Meat Club Charcuterie

random posts about our meatings

Sloan Tuscan / Genoa update

Quick update on my Tuscans and Genoa from last weekend. I have kept my Genoa under a damp towel, changing and checking twice daily, for the past week. I have been able to keep the humidity at about 80-85% and the temp in the mid- to high-60s F. I took the Tuscans out of the oven on Tuesday morning and hung them downstairs in the same room as the genoa, but about 18" away and not under a towel. 

     
Click here to download:
Sloan_Tuscan_Genoa_update.zip (9866 KB)
My curing "chamber" is just a little closet under the stairs in the basement, but the conditions in general are good. At this point all the salamis are in the same room. I mist the room once per day and check everything in the morning and in the evening.

The casings look very good to me at this point, still very pliable and not yet beginning to really dry out. A little mold is beginning to form, and so far it looks--to me--like the good kind. I have wiped off (with white vinegar) any small bluish-green spots right away just to be on the safe side. 

There is a nice aroma of fermentation in the closet. I'm beginning to like that smell.

PS My genoa is in bondage because the string was too short to fit around my hanging rod and I was afraid it would slip off because the salami was so heavy.

The Big Reveal!

Cut into my blister-less Tuscan and am very happy with the results! 

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)

Ominous Blisters

Upon today's inspection, one of my sausages has a handful of watery (sometimes clear, and in one case cloudy) blisters. Another sausage has a couple of clear small, watery spots; and the third sausage has no blisters that I can detect. I'm definitely not eating the first one. I've included a few more pictures, again it's hard to see very clearly but note the raised area to the right of my finger in the first picture.


     
Click here to download:
Ominous_Blisters.zip (4944 KB)

Sloan Salami: Little to report

My Tuscans have firmed up considerably over the course of the last week. I have been misting now only once a day and my temp and humidity have remained constant, in the same range I reported last week (63-67F/60-65RH). I have no mold. 

With that said, I am increasingly paranoid about case hardening. A couple of things that I don't know what to make of: (1) the outside of the salami is shiny and even a little greasy and (2) on one salami there are a couple of small, non-protruding blisters of liquid below the surface. I have tried to photograph these pockets, but struggled to get the detail with my camera. Try to look just above my thumb in the photo. What could these things mean? 


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Sloan Salumi Update 10/31

The Sloan Salumi are curing nicely in the closet under the stairs. 

During the fermentation phase, I was eventually able to get the RH elevated to 85%+ by putting two pans of warm water on the bottom rack of my oven; covering a sheet pan with a warm, wet towel; putting the salumi on cooling racks on top of the wet-towel-wrapped sheet pan; and covering the salumi with a dry kitchen towel. On Monday, I transferred the boys to a cupboard under the stairs, hanging them from a slightly truncated tension rod. For the first 24 hours or so the room was at 70F/75%RH (I think because we had the light on and put warm water in the room). 

For the remainder of the week we have temps in the range of 62-67F and RH in the range of 60-65%. I have two cake pans of salted, room-tempurature water beneath the salumi. I am misting the room twice per day.I have some minor freckling of white mold. The mold is very superficial and seems innocuous. I did wipe a little of it off today. 

The salumi smelled wonderfully ripe for a few days, which I am guessing is the smell of fermentation. The pungency has decreased over the course of the week. The salumi are turning a very pretty red color, mottled white by the fat. They feel a bit squishy still (but decidedly firmer than a week ago) on the inside and fairly supple--though no longer wet--on the outside. I worry a bit about case hardening. 

I have included two photos. One showing mold and the other a portrait of the boys just hangin'. 

   
Click here to download:
Sloan_Salumi_Update_1031.zip (3543 KB)

Rosen Salami Update Day 7

Interesting last couple of days. 

Genoa: Last couple of days fermenting.  Significant natural/ambient mold bloom -- see attached photos of genoa from 10-29 and 10-30.  Most of mold has been white, but a few spots of greenish blue and one or two small dots of brown.  I just scrubbed the whole thing down with white vinegar and sprayed on the mold Peter distributed (see photo of scrubbed genoa).  Conditions in fermentation chamber have been pretty steady around 63-64 degrees and 95% humidity.  When temperature dropped to 61 or 62, I put a hot water bottle in to bump up the temp about 10 degrees.  I'm now calling fermentation done, and am going to drop temp and humidity in curing chamber.

