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Tjalknol is a Nordic way of cooking meat, usually venison, from frozen. It’s known as ‘frost bump’ and involves long, slow cooking, after which you brine the meat for hours before eating it cold, with bread or however you’d like.
I first heard about this technique in the excellent cookbook Fire and Ice: Classic Nordic Cooking, by Darra Goldstein. It intrigued me, because I’d never thought of the idea of a long, slow roast starting with a cold oven and frozen meat.
In Scandinavia, it’s usually done with large venison roasts, from deer or moose. I used a deer roast in the pictures.
The coolest part of making tjalknol is the long brine soak after the cooking. If you think about it, you can’t really season a frozen “bump” of meat, so this post-cooking brine makes sense. You can brine for as few as 5 hours, or go a whole day. It is a strong brine, so the meat will get saltier the longer you leave it in the brine.
Tjalknol, to me, is something you do at night. After dinner, pull a “bump,” a roast from the freezer, unwrap it and set it on a tray in the oven. Turn the oven on low — really low — and make the brine. Then go to bed. It’ll be ready by morning, and the brine will have steeped and cooled.
Wake up, move the meat to the brine, go about your day. By dinner, it’ll be ready for slicing.
That’s really it! You can vary the brine as you wish, but I highly recommend using juniper berries in it. You can use the ripe, blue berries of Eastern red cedar, which is a juniper, or any wild juniper that grows in the West. Of course you can buy juniper berries, too.
I serve tjalknol thinly sliced on rye bread, like my sourdough rye recipe, and a horseradish sour cream really makes it all sing. Or you can serve the meat on a charcuterie board, alongside some good mustard and pickles.
And tjalknol sandwiches are fantastic! The meat should keep in the fridge for a week or so, and yes, you can refreeze it — when it thaws again, it’ll be ready to eat.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.
Tjalknol, Frost Bump Venison
Ingredients
- 3 pound venison or beef roast (or any other red meat)
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 8 cups water
- 5 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup juniper berries, crushed
- 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon white peppercorns, crushed
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
Instructions
- Take the roast out of the freezer and unwrap. Set it on a tray and put it in the oven. Turn the oven to 175°F. Let this cook undisturbed until the thickest part of the roast reaches about 140°F. Typically this is between 6 and 12 hours, depending on the roast. A 3-pound roast should take maybe 7 to 8 hours.
- After you set the meat in the oven, make the brine by combining the remaining ingredients in a pot large enough to hold the roast. Bring this to a boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot. It will cool as the meat cooks.
- When the meat is done, set it in the brine and let it steep for at least 5 hours, and up to a day — it will get saltier the longer it sits.
- Remove the roast, rinse quickly in cool water, pat dry, slice and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I gave this recipe a whirl in place of the usual corned beef for today’s New Year’s dinner. And judging by the cleaned plates and big smiles, this’ll be the new tradition moving forward; it was absolutely delicious alongside stewed black eyed peas and roasted cabbage.
my oven seems to swing pretty wide around the set temp, is that something I should try and map out before cooking at 175 for so long? concerned that the 175 setpoint may mean temp ranges from 150 to 200.
Chris: It should be fine.
This sounds great. Think it’d work with a large goose breast?
I read thru the recipe and I will admit it kind of intregied me. the idea of a cold sandwich of “ham-like” venison would never have entered my mind. I just have two questions:
1. Would slicing the venison before brining be a good way to shorten the brining process and at the same time ensuring the inner meat was “brined” an equal amount to the outer layers of the roast? and
2. This reminds me of meals cooked with one of those sous vide devices where the “cooking,” is done by an electric heater like device hung in a pot of water and the meat never gets any hotter than around 175.. I’m not a fan of cooking meat at anything like that. even though I have had meals at friends homes cooked that way… just like I’m not a fan of sushie… I prefer to know any kind of microbe in it has been hopefully “destroyed” by temperatures above boiling. Can you not cook it above or at 212, maybe in a pan of water. or juice of choice, and still get the same result? and.
3.I try to not use salt in my cooking, be it iodized or sea or kosher… what does the salting process do that not salting would not do? and is there an alternative…I know salting good has long been a way of preserving, but if I’m not preserving this can I skip the salting process altogether,?
Many thanks for such a valuable resource for all kinds of cooking…your treasure trove of amazing recipes is like no other.
Thank you.
Eldon in Ottawa
Eldon: I mean… with no salt it would be super bland. I would not eat it if there were no salt. But you can try it. As for the cooking, it will be cooked. Fear not. If you are looking for an internal temperature, look for 140F.
I’m looking forward to trying this! Newbie question. Brine on the countertop? Or in the fridge?
THX
Elaine: Wherever it’s cold, so outside or the fridge.
This is super interesting, that is essentially the same brine recipe I use to make my wild game ham, but in the reverse order. I will for sure have to try this out as it seems like a much quicker way to get a similar product.
Usually I am brining for 4-5 days, and then smoking the roast or wild hog ham.
Hi Hank
Which kosher salt did you use? They’re so different.
Thanks!
Janet: In this case, Morton’s.
Would this worked smoked to 140F?
Ted: It’s not a smoked product. But mechanically it should work. Haven’t tried it.
Wow! This sounds incredible! It would be great in a sandwich, or with an aioli dip. Fantastic!
Hank,
Wishing you a Happy and Safe New Year!
Tad
Sounds great, can’t wait to try it. Do you brine in the fridge or outside in the winter rather than at room temp?
Thanks!
Dan: Either. Outside is fantastic when the weather is cold! And since the salt in the brine is so strong, you can leave it outside even if it’s like 15 degrees out.
What a terrific low effort way to supper and sandwiches!