Another Bresaola

Lest anyone think I just pump out meat haphazardly, most of this meat is spoken for. After so many visits to both my local butcher and salumeria, I have established good relationships with both. This eye round was bestowed upon me by the proprietor of said salumeria. Always asking what I would be doing with so much meat, I explained. Having tasted some of my products, he has given me this eye round and the lonzino previously cured. Anyway, this was cured with the exact cure as the last. It was cured for 2 weeks and cased in another 90mm collagen. It will be hung to dry on Saturday.

Finally.......the SAUSAGE debauchery

Just realized recently that there is a sausage debauchery sans sausage. So, in honor of the upcoming holiday that is typically synonymous with grilling......we have sausage! Nothing really exciting. This sausage is 80% lean pork butt, 20% back fat. Flavored with Pecorino Romano, fresh parsley, crushed coriander seeds and black pepper, some fresh garlic, salt and white wine. My first opportunity to work with casings from Butcher/Packer. While they are expensive, you can actually feel the quality being so much better than the rubbish purchased in the grocery store. Still managed to pop a link. Fried up a small piece, great flavor. Gonna grill me up a boatload this weekend.

Bacons #2 & 3 with a pancetta

The pancetta was cured with juniper, bay, thyme, nutmeg along with salt, sugar and cure #2. Cured for a week, rolled tightly, tied even more tightly and will hang for about 4 weeks. The bacon on top was cured with molasses, real maple syrup and black pepper with salt and cure #1. Cured for a week and smoked for nearly 3 hours. The last bacon was cured with sage, ginger, garlic, pepper, cure #1, salt and sugar. This bacon was smoked just under 2 hours, due it being a whole lot thinner than the other. I took the skin off this piece as I initially planned to roll it for a pancetta, but it was a poor piece to try and roll, so, bacon it would become. I had a little easier time on the smoke this go around. I wrapped some heavily soaked hickory in aluminum foil. This really got the smoke going well and kept the temperature at bay. Nothing left to smoke in my refrigerator. Really like to smoke a speck, I do have that piece of boneless ham hanging in my chamber, any thoughts?

4 way Bacon

Bought a smoker last week. Purchased exclusively to make bacon, a I've had several requests to make some. But, life outside my little Italian box is verrrrry frightening. I've never smoked anything before, so, I went for an economical version in the case that I just had no patience for it, or I just plain old sucked at it. Anyway, the picture is bacon #1. It is a loose interpretation of Alton Brown's hot pepper brine. I added pink salt and extra hot pepper. It brined for 4 days, instead of the recommended 3. As for the smoking.......I think I need a little more experience, unless this sub $30 smoker is just a bit hard to get down. The smoke would stop every 20-30 minutes when the wood chunks would ignite. I would douse them with water to get the smoke going again, this was the dance for over 2 hours, running out every 10 minutes, to either add more wet wood or douse with water. There has to be an easier way. So, this slab was smoked to waaaaay over 150 degrees, closer to 170. I left the smoker for 15 minutes, when I returned there was no smoke, but flames shooting out the sides. I removed it, cooled it overnight and sliced and ate some this morning. It is still delicious, so, no harm, no foul. Looks like I need more work in the smoking department, good thing I have 2 more bacon slabs to smoke(the 4th way is a pancetta). A little guidance would be appreciated.

N'Duja fever.....................

............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.

Guanciali pronti

Here is the finished product from the previous guanciale post. Cured for 1 week, dried in the regular refrigerator for 3 weeks on a rack. Looks perfect, smells excellent. Fried up a piece............ outstanding. In my opinion, pancetta doesn't hold a candle to this lovely beast. Going to use some this weekend in a pasta dish with rosemary and dried apricot.

Lonzino carousel

Took one out this morning, replaced it with another this afternoon. The finished lonzino was put in on 4/3 after an 11 day cure. I removed it at about 38% loss more than 2 weeks ago, but, it was nowhere near ready. I'm guessing this one to be 45-48% and is still just a touch soft, I'm a little baffled by this one. It was stuffed in a 90mm collagen casing, sprayed with the M-EK-4 mold culture and fermented in the usual fashion. It was cured using rosemary, bay leaves, juniper, salt, pepper, cure #2, sugar and garlic powder. It tastes very good, though not as good as the bresaola. Possibly a touch heavy on the rosemary, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Overall, another successful venture. My first lonzino had a bit of case hardening, showing my inexperience. By the look and taste of this one, it appears I am getting this whole thing dialed in. Thanks again to Jason Molinari for all the hand holding.

The cured-ready to dry lonzino is the finished product seen earlier in the ziploc, stuffed in a 90mm collagen(surprise).