Mosefund farms Mangalitsa

Had the opportunity this past Sunday to visit Michael Clampffer at Mosefund Farm for a tour of the facilities. After a series of swings and misses, we were finally able to nail it down. Here are the babies. They are held here for some time and subsequently moved to the pen with the larger fellows. This pig on the right is one of the babies that looks to have been born a sheep. He also thought my hand smelled like food, until he tasted it! Didn't stop him from gnawing on it anyway. Here are the bigger guys, napping between meals. They are penned off adjacent to the babies. More of the bigger boys, looking like seals on a San Francisco pier. Here is a picture of what might be the coolest feature(for the pigs)in the facility. The pigs are free to roam the surrounding hills. They are all fenced in and allowed to meander and eat, as Michael told me, whatever isn't nailed down. From there we went inside, where the largest pigs are held. They are fed just wheat, barley and acorns until they are slaughtered. I took a bunch of pictures, however, due to the dust kicked up from the ensuing melee created when Michael tossed a bucket of acorns into the pen, none of them are viable. Michael also showed me his curing chamber. I confess I am quite envious as he has an entire walk in closet full of lovely smelling prosciutti. Ok, so, time for business. Where's my meat? Went to the barn to pull some out of the freezer. When he removed some, I laughed out loud. Absolutely ridiculous stuff. This is stuff you hear about or read about, like Lardo di Colonnata. This looked even better. I got a big piece of shoulder, from which I'll remove a coppa and cure the roughly 2-3" of backfat for lardo. It is still semi-frozen in the picture, I hope you can make out the thickness of the backfat......absurd! I also grabbed a jowl for guanciale, as I find I am a guancialophile. Way too good and huuuuuge to pass on. For a size comparison, I cleaned it up and layed an already cured jowl next to it. This jowl weighs about 1.5lbs. So, you can see it's not like any jowl I've ever seen. I'll post more as I cure these within the next couple days. Thanks Michael for a really cool and interesting experience., and thanks for the delicious lardo!

La N'Duja Terza

This is my third effort at this now hot as a pistol(literally and figuratively) salame. I think this may be my best effort yet. It was also my quickest. I knocked this out from start to finish in 2 hours. A bunch of research, a couple of emails to Calabrese people, both in this country and in Italy, and I was able to formulate a recipe. I opted not to use any offal. I've never used any, so, that's a variable I was more comfortable leaving out of the equation. I read recipes that included almost everything from the pig you could imagine. One recipe, I believe to be loosely translated to English, simply read "pig face." I'll assume they meant jowl. Others calling for everything in and around the head and face, even skin, which I don't think I'd seen before. Well, Larbo and I discussed it a little bit. He told me his best texture came from using straight belly. That sounded like the best option. But, what sounded even better was the "pig face" option. If belly was good, jowl must be better. It IS softer, more unctuous and fattier. I've seen it used in many recipes. That was what I decided on. This will be the easiest salame to explain in terms of ingredients and ratios. 5lbs. is the max I can do in one batch with the Kitchen Aid mixer. So, always looking to one up Larbo, I went with 30% total weight in peppers. I'll give the ratios in pounds, don't even have to mess with grams for this one. 3.5lbs. jowl, 1lb. hot pepper paste, .5lbs. peperoncino powder. That's it. Well, not quite, I forgot 3.5% salt, .25% cure #2 and about .5% dextrose. I stuffed it in a 4.5" beef bung. This was my first effort using beef bung. I have heard things about their odor. Well, I must have a good batch, as they had no odor to speak of. I rinsed and soaked for about 30 minutes. Stuffed pretty easily and quickly. Trussed it up quickly, here it is. Looks pretty damn good, I think. I'll ferment it for a couple days, while I wait for my cold smoker to arrive. Cold smoke it for about 3-4 hours a day for a week or so. I would love to smoke it with olive branches, for some reason, I'm thinking that's hard to come by. Anyone reading who has olive branches, I'd love to barter for some. For any readers out there who make their own salame, yet have not tried N'duja, you have no excuse! I carry all the pepper products in the store. :)

