This was totally unnecessary, yet irresistible. Again, I refer back to that lug of scraps that Mosefund Michael gave me. As I wrote in the guanciale post, there were quite a few jowl and belly scraps. I really wanted to do something spreadable with them, and I was leaning towards Ciauscolo. I mentioned this to Michael, well, I don't think I got the words out of my mouth and he blurted out, 'Nduja!" Very well then, sir, 'Nduja it would be. Readers here most likely find 'nduja pedestrian at this point, as I have littered this blog with 'Nduja posts for well over a year and a half. But, this one was going to be different. First of all, I had just returned from Italy having eaten 'Nduja in 3 different locations in Calabria, and was ready to knock it out of the park. Secondly, using this meat is just a silly extravagance.As written in my blog about chasing salumi in Italy, 'Nduja was the crown jewel in the salumi holy grail for me. At my uncle's house in Santa Cristina d'Aspromonte, he told me to go to a small salumeria in Gioia Tauro. He failed to mention the dirt roads through the dark fields at night I would have to navigate to find said salumeria. Finally found it, then drove right past it. So, I spun around and drove the wrong way down a one way street to get to it, then parked on the sidewalk. Anyone else alarmed by this? My wife was. This is not normal behavior. I ran inside and took the last one in the case along with a loaf of bread. Went back to the hotel and after having a rather large late lunch at my uncle's house, my wife and I devoured the entire thing with the bread for dinner. The next day, I was to go see my aunt and a couple of cousins in Reggio. On my way, I spotted a random salumeria. I thought, "oh no way I'm passing by this place." Unfortunately, I was going about 40. So, I slammed on the breaks and the tires squealed really loudly, then my wife asked me politely, "What the F$#& ARE YOU DOING!" I just pointed and ran out. I saw her shaking her head as I ran inside. Got a really good one there. Brought that to my Aunt's house and ate a bunch at lunch and left her the rest. When I went back to Scilla later that night, we went to the little gift store in town. Guess what I found? Yep, "'Nduja di Spilinga" in the jar. I'll let you know how that is when I open it. I'm weird, I feel like once I open it, it's gone forever. Instead, I just stare at the jar, wondering. While still in the store, I asked the woman where I could find the best 'Nduja in a 10km radius. She told me there was a small butcher up the road in Bagnara Calabra. Off we went, begrudgingly for some. I'm still not sure how I found it, it really was a SMALL butcher shop. Bought 2 from this lovely gentleman, who coincidentally lived in NJ for 4 years and still has half his family there. We destroyed one of those on the ferry to Sicily the next day. I don't know what happened to the other one ;) In a nutshell, there is some background on 'Nduja and me.
As for production. There really were a lot of scraps in that lug. I think I salvaged 7lbs. of usable belly and jowl scraps(after skinning and piggy hair removal). Which is a perfectly round number if one is going to make 10lbs. of 'Nduja. I ran the meat scraps through the 1/2" plate on the grinder. Not caring about smearing whatsoever, I gave it a second pass. My last 'Nduja, I only ran it through once and was unhappy with the texture, it was stringy almost. Second pass did the trick, the texture of this is absolutely perfect, exactly as I'd eaten in Calabria. For the peperoncino numbers, all my questions and all my reading keep throwing the same numbers at me, so there must be something to them, 60-70% meat, 30-40% pepper(hot/sweet combo) or pepe rosso and peperoncino. But, based on my experience with the peperoncino powder, it mellows dramatically, so I didn't see a need to mess with any of that sweet nonsense. Also, previously I have used "crema di peperoncino," which is hot pepper paste/puree. Again, all reading and research resulted in the discovery that this is not used in the production of 'Nduja, so out the window with that. Now what? That paste weighed a lot more than the powder and made it much easier to get to that 30-40% threshhold. That would be a lot of powder.......who cares, go high or stay home! I went 28% peperoncino powder and 2% crushed red pepper flakes. Also, I added salt, cure #2, f-lc starter and dextrose. These were stuffed in a beef bung and tied off into nice little packages. I fermented them for 72 hours and followed that with 50 hours of cold smoke over the course of 4 days, using a mixed hardwood sawdust in my pro-q smoker. This sat in my chamber for about 3 months and was removed last week. It is delicious and quite hot. In fact, I think Michael is annoyed with me for it being too hot. But, I don't think it's any hotter than what I had in Calabria, and it's not too hot for me. Sorry, Michael! Next up.......Salame di Felino made from Mosefund Mangalitsa(yes, the same scraps).
