Meat Club Charcuterie

random posts about our meatings

Guanciale, Tessa, and Lardo

Some results are in from our Big Pig Day.  My guanciale, tessa (flat pancetta), and lardo are all done, and all turned out excellently.  I let a few things sit in the cure for longer than called for (I forgot about things), but nothing appears to be overly salted or otherwise problematic.  I'll post some more tasting notes as I and my willing friends and family move through the product. 
 
I only had a very small lardo piece, so I let that cure in the fridge for 6 days, and then rinsed off the cure and let it hang in my chamber (in the cheesecloth bag in the photo) for 18 days.  I let the tessa and guanciale cure in the fridge for 17 days, and then rinsed and hung for another 10 days.  On March 26, I pulled them all from the chamber and cleaned off the mold for final consumption and storage.  As you'll see, the tessa got some nice, white mold from ambient conditions (they were not innoculated).  The photos showing the mold are after 8 days of hanging.  The guanciale got almost no mold and the lardo had none.
 
Conditions in the chamber were maintained at the high 50s for temp and high 60s and low 70s for humidity.  Made for a nice firm product, without being hard or dry.
 
All in all, a great success for every product.  I was, and remain, a bit ambivalent about leaving the skin on the guanciale and tessa.  I think it probably makes for a more uneven cure and uneven drying.  But, it looks and feels so damn awesome at the end that it's hard to pass up.  And, it probably adds a nice protective layer (though probably not essential since I will keep extra product in the fridge or freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic).
 
Keep your eyes peeled for the next posting on my lonzino, which has hosted more gnarly growths of mold than you can imagine ....

                     
Click here to download:
Guanciale_Tessa_and_Lardo_tag_.zip (2966 KB)

Giant Genoa: Big Disappointment

5 months and 32% weight-loss later, I finally cut into the giant genoa (see prior posts for the epic history of this beastly 10 lb salame).
 
Unfortunately, the results are less-than-spectacular.  The flavor is off (soapy/bitter/rancid aftertaste), the meat/fat ratio is off, and the bind is off.  The curing conditions for the last 5 months have been excellent, with a steady decline in RH from around 85% to 55%, with temperature generally running 50-60 degrees F.  While there was no big bloom of white mold, there was also no big bloom of any bad mold.  So, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong (I suspect a few things from our production phase).  Regardless, we'll chalk this one up to experience.
 
That being said, I have 10 lbs of the genoa salame that I am the mere custodian for, and I'm happy to distribute large chunks to anyone that wishes!  And, even though it wasn't great on its own, it did make for a fine hoagie (one of my favorite foods as a kid).

           
Click here to download:
Giant_Genoa_Big_Disappointment.zip (1512 KB)

Big Pig Day -- More Photos!

Here are some more photos from our excellent Big Pig Day.  For those who could not attend, we spent the morning breaking down the hog for later fabrication in the afternoon into: prosciutto, lardo, tessa (flat pancetta), guanciale, brine cured loin, dry cured lonzino, coppa, fresh garlic sausage, tuscan and genoa salami (and other things I've probably forgotten).  Then, we had a bunch of misc. parts leftover for individual home creativity (ribs, offal, trotters, ears, skin, etc.).  A great day in all.

For all that did attend, please post updates (with photos, insights, and confusion) on the progress of your curing and consumption!

                         
Click here to download:
Big_Pig_Day_--_More_Photos_tag.zip (2960 KB)

A Fine Meal

 

I had a few meat-loving friends over for dinner the other night, which provided a great opportunity for lots of charcuterie and related tasty morsels.  The menu:

Charcuterie Platter and Cheeses (inlcuding housemade: duck breast prosciutto, trifecta poultry liver pate with currants and dried cherries (i.e., duck, turkey, chicken livers), country pork terrine with pistachios, tuscan salame, and spanish pork rillettes)

Duck Confit, Creamed Parsley, and Duck-Fat-Fried Potatoes with Black Truffles

Linzer Torte with Sara Sloan Peach Preserves

 

Prosciutto Begins!

Peter and I started a prosciutto on Sunday afternoon -- pictures are below.  We started with a 31 lb leg, trimmed it up a bit, carved out the aitch bone (part of the pelvis), lined a giant plastic bin with salt, put the leg in, packed a ton of salt in all gaps in the meat and around the bones, buried the leg in the remainder of the salt (50 lbs total), put about 25 lbs of weight on top of the salted leg, put the lid on, and then left it in Peter's walk-in fridge (around 40 F). 

Peter will flip the leg occaisonally over the next few weeks and give it some loving salt massages, and we expect to pull it out after about 3 weeks in the salt, at which point it will be rinsed and hung to dry for 9 months or a year. 

This is my first prosciutto, so I can't answer too many questions. But, Peter has done a bunch, so if you post questions, I'm sure he can chime in.

I'm not sure I can wait a year to carve into this.....

               
Click here to download:
Proscuitto_Begins_tag_Jamie_pr.zip (1722 KB)

Salumi Update - Due Finito y Due Progesso

I deemed my Saucisson Sec to be ready and consumable one week ago
after dry-curing for 30 days post-stuffing. Four of the sausages were produced.

Here is one of them before cutting:

Here it is at first cut:

Here it is sliced for consumption:

As you can see there were some interior gaps - don't know why - improper stuffing?

Found it to be quite tasty, but a little chewy. Not really any case hardening,
but probably went a little too long in the curing chamber.

I will have to confess to indulging in the acquisition of a good slicing machine.
I just could not imagine mangling a lovingly nurtured product with an uneven hand
cut no matter what quality of knife used.

