Meat Club Charcuterie

random posts about our meatings

Proscuitto Larded

Jamie, Peter and I received some guidance in the last few days from a well known and credentialed culinary professional (who shall go unnamed by me on this web site) about what should happen at this point to our beloved proscuitti after said person perused our web site.   The advice was to get lard into the cavities and onto the cut side of the beasts as soon as possible. I had difficulty envisioning how much lard would be needed. Jamie volunteered his stock, but I eyeballed it and decided it might not be enough. I was fortunate to snag a freshly rendered batch (five pounds worth) from the CafĂ© Rouge Meat Market in the Fourth Street area of Berkeley. As you will see from the following pictures, the stuff is gorgeous...and even tastes great. I was seriously trying to figure out what kind of sandwich to make with it! Since it was a very fresh batch, it was quite soft and easily workable into the cavities.   So, here are the hams on the kitchen counter before larding:  
  The hopefully former problem cavities are still moist, but still smell meaty....which I take as a good sign.   Here is the five pound hunk of lard:  
  Here are the hams after being well lubricated:  
  And another view:  
  Leftover lard (yum!):  
  And back into the aging fridge:  
  Clearly, I can no longer consider flipping these things periodically in the future since the lard would make a mess and may even drip/fall off. So, I think they are pretty much in position for the rest of their aging lives (except perhaps for being weighed every couple of months).   Speaking of weight, with lard applied the small one now weights 23.5 lbs. and the large one is 26.5 lbs. So, I used about four pounds of the lard (less what I licked off of my fingers at the end of the process).   Let's hope this actually does some good in the long run.

Prosciutto Update

It has now been almost five weeks since the scare about possible spoilage involving the two prosciutto hams that are under my care.   As a reminder, as of the last post they were in my old kitchen fridge laying down with the cut side up and the suspect cavities stuffed with salt. The conditions in the fridge have been at around 50 degrees and 70% RH a great majority of the time (MAX 54 degrees & 80% RH - MIN 46 degrees & 40% RH) These variations are mainly due to the fridge cycling on and off, which is not very often. The ambient temperature in my basement where the fridge is located is high 60s. I am still using three pans of water to maintain the moisture level.   Today I took them outside, pulled and brushed and hosed the salt out, and then let them dry off. There is now a "meaty" smell in the cavities as opposed to the "off" smell that was there before. The interior of the cavities is moist, but I believe this is because the salt was packed into them quite firmly and had hardened. They will probably dry out and skin over/harden now. They both seem pretty firm all over now. But, they are "moist" in the sense that picking them up leaves a film of fat on your hands no matter where they are touched.   Their weights are now 21.5 lbs. for the small one (down a pound) and 25 lbs. for the larger one (no change) with the salt in the cavities removed. This seems a little strange. But it may be explained by the fact that I weigh them by stepping onto my bathroom digital scale while holding them. The scale only measures in half pound increments and undoubtedly does some kind of rounding.   I put them back into the fridge with the skin up (cut side down). And, I plan to flip them once a month.   Here is a picture of both after the salt had been washed out:  
  Here is a closer view of the smaller one and its cavity:  
 
And, here is the larger one;
 
 
And the two of them back into the fridge:
 
 
With a closer view:
 
 
I am greatly relieved that this seems to have worked!

Prosciutto at 3 Months

Well, I thought this would be just a routine update to the Big Pig Class (February 27, 2010) participants on the status of their hams that are aging in my care. So, I will start with the routine part beginning last Saturday (May 29,2010).   Just as a reminder - after curing in salt for about 5 weeks, they have been hanging in the wine storage part of my basement for the last couple of months. The conditions there have been 60 degrees plus or minus 2 degrees (mostly minus) and 60% RH plus or minus 5% (mostly plus).  

Weighed the two hams – small one is 22.5 lbs. (18% loss) – large one is 25 lbs. (18%) loss. Took them outside to take pictures.