Tuscans: Have mostly been hanging in ambient conditions in my basement for the last couple of days, with conditions around 63 degrees and 50-55% humidity.  Staying pretty moist, with some spots drying out.  I figure my putting them in the curing chamber with the massive genoa and all its humidity (which I just did) will moisten them back up.  Some very minor mold bloom on tuscans (see photos) -- a couple of white lightly furry spots and a few areas of nice thin powdery white mold.  I wiped off a few spots that were tending toward the bluish green tint, but otherwise left them unscrubbed and did not mist much with mold, since I think they'll pick it up from the conditions in the chamber with the genoa.

The tricky thing now with my small curing chamber and all that meat will be getting the humidity down without my air circulating fan running all the time, which might dessicate the exterior.  We'll see......

                   
Click here to download:
Rosen_Salami_Update_Day_7_tag_.zip (4001 KB)

Rosen Salami: Day 5 Progress Report

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Above is a Word document I put together a few days ago with a progress report on our Giant Genoa and the three Tuscans I’m curing (use Zoom and Fullscreen for easier viewing).  Yesterday, some mold started to develop on both salami.  I'll try to email an update tonight or tomorrow. 

I look forward to everyone else's posts and the discussion to follow (feel free to use the comment function under each post).

Salami Follow-up with updated email list

Greetings all,

Thanks for the great class and all the reports.  I've fixed the group mailing list here to include just those that attended the class (plus tim) and adding Wayne, who was missing from the original list (Wayne, I'll forward you all the other emails).  So, in future group emails related to the class/curing, please use this for your "reply all."

A quick update on my end:

1) The Big Salami (the genoa) weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz!!!! Massive.  It's been hanging in my chamber at a steady 64 degrees and 91% humidity.  Great for now, but I have no idea how I'm going to reasonably drop the humidity when needed, since that log of humidity is filling my entire chamber....

2) I cured three tuscans in my oven over the weekend (approx 36 hours total).  Like several others I had trouble getting the temperature up/stable and esp. keeping humidity up.  I occasionally turned on the oven to bump up the temp and did a lot of misting water inside the oven (and on the casings) to get humidity up.  I definitely noticed that after about 24 hours, even with that misting, the casings were definitely drying out (and I could see the same in some of your photos).  I resorted to keeping them all on a sheet pan lying flat (still in the oven) for last night, covered with warm damp towel.  That did wonders to rehydrate the casings.  If your casings are starting to dry, I would do something like that, or mist them with a spray bottle the first few days/week in the chamber (if your casings start drying out now, you risk case hardening down the line).  I've now moved my tuscans into the chamber with the big salami, where they'll coexist at high humidity for a few more days while the the genoa continues to cure at 65/90.  Then, I'll try to drop temp and humidity.

Keep reporting, taking notes, and photos.  Once our webmaster, Tim, gets our site runnning, we can post everyone's material they're gathering now and perhaps each person can have their own little zone to post to so we can see running progress of each salami.

Happy curing!
Jamie

sausage instructions

Howdy Gang,

Thought I would pass along initial fermentation condition attempts.

I have attached a word document with my notes.

Here are some pics:

Tuscan salami in kitchen oven with hygrometer/thermometer, pan of water behind it, damp towel on bottom of oven (electric)

closer view - this is the Extech 445814 "Humidity Alert" hygrometer positioned so that I can see it through the oven window

full view of oven with local meat inspector

Genoa salami - this is the large styrofoam box in which we received a frozen turkey

salamis on a platter - 1 quart pyrex measuring glass of water - hygrometer - box is in the basement next to the dry curing chamber/fridge

closer view - this is the remote reporting thermo-hygrometers that Jamie showed us in the class
The pictures of the oven show lower readings for temp and RH than my notes indicate. They drop as soon as the door is opened. They seem to recover pretty well when the door is closed. If they do not, I turn the oven on "warm" VERY briefly. Have already burned small holes in the damp towel on the bottom of the oven. Should try re-arranging things to put it on a low rack.

I did turn the sausages this morning to try to retain shape. The Genoa sausages, being so large and heavy, were getting a flat side on the bottom. I was able to manipulate that away. Will have to do that daily for the next week. The Tuscan ones do not have much of a problem with mis-shaping, and they only have 36 hours to go until it's into the dry curing chamber.

I was pleased to see how easy it is to get satisfactory conditions.

I hope everyone else found little problem in doing so.

Later,

Jim

 

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