Venison Salame..........Once again

It's been quite some time, over a year, to be exact, since I've made venison salame. Shame, too, because it really is fantastic and pretty damned easy to make. But, honestly, I haven't made any due to the fact that I haven't been given any venison. I'm told it's been a slow deer hunting season. I find this a bit of a conundrum as I can't keep deer from eating the plants in backyard. Who knows. Finally, my cousin brought me 3 lbs. of freshly butchered venison. This was super lean, crimson red meat.....like BLOOD red. I like to keep something this special really simple. I don't muddle it with too many ingredients, just salt, hot pepper powder and fresh garlic. That's it.

I ran this meat right through the grinder. It was butchered so thoroughly that there was NO fat and no connective tissue. I added 30% pork fat(jowl in this case). I used 3% salt, a pretty hefty 1.5% hot pepper powder, a couple fresh garlic cloves along with the obligatory cure #2(.25%) and lactic starter(.09%). Stuffed them in some beef middles where they will ferment for an undetermined amount of time. I've been going back and forth on the fermentation time and temperature and still haven't nailed anything down yet. I think I'll try 48 hours @ 80 degrees this go around. They should be ready in 4-5 weeks when the results will be posted.

Mangalitsa Guanciale

Here is that enormous Mangalitsa jowl that's been sitting in my curing chamber for several months. Just looking at the pictures you can tell this was a pretty special pig, or you can just assume he had a huge face ! I feel like the superlatives are redundant at a certain point, so, I won't gush. I always have "working" guanciale on hand, so, this was just a luxury. Also, when I saw the size of it, I knew it would be next to impossible for me to leave without it. I'm fairly confident I can make this guanciale disappear. Like I wrote, I always have "working" guanciale with which to cook. So, last week I needed some guanciale crisped and rendered for a recipe. The allure of using this stuff became overwhelming. I know it's heresy, but, I cut some up and cooked it. I keep looking through a thesaurus for synonyms for absurd or ridiculous and the like, but, I think I'd rather just describe how it tastes. Imagine that there was crispy pork flavored candy....................because there is! Seriously, if I were blindfolded, that's what I would have thought it was. Sweet, salty, porky candy. This stuff will definitely spoil me, I'm afraid. I am, as I have previously described, a guancialophile. I don't know how I'll be able to go back to "regular" guanciale after this. If you have the means to procure it, I highly recommend it.

Mangalitsa Lardo is ready

Here is the gigantic piece of Lardo that's been sitting in my chamber for 3 months. This stuff is just silly. Look at that lovely rose colored hue running right through the middle of it. I was concerned that it wouldn't be cured, I only left it to cure for 3 weeks. I also dried it as I would any other salumi, bearing in mind I don't have the unique marble coffin used in Tuscany for just this application. But, I am relieved to announce it is just fine. In fact, more than fine. It's terrific. I think God put these piggies on earth specifically to cure, I can't imagine they serve a better purpose than this. As I wrote prior regarding the coppa and how it melts in your mouth, the Lardo is even more unctuous, if that's possible. I sliced some paper thin to put on bruschetta. I toasted the bread and while it was still warm added the lardo. It was drizzled with top notch olive oil and cracked pepper. By the time I got to it, the lardo had begun to melt into the bread..............sick. There is one small caveat with this stuff. But, this goes for all salumi. I sliced a little with a knife that was a bit thicker than the with the machine and I didn't care for the mouth feel, it was a bit challenging. Again, this is true of all salumi. Sliced thinly on bruschetta, I made a whole lot disappear. Another small bit of advice when playing with Lardo. Prior to slicing, remove it from the chamber and either into the refrigerator for a couple hours or into the freezer for a couple minutes. This will make it much easier to slice. Otherwise, it will get really soft and be a pain in the neck to slice correctly. As you can see by the picture, it was starting to sweat a little. Doesn't take long, maybe 5 minutes. Mangalitsa guanciale is up next.

Mangalitsa Coppa Tasting

This is some fabulous stuff! I now understand what all the fuss is about. This was cured with the hot pepper powder and fennel seeds. It hung for roughly 6 weeks. I cut it down right at 30% weight loss. In this case, I think the 30% was perfect. The fennel seed and hot pepper powder really seemed to mellow and faded into the background as the pork was really able to stand out. What really makes this stuff ridiculous is it's unctuousness. Sliced paper thin, it actually melts on your tongue. This coppa was perhaps a bit too salty, but, that's hardly a complaint. Overall, I really couldn't be happier with this effort. Really, really great stuff.

Salame tasting

This is the most recent salame. I just pulled it down yesterday. By looking at it, I can honestly say, this is the best looking salame I've made, technique wise. You can see there aren't any holes in the forcemeat at all...........perfectly solid. The fat definition is great(in my opinion anyway, you're welcome to disagree), absolutely ZERO smearing. As for the tasting, it has a really nice black pepper heat to it. The anise is certainly present, but doesn't interfere. The garlic provides a pleasant backdrop, while the vermouth while mellow to begin with, has really fallen to the point where it's just an intriguing last taste. I think vermouth in salame is a great idea. I know that there are some who complain that raw wine leaves an unpleasant taste and choose to cook it down to rid it of this. What I think I've found with the vermouth is that you can use raw wine and it won't interfere with the flavor, yet still provide the gentle acidity for which you're looking. Overall, this is a REALLY good salame. With only 4 ingredients(aniseeds, garlic, black pepper, vermouth), I really couldn't ask for a better tasting(or looking) salame. The Mangalitsa salumi are ready and will be posted about this week.

New Salame

It's been quite a while since I made a salame. I mean a salame that didn't contain enough hot pepper to sear your lips. So, I felt like making a regular old salame. But, I didn't feel like making something I've already made. That in mind, I opted for something just slightly unusual, sounded good in my head, anyway. This would be a salame with aniseed, garlic, black pepper and vermouth. Made the usual way, of course. Here's what it looked like:

1863 grams lean pork butt

615 grams pork backfat

86.7 grams salt(3.5%)

24.7 grams black pepper(1%)

19.8 grams aniseeds(.8%)

6.2 grams cure #2(.25%)

11.9 grams dextrose(.48%)

2.2 grams F-RM-52 starter culture(.09%)

3 large cloves garlic

1 cup dry vermouth

All the dry ingredients were combined into a mini chopper and beat up. I added a healthy tablespoon of whole black peppercorns at the end, for appearance's sake. This, incidentally, was my first effort using F-RM-52 starter culture. I think my F-LC has run it's course as I've mentioned in previous posts. These salami were stuffed into beef middles. So, nothing real exciting, but, at least it's something new to look at! Oh, the picture is deceiving, sorry. I hung them in the chamber just to take the pic. They will ferment at 70 degrees for 48-72 hours after being sprayed with M-EK-4 mold spray. Hopefully we'll be ready to cut them down in a month, just as I'm pulling my N'duje.

Mangalitsa part 2...Lardo

This is the gigantic piece of Mangalitsa Lardo that's been curing for 3 weeks. I've never cured anything for this long. Then again, I've never had anything this thick to cure before. As a gauge to it's thickness, I inserted a toothpick(far right). You can see the thickness is actually as thick as the toothpick. You can also see that is not even the thickest part of the Lardo! I hope that the 3 week cure was enough, but, it did feel pretty well cured. The cure consisted of juniper, rosemary and bay, along with salt, pepper, sugar and cure #2. All that's left now is to let it sit there for 2 months. I'm looking forward to this one. This may be my best work yet.