Here is how they look - first the smaller one - skin side:

And the cut side of the smaller one:

There is very little loose salt on it - the white part you see is meat crusted with salt.

Here is the larger one on the skin side:

And the cut side of the larger one:

Poked around the cut end. Discovered soft, moist, smelly pockets on both of them.

Note the dark areas in the lower portion of this picture of the large one:

And here is a closer view of that area:

The rest of the hams seemed quite fine. They are quite firm all over, yet there is some "give" everywhere.

I admit that I started to panic thinking that this might portend bad things going on in the interior parts of the hams. I called Jamie, sent email and pictures to him and Peter and waited for a reply....which did not come from Peter until the next day...after a restless night for me..."what had I done wrong?"....."what can we salvage (cut them up now or cut out the bad parts)?..."how am I going to tell the others about this?"..."will I be hated and ostracized from the group?"....etc.

Peter replied via email on Sunday (30th) with some somewhat soothing words. I immediately called him. We discussed options and the whole philosophy of curing prosciutto from the traditional Italians to the the recent Italians to the modern Italians (Bertolli). And, concluded this was not the end of the end of the world...

I was going to wait until Jamie could come over to take a look at the situation before I did anything (Memorial Day weekend...and he had other things to do) except that I decided to pull the hams from the wine cellar and stick them in my old full sized refrigerator at 40 degrees thinking that the higher temperature might have been the cause (the discussion with Peter actually had elements in it that argued against this theory).

I kept going down to the basement (where the old fridge is) and looking at the hams, poking a little, and smelling my finger. I finally pulled them out and REALLY poked into the suspect cavities....and started pulling out some material that stunk. But, it was clearly not rotting meat/muscle. It was a tan, mealy, moist substance I can best describe as like Fancy Feast minced fish cat food (we have four cats!). WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?  It could also be described as being similar to cooked sweetbreads that had been crushed with a fork only more moist...and had a definite organ/glandular smell...not really like rotten meat. I also noticed that there was a symmetry to the location of these cavities between the two hams - allowing for the mirror image of the right versus the left leg.

Let's see....glandular, mealy, tanish/gray...then it dawned on me. This was some kind of gland (lymph nodes?) that had not been excised during the trimming process at the class, had broken down, left the cavity and was smelling. I was somewhat relieved that this meant there probably was not a general problem with the whole ham and started formulating a plan.

The next day (Monday, 31st) I took them outside again on my deck.

Here they are again - note the dark red areas to the side of the bone - the larger one:

The smaller one:

I then poked deeply into the cavities to pull out as much of this material as I could get with my fingers:

I then used the garden hose with a stiff stream to flush out (a couple of times) the cavities and propped the hams up to drain and air dry:

Then, they went back into the fridge laying down with the cut side up. I packed the cavities with salt since the meat behind the glands (whatever they were) had obviously not been exposed to salt in the initial curing...and thinking that the salt should help negate anything bad going on in there:

I plan to let them sit like this for at least a month to allow the salt to act.

The temperature target range for the refrigerator is 50-55 degrees (per Peter's recommendation) with an RH of at least 50% (getting around 68% now...probably from some moisture still coming off the the hams from their bath).

I am going to keep them in the fridge for at least the next five months (through October) since the wine cellar temp is creeping up now that the weather is finally acting more like spring. Then, they may go back into the wine cellar.

I think that they are now in good shape....and I am sleeping better!

DEFINITELY NOT ROUTINE!

Proscuitti - Unsalted

Today the two prosciuttos from the Big Pig Day class on February 24 came out of the salt boxes where they have spent the past five weeks.

They were pulled out of the salt looking like this:

Then into the basement utility sink to have the salt brushed off with a whisk broom.

Here is the smaller one:

And the other side of it:

And the larger one:

And the other side of it:

What they looked like before a wine sponge bath - note the size/length of the shank/bone protruding from them:

After the bath with some everyday Dago red (Vino da Tavola, if  you want it to sound continental):

And the other side after the bath:

I had envisioned just looping some 1/4 inch nylon rope around the end of the shank to hang them.

