............I got it. After all the hubbub created by 2 other bloggers(both listed here), http://www.thislittlepiggy.us/2009/04/01/nduja/, and http://www.foodieandtheeveryman.com/?p=1566, I got myself obsessed with making one. This salame is closer to my heart than others, my mother's parents were immigrants from Calabria, a small village called Santa Cristina. I spent a lot of time with them growing up and seem to remember a spicy salame being consumed on certain occasions. Is this, could this be N'Duja? I have no idea. It's very unlikely and there's no way to verify since neither are with any longer. But, it sounds much more romantic this way, so, I'll say it was. The most difficult part was trying to track down the proper ingredients. I was pleasantly surprised to find a 900g can of concentrato di pepperoncino made with peppers from Calabria and Basilicata at my favorite Italian grocer/importer in Brooklyn...........SOLD. I cracked that can open today and tried a tad on my steak.......it's blisteringly hot. So, with that I started looking through some recipes. I decided to roast up a couple red peppers on the grill as well. Here is what I went with:
1000G pork butt
560G pork belly
440G back fat
650G concentrato di pepperoncino
200G roasted red pepper paste
42.8G salt
7.1G cure #2
2.5G bactoferm f-lc
2.5G dextrose
The entire contents were stuffed into a 90mm collagen casing. I believe I will ferment this for a week @ about 70-75 degrees. It will hang for an indefinite amount of time, most likely 2 months.
BTW, I fried a little up to try, and it is unreal. Never tasted anything like this, very unique.
I am SO jealous right now!
ReplyDeleteMy butcher tells me he'll have my stuff next Tuesday, so hopefully, by this time next week I'll be at this stage too.
Yours looks amazing, by the way, just like I imagined it would be :)
Thank you. Really wish I had a beef bung. But, this will be my N'duja barometer!
ReplyDeleteFire all torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Your Italian ancestors must have tears in their eyes–from joy? from the blistering heat of this salame?
ReplyDeleteThe color looks just like the Calabrian nduja I saw. How was the heat in the portion that you tried? Did it take the top of your head off? Using a "concentrato" for your recipe, I thought you might have cut back on the quantity of hot pepper, but you've still got it up there at about 1/3 of the total. Wowee! Talk about a "pork death bomb" for the unsuspecting…
Can't wait to get my piggy little mitts on a can of this Calabrian hot pepper paste. And let us know how the Italian peppers you grow from seed this summer turn out!
That looks crazy delicious. Seems like the 90mm collagen worked ok.
ReplyDelete90 was perfect, as per your advice, sir. This week long fermentation is a bit painstaking. I've been wiping the mold off daily, all pictures I've seen of n'duja there is no mold. Also, it's giving off a whole lot of liquid, but still staying soft. Hanging it tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Mine are leaking as well! I licked a bit of juice off my finger and it burned my mouth.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried mine will be too hot for most.
We shall see.