Here are some pics of the beast:

         
Click here to download:
Salumi_Update_-_Due_Finito_y_D.zip (3136 KB)

Besides, I have another product in the works that absolutely demands paper
thin delivery to be enjoyed.

Today (Sunday - November 15), it became apparent that the Tuscan salami
were ready. They were quite firm and some very small beads of fat tears started
to appear. So....finito.

Here they are before cutting:

Tuscan salami ready for tasting:

VERY tasty product - the lactic acid tanginess is quite different from what
the Saucisson Sec presents.

That leaves two products that still PROGRESSO (pardon my Italian) in the
dry curing chamber:

Voila:

 One, of course, is the two Genoa salami which now
have a good coat of white mold and look like this at three weeks:

The other is a 1.3 lb piece of pork belly that I started on October 28 using
the recipe in the book on page 201.

I cured it in a quart size Ziploc under a brick for 10 days:

After curing, and before going into dry-curing chamber:

It has been dry curing for 8 days an now looks like this:

It was very noticeably firmer after the time in the Ziploc cure, and is
even more firm now. I hope to try it on my guinea pig Thanksgiving
guests 11 days from now.....PAPER THIN!

They will have to suffer through proud presentation of Saucisson Sec,
Tuscan Salami, Dry-Cured Pork Belly, and some home cured/cold-smoked
Loch Duart Salmon that turned out quite well (again using the recipe from
the book)....home made Hickory Smoked mixed nuts (treated with gourmet
soy sauce, salt, and a pinch of cayenne) for the squeamish or unadventurous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

           
Click here to download:
0Salumi_Update_-_Due_Finito_y_D.zip (3671 KB)

Update on the curing

Hey guys,
 
Here is an update on the progress of my Tuscans and some other projects. My curing chamber has been holding pretty steady at about 65 degrees with a RH of between 64% and 70%. I took them out to give em a cleaning yesterday. I had some very minor, potentially bad mold spots on them. All is well now. Next to them, you can see a batch of saucisson secs which appear to be doing very well. If my untrained eye might say so. I added a couple of of tbsp's of brandy to the meat, so I am very anxious to taste these. They're about two weeks old. I'm guessing one more week and We're good to go. I also have a Bresaola about to finish its second week in the fridge. I soaked the meat in wine for about 12 hours before applying the cure. It smells awesome. After this week, it has 3 weeks of hanging out to do. 
 
I'm not sure of the next class date, but I'm hoping to be able to bring all of these and some other goodies that I've been working on, for all of us to feast on. I'm especially excited for the Bresaola. Jamie, I dont know if you have a paticular item that you wanted to work on in the next class, but I'd like to let it be known that I'm Koo koo for Copa!
 
Cheers!
 
Wayne 

           
Click here to download:
Update_on_the_curing.zip (20456 KB)

Molds I Have Known - Update

Here is an update on the salumi in my dry-curing chamber/fridge.

The saucisson sec are very near being ready. I will probably cut into one of them to test tomorrow - Saturday, November 7 - which will be 30 days of curing since they were stuffed. They still have no mold on them, very little squish when you squeeze, and no signs of case hardening. Appearance has not changed for over a week. Hope they taste as good as they look.

The Tuscan salamis have not changed in appearance much - just slightly more white haze on them (undoubtedly the white mold I painted on) and now a few more dense spots of other white mold.

The most interesting items are the two Genoa salami. Two days ago (Wednesday - November 4), I spotted some new blue/green mold spots on one of them. I did not want to wipe them with a salt/vinegar solution as this would destroy the other white/beneficial mold that has developed nicely. So, I mixed a very small solution of 50/50 Clorox and water (about a teaspoon of each) and painted the spots lightly using a small artist's paint brush - hoping to kill the spots and not use enough of the mixture to taint the flavor. I appears to have worked quite well. Pictures and explanations follow:

Here is the most serious area before painting 2 days ago.

Here is another area with less of a problem.

This is the first area immediately after painting.

This is the first area 2 days later (today).

This is the other area today.

As you can also see, the white mold has developed well and continues to do so.

The other Genoa has had absolutely nothing bud the white mold on it.

Molds I Have Known

Here are some photos taken over several days showing the appearance/disappearance/reappearance of molds.

The Salumi Curing Notes word document that is attached gives the details - right from the beginning to the end. Look at the end of the document if you have seen some of this before.

Here are the Genoas from last Thursday when Jamie came over and we inspected. Shows several kinds of molds as they were hanging in the styrofoam box used for fermentation.

Some are white and round, some are dark green and round, some are hairy and black on the ends, some are red (is that really mold around the knot/hook). The thought was that anything that is NOT white is NOT good:

         
Click here to download:
Molds_I_Have_Known_tagjim_salu.zip (2651 KB)

Here they are after I gave them a bath in one half of the kitchen sink with tepid water, salt, and vinegar added. Scrubbed a little with a sponge. Was careful not to go through the casing. Painted them (and the Tuscans - which had been moved from the kitchen oven to the curing chamber several days before) with the white mold right after the bath.

Here they are 3 days after being painted and one day after transfer from sytrofoam box to dry-curing chamber. Taken up residence with the Tuscans which are looking good with a slight bloom of white mold from being painted. Saucisson sec keep on doing their thing:

You can see that one of the Genoas has new white blooms and the other one does not....why?  Both are showing signs of the painted white mold developing:

Tuscans and Saucisson looking good. Hard to see here, but the Tuscans (on the right) definitely have signs of the painted white mold developing:

TWO hygrometer/thermometers. The remote reporting one on the left and the one that was in the styrofoam box on the right. It reads higher than the remote on RH and lower on temp:

(download)