Portland Charcuterie Project

Salami Controne ( Kimchi Salami )

2012-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

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.

I'm still alive!

2012-01-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

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.

I know what you did this summer!

2011-09-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hi All.. this has been a fantastic summer.. one of the best ever!

I've been doing lots of projects, just not many in the cured meats dept.

I have some great new things to show you(smoked salmon, sturgeon, pickles, jams, etc ), as well as an abysmal failure ( my Tuscan style salami )

I'll also show you how my two awesome legs of Proscuitto are turning out.. they're a beautiful mahogany color and I'm looking forward to cutting one open for the holidays in January.. the second is going to become a "2 year " Proscuitto.. or maybe longer.

Right now it's beautiful in Portland, the sun is shining ( HOT ) and we're starting the flood of tomatoes. I'll be setting up a pickle party in the next week or two to make about 10 cases of spicy garlic dills.. and in between I'll be doing a few cases of random stuff ( like gooseneck and pattypan squash baby pickles, okra, dilly beans, green and red pickled tomatoes, and lots of other cool stuff ).

As the weather turns and we start thinking about the grape harvest in wine country 30 minutes away, I'll enjoy helping my friends bring in the grapes and get everything into the fermenters... after that, It's time to start making salami .. and i"ll probably start 2 or 3 more coppa and lonzino to get ready for the holidays.

Hope you're making lots of cool new stuff now.

Here's my first major failure... turns out the salami stuffer I first bought, tended to emulsify the meat paste... you can see the results below.

Here's a beautiful grouping of pancetta finished curing, rubbed in herbs and ready to hang up. Then the end result three months later.

Absolutely beautiful!

What might be the best jam I've ever made... Peach Ginger on the right... Heaven in a Jar.. along with some Blackberry goodness.

Beautiful carrots Ella and I planted, grew, and harvested

Same carrots turned into canned Cardamom Carrots

Along the way, Amy and I managed to find time to visit Willakenzie to drink some wine.

Ate quite a few dinners on the deck of my pickles, along with great baguettes, fresh goat cheese and tomatoes from the garden...

Went backpacking with JDub to Serene Lake... what a beautiful place and water actually warm enough to swim in....

Made a ton of smoked sockeye... this stuff is going to make lots of folks real happy in 2012....

Of course, had to make time to hit OBF 2011...

Nice hanging out with JDub and drinking a few(dozen) cold ones....

Nocino 2011 is cooking away... should be done by November.

Made some fantastic tails and trotters bacon.

I also tried a new(old) recipe for beet pickled deviled eggs... awesome!...

I even found time to make a new coppa..

and the highlight of the summer... playing with my little girl on the beach in Nags Head, NC...

and watching her catch ghost crabs at night on the beach...

Ran the Epic Relay with my wife and some great friends..

I also tried a new recipe for Kimchee.. and found out that it's so good I MUST be 1/2 Korean.

Now I"m sitting in a hotel In Salt Lake City.... traveling again for work... but in the coming weeks I'll be planting my fall/winter/spring garden, pickling shit tons of cukes, making more jam, and some exotic pickles, as well as making 5-10 pounds of salami before the grape harvest comes and I get to help my friends make their wine. After that, it's time to make the next batch of proscuittos... then cut one of the ones from last year open around the Christmas holidays. to enjoy the fruits of my labors with friends.

I hope you're all doing well... hopefully my next post won't take quite as long or be as lengthy.

Pancetta and Kimchee

2011-06-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone:

I just realized it's been almost 3 months since my last post, and while I havent' been blogging, rest assured I most definitely have been making charcuterie.

Today's entry is Pancetta... or "Italian Bacon" if you're my mom. It's bacon like, and comes from the belly, but at least according to the way I make regular bacon, worlds apart.

I started with 2 8lb bellies from Tails and Trotters and half of it ended up being not from the rib end where the good meat is, and was a bit too fatty for bacon, so when you're handed fatty pork belly, you make pancetta.

Here you go.. nice looking bellies, will cure nicely. I used the standard cure ( mix of kosher salt, brown sugar, and Cure #2, along with some cayenne, smoked hot paprika, and red pepper flakes.

Into the cure they go, see you in three weeks.

Three weeks later, I give them a good rinse for about 15 minutes to leach out some salt... then coat them in a mixture of fresh rosemary, oregano, thyme ( from my garden ) along with cayenne, smoked spanish paprika, and a bit of kosher salt

Now it's into the curing chamber for 3 or 4 months while I figure out what to use this stuff for.. most likely I'll slice it super thin and put on pizzas I'll be making in my new wood fired pizza oven.. or maybe lots of pasta carbonara this winter :)

on the non meat front, I want you all to check out my first ever attempt at Kimchee ( Korean pickled cabbage ).

It turned out awesome.. fermented for 4 days with spices.. nice ginger/lemongrass flavor with strong but not overpowering spiciness. My Korean Godfather would be proud.

Our garden is overflowing with Spinach, Arugula, lettuces, sugar and snap peas, and lots of herbs that I'm drying. Tomatoes are very slowly catching up to where they should be.. a couple of weeks of solid heat that's supposed to be on the way should help.

I have a coppa that's about ready to come out of the cure tomorrow.. I may blog about that.. just trying to decide whether to case it, or try it without this time.

All the best you guys.

Lamb/Pork Salami Tasting Notes

2011-04-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here are the finished Lamb/Pork Salami. The reddish one on the left is the Berbere spiced and the greenish on the right is the Zattar.

They are both well made, dried to about 40% weight loss ( we like our salami drier ), and with a very light mold on them.

The Berbere has a VERY strong spice taste.. and I like that, but it's obscured the taste of the meat, so next time I'll use less.

The Zattar tastes wonderful.. exotic lamby-porky goodness, with a hint of the desert and mint tea.

These went very well with a Paulaner HefeWeizen on a rare sunny April day in Portland this past weekend.

Before:

After:

I vacuum sealed them and threw them in my keg fridge to keep them from drying anymore.. hoping that they'll be fine ( I do that with my lonzino and coppa and it hasn't hurt them yet.

The salt % was under 2% on this batch.. but from now on, I"m kicking it up to 3.5% to be on the safe side. I just finished another pork soppressata last week and we'll see how that turns out.

Lamb/Pork Salami- Zattar and Berbere

2011-04-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the recipe

3lb's Anderson farms ground Lamb, and 2lbs Carlton Farms ground pork ( Great fat/meat ratio)

40 grams Kosher Salt

5 grams cure #2

17 grams Bacto Ferm F-RM-52

1/3 cup water

25 grams dextrose

4 oz red wine ( mosen cleto.. grenache/tempranillo blend )

25 grams cayenne pepper

10 grams bactoferm Mold 600 culture (to be sprayed on salami for development of white mold"fiore")

I then used 80 grams each of green Zattar Spice for half the mixture and 80 grams of Berbere spice for the other half ( stuffed separately)

Here it all is.. ready to be mixed together. I decided that grinding pork at home is a pain in the butt and if my buddy Morgan at T&T is willing to do it for me, why not?

