Meat Club Charcuterie

Hello All,
  My freezer is looking empty again so I am heading out to the field to find some new product.  I have been doing a lot of reading and I am thinking of buying an old dairy cow (from what I have read this type of meat will have a lot more flavor and be pretty good in sausages) or big a big older hog or a couple goats.

I can get an older pig probably around 400-500lbs for about .30 cents per pound or roughly $150. i can get a boar or sow. or i can get on old dairy cow  900- 1500lbs for around .45 .50 cents per pound depending on the quality of the cow.

If anyone is interested send me an email at davidtulkin@hotmail.com

Even if you would just want 10 pounds of ground or cubed meat let me know.  If you are also interested in going along for the slaughter and processing let me know.

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Question...So these guys on CL want to borrow one of my freezers for a couple days to store a half side of beef, I told them I would trade for some meat.  If you had the option of choosing any cut from a farm raised steer, what would it be.  survey time.

david

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As I mentioned a while ago, a couple months ago myself and a couple other people went down to Woodside to butcher a pig. I should have gotten a little bit more info before we went because our pig turned out to be a pot belly pig, and an old and mean one at that.  It was a really cool trip and I learned alot about the differences between a domestic pig and the older semi-wild type one.  I have shot and butchered wild boar before but this pig was different from those.  Some people were worried that the pig was too old but after contacting several food US food bodies I was almost completely assured that the pig was ok to eat.  Besides cutting the pig into some large primal cuts I also ground about  pounds of it.  I did freeze the pork for days in my deep freeze which is enough time to kill pretty much most of the bad stuff.  I then took a bunch of the ground meat and made a air dried sausage.

Recipe as follows

1 pound pork shoulder fat, diced
4 pounds  pot belly pig shoulder, cubed
7 grams meat starter culture
1/4 cup distilled water
1.5 oz kosher salt
1 tsp Cure #2
3 tbs dextrose
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp ground garlic
1/4 cup Sauv Blanc

1. Ground fat in medium die
2. Ground meat in large die
3. Combine meat and fat in large mixing bowl
4. Preparied starter culture and added it and rest of ingredients to meat/fat.
5. Using the paddle attachment on mixer I mixed everything for 1 minute to combine.
6.  I stuffed into synthetic 5 inch casings.
7. I hung the sausage in my bathroom with the portable heater set at 85 degrees for 12 hours.
8.  Into the chamber which is at 47 degrees and 75 % RH.

Question: Most recipes call for 1/4 cup of Bactogerm F-RM-52, I have used  Bactoferm F-RM in the past so I used it this time.  What is the difference between the two.  Secondly, the manufatures of both cultures say "Each 25-gram packet of Bactoferm™ F-RM-52 will do 220 pounds (100 kilo) of meat. You can use the whole packet in 100 pounds of meat or use half of the packet and refreeze remaining culture."  1/4 cup is almost the whole packet for only 5 pounds of meat sounded like to much.  So I used about 1/4 of the packet, or 7-8 grams, does this sound ok?

                                     

Click here to download:

From_the_Field_to_the_Table.zip (7496 KB)

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So we missed it this year. But I propose a Meat Club field trip to New Jersey for Pigstock 2011!

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Rob and I made liverwurst over the weekend. We got the recipe from Home Sausage Making. This was the first time I've ever done something in a muslin casing. I had to get out my old sewing supplies to stitch the cheesecloth, which was actually kind of fun and felt very old world. We really like the way this recipe is spiced and would definitely make it again (maybe a half recipe). We used a fresh, unsmoked ham steak instead of pork butt, as we are out of pork butt at the moment, and increased the amount of pork fat. We also had a little trouble maintaining the water temp at a constant 175F for 3 hours, but we watched it and adjusted as needed and it came out just fine. 

     

Click here to download:

Liverwurst.zip (6765 KB)

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It has been very long since a post.  Cheryl and I made Hungarian Salami last week.  Turned out to be a massive one, 7 Lb 4 oz.  I will follow up with the process and recipe but wanted to put up a couple picks before the curing starts.  I used  my son Porter as a scale to show its size.  I also need to update pictures of the pot belly pig kill and the new bresaola and coppa.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks to those who got rabbits, I should have lot more in 10 weeks

       

Click here to download:

Hungarian_Salami.zip (1490 KB)

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via Cured Meats

Check it out.

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Bresaola
Starting weight 3 lb 13oz, ending weight 2 lb 9 oz, weight loss about 33%, cured for 21 days using recipe in Ruhlman book, spayed with mold culture and incubated for 36 hours at 70 degrees, 40 days in chamber, conditions pretty constant at 50 degrees and 75-78% RH.

Developed some pretty funky looking mold as can been seen in the picture but it was only on the exterior casing and when I opened it up it looked fine to me.  It appeared to me that the exterior had cured a little more then the rest so I wrapped it in a damp cloth and put it in the fridge in the crisper for 48 hours and the exterior ring of color turned from dark dark red top to almost the color of the rest of it.  Both chefs at work said it looked good to them so we sliced it tasted it.  It seemed a little heavy on the juniper (which I seem to hear a lot) but other than that pretty dam good, I have never had any before so I had nothing to compare it too.  I am looking forward to getting some fresh arugula, parm, EVOO and maybe some capers.

Curry Cured Pork Shoulder 
Forgot to take initial weight, recipe from Ryan Farr's website http://www.4505meats.com/bestbyfarr/2009/05/26/spiced-and-cured-pork-shoulder/  same time and conditions as Bresaola

I am not sure that I like this that much.  I have only tasted it by itself and not used it in anything.  I only tasted it once and that was after the Bresaola so maybe I will try some again tonight and comment on how I feel about it

                           

Click here to download:

Bresaola_and_Curry_Cured_Pork_.zip (750 KB)

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