Update

Terribly sorry for lack of posting. Been trying to get this store up and running. Proper website should be ready to go in a week or two, so I can get rid of the cheeeeezy ebay storefront. I've shipped out a bunch of hot pepper products. So, there better be a bunch of new N'duja posts. Got Larbo to create a monstrosity of a hybrid N'duja/mortadella, or N'dujadella. Which is delicious, BTW. I was supposed to head up to Mosefund farm to get my hands on some Mangalitsa yesterday. But, that fell through, so, we have tentatively rescheduled for this weekend. I have spent the last 2 weeks emailing and calling every importer/distributor/exporter in this country and Italy. Apparently, the wheels move somewhat slowly in Italy. I have been discussing deals for almost 2 weeks. Deals that for the most part could have been finalized in about 2 hours. But, as I was told, people in Italy don't check email like Americans. Which is probably a good thing, I get my email right to my phone, which can be annoying. Anyway, on the agenda..............I have a shipment coming from Milano. This will have Garganelli combs, gnocchi boards, sausage prickers, Mezzaluna knives and ravioli stamps. So, some interesting tools and gadgets. The mezzalune are made by inox bonomi, these are special to me because this is the exact model(I think)that I inherited from my grandmother. It is well over 60 years old and still in use. I have coming by the end of this week(hopefully) some fig vincotto, hot pepper vincotto, pane carasau(flatbread from Sardegna), malloreddus, mullet bottarga(dried roe), wild fennel pollen and some capers from Pantelleria. I am waiting on word from a company in Sardegna about some other pretty obscure ingredients including tuna bottarga and wild Sadinian cardoons under oil. Keep checking back, and if you want something you don't see , please post a comment here or drop an email. When everything gets up and running smoothly I will start carrying more common items like olive oil.(mostly DOP stuff, like Lago di Garda). My third N'duja attempt should be posted this week. This one to be 70% jowl and 30% hot pepper. YIKES!

Good News

N'duja can now be made by all! After a brief conversation with the Italian importers, Coluccio's, from whom I buy , I was given a green light to carry their products online. They have a great line of imported Italian food products. Almost everything you can think of. I need to know what readers would be most interested in me carrying. I can get just about anything you can think of, from saba and vin cotto to farro perlato and lentils from Castellucio. All types of oils, vinegars, olives, tuna in oil, pasta, coffee, spices and confections. Right now, I have a standing order for hot pepper paste, hot pepper powder(for N'duja, of course) and wild mountain fennel seed and probably some whole dried oregano(little bushes), dried rosemary branches and dried parsley. I won't have it until Friday, so, I have 2 days to come up with any products that would be in demand. Bear with me early on, as this is a fledgeling operation. Anyone who would like to order any of these three products, please drop me an email through the profile link on this page. I am in the process of quickly throwing together an ebay storefront to get started. Please make suggestions in the comment section. Forgot to add, I can get estratto(sicilian sun dried tomato paste), and wild fennel pollen(pricey).

Cotechino time!

This is traditional Italian New year's fare. Typical from Emilia-Romagna, specifically Modena. This sausage is a bit of an enigma, well, in this country anyway. I was never able to find it consistently. One salumeria had it one year, then, not the next. Another was out of stock when I was looking there. Long story short, last year was when I first received the grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I performed an internet search for Cotechino in an effort to see if I could get some mail ordered by New year's. The search also turned up a recipe from a book on how to make it at home. The light bulb went on. It has been on ever since and spiraled out of control into what you're reading right now. Anyway, this was the first sausage I ever made. It was just last year and it was atrocious. I had no idea what I was doing, but at least they looked ok. So, with a year under my belt, I was confident I could pull it off. Over at Jason Molinari's blog, a Cotechino discussion was started with Al Verona. Al suggested the use of jowls as opposed to backfat. For my ratios I went 50% pork shoulder, 25% pig skin, 25% jowls. For spices, I used cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, coriander, and a touch of hot pepper, along with black pepper and cure #1. The ratios of these spices are all relatively small, all were based on Paul Bertolli's cotechino. I did, however, use a touch more cinnamon than what his calls for.

The meat and fat were ground through the course die. The pig skin, boiled for 40 minutes, was ground through the fine die. I did not do a second grinding through the course die, as I've seen suggested. I don't think my jowl was cold enough and feared it would start to smear. It already was looking pretty soft. They were stuffed in beef middles and hung in my curing chamber. I took 2 down and cooked them yesterday. I'm afraid I have to add that there was one huge, glaring error in making this sausage. I forgot to add SALT! This bothered me for two days. But, I wasn't about to cut them down and start over again. I figured I would aggressively salt the poaching liquid and season each slice as it was still really hot and would absorb a good bit of salt. I poached them in barely boiling, or "smiling" water for about 2 hours. They were then left in the water for another 20-30 minutes. I prepared a nice bed of marinated lentils for the slices of cotechino to rest upon. I got lucky, I sliced the cotechino and salted each slice on both sides. I've only had a handful of cotechini, so, I don't have a wide frame of reference. But, from what I've had, this was better than the others. The lack of salt wasn't an issue. It tasted very good, perhaps a bit, just a bit, heavy on the cinnamon. Other than that, I thought they tasted and looked just like they should.