Next up, take the bactoferm and water (with a pinch of dextrose ) mix together and wake them up and put aside. ( do the same with the Mold culture)

I froze the mixing bowl the night before and then threw the meat in the freezer for an hour to keep everything cold and keep emulsification to a minimum ( same with the metal parts of the sausage stuffer ).

Mix everything together by hand, saving the bactoferm culture for the last part ( I put the meat back in the freezer for about 30 mins while doing my prep, then pulled it out and added the bactoferm and mixed well.

After tying off, it's into my ghetto fermenter ( aka- tupperware container in my oven, with the door cracked, light on, and covered by a towel ) at around 85 degrees F for 3 days. After that, it's off to the "curing chamber" Aka Mancave, now Home Office to hang for about 4-6 weeks or until they've lost about 30% of their weight

If you look closely you can see the greenish tint to the Zattar Salami, and the reddish tint of the Berbere Salami.

Stay tuned.. they've been hanging for about a week now and look ( and smell) great.. I think I"ll be able to cut one of the "chubs" next weekned to test.

Large Spicy Salami Toscano

2011-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I placed an order at butcherpacker for assorted supplies and large (90 and 100mm ) casings for my coppas and lonzinos. I saw a "cool" casing that was a bit larger than what I had used before (probably around 3" across), that came pre-wrapped with netting. I hadn't figured out what I was going to do with them, but finally decided to turn them into big spicy salami.

Here's the recipe

2,354 grams T&T ground Pork ( Great fat/meat ratio)
40 grams Kosher Salt
5 grams cure #2
17 grams Bacto Ferm F-RM-52
1/3 cup water
25 grams dextrose
4 oz red wine ( mosen cleto.. grenache/tempranillo blend )
25 grams cayenne pepper
15 grams crushed red pepper flake
15 grams ground hot new mexico chili pepper
5 grams ground black pepper
10 grams bactoferm Mold 600 culture (to be sprayed on salami for development of white mold"fiore")

Here it all is.. ready to be mixed together. I decided that grinding pork at home is a pain in the butt and if my buddy Morgan at T&T is willing to do it for me, why not?

Next up, take the bactoferm and water (with a pinch of dextrose ) mix together and wake them up and put aside. ( do the same with the Mold culture)

Mix everything together by hand, saving the bactoferm culture for the last part ( I put the meat back in the freezer for about 30 mins while doing my prep, then pulled it out and added the bactoferm and mixed well.

Here's the end result.. all ready for stuffing. Look at that beautiful red color and nice chunks of pork fat.

For the first casing, I assembled the sausage stuffer and then used it. I really had a problem with this, as the constant smushing of the meat into the feeder assembly really emulsified the meat more than desired. Also, quite a bit remained in the feeder mechanism, and stuck behind the grinding plate ( not sure if that can be removed for stuffing, as the manual isn't very detailed ).

End result.. I got it stuffed, then pricked it full of holes, squeezed it down tight and tied it off.

For the Second casing, I decided to stuff it by hand to see if I could eliminate the emulsification problem.

It was a little messy, but easier by hand than using the stuffer. I'll probably do it by hand for all the larger casings moving forward.

If you look closely, you can see the differences between the hand stuffed ( and not emulsified ) casing on the left, and the sausage stuffer stuffed casing ( emulsified) on the right. I'm hoping both turn out well, but if not, I know that my buddy Paul will eat anything and happily take the one on the right.

In personal news, I left Kaiser Permanente about 3 weeks ago and am now managing a PMO (project mgt office) for a lab automation company. This is a great move for me and my family, as it gets me back in the for-profit world compensation level and true pay for performance. I'll be travelling a bit more now, but when I'm not on the road, I'll be working from home and that will give me a bit more freedom to indulge my charcuterie and (soon) wine making hobbies.

Charcutapalooza

2011-02-23T13:36:00.000-08:00

I've recently joined a group of fellow bloggers who have embraced a concept created by Mrs. Wheelbarrow (Cathy) and The Yummy Mummy (Kim), it has grown from an idea to get fellow bloggers to try their hand at homemade charcuterie to a group of bloggers nearing 300 total (the list of them is here) all wanting to try it out and share their experiences on their various blogs. The daily banter can be found on Twitter using the hash tag #charcutepalooza

so here we go.

I need to catch up, so I'll be doing duck proscuitto next week, but first my buddy Morgan from Tails and Trotters has a delivery for me of 10lbs of hazlenut finished belly ( for bacon and pancetta ) 5lbs of ground pork meat and belly ( for Salume ). I also have a 10lb pork loin in the fridge that needs to be cured tonight for my next Lonzino Da Diavalo. The first two turned out great and since it's very lean, it's something we can eat often without guilt.

Thanks to Darrin of Low on the Hog for the blatant plagairism regarding the Charcutapalooza.

On a Personal Note, I'm leaving Kaiser Permanente after almost 4 years and have joined a new company that provides lab automation and services to the Healthcare industry, so I get to try a new position leading a high profile PMO while still doing good things in Healthcare. I'll be travelling a bit, but for the most part I'm hoping to be able to spend more time with my family and my horde of cured meats.

Salame Toscano - Tasting Notes

2011-02-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

So here we are: A watershed moment for the Portland Charcuterie Project.

Our first Salame. It's a thing of beauty, and tastes great.

As you may recall from our last post, these puppies fermented for 2 days in my ghetto fermenter ( aka "tupperware container in my oven"), then hung in the Mancave for 18 days.

Check them out: I didn't actually weigh them, but it feels like they've lost about 30-35% of their weight and are very solid. Beautiful fiore mold on the outside ( I cultured my own mold from a salami purchased at Trader Joe's ). The first ones are what I'm calling "chubbers" as they were the results of splits in the middles which was caused when I was squeezing the air out of them. I just shortened them and tied them off ).

Look at the beautiful color, great binding, and gorgeous fat distribution ( no smearing here ).

I couldn't be happier with my first attempt, and am looking forward to cutting down one of the full size salume this weekend.

Chalk this up as a win for the PCP. Next up, Fennel Salume.

I also want to thank my friends for a great bday weekend up at Mt. Hood.

Who said 41 was old?

ps.. no bacon chocolate cake this year.. but Stephen and I were able to celebrate our bdays ( me 41, him 40 ) in style with a monster chocolate donut from Sesame Donuts. We ate that thing for three days!.

Stay tuned for our next posts.. I'm just about ready to bottle my Nocino.

Salame Toscano - First Attempt - From pile 'o pork to cured goodness

2011-01-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome back meat fans..

Well, here it is.. PCP's first attempt at salume.. for my first time, I'm making Salame Toscano ( hopefully not Salume Salmonella ), with the recipe based on one I got from the god of cured meat Scott at The Sausage Debauchery. I've modified it a bit, but here's the recipe:

4,155Grams Pork and Fat ( about 70-30 meat to fat ratio)

72 grams Salt

9 grams cure #2

29 grams bacto ferm F-RM-52

1/3 cup water

44 grams dextrose

15 grams black pepper ( ground)

7 grams crushed fresh garlic

6 oz dry red wine ( dago red )

10 grams cayenne powder

15 grams red pepper flakes

After mixing together ( using frozen bowls ), i got my grinder cleaned up, put the meat in the freezer to solidify a bit, as well as the stuffer, and started putting my mis en place together.

