sunny place to dry. Drying time can vary from 7 to 20 days, depending on the weather conditions.