Meat Club Charcuterie

random posts about our meatings

Spanish Chorizo: Fresh & Cured (and Tasty!!!)

I cranked out two batches of spanish chorizo this weekend -- one cured and one fresh.  Here they both are after stuffing (the batch of small links are the fresh, and the group of two large and one pair are for curing):

(download)
Eager to jump at my wife's suggestion to make a batch of fabada, I took a few of the fresh links, some cured pork belly, and a big smoked hock, and made a very tasty pot of fabada (albeit lacking in the morcilla (blood sausage)).  In honor of Duncan & Elsa and Joaquin & Coro and Aitana:

(download)
And now, just out of the fermentation chamber and into the curing chamber, are the cured chorizo. I decided to inoculate them with the m-600 white mold before going into the fermentation chamber, to foster the growth of the good stuff and avoid the growth of the bad stuff.  Seems like it worked like a charm:

(download)
So far so good!  More later.....

Finocchiona Fermented and Drying

Quick upate: the fermentation chamber worked great, with temperatures oscillating around 68-74 degrees (as heater timer cycled on and off -- see comment on last post).  I let the salami ferment for three days at around 85-90% humidity.  

When I pulled them from the chamber, some surficial mold had begun to grow (see first few pictures below).  I wiped that off with a salt water solution, then misted them with the M-600 mold culture from Butcher & Packer (formerly called the M-EK-4 culture), and put them in the curing chamber (see ghostly picture below with my bad camera).  Conditions in the chamber around around 57 degrees and 80% humidity. 

To make space for the salami, I pulled out some pancetta which was in there and let it dry in the ambient conditions in my cellar, which are around 60-64 degrees and around 50-65% RH.  I didn't want to keep them in with the salami, since I want the pancetta at a lower humidity.

A question to all: what are your practices for applying the M-600 mold culture?  Do you apply it before or after the salami goes into the fermentation chamber?  How much powder do you put into solution?  Do you spray it on or dip?  Do you precondition the mold if frozen (e.g., let sit in solution for 12 hours before applying)?  Seem to be mixed practices out there and not much good info on the mold package or Butcher & Packer.

(download)

Spicy Finocchiona Salami

I had a picnic roast on hand from a recent pig order, so decided to make a batch of salami.  I combined a few recipes from the Ruhlman/Polcyn book (their tuscan salami), len poli's site (http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Salami%20finocchiona.pdf) and the Marianski book (their finocchiona), and also added in some hot pepper flakes for extra zing.  

I used the T-SPX slow-fermenting culture (suggested in Marianski, and obtained from Butcher & Packer) rather than the fast-fermenting Bactoferm F-RM-52 (called for in Ruhlman), since the Marianski book places heavy emphasis on the better flavors with the slow fermenting SPX culture.  Having been bit a bit underwhelmed by prior results with the Ruhlman tuscan salami, I'm curious to see how this one goes.  For casings I used beef middles (several sections of which were a bit thin/ragged, and two blew out while stuffing; hopefully more won't fail while hanging).

Another fun endeavor today was inventing and building a fermentation chamber for the salami.  You'll see it in the final photos in the series.  It is basically a clear, upright storage bin, with a dowel mounted across the top, a heating pad hanging inside along one wall, a remote humidity and temperature sensor, and some water poured in the bottom and misted throughout.  So far, it's working great.  The SPX culture is supposed to ferment at 68-75 F for 2-3 days at 85-95% RH.  Right now, I'm getting a reading of 73 F and 90% RH.  I'm just hoping I don't wake up to find it's at 50 or 100 degrees....

(download)