Here are the first links I've ever stuffed.. obviously rookie style, as they're all varying lengths.

All of the stuffing and tying took me about 2 hours, which seems like a lot, but I was a bit overzealous in sqeezing the meat and split many links.. good thing I bought 30 feet of hog middles.

After cleaning up, the fresh salume went into my ghetto fermenter. A simple tupperware container in my oven, leaving the light on, and covered with a towel ( this kept the temp at about 89-91 degrees the entire time.

Here's a shot of my oven (aka "ghetto fermenter" ) My wife is a trooper to keep it like that for 2 days wasn't she?

Here is the fresh salume hanging next to my proscuitti and lonzino.. 3 or 4 weeks and i'll be very happy ( or dead ).

Here they are after hanging for a week.. luckily we escaped to mexico

or I would have been out there molesting and squeezing them everyday.

Oh.. here's the finished Tails and Trotters Lardo I started this summer. It's absolutely delicious and I'll be giving this one to my new friend Rick from the food cart Lardo which is in Portland at SE43rd and Belmont. Check it out!!

Stay tuned for tasting notes in about 2-3 weeks. I'm hoping to have my friends Morgan Brownlow of Tails and Trotters, Vincent Fritzche of Vincent Wine Company, and my good friend and neighbors JDUB ( no website.. he's an overpaid and underworked teacher ) and John Pence Caprial and John's Kitchen come over to try the Salume, Lonzino, and do a blind tasting of an Oregon Pinot Noir I've committed to writing tasting notes for.

Have a great day.. headed to Mt. Hood for a long weekend snowboarding and relaxing with good friends and no kids :)

Tasting Notes - Tails and Trotter Coppa and Spicy Basturma

2010-12-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Greetings meat fans.

I'm sure you've all been hanging on the edge of your seat, wondering when I was going to finally slice into my Tails and Trotters hazlenut finished coppa, and my spicy basturma.

Well, stop wondering.. I just cut them open last night, and let me tell you.... the 10 month wait was more than worth it.

First up.. the Basturma.. this was 2-2lb Eye of Round Roasts I procured from Fubonn for about $4lb. Check out the blog post from last April for details on how I prepared them.

The flavor is out of this world.. Mild, but beefy, with a very slight yet noticeable spicy background. All in all, a very fine piece of dried meat.

The only thing I would do differently next time is to use one piece of meat per casing.. there was about 1/8 to 1/4 lb on each end that I had to cut off because they dried out too much. ( imagine the two ends touching each other in the case ).

check out the photos below for some awesome meat goodness.

Next up is my Coppa. I want to send a special thanks to my homeboy Morgan Brownlow of Tails and Trotters for procuring me what must have been the finest and largest Coppa in the history of meat. 7.5lbs of pure hazlenut finished Neck!!

Again, check out the blog entry from last April for details on how I prepped it.

I cut into it last night, and WOW... absolute deliciousness. Look at the beautiful fat and color of the meat.

This thing was heavily spiced, but only displays a slight hint of the heat.

Being really honest, some of the things I've made don't always taste as good to me as "store bought" charcuterie. However, this is one time that I absolutely hit it out of the park. ( and the proscuitto )

I'll be calling Morgan for another coppa or two next week.

This was a huge hit at my friend JDub's Holiday party last night.

Stay tuned for more blogs next week. I'll be bottling the Nocino, and then before heading to Mexico with my lady friend and little nugget, will be taking my two T&T legs out of the cure and hanging them for their 12 and 24 month slumbers.

Happy New Year to you all, especially to our Marines and lesser services across the globe.

Proscuitto - Part 1, Turning a T&T hunk of pig into something salty and beautiful

2010-12-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry for taking so long between posts, but things at work have been busier than usual. Luckily for us, that doesn't mean I haven't been making good stuff, it just means I haven't made the time to blog about it.

Since the end of September y'all have missed about 6 whole salmon that I cured and smoked, at least 20 lb's of bacon, as well as a lonzino and basturma. I'll do a better job of keeping up with the posts in the new year ( early resolution ).

Now on to my current project. Proscuitto:

Proscuitto is one of the simplest charcuterie to make, yet one of the most intimidating to the home charcutier. I don't feel the trepidation that some of my peers do with this, but I still have yet to make a salume.. which needs to be rectified over the holiday season.

Whole muscle charcuterie to me is simple, and provided you follow the basic steps, relatively foolproof. If they could do it one thousand years ago.. I can most likely do it today.

On to it.

On November 27th, I started with 2 legs, approximately 30lb's each from my good friend and pork dealer, Morgan Brownlow of Tails and Trotters. For something as pure as proscuitto, nothing but the best pork will do and for me that's the hazlenut finished goodness that Morgan brings to the table.

This is a simple curing recipe:

( for each 30lb leg )

4lb's kosher salt

1tbsp Sodium Nitrite

That's it.

Rub the salt in as good as you can, without going crazy. don't forget the slits cut into the pig foot (trotter ).. make sure you get the salt in every nook and cranny.

let it sit for a week, then come back and salt it again.

let it sit for 4-6 weeks more in your fridge ( anywhere the temp is lower than 45 degrees is fine ), and then it's ready for step 2 - The hanging. ( this is where it gets really complicated :-)

Some people press their proscuitto when curing, but I'm not bothering with it. Also, this time I have the hams carved spanish style, which means the aitch bone is in and it's a flatter cut on the bottom, as well as having the full trotter on. This not only looks "neater" when serving.. it allows for full use of the leg.

Stay tuned for part two, sometime in Mid to Late January.

Update on September Projects

2010-09-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

So once again, it's been an incredibly busy month with work and family, but of course, it's prime harvesting time even with the bad garden year.

Here are a few of the projects I've been working on this month.

1. Bacon ( naturally ). 13lbs of Tails and Trotters pork belly is now on it's way to becoming PCP bacon.

2. Pickling - 100lbs of cucumbers ( most from Kruger's on Sauvie Island ) - were turned into awesome hot dill pickles.

3. Beets - 6 lbs of nice baby golden beets were turned into Hot Indian Beets ( the Indian part is the cardamom, star anise, cinnamon, and clove ).

4. Smoked Salmon - This is prime salmon smoking season, but I'm pretty far behind. I've only done about 5-10 lb's total, and I usually need about 40lb's to get me through to the following summer ( what with gifts and parties and nights in front of the fire ).

5. BlueBerry Jam - 10lb's of awesome Oregon BB's are on their way to becoming PCP jam!!

6. Yellow Tomato Jam - I've gotten about 2-3lbs of beautiful yellow pear tomotoes in the past week and I decided to makea Yellow Tomato and Onion Jam.. I won't get a lot, but it will be great on burgers.

