Chormis (Dried meat)

Chormis (Dried Ground Lamb)

(Best made around Thanksgiving Day. You may buy ground lamb or grind the lamb yourself. If grinding yourself, purchase leg or shoulder of lamb and cut into pieces to grind. Use a hand-cranked meat grinder that has interchangeable grinders, and use the 3-pronged grinder to get kernels of meat.)

Ingredients:

5 lbs. ground lamb

2 tbsp. ground cumin

4 tsp. ground coriander seed

4 tsp. ground allspice

2 tbsp. Salt

1 tsp. ground hot red pepper

2 tbsp. ground black pepper

12 cloves crushed garlic

5 muslin bags (6” x 12” w/opening at one end)

Directions:

Add spices to meat and knead thoroughly. Then add crushed garlic and knead again.

Place mixture in bags and press the meat to fill the closed end. Leave two inches at open end to roll with a dowel and tie the ends with string or rubber bands. Take another piece of string and make loops at the ends and slip them over the ends of the dowel.

Then hang in a cold outside area that is not susceptible to animals. Meat will dry in two weeks of cold weather. It can continue to be left outdoors so long as the temperature is not freezing. Otherwise it should be stored in a refrigerator.

When cured, chormis can be pan-fried and eaten with fried eggs. It can also be eaten "as is" as an appetizer, or it can be mixed with other ingredients for various recipes, such as jenjig or choulama, also found in this recipe book.