Rullepølse

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Pork belly, about 5 lbs, no skin. See note.

1 onion. 1 cup after being turned to mush in the blender.

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp allspice

1 pkg. gelatin (about 1 Tbsp)

3 liters water

3 dl. salt

3 bay leaves

subheading: Equipment:

String for tying

Large pot

A way to weigh down the rullepølse or a "rullepølsepresse"

note: I tell the butcher that the pork belly is for rolling. 11 inch is a good length to roll it up, less is OK if the piece isn't too thick. For width, about 7 to 10 inches. Costs about $35 from The Union Pork Store in NJ.

subheading: * water:

note: 6 cups water: ½ cups + 2 Tbs salt

note: or 7 cusp water: ½ cup + 3 Tbs salt

note: or 8 cups water: ¾ cup + 1 Tbs salt

subheading: It takes 3 days:

Note: This sits in salt water for 2 days, boils for 3 hours, and then gets pressed for 12+ hours.

subheading: Prepare and salt the meat:

Prepare the pork belly. Actually, I pretty much just use it as is. Recipes always say to cut off the extra fat, but it did not go well when I tried to do that. Just a bother. Anyway, I find that the extra fat boils away or is pressed out so it's not necessary. If the fat is super thick then I may cut away just enough to make it possible to get the folds in.

Mix the salt into the water in a big pot. Add the meat so it's fully covered by the water. Let it sit in the fridge for two days. The meat will feel a lot stiffer when you take it out.

subheading: Put it together and boil it:

Turn the onion into mush in a blender.

Give the meat a quick rinse.

Spread the onion over the meat.

Mix the pepper, allspice, and gelatin together and sprinkle the mix over the onion.

Roll the meat up or, really, fold it twice into a log. Then tie it tight with the string. This shows the folding and tying, except she folds an extra time: youtu.be/Al0zNgm6ftg?t=173. Note, if your pot can't fit the whole log, cut it in two before tying the two halves.

Add the meat log to a big pot of water (no salt this time). Add the bay leaves and let it simmer for 3 hours. (I've also done 2 hours with ½ hour sitting in the water after turning off the heat. That was plenty.)

Turn off the heat and let it sit until the log is cool enough to touch. I do the next step while it's still warm, I feel like that gets more of the fat out, maybe?

subheading: Press it:

The meat now needs to be pressed for 12+ hours. I do it overnight. I now have a rullepølse press just for this (yeah!), but I previously put it in a loaf pan, added another loaf pan that rested directly on top of the rullepølse, and then added 2 dumbbells of 8lbs. each. Some of the photos show this. Other people put it in a pan with a right height, add a cookie sheet, and then a large pot filed with water (youtu.be/Al0zNgm6ftg?t=324). When I used the loaf pan, I added onions to the side of the pan, just to keep it in place.

After pressing, the loaf pan had filled with fat that had squeezed out. I figure this is instead of trimming it in the beginning.

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