7. Canning Tomatoes - I have about 5lb's of San Marzano's ready to go, and another 15-20lb's sitting on the vine soaking up this late sunlight... sometime in the next week I'll can them with basil, garlic, and hot peppers from our garden.

8. Fennel - I've been waiting for the seeds to finish developing so I can make fennelcello... my fennel liqueur.. and when I've harvested the seeds, then I'll take the tenderest part of the bulbs and make fennel onion bacon jam.. stay tuned for this one, it's going to be good!

9. Sometime around the end of October I'll be getting 4 whole pork legs from my friend Morgan at Tails and Trotters, which I'll be turning into PCP Proscuitto.... the last one we made with John Pence (Caprial and Johns Kitchen ) turned out freaking awesome ( see pic )

Oh, I also splurged and used a week of PTO to backpack around Mt Rainier with two old friends ( ~100 miles, 54,000 feet total elevation gain and loss ). Absolutely beautiful!!

Our Chocolate Lab pup is sort of maintaining her size.. she's only grown about 5lbs in the past month.. she's now 5 months old, and just about 45lb's.

All of this work has made me thirsty. Time for a cold one. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by for a cold beer and we'll talk pickles and charcuterie.

Summer Projects ( Now that it's just about over )

2010-09-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

This has been one of the best summers of my life, even as it's been one of the worst gardening seasons due to the vagaries of global warming and climate change we've experienced this year.

I've been busy having lots of fun outside the world of charcuterie and pickling,.. but here are a few projects I've put together in the past month since my last posting.

1. Bacon-- 20 more lbs of schweet Tails and Trotters pork belly has now become beautiful PCP bacon.

2. Pickling - Approximately 80lbs of cukes ( mostly from Farmers Mkt ) squash, and beans ( from my garden ) have been turned into xtra hot dilly pickles.

As they say in making wine "it takes a lot of beer to make pickles"

3. Smoked Salmon - About 20lbs of beautiful wild Alaskan salmon has made the journey from dead fish to awesome PCP smoked salmon.

Here are some pics of the fresh salmon being rubbed in the cure (1cup kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp pink salt, spices to taste.. I used black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes )

Here's a good look at the salmon fillets after being in the cure for 3 full days... note the beautiful color has deepened in the cure )

Here are the fillets after about 6 hours of smoking... I pulled a whole fillet out for a bbq at the Pences.. then left the other half ( cut into 3 pieces ) to smoke for another 3 hours.

As usual, there were no leftovers to be found :-)

4. And of course, I had a lot of fun with friends and family.

Bottling wine with my new friends Vincent and Jan Marc, and old(er) friend Anne, at the Portland Wine Project on one of the rare 90+ days this summer. I also made some new friends, including a longtime reader of this blog who happens to live a block away and can truly drink even the Pences under the table ( hi Nate ).. and Trent Thomas, owner of Rewine , which reconditions wine barrels for re-use by winemakers.

And I even found time to backpack the Timberline Trail around Mt Hood with some Old friends.

Happy Hour at 6,000 feet never tasted better!!

And of course, our mutant dog continues to grow at a mind numbing pace.

(she just turned 4 months Sept 1st. Gone from 5lbs June 12th, to about 45 now )

In a nutshell, that's what's been going on in our world this past month.

I'm heading out later this week for another around the mountain backpacking trip, this time the 100 mile Wonderland Trail around Mt Rainier. Stay tuned, it should be a doozy.

When I get back, we'll be doing some mass pickling and canning, as most of my tomatoes will be ready for canning, as will beans, squash, and more cukes.

The month of October will bring me 4 whole pork legs from Tails and Trotters, and we'll go into detail on how to cure them. JDub and I will also be getting in deep with fresh sausage and various Salume, as well as pate and other terrines.

First Pickles of the Year!!

2010-07-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is a week of Firsts... first homemade booze post, and now first pickle post. I've been growing beets, carrots, peppers, squash and beans for about 3 years now and last year was the first year I successfully pickled them, and they turned out great.

Here are a few pics from the garden.. Choggia ( bullyeye ) beets, bulls blood beets, dragon carrots, pattypan squash, persian (striped) squash, 8 ball squash, cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers, long yellow beans, and purple beans ( that turn green when you cook them ). The garden's doing well, even though the crappy spring weather put us about a month behind.

If any of you ever happen to get pickled beets from me, I just want you to know how much work goes into them.

From the first pic you see above, I had to prep the soil, grow the freaking things and harvest. Then wash off, clean and trim them. Then they go into boiling water, then into an ice water bath, and then I individually peel off the skins. At that point ( as seen in the pic ) they're ready to be placed in the jar and pickled.

I use a pretty simple recipe base for almost all my pickles

1 part vinegar ( use whatever type you want.. mostly I use white, but sometimes cider )

3 parts water

1 cup kosher salt

black peppercorns

garlic cloves

For beets, I use the following additional spices

cloves

allspice

star anise

cinnamon

Use whatever amount suits you. I add all of the above to the brine, which I then heat to almost boiling.

When the jars are full, and the brine is ready ( see pic ) I fill em up to within 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top ( that's called headspace )

don't forget to put a grape leaf or two in the bottom of every jar... the tannis will give you a crunchy pickle.

I also usually add a few peppercorns, garlic cloves, and jalapeno to each jar... trust me, it's good.

For standard pickles ( cukes, zukes, etc ) I then process in a hot water bath for 10-20 minutes. Carrots go for 30, as do beets.

when I'm done I wipe them off and let them sit out and cool down.

How do you know if they're safe? listen for the telltale "pop" which happens when the vaccum seal forms.. you can also tell because the little "button" on top of the lid will be sucked down and concave.

If it doesn't seal properly, put it in the fridge and eat them within a month or two.

Here's what you get for all those hours of work.

Now you guys know why I'd rather give our housesitter cash than pickles :-)

Nocino - Italian Walnut Liqueur

2010-07-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

This post is a bit different than all my previous, in that it doesn't deal with meat. However, the mission of my blog is to "explore the fascinating world of cured meats, pickles,wine, and life in general on SE 20th in Portland, Oregon.. and guess what? Nocino is now an embedded and much loved part of that life.

I learned how to make Nocino from my friend, Ann Hubatch of Helioterra Wines.

My first batch was last year and tasted fantastic. I learned from the pros and now have a few different types going.

A few things you need: Walnuts ( see photo )

To make 1/2 gallon or so of Nocino:

30 green walnuts ( about the size of small limes )

Chop them up ( halved or quartered.. your preference.. I think quartering extracts more "walnut essence, but I could be full of crap )

Then place them in your 1 gallon container.

FYI... try and use a wide mouth container. If you use a narrow mouthed container, like my friend Vincent, from Vincent Wine Company, you're going to have a hell of a time cleaning the walnuts out of the container in the fall, ( see his effort here - scroll down to botom . I suggest you sign up to follow his blog and see how he cleans those jars out in November :))

After you've chopped up and placed your nuts in the jar ( save the jokes.. I've already made them ), pour in one liter of vodka and/or everclear. I personally use vodka, as the ones I've tasted with everclear can be a bit harsh, and Nocino is the sort of thing you drink when you've already drunk a few other things.. so if I can lessen the impact a bit, so be it.

