Witness the saga of the moldy lonzino!

 

I started with inspiration from a few different sources and recipes (relying most heavily on Len Poli's recipe: http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/lonzino.pdf and http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2008/06/lonzino.html), and then followed my muse.  Unfortunately, a week away from home coupled with a dehumidistat set too high, set for initial conditions that proved challenging, perhaps insurmountable.

 

But first, some basic stats: I began with an initial refrigerator cure for 24 days (mostly because I forgot about it, but in the end, this did not cause any problems of the product being too salty).  Then, on March 25, I put it in the chamber, after stuffing it into a beef bung and netting (all the little black flecks you see in the photo are some of the residual thyme leaves that I didn't fully wash off).  I set my dehumistat/fan combo at around 85% with temp around 50 F, innoculated the lonzino with some mold starter culture, and then .... went on vacation!

 

Eight days later, I came back to find chamber humidity at 82%, temp of 56F, and LOTS of different flavors of mold.  The following pictures were taken on 4/5/10:

Of course, this was very disappointing, but I wasn't ready to pitch the whole thing into the trash.  Having seen tons of green mold on all the salumi hanging in the rafters of NYC's famous Pork Store on Arthur Avenue (see: http://www.yelp.com/biz/calabria-pork-store-bronx and pictures), I was ready to ride it out.   So, I scrubbed off as much fuzz as I could with some white vinegar solution, reinnoculated it with good mold culture, and hung it back up in the chamber with humidity of around 78% and temp of 57F.  These photos are from 4/7/10:

And these are from 4/10/10, with the good mold having bloomed:

Thereafter, I let it hang for several more weeks, with RH slowly declining from high 70s to high 60s, and temp remaining 55-60F.  And, I finally pulled it out of chamber on 5/3, when it had lost 33% of its weight.

 

And then I donated my body to the labratory of medieval meat experimentation.  I cut into the lonzino, sliced it up, and ate it.  Well, some of it.

As these words prove, I am still quite alive.  And, I didn't even get sick!  (Of course, I also told my pregnant friend not to touch it). 

 

How does it taste, you ask?  Not great.  It's a little bit musty and just not all that yummy.  I suspect the early mold had a fair amount to do with the mustiness, but that's about all the flavor complexity there is.  So, I'm dubious about just how great it would taste had I not botched the early stages.  I guess I'll have to try again and see.

 

Finally, there are two things I would probably do differently.  First, I think I would trim off the layer of fat and connective tissue on the one side of the loin.  As you can see from the photos, it resulted in very uneven drying and I think created a virtually impermeable barrier to moisture loss on that side (note differential drying in final slices and lack of any mold during latter phase of drying).  Second, I probably wouldn't put the lonzino in the beef bung, as I think that it's relatively imperable too (based on similar experience drying a bresola).  Poli's site said it should take around 17 days to dry, while mine took over a month and is still quite moist in the center.

 

It was a lot of fun to do, and I'll probably try it again, but I won't chalk this one up as a masterpiece.  But, you're all welcome to come over and try it!