Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Lonzino Da Diavalo -Heading into the Curing Chamber

The Lonzino Da Diavalo that I started curing on March 4th, was feeling "cured" on March 15th, so I pulled it out of the bag, gave it a really good rinse, and was going to apply another liberal coat of the hot spices I applied previously, but then took a good whiff, and realized that all of those spices had permeated the meat so well, I didn't need to reapply. In addition to having that "sort of hard" feeling, it's taken on the deep reds/oranges of the spices. 


I then stuffed it into a 100mm collagen casing ( it's easy to pick up on the way home, so spare me the lectures on natural casings ), then tied it up, poked a few holes for air and liquid to escape and hung it in the curing chamber for 2-3 weeks.


As you can see, it's a beauty, and as long as nothing too crazy happens to it in the curing chamber, this is going to be one freaking tasting spicy lonzino. ( Yes, I'll bring some into work ).  I'm just hoping it's not too salty since I kept it in the cure for 2 or 3 days longer than the recipe called for. ( although anonymous follower Paul H will eat anything that's salty, so it won't go to waste ).

Into the curing chamber, where it will hopefully pick up some of that white mold from the lamb proscuitto and add that 'salami' taste to it.   curing chamber is approx 55-60 F, with a Residual Humidity (RH ) of approx 70%, obtained by using a super saturated salt solution.

4 comments:

  1. I'm jealous of a curing/drying room/chamber. Have a fridge but it is living 2 hours away. And Ill have to do some modifications to maintain the right temp and humidity. Someday soon though.

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  2. don't be too jealous Darrin... it's just a dorm fridge with a reptile aquarium controller from petsmart to control temp.. and a pan of super saturated salt water to keep humidity at 70%.

    Look around your house.. you can prob find a corner to stash it in.

    The only limiting factor is size.. I have a feeling that within 2 or 3 months I'm going to outgrow this fridge and have to suck it up and put a second full size fridge out in the mancave. That one will be setup like Jason Molinari's from his cured meats blog ( although I'm going to modify it to have all the temp and humidity equipment sitting on the top, instead of inside ).

    Actually, with the weather we're having in Oregon now ( 50-60's, with 70-100% humidity ) I could just hang them in my man cave and they would do fine.. I'm just testing the curing chamber for this summer.

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  3. Hi Todd, I saw your comment on my blog this morning about trading for eggs. My man Chance cures so we don't need meat right now but shoot me an email ( hrafinstaadataoldotcom) and we could work something out.
    I have to get Chance to look at your blog,he is going to love it.
    Cheers!
    Rois

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  4. Hey! Awesome photos!! What is the water/salt ratio for a "super saturated salt water?" I just tried 1 C water to 1/2 C kosher salt. Will that do it?

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