After the hard stuff, add in one liter of white wine ( or red, rose, or a mix... it's YOUR nocino.. get creative )

I just happened to use whatever was at the top of the pile in the manfridge.. seufert woven white, leitner GV, and my fav summer white Aranciano Grillo.. a sardinian white ).

Now here's where you can get really creative.

standard recipe calls for 2.2lbs ( 1 Kilo ) of sugar,3-5 cinnamon sticks, and 40 cloves to be added. After tasting all of the awesome Nocino's at Casa Hubatch this July, I decided to get crazy. One common theme is less sugar this year. All of the nocino's I tried that used the full kilo ( including mine ) were a bit too sweet, so I used less.

Batch 1.

30 Walnuts

1l vodka, 1l white wine

1lb sugar( white )

3 cinnamon sticks

40 ( or so... i'm not really counting them out ) cloves

1/3lb stumptown 'hairbender' whole coffee beans

5 whole cardamom seeds

10 whole allspice seeds

1 orange including peel (squeezed juice and used orange peel only )

Batch 2

30 walnuts

1l vodka, 1l white wine

1lb sugar

5 cinnamon sticks

40 cloves

1/3lb stumptown 'hairbender' whole beans

5 cardamom seeds

Batch 3

30 walnuts

1L vodka, 1L white wine

No sugar

3 cinnamon sticks

40 cloves

10 allspice seeds

Batch 4

30 walnuts

1l vodka, 1lwhite wine.

Nothing else added

So there you go. Now the hard part. Leave alone except for a light shake every week or two.

Come back at the end of Oct, Middle November and bottle.

I'm secretly rooting for Batch #4, as one of the best ones I had last year was just "naked" nocino.. no spices.. and that one had all the taste of clove and cinnamon..

Stay tuned... This is going to be good.

My Meat is coming home to roost- finished basturma and T&T Coppa

2010-07-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

so here it is.. what started as a 6.85lb hunk of beautifultails and trotters coppa is now a 5lb hunk of beautiful man meat!! This is spicy cured goodness, and I'm looking forward to cutting into it.

I've also attached a pic of a basturma that I started a little after the Coppa. Nothing special here, just a nice 3lb hunk of eye of round, cured and ready to eat.

Since I have a lardo ready to go as well, I think I'm going to be hosting a "tasting party" at my house in the near future, and will be inviting local wine and charcuterie fans to come over and eat my meat ( and pickles ).

Stay tuned... this is going to be good.

Tails & Trotters Lardo - Into the Curing Chamber ( and the pup)

2010-07-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Back from Sunriver feeling very refreshed and ready to jump back into work and making the world a little better one piece of meat at a time.

The lardo served it's time in the cure ( not unlike the time I served in the Corps, Marine Corps that is :)) and is ready for a good soak to bring down the salt level.

After the soak it's looking good.

This is my second T&T lardo ( the first one being almost ready to eat ), and I decided that I wanted to really spice it up, so I took a quick stroll out in my garden ( and Pence's yard ) to find some suitable herbs. As you can see, I found some beautiful thyme ( with flowers.. love it ), fennel fronds, and rosemary.

I gave this all a very good chop and mixed them up and crusted the lardo with them, really pushing the herbs into the lardo. As you can see, this is really going to impart an herbal flavor to the dish.

So, off into the curing chamber for 3-6 months.. I'm thinking paper thin slices of lardo on warm Grand Central baguette this Thanksgiving.... mmm.. cured backfat!!

ps.. that damn dog has tripled her size in 3 weeks!!!

Tails and Trotters Bacon- Finished

2010-07-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick post, as I'm up to my ears in TPS reports, Time sheets, monthly status reports, and assorted whatnots of corporate management life.

As you saw in my previous post, I took a 6.85lb Tails and Trotters belly, covered it in my "base cure" ( see previous posts for recipe ), and put it in the Man Fridge for 3 days, flipping at the halfway point.

I took it out of the cure Thurs morning, gave it a really good rinse, and left it uncovered in the Man Fridge for about 8 hours. I then put it in the trusty Little Chief and smoked it with apple wood chips for another 8 hours, and you can see the results here.

This is going to be freaking awesome... we're heading to Sunriver for a week, so after I torture myself with my morning run, I'll nurture myself with sweet bacon and coffee.

PS.. .our chocolate lab, Rainy, has now doubled her size in the two weeks she's been with us. Ella won't be able to carry her around like her baby for much longer, although i'm sure she'll figure out a way to get the ballerina dress on her for quite some time.

Crazy!!!

Tails and Trotters Bacon and Lardo - From Farmers Mkt to the Cure

2010-06-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

So I found myself on a Sunny Sunday morning with nothing planned and needing to get my little nugget out of the house for a bit while my wife's group of cackling hen friends come over for sunday brunch. I've been a bit neglectful in my Hazlenut finished pork buying the last few weeks so decided to go visit my new friend Morgan Brownlow, proprietor of Tails and Trotters at the Irvington Farmers Market to rectify that.

I purchased a few Flat Iron and Coulotte steaks ( which are perfectly sized for 2-4 people and grill up perfectly ), and then I asked for the good stuff. He didn't have a whole belly on him when I asked, but he grinned and said "will this do?". "This" being a 6 pound behemoth of Pork Fat and belly meat. Yowza!!! That was one happy pig. He also knows how much I love Lardo, so snuck a 3lb hunt of backfat in the bag.. Thanks Morgan!!!

On the menu for today: Bacon and Lardo.

Bacon is pretty easy.. see my previous recipes for cure. I'm now almost exclusively using my "base cure" for all of my whole muscle curing needs, adapted as desired with different spices.

Coat the belly down with cure and rub it in really good.. Put it in a ceramic container, cover with wrap and check on it in 2 days. ( Note.. I put this in Sunday night, checked on it Tuesday night, flipped it over and drained off the liquid that had accumulated. I'll take it out Wed night or thurs morning to rinse and refridgerate, then smoke thurs night so we have some good bacon to take on vacation )

Lardo goes pretty much the same way with a slight difference. I'll let this cure untouched until we return from vacation on July 9th.. then I'll give it a really good soaking ( 1-2 hours ), the coat it heavily in a very fine dice of rosemary, thyme and crushed red pepper. Then I'll hang it in the curing chamber for 2-3 months.

Stay tuned.

PS.. Tails and Trotters delivers High Quality Hazlenut Finished Pork all over the USA ( luckily I have the man in my own home town ). Check out their website and give them a call. Morgan knows the farmers who raise the pigs ( and the pigs themselves ) all personally and watches every detail from feeding to slaughter to the whole pig being put on his butchers table to divide into small pork-loving packages.

