Despite already having thrown two parties devoted to enjoying our jamon serrano (see: http://www.meatclub.org/fiesta-de-jamon-serrano), and my daughter's and my devoted snacking, I still had the majority of the jamon untouched as of last week.  So, another party, with a lot of people, was required.  And so we had one this past weekend, filled with great food, great friends, and great weather.  Here are a few pictures of before and during the party (with a nice shot of Pepper, perhaps the jamon's greatest booster):

During the first two parties, we sliced away on the narrower end of the leg, which was drier, less marbled, and perhaps a bit saltier.  For this party, we flipped the leg over and dove into the big, thick, fatty side, and it tasted great.  Still a bit salty, but we had lots of great food a drink to balance it out.  Others who attended can chime in with comments with their own unfiltered opinions.

After everyone left the party, I still had way more meat on the bone than I and my family could consume in the near future.  And, since the leg had already been cut open and at (cool) room temperature for over a month, I decided it was best to cut the remainder off the bone and put the best meat in the fridge for slicing up in upcoming weeks (months?), and save the lesser meat for braises, soups, etc.  Here are a few pictures of the final steps:

In all, it was fun to make, tasty to eat, and most of all, great fun to share with friends.  Time to get another leg and bury it in salt ....

The prosciutto I've been curing for the last 18+ months rejected its Italian roots and found its true identity as a Spanish Jamon Serrano.  I expect the change was spurred by the fantastic jamon carving stand that Jim fashioned a few weeks ago -- even though Jim blasphemed and called it a prosciutto carving stand (see: http://www.meatclub.org/basic-prosciutto-carving-stand).

Regardless of terminology and nationality, it was clear that a party was in order.  So, I gathered with a handful of food-loving friends and family and we had a great Spanish-themed dinner on Saturday night with jamon, manchego, chorizo, and a fantastic paella (oh, and lots of wine and spanish cider -- see the last photo).  It was a great night.  

Here are a few pictures of the jamon carving in progress.

Having waited a year-and-a-half to crack into this leg, I was very excited.  But, having never cured a whole leg before, I was also a bit nervous it would be a flop (or worse, filled with maggots).  Remarkably, it was (and is) fantastic.  It's admittedly a little salty and my carving skills are certainly not that of a master, but it tastes great and is ridiculously fun to carve and share with friends.  

It's now sitting on my kitchen counter at home, waiting for friends and neighbors to come by with a bottle of wine or sidra to partake.  Drop by....

If you want to see a history of this ham/jamon/proscuitto, see:

http://www.meatclub.org/proscuitto-begins

http://www.meatclub.org/prosciutto-teaser

It's been about a 18 months since we salted the prosciuitto described at:

http://www.meatclub.org/proscuitto-begins

Peter has been the custodian for the last year-and-a-half, so he'll have to chime in with any relevant details about the curing conditions.  But, as you can see below, the leg looks fantastic.  And, it smells amazing.  It lost around 44% of its weight.

I'll post more pictures and give more details when I cut into it and taste, but that may be a couple weeks, since I'm on my way out of town (and just sprained my ankle, so unable to wield the beastly hunk o' love with my crutches.).  But, I promise, more to come....

It's been just over a month since the spanish chorizo went into the curing chamber (see last post).  Based on weight loss, firmness, and taste, I've concluded that they're done (except for the largest one, which I'm going to give another week or two). 

The pair of sausages in the hog casings (on the left in the first photo) lost 40% of the their weight, as did the smaller sausage in the beef-middle casing (in the center).  The largest one (on the right) lost 36% of its weight and still has a little "squish" to it when I squeeze, so I'm going to let it ride a little longer.  I'm also doing this because having cut open and tasted the small diameter sausages with 40% loss, I've found that they're still plenty moist to cut and in the mouth, so I'm not worried about letting the largest one lose more moisture weight.  Regarding curing chamber conditions, temperature hovered in the mid 50s and humidity started up around 80%+ and ramped down to 65%-70%.

As for flavor: fantastic!  Very rich, no off-flavors, good bind, and several layers of the various paprikas, garlic, etc.  These will be great on their own with a good beer (or perhaps some Asturian cider....) and also as an ingredient in cooking.  Of course, if Tim gets near, they may disappear quickly.

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):

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:

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:

So far so good!  More later.....

I gave biltong a second try with a better cut of meat, in an attempt to make it more authentic (and tastier).  I used a 3-pound eye-of-round (same cut as often used for bresaola), and cut it into three 3/4" slabs running with the grain.

Then, I dipped them in cider vinegar, added the spices (toasted corriander seeds, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper), and put them in the dehydrator.  It's been about a week since I actually did this, so don't recall the exact times and temperature, but I think I let it run for about two days at around 120F degrees (with the idea of low and slow, compared to my last approach with the thinner strips).  Here's what came out:

It felt pretty good on the outside, but the inside was still quite moist, and I was concerned that it might spoil.  It also looked a little too moist/rare when I compared the interior to lots of biltong images online.  So, back into the dehydrator for another day, and at a higher temperature (150ish, I think).  Here's the final product: I need a south african to drop by to taste it and confirm, but I think it's done.  It tastes great (and gives a good jaw workout).  

Below are a couple of pictures of the completed Spicy Finocchiona (to see prior posts, click on tag on sidebar of "finocchiona").  The salami were done curing over a month ago, but I just never got around to posting. 

In all, these are the best salami I've yet made.  Good taste, good spice, and good texture.  One interesting thing was that I originally pulled them from the curing chamber when the weight loss was around 33-35%.  But, I felt that the one I cut into was still too mushy and unconsolidated, so I let them dry for another few weeks until the total weight lost was around 40%, which I think improved them.  Also, my fat content was a bit too high on these, so next time I'll fix the ratio.  But, in all, a solid success. 

Finocchiona are doing very well in the chamber, having been in for about three weeks. Temp has been 55-60 and humidity at 70-75%.

Below are paired pictures taken about a week ago and yesterday (each pair shows one side of the salumi). You can see the change in the plumpness. Here's one side, before and after (i.e., a week ago and yesterday):

And here's the other side:

 I'm also happy with the mold development.  There's a nice bloom of the mold I sprayed on and no visible bad molds.