Did it taste better than what you had in Italy?
ReplyDeleteE.g. Marc Buzio's (Salumeria Biellese's) Mangalitsa lardo tastes better than any Italian lardo I've ever had.
It wouldn't suprise me if the 'nduja you made was better than what you had in Italy - because in general, Italians can't get stuff like Mangalitsa.
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ReplyDeleteHeath, as far as flavor, I would say this is pretty damn close. It's a real difficult thing to gauge with this salume due to it's near overwhelming amount of heat. Ask Michael, he ate a bunch.
ReplyDeleteAs a Mangalitsa product, I'd be inclined to make it with less pepper, so that one could taste the meat.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same with chefs who do "pig dinners" - if there's a chef who is used to using meat-type pork, and he does a pig dinner with a Mangalitsa, he might easily overspice everything. The reason being that meat-type pork benefits from a lot of spices and herbs, due to its relative lack of flavor, while a Mangalitsa dish is worse off if the chef uses too much seasoning, because it will cover up the strong meat taste.
Exactly why I called it unnecessary. This is how 'nduja is made. 30% is the low side. To do it any other way would not be 'nduja.
ReplyDeleteI had some "bacon spread" today. It seems to be bellies, fermented with a lactic acid culture. I wonder that is how your 'nduja recipe would taste, if you left out the peppers.
ReplyDeleteMy next spreadable salame will be ciauscolo, it is lightly seasoned and cold smoked. Should be along the lines of what you had. As soon as I get my hands on more belly and jowl scraps I'll report on that.
ReplyDeleteSounds great, wish I was there to taste some, I make mine with head meat and jowl and importantly the pluck, in particular the lights (lungs) as this is the main ingredient for making it spreadable, on that note if I use curing salts then I add some sugar to counter balance the effects of the curing agents stiffening the contents. When are you returning to Italy? Would be happy to attend a guided tour!
ReplyDeleteHey Marc, yes they used to make it with lungs and various other parts. However, now that they"re not quite as poor, they've graduated to belly and or jowl. There are very few recipes that still call for lungs, etc. This is spreadable, I assure you.
ReplyDeleteAs for returning, I wanted to get back in September for the chili pepper festival in Diamante, but, we'll see what happens.
scott what was the brand of the jarred stuff? i was in calabria this summer and came across a few different jarred ndujas all with different flavour profiles and consistency. Have to say i liked the "fresh" stuff a lot better.
ReplyDeleteNick, Monteporo is the brand.
ReplyDeleteHi Scott, can you spare the recipe?
ReplyDeleteHey Scott,
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to find olive sawdust for my A-Maze-N cold smoker. Maine Grilling Woods carries "North Atlantic Olive" wood and dust. I understand that it is actually atlantic ash, but produces the same smoke flavor as olive.
Adriana: it's a basic master recipe. 70% belly or jowl, 30% pepper(all hot or a combo of hot and sweet) along with salt, cure#2, dextrose and lactic starter.
ReplyDeleteJames: thanks for that, I'm going to have a look at that now. Good find.
Doesn't the recipe have tripe?
ReplyDeleteAdriana, there has been some debate on whether or not traditional 'nduja contains offal. I'm inclined to say it may have started that way many years ago. However, there are 2 other individual salume that are similar that contain offal. One is 'Ndura(yes, 'Nduja with a R instead of a j) and 'Nnuglia or stroscia. Hope that helps.
ReplyDeleteScott what temp and RH did you use for the drying chamber? I have a Calabrese buddy who says that it should be dried "slowly" after smoking, but I haven't the slightest idea what that means and I have been scouring the web for an answer!
ReplyDeleteAnywhere from 65-80% depending on it's stage of drying. Anthony, I urge you to join the group on Facebook with over 1500 members. You will get a much quicker response that way. The link can be found in my most recent post about it.
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