Tell him you're a friend of the PCP and he may even give you the "family and friends" discount. Trust me folks, this is ONE area you don't want to skimp on. With every piece of charcuterie I make I'm learning that it all starts with Quality Meat... and there's nobody's meat I'd rather have in my mouth than Morgan's.

Making Sausage with Pence & another pic of our new puppy

2010-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

I bought a sausage maker from Northern Tool ( approx $100 plus shipping )

I'm going to use it to make fresh sausage and Salume, but haven't gotten around to making anything yet.

My buddy John Pants ( pence ) called and asked to borrow it for a dinner he was doing at caprialandjohnskitchen . I brought the tool over, and we proceeded to make some fennel/spice sausage (well, he made it and I drank beer and took pictures )

Not much to say: The Metal parts were frozen for a few hours, John ground the meat, seasoned it, mixed it, then extruded it into beautiful sausage.

peaking of beautiful sausage.. check out our new puppy....

Smoked Salmon- From Cure to the Smoker

2010-06-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Now our beautiful Coho fillets have sat in the cure in my manfridge for 3 days, then rinsed off very well and given a really light dusting of black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Now it's off to the smoker. I've mentioned it several times in my previous posts, but here's a pic.

This is the Little Chief smoker from Smokehouse Products in Hood River, OR. This is a pretty common home smoker and ubiquitous here in the Pacific Northwest. It retails for about $70 new, although you can find them often on Craigslist or in the paper for $20-$30 in good shape.

This one belongs to my good friend JDub. Now that Mr. Fancy has a Traeger ( Teachers... overpaid and underworked!!), he's sort of "loaned" the little chief to Pence and myself. I'd love a Traeger, but this thing works and meets our need, so I'm going to suck it up.

Now onto the Coho. Check this beauty out getting placed in the smoker.

I smoked this baby using applewood chips for about 6 hours...

Absolutely beautiful!!!

I usually cut each fillet into three pieces for individual serving sizes.. but this time I kept them whole, which allows for a great presentation on a long platter with a sourcream/horseradish/dill sauce, surrounded by sliced baguette ( wish I had a pic ).

Everytime I bring this to a party, or serve it at my house, I get rave reviews, and this is super quick to put together at last minute

Give this one a try... and Enjoy!!!

Smoked Salmon- Coho in the Cure & Puppies

2010-06-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ahhh... Summer in Oregon.. Hot sunny days, cool nights, great BBQ's.

NOT!!!

Well, at least not the sunny days. We've had plenty of cool nights ( and wet days )... but dire predictions aside, summer IS coming and the weather will turn nice soon. Nothing goes better at a BBQ than a whole side of smoked salmon with Grand Central baguettes and a homemade horseradish Dill spread.

In case you're not from the Pacific NorthWest, I have to let you know that we have Salmon coming out the wazoo... you can't swing a dead cat without running into a native fisherman or store selling fresh salmon out of the columbia river ( we don't eat the salmon out of the Willamette, but that's another story ). Unfortunately, I'm so swamped with work due to my new slavedriver of a boss ( Hi Harry!! ) that I can't seem to find time to swing a dead cat or get fresh Salmon.

So here we are: two fillets of Coho, Fresh from the waters of QFC Supermarket ( previously frozen so we don't get any nasty parasites ). Each one is about 1 1/2lbs and beautifuly colored.

Cure is simple ( Ella wanted to get in the blog, so there you go baby )

2cups kosher salt

1cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp pink salt( sodium nitrate )

1tsp cayenne pepper

and for something totally new

2tbsp roughly ground wild fennel seed.

Into the manfridge for 3 days, then for a good rinse and sitting in the fridge for 24 hours to develop a good pellicle. I'll be smoking them using either cherry or hickory on Saturday or Sunday, if Pence can get off his butt and get the smoker back to me.

Oh Yeah.. We're getting a puppy too. Say hello to the newest member of our family, Rainy.

She's a 7 week old Chocolate lab pup ( named by Ella of course ).

She's being weaned at the Breeders, but Amy's picking her up tomorrow and after a checkup at the Vet, we'll be bringing her home.

This is going to be a huge lifestyle change for us, as we haven't had a puppy in years. We've even had to change our summer vacation from a tour of southern oregon and california, to a week in Sunriver, so we can bond with our new girl. We're really excited and looking forward to having some fun with her.

New Lamb Proscuitto and Cured Pork Shoulders in cure-and in curing chamber

2010-06-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Life has been good at SE 20th ave lately, and I haven't had much time for blogging... but that doesn't mean I haven't had time to make some good new charcuterie.

As you all know, I started another lamb proscuitto a month or so back, and now it's in the curing chamber... I'm going to let this one sit in there until Thanksgiving, then some of my friends are going to be VERY happy.

I decided to try something different and after giving the leg a good hour long soak, I coated the thing in a mix of 2 types of powdered mexican pepper, along with an ethiopian spice called Berbere... has lots of good stuff in it and this is going to be awesome... super spicy, with intense flavor.

Here's a pic of it hanging in the Mancave for a few days ( to give it a chance to shed a bunch of water quickly before putting it in the curing chamber ( temp is about 58-60F, with an RH of about 65-85&.. window is open and it's rained every day in may )

Then i did the same with the 2 pork shoulders in Netting that have been curing for the past month... long soaks, followed by coating with spices and wrapping in twine.

You can see from this pic that the month spent in the cure is going to really make this one good.

Heree's what they look like. I used a "ham bag" to put them in after coating in spice, then tied them up with butchers twine to let them hang. Each one is about 3lbs and will end up at about 2lbs by the time they're done curing ( around mid july or so ).

And finally.. this blog is supposed to be about more than just meat... I wanted to let you all know that my garden is doing great and I'm looking forward to pickling LOTS of stuff this year. I was going to use a commercial kitchen to do my stuff and be able to legally sell them, but I think I may go "underground" again this year. Stay tuned.. there will be lots of good stuff available at the end of the summer.

I'm ready to pickle some beets.. stay tuned for that one.

I'm also going to start talking a bit about wine.. I LOVE Oregon Pinot Noir, especially from small artisanal producers and I'm going to start sharing some of my finds. I may need guest bloggers to help with this, as my palate descriptors are "good" and "yuck".

Here's a pic of me and the Ball and Chain the weekend before Memorial Day at a pickup party at Solena Cellars . Great wine, and a very cool winery. I highly recommend you visit.

Lamb Proscuitto... and Garage Pinot Noir

2010-05-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

I posted a few weeks ago about the LP I made for Paul H, and as he reported back, it was lamby-yummy goodness.

I finally cracked my personal LP open this past weekend for a special event.

My new friend Vincent Fritzsche, owner of the Vincent Wine Co, and Elevage blogger, invited me to a tasting of his garage made Pinot Noir, which will be his last vintage as he's now making wine at the Portland Wine Project

In the spirit of meeting new blogger friends and sharing things that we create in Portland, I decided to invite two of my fellow blogger buddies... Tamara Belgard from Sip With Me! and Joshua Chang from PDXploration.

