⁣Pepper Ferment
Quarter and deseed the peppers and chillis separately. Weigh the peppers into a blender jug, along with 2% their weight in salt – e.g. 500g
pepper flesh to 10g sea salt. Blend to a pulp, then scrape the pulp into a vacuum pack bag and seal to full pressure. Repeat the process with the chillis.
Leave the bags until they inflate, then depressurise and reseal to full pressure – when they no longer inflate, the ferments are ready. Hang them in
(separate) muslins and collect the juices that drip through. Weigh the pepper ferment, then add 25% its weight in chilli ferment. E.g 200g pepper ferment to 20g chilli ferment (you can use more chilli ferment if your chillis weren’t particularly hot). Finally hand-blend in 0.2% the total liquid weight in xanthan gum – this will make it ever so slightly more viscous for dressing the beef.
⁣Cured and smoked bone marrow
Using your thumbs, carefully pop out the marrow from each section of bone. Soak in several changes of cold water until the blood has gone and the marrow is white. Dry well on a tea towel, then weigh into a blender jug.
Blend the marrow with the other ingredients until you have a smooth glossy mixture, resembling mayonnaise. Scrape this into a plastic container and leave overnight to cure and set up. The next day, slice the set marrow very thinly and lay on a gastro lined with damp jay cloth. Bind the gastro very tightly in clingfilm, and use a smoking gun to fill it with smoke. Trap the smoke in with more clingfilm and leave until the marrow has come up to room temperate. Transfer the slices to a bowl and whip together until homogenous. Scrape into a plastic container and set again in the fridge. When
set, cut the marrow into cubes and freeze until absolute solid.
⁣Beef
The main barrel of beef is removed from the strip loin and trimmed of all exterior fat, silver skin and any other sinew. It is then D-cut, and ballotined tightly in several layers of clingfilm and semi frozen in the blast chiller. When the beef is sufficiently cold and firm enough to hold its shape, the clingfilm is removed and it is sliced 3mm thick on a meat slicer.
To serve, the beef slices are taken out of the fridge far enough in advance to allow them to come up to room temperature. They are brushed generously in the pepper ferment, before having the drips dabbed away on J cloth. Three slices are then placed in the centre of each serving plate/bowl, and frozen bone marrow and peeled sweet chestnuts are grated
generously over the top just before serving.