Monday, January 23, 2012

Salami Controne ( Kimchi Salami )

Howdy All:

I've been inspired by the Charcutapalooza winner Peter of Cook Blog to try something new

His Recipe for Kimchi Juice( or any lacto fermented product ) fermented Salami.http://www.acookblog.com/2011/12/i-always-take-a-meat-sandwich-with-me.html#more-4996

I'm giving it a try to see if I can get away with not using the commercially purchased Lacto Fermenting powders.

First: We start with 5lbs of ground pork from our friends at Tails and Trotters .  I can grind my own meat, but why bother? For an amateur charcutier like myself, this is a no brainer.




Here is the hot pepper flake powder which gives this salami it's name.  Pure Italian bliss.

Check it out.



purchased from my friend Michael at StoryTeller Wine   He's a great guy and has a great selection of wine.  Check him out, in person or online ( he'll ship to you ).


Here's the recipe:

5lbs ground pork (70:30 meat to fat ratio)
55 grams kosher salt
10 grams instacure #2 ( long term cure/not "pink salt" )
1/3 cup water
10 grams ground black pepper
10 grams fresh crushed garlic
30 grams Controne Pepper Flake
20 grams dextrose
4 tablespoons "Kimchi Juice"

Here's a pic of the seasoning ingredients

And, here's a pic of the seasoning and pork about to become one happy family.


I finally got a chance to use the sausage stuffer I purchased from Grizzly.  They're a purveyor of all sorts of machinery, and I purchased a 5lb stuffer for about $100.   I have to tell you, this also was SO much easier than using the grinder/stuffer I purchased last year.  Wait til you see the paste.. no smearing whatsoever. 

If you live in/near Portland,OR and would like to borrow it, let me know.. no need to buy one if we can share.  Here it is stuffed with 5lbs of meat paste and loaded with 15 feet of hog middles.

Here's a few links fresh off the stuffer, tied on the ends with butchers twine.  Each about 1/2 pound.


here's a closeup of one of the links.  Look at that beautiful color and fat/meat distribution.

Here's the end result of about 1 hour prep and one hour of stuffing. 11 beautiful salamis


After cleaning up, they went into the "ghetto fermenter" (plastic container put in a cold oven with the door left open enough to keep the light on, with a towel over the door, keeping the temp at about 80 degrees F or so) As an experiment, I created a "slurry" of casings from purchased salamis that had the white" fiore" mold on them with tepid water to see if I can grow the good mold without using purchased bacteria.

Here's how they look after fermenting for 24 hours.  Too bad we don't have smellavision.  These puppies smell fantastic!!















Now to hang up and come back for a taste in 2-3 weeks.



Friday, January 6, 2012

I'm still alive!

Happy New Year Meat and Pickle Lovers!

I just realized that I've been neglecting this blog terribly.

I'm not going to be able to fix it today, but thought I would add a few pics of some tasty treats I've been making over the past few months.

In addition, One of the proscuitto I hung last year is ready to be enjoyed.. the other will become a 2 year proscuitto.    I'm getting two more legs next week, and I'll make that my first "how to" post of the new year, although it will be pretty much the same as last year.

Lots of bacon, pancetta(tesa style), smoked salmon and sturgeon, some outstanding Coppa and Lonzino that both hung since last spring, and finally.. the 2011 Nocino!( Italian Walnut Liquor ).  It turned out good this year, as opposed to last year's fiasco.  Let's see how it ages and develops.