Well, I guess my invitiation of a "Secret Pinot Noir Tasting" in downtown pdx wasn't enough to get Tamara off her established wine trail, so she was a no show.

Josh showed up at my place and was treated to some fresh cooked bacon, and while I was slicing the Lamb Proscuitto for the wine tasting, of course he got to taste that, as well as a lonzino, some pickles, and of course some good Nocino and Fennelcello to wash them down. ( see his blog post about it here, with amazing pics --->Todd's Meat in Josh's Mouth

After some chitchat and tasting, we jumped in the teal bomber and took off for the days wine tasting.

Here's a link to Josh's blog entry and pics from the tasting --- > Garage Pinot ... suffice it to say they are as awesome as the rest of his pics, and he's now the official photographer of the PCP, like it or not :)

All in all, a Great day was had, and I recieved LOTS of kudos on my LP.. that made me feel great, as after I first tasted it, thought it was too "Lamby"... now I know it's just right and I need to get a slicer to make it super thin.
I've attached a few iPhone pics so you can see the difference between an amateur (me) and a pro ( josh )

Look at that Beautiful Color!!

In Summary, I put the LP in to cure at the end of January, and sliced it on May 23rd, so start to finish this took about 4 months... a pretty quick turnaround for proscuitto.. and for only $50, for about 5lbs of meat.

Next LP goes into the curing chamber this weekend... this one will stay in for at least 6 months, coming out in time for Thanksgiving.

Cured Pork Shoulder - from store to cure

2010-05-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

I happened to stop at Sheridan Meats in Portland a few weeks ago, and while chatting up the butcher who was cutting my lamb leg off a nice lamb carcass, noticed that they were having a sale on boneless pork shoulders, wrapped up in netting.

These are mainly prepared for hours long braising or smoking he said, but I decided to grab two and give them a shot at curing. They sort of look like they'd make good stuff.

I bought two of them ( each about 3.25 lbs ), and brought them home to meet my curing chamber.

I'm using my standar curing mix with the following addition

2tbsp cayenne pepper

2tbsp smoked spanish paprika

2tbsp hot hungarian paprika

2 tbsp fennel seed

2tbsp chili de arbol

I gave it a good rubdown, reaching far inside the meat to make sure everything was well coated.

Then it's into ziploc bags for 2 weeks, turning over every few days

Of course, family emergency cuts into our life and we leave for the East Coast for 10 days.

Here's a shot of the shoulder on May 17th, after 18 days in the cure.

Notice the beautiul coloring. I'm estimating that weight loss was about 1/4 of a pound by the amount of brine in the bag.

I rerubbed with the cure, coating throroughly and placed them back in the bag.

I noticed last night that there is additional brine and they're really firming up.

I'll be taking them out of the cure this weekend ( 5/22 or 23) and then hanging them for 4-6 weeks.

Since I have two of them, I'll experiment. One will go directly into the curing chamber with only a good rinsing off.

The Second will get a complete soak with change of water for 2-4 hours, then a reapplication of the hot spices.

Let's see how they turn out!!!

Lamb Proscuitto - Paul H's Leg is Finished!

2010-05-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

I've had this post sitting in draft form for 2 weeks, but had to leave town for some pressing family business.

so here you are.... my first lamb proscuitto is finished. It looks great, smells fantastic, and as soon as I hear from Paul H, I'll let you know how it tasted.

Stay tuned later in the week for my own Lamb Proscuitto Tasting. I'm going to invite my new friend Morgan from Tails and Trotters over for a sampling to see what a real Charcutier thinks of my meat.

Smoked Steelhead - Tasting Notes

2010-04-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot about this one, but here's a pic of the Steelhead I cured and smoked last week.

It turned out great... cured well, and with a great smoky, not too salty flavor, and a bit spicy.

Half of it's given away or eaten already, but I have a bit left which I'll be enjoying on the deck the next sunny day we get.

Basturma - Out of the cure and into the casing

2010-04-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

So I totally forgot about this Basturma that's been sitting in the cure since March 30th... Yikes!!

It was supposed to come out on April 10th, but I finally took it out on April 26th.

I had a brilliant idea to soak it in clean water to try to flush out some of the salt, so I did that.. changing the water ever 4 hours. I'm hoping that did the trick, although if It's too salty for humans, my good friend Paul H ( also known as Alligator Arms ) will take it.

Since my last Lonzino Da Diavalo lost a lot of the heat when I rinsed after the cure and before stuffing, I decided to try something new.

After the hour long soak, I put them out to dry for a good hour... during which time I created a hot spice mixture of

2-TBSP Cayenne Pepper
2 - TBSP Chile De Arbol
1TBSP Garlic Powder
2TBSP Red Pepper Flakes

I then took both halves of the Basturma and rolled it around in the spice mix, making sure it's coated thoroughly and well rubbed in.

I then squeezed those puppies into a 100mm collagen casing ( I like them.. they seem to work well for me ) and then tied it up as tight as I can.

I left it out in the mancave for a few days for the preliminary drying ( it's about 58Degrees, with about 70-80% humidity, being springtime in Oregon ).

I'll move it to the curing fridge in about 2 or 3 days or when it warms up. I expect that the basturma will be ready in about 4 weeks, but stay tuned.

Lonzino Da Diavalo- tasting Notes

2010-04-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

So my Lonzino Da Diavalo is finally finished!!!

I pulled it out of the curing fridge, after approximately 5 weeks and it looks and smells great.

I cut it very thinly and served it on a charcuterie platter as usual.. and it's pretty darn good. It's lost about 30% of the weight, judging how loose the twine around it is.. and the casing took on a pretty good amount of powdery white mold, which has imparted a nice "salame" type flavor.

It's not as "Diavalo" as I had hoped... I think that rinsing off the spices cut down on the heat, so next time I'll reapply the hot powder to the lonzino before stuffing into the casing.

This lonzino also tastes more 'salume' ish.. than the last one.. It even looks more like a coppa than a Lonzino... I'm wondering if I'm not keeping track of them well enough.. I need to buy some hang tags!!

Anyway.. whatever it is, check this baby out... I'll call this one a Win!!

Tails and Trotters Coppa- From Cure to the Curing Chamber

2010-04-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to our Tails and Trotters Coppa!!

When we last left you .. Our coppa had been rubbed down with the cure and been sitting for 13 days.

I drained the brine ( about 1/2-3/4cup ) and then used the remaining dry rub to coat the coppa once again.

Back into the manfridge for another 10 days and look what we have here, brimming with beautiful red and orange colors!

A good rinse and we're ready to get that bad boy into some casing

I have a stock of 105mm collagen casing, but when I looked at this monster after rinsing, didn't think there was a chance in hell I'd be able to squeeze it in. I was thinking of splitting it longways and using 2 smaller ( 60mm ) casings. This is one big piece of meat ( that's what she said )

Well.. I guess i'm really good at squeezing big pieces of meat into little tubes ( don't touch that one JDub ).. but 20 sweaty slippery minutes later, I had that bad boy stuffed into a casing and trussed up like a bondage queen.