Here you can see what I had to work with on both of them to do this:

After several futile futile attempts with various combinations of Boy Scout Knot Tying merit badge artistry, it became obvious there was no way to get something external to the object to successfully hang the 25-30 lbs. of weight. Everything I tried just slipped off of the skin.

So, I resorted to punching some holes in the skin and minimal meat about an inch and a half from the edge of the skin with an awl and using a doubled up length of 20 gauge galvanized steel wire threaded through the holes to fashion a hanging loop. NOT easily done - sort of like trying to sew linoleum. This worked rather well. Here is what the loop looks like:

Suggestion - leave more bone/shank to use for hanging in the future.

Another view of the whole hanging loop:

Here is the larger one hanging from a hook in a floor joist in my wine cellar:

And the smaller one in another part of the cellar:

Right now the the conditions are 57 degrees and low 60s for the RH, and they weigh in at 25.5 lbs. and 30 lbs.

There is no artificial air conditioning in this cellar. It is completely dark (except when I am groveling around for a dinner libation) with minimal air flow. And, it is well insulated and only approaches 70 degrees in the later, hottest times of summer/fall. There is a vent hole to the outside that I can open (at night) to let cooler air in if that becomes necessary. And, I am monitoring the conditions with the thermometer/hygrometer that you can see in the bottom of this last picture. If worse comes to worse, I can transfer them into the old refrigerator where they were stored in salt with an appropriate temperature setting on the external controller.

They are supposed to be in this condition for at least the next 6 months after which I will be conferring with Peter on the next step. Bertolli says to coat them with a mixture of leaf fat and rice flour for 6 months more. I am not sure if this is what Peter has in mind.

Tune in half a year from now!

Prosciutto - Second Week

The two prosciuttos (proscuitti?) from the Big Pig Day class on the 27th have been in my fridge for a week. Today I pulled them for flipping, massaging, weighing, and repacking in salt.

Here is the larger one after being pulled from the salt and put into a "working" tub for massaging:

Here is the other side of it (the side that was down):

Here is the tub it was in. Some water has collected in the salt:

Here it is repacked in salt (topping of with new salt) to go back into fridge:

Here is the smaller one showing the side that was down:

Here is the other side of it:

And the salt that it came out of:

And repacked to go back into fridge:

The weights are now 27.5 lbs. and 31.5 lbs.

This weight for the smaller one is about the same as what we got when we weighed it at the class - water coming out, salt going in, and some residual salt on the surface.

The weight for the larger one is actually one pound more than what we got at the class (I think).

When massaging the meat, there is still quite a lot of "give". But, the coloration change is quite noticeable - much darker red.

This whole process will be repeated at least two more times on a weekly basis. The reporting of it on this web site will not.

The next step you will see will be pulling, washing off, weighing, and into drying chambers/rooms.

Prosciuttos Underway

Here is the story of the birth of the two prosciutto from the class at Peter's brewery yesterday.

One weights about 27.5 pounds and the other about 30.5 lbs. They were transported to my house both packed into one container with surrounding salt after being massaged with salt at the class for 15-20 minutes. I have an old refrigerator that will be used to keep them at about 40 degrees for the next three to four weeks. I moved each of them into smaller containers for ease of handling.

Here is one of them sitting in the new container which is in a utility tub in my basement conveniently located right across from the fridge in which it will reside. It has been totally immersed in granulated salt:

Here they are in the fridge:

Here weights (concrete stepping stone and floor tiles - wrapped) have been placed on them. The bag of granulated salt (donated to the cause by Jamie) will be used to top off when the hams are pulled, flipped, and massaged approximately once a week:

A closer view with the weights in place:

After the salting period, one of these will hang in a dark sealed off corner of my basement which maintains a 60-70 degree temperature range throughout the year with very slow changes from winter through summer. The other will go into a space to be provided by Oliver at his home.

Stay tuned!