Christmas salami/salumi

The title infers some sort of special salame. I assure you there is no such thing. I had to cater an affair for Christmas eve. So, I was instructed by the "boss" to have a salame ready for Christmas. This should have been ready in time. Usually, I pull my salami at about 45%. This measured in at 41%. It felt a touch soft for me, but, it was crunchtime. For this salame, a finocchiona, I used the same ratios and same ingredients I use for my dry rub. 3.5% salt, 1.75% hot Calabrian pepper powder, .8% "wild mountains" fennel seed. This was my first attempt at using natural casings(besides N'duja). due to it's slight softness and color, there was an abhorrent comparison to pepperoni. In DE-fense of the OFF-ender. It does resemble the deplorable American pizzeria topping. It tastes great. Good heat, and a pleasant fennel backdrop. I can't wait until it hardens a bit more. One thing I noticed using large beef middles as opposed to collagen casings. With the collagen, the forcemeat always seems to have gaps in it. What I mean is, when sliced thinly, it has holes in it. Now, there has never been any mold issues with any of these gaps or holes in the forcemeat. It's just a slight imperfection affecting it's appearance. Well, first glance at this salame in the beef middle, and not a single gap in any of the forcemeat. If anything, I can say these were under stuffed, in anything. Needless to say, I may have stuffed my last salame in collagen. Anyone else had similar issues?

As for the Christmas "salumi." As I mentioned above, I was responsible for catering a soiree for roughly 30 people. As if that weren't enough, I was given instructions, again, by the "boss," to make some "interesting" meat to hang in the fridge. The quotes are used to illustrate an interesting point. This is the same lady who wanted to throw me out of the house for the unsightly second full size refrigerator in "her" kitchen. Apparently, it was now a conversation piece. I had just become a freak show. Don't think for one second I'm bothered by the implication............I filled it, gladly. But, on such short notice, my options were limited. As you can see in the pictures, nothing new or out of the ordinary. Luckily, I had a bresaola curing for 2 weeks, so, that was ready in time to hang. Pretty straightforward. Cured for 2 weeks, hung in a 90mm collagen casing. You also see the 2 jowls provided by my local butcher. Salt, sugar, pepper and thyme. Finally, you see the pancetta arrotolata. While walking past the same meat display I've walked past nearly 3 times a week for the past 2 years at a local gourmet store, I was struck by a glowing white beacon. That of a beautiful piece of pork belly. Half became ginger and sage bacon, the other half was rolled into arrotolata. Bear in mind, I almost exclusively go tesa these days. Particularly because it makes no difference taste wise. It also tears the shit out of my hands trying to tie it so goddamn tightly. However, The "boss" suggested that it would make for a better presentation. Arrotolata it would become. How convenient. There you have it..........the Christmas salumi freak show.

N'duja sneak peek

I pulled one down last week, but, mowed through it before I was able to snap off a picture. So, without further ado, here it is. Yes, it IS as hot as it looks. It may be just a touch firmer than I would like. I didn't use a starter culture, but I did use cure #2. I went with .25% as the default percentage for #2. Perhaps next time I'll use a touch less. It's only been hanging for about 3 months. I say only because, traditionally it is dried for about a year. It tastes wonderfully. I upped Larbo's ante, over at This Little Piggy: N'duja and pushed to 25% total weight in pepper(both paste and dried), and it sure feels like it. I takes a couple seconds to ignite, but when it does, it doesn't disappoint. The funny thing about this salame is the more you eat the hotter it gets, while at the same time it tastes better and better. By the time I got through just a half of a small chub, I was red faced and trying not to breath through my mouth, as the air hitting the inside of my mouth was excruciating. May seem like a fool's errand..............so call me foolish. I' ve never had an authentic N'duja, but, these ingredients are as authentic as they come, and I have to imagine that tastewise, it's pretty close.