Meat Club Charcuterie

random posts about our meatings

Fiesta de Jamon Serrano

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.

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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....

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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

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....

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Dried Spanish Chorizo Complete

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). 

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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%.

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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.

Finocchiona Update

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):

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And here's the other side:

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

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.

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Rosen Lonzino

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

 

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 ....

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Rosen Salami Update

Here's the latest from the Rosen Chamber.  Conditions have been holding steady in the mid 50s for temp and 70-80% humidity.  I've been keeping my humidity up a bit more than the Ruhlman/Polcyn book calls for for a few reasons.  First, because the outside of the giant genoa was starting to get dry and it's so big, I want to make sure I don't get case hardening.  Second, I wanted to encourage more mold development.  Third, I just got the Marianski book on fermented sausages and it recommends a humidity range of 70-85%, rather than Ruhlman's lower 60-70%, and I put more stock in Marianski.  One interesting (and disconcerting) thing I found was that my remote humidity sensor generally reads about 7% higher than my base unit for the same conditions.  Who knows which is correct.  I have an analog hygrometer in the mail that I'll add to the mix ($5).

You'll see that all seem to be doing nicely, with plenty of mold on the tuscans and a slow but steady development on the genoa.  I wiped off some blue/green/khaki mold spots yesterday with a water/vinegar mix.  Probably wasn't necessary, but did it anyway.  Also, interesting to see that much of the "white" mold on my tuscans is really off-white tending toward yellow/brown.  I hope that's OK.

I haven't weighed anything yet, but plan to do so soon. 

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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.

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Here is another area with less of a problem.

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This is the first area immediately after painting.

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

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This is the other area today.

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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.

Spouse Versus Salami

My lovely wife, Jeanine, cannot stand the "stench" in our basement.  She wants me to throw all the salami in the garbage.  I tell her that I am THE PRESIDENT OF THE MEAT CLUB and that it is both my duty and passion to carry on these old traditions and craft some tasty morsels in the process.  She pinches her nose and says: "Get rid of them!!!!"

But, of course, I cannot.  I will need to come up with some other solutions.  I'm thinking of setting up some odor barriers in the short term (shower curtains?) and then maybe devise a more involved venting system to the outdoors.  I guess not everyone can appreciate the funky/sour smell of aging raw meat.....

While I've still got my cherished boys (they're really like family now), here's a quick update: the Giant Genoa and the three tuscans are all sharing the curing chamber, which is hovering around 55-60 degrees and 72-76% humidity.  Everything's looking pretty good, especially the tuscans, which are developing an excellent bloom of powdery white mold (see pictures).  The genoa is doing nicely too, but not much mold and the only mold is slightly furry (though it's white and not too furry, so I'm not concerned); I see the beginning of some nice white powdery mold, which is good.  Despite the relatively high humidity in the chamber, I have some concerns about the exterior of the genoa drying out given its massive girth and the fact that the venting fan is often on, which may be passing a dessicating breeze across the genoa.  We'll see.

Next time you see Jeanine, let her know how cool you think she is for curing salami in her basement....

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