I"m giong to have to work on my knot tying.. but for now, it's doing the job.

Now it's into the curing chamber... approx 56F, with a residual humidity of ~70% for 4-6 weeks until we have a weight loss of about 30-35%.

Stay tuned.. this one should be freaking awesome. At least, i'm hoping so, or my new pork slinger, Tails and Trotters may drop me as a customer.

Steelhead.. from the Columbia River To the smoker

2010-04-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite late winter/early spring things to eat is steelhead, fresh and smoked.

Theres's something about them that I just love, being in between trout and salmon.

Anyway, without further ado.. here's the star of our show.

This is about a 4lb steelhead, fresh from the Columbia River, cleaned and ready to go.

Here is the cure.. Salt boxing it again, with rough measurements

1 cup Kosher Salt

1 cup Brown Sugar

1TBSP black pepper

1TBSP Garlilc

1TBSP Red Pepper Flakes

1TSP Cayenne

1/2 tsp pink salt.

Coat the fish completely and cover with plastic wrap, placing in the fridge for 3-5 days. Go shorter with this rather than longer in the cure to avoid over saltiness and drying out when you smoke .

This is what things should look like after coating ( more or less )

This next pic is showing the filets after 2 days in the cure. Look at that beautiful color.

I'll most likely pull them out at the end of day three and then place in the fridge for a full day to develop a pellicle, then smoke for 4-6 hours.

Tails and Trotters Jowl Bacon - Finished!

2010-04-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

One week later, and Kapow!!! Beautiful Jowl Bacon.

I'm sure in the future, I'll make Guanciale, but for now, I'm super happy with the outcome ( as is JDub who stopped by to drop off a tent I'll need for a ski mountaineering trip this weekend ... I gave him a nice chunk just cause I'm a nice guy.. good timing JDub)

So here it is... nice and smoky, well cured.. hopefully not too salty.

I totally forgot to finish it in the oven for 1 hour at 150degrees, but I think it will still be fine.

It's all shrink wrapped and in the freezer... except for one piece in the fridge for some schweet pasta carbonara next week.

So give this one a try... any butcher at your local store can get you jowls.. or if you want a real treat, stop by tails and trotters at the PSU farmers market and tell Morgan you'd like to get a set of his hazlenut finished jowls.. or just go to the T&T Website

Cheers.

Jowls- Into the Smoker

2010-04-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my jowls last night and then decided that since I use bacon a heck of a lot more than I use Guanciale, and that I would end up putting the Guanciale in pasta carbonara or something similiar anyway.. why extend the wait by hanging the jowls for a month, when I can smoke them for 4-6 hours and enjoy them sooner?

Here they are after I pulled them out of the cure and gave them a good rinse and soak ( about a 5 minute soak ). Don't wipe off the spices.. it adds a bit more flavor and character. ( next experiment I may put more spices on after the rinse, and before the smoking )

Then it was into the manfridge for 24 hours to allow them to develop a pellicle ( you may not remember, so a pellicle is some kind of protein "skin" buildup on the meat that allows the smoke to "stick" to the meat.)

I ran over to Pences to "borrow" JDubs Little Chief smoker... this thing is on it's last legs and since he got a traeger doesn't want it anymore. I think I'm going to have to go out in a few weeks and get one myself, so Pence and his old little chief can be alone together .

Into the smoker they go.. apple wood bits and chips for 4-6 hours.. adding more chips every 2-3 hours for super smoke flavor.

Stay tuned for tasting.

Basturma - Into the Cure

2010-04-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

I've done Basturma twice before... First one turned out a bit salty, but tasted great.. second one wasn't cured all the way through and smelled like rotten meat. ( imagine that ).

Here's my next attempt at this low fat, easy to make treat.

2-2lb Eye of Round Beef Roasts.

Pretty nice looking meat, eh? Fubonn quality.

2/3 cup kosher salt
2-TBSP sugar
1/2tsp cure #2
4TBSP Cayenne
4TBSP chili de arbol
2TBSP red pepper flakes
1TBSP Garlic
2TBSP black pepper
4 TBSP -mix of wild fennel seed, cumin, coriander, Anise, Grains of Paradise, Cardamom.

Rubbed it down very good and put it in a plastic bag.. I'll come back and check on them every 2 or 3 days to roll them over and make sure the liquid is contacting all sides of the meat..

I'll pull them out in about 7-10 days, or whenever they "feel cured"... after that, they'll go into 105MM casings, tied up, and hung to dry for 2-4 weeks.

Tshirt Test

2010-04-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

I just got a shipment in over the weekend of 5 shirts..

One for me ( natch ), one for the wife, one for the nugget, and 2 for my first 2 followers, and suppliers of inspiration, booze, and smokers. (thx pence and JDub), although I wasn't sure if Pence was going to get one, since his first comment was "Todd.. WHY are you making tshirts? WHAT are you selling? WHAT is wrong with you? " I don't think he understands that the PCP brand is what I'm selling.. and based on the $6.57 in ad revenue I made so far... that I'm laughing all the way to the bank....

Out of all those ungrateful bastards, the only one I could get to stand still and take a picture was my little nugget.. daddy's girl comes through when everyone else failed me.

So here they are...

I've found a new tshirt maker, and will be sending a few more freebies out to some very key people who have inspired me to waste my money and time on this blog and hobby.

If any of you know a place where I can get some tshirts, hats, thongs, codpieces ( for One-Eyed Bobby ), at a fair price.. please let me know.

Bacon - From Fubonn to cure.

2010-04-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

Faithful readers ( and those of you I beg to read me ). I've been saying I'm going to show you how to make bacon.. well, here it is.

Bacon's probably the simplest of all cured/smoked treats to make, and once you make it, you'll never go back to store bought/mass produced, water injected crap.

I know I'm on a Tails and Trotters Hazlenut finished pork kick lately, but for bacon I'm going to stick with my old favorite.. Fubonn Pork. what is Fubonn you ask? click here and find out about the coolest Asian shopping mall/supermarket/restaurant in SE Portland. ---Fubonn

The selection is awesome..If you need something Asian.. they got it.

Top that off with what is arguably the freshest produce, seafood, and meat in Puddletown and you can see why it's a foodie's dream. Now I know that this is most likely feedlot beef and pork.. but it's good.. I've been using it for over a year and people love it as much as the pig I ordered from a local farm. There's nothing pickier or fussier than an Asian Granny ( right Paul? ).. so I know this is good stuff.

Besides good shopping, there is good (not great ) dim sum offered at Malay Satay Hut.. My little nugget LOVES eating there.. and since I'm a sucker for dim sum.. it's a regular part of the experience for us.

After a great meal, it's off to ride the rides... she saves quarters that she earns by sleeping in her own bed and not waking us up until it's light out to ride them... she loves them .

What can I say? It's good clean fun.

Now.. on to the bacon.

I purchased a 6 lb belly... nice belly

Next to it is about 3/4 cup of "basic cure" ( see previous posts ).

I modified it with about double the brown sugar, because I'm looking for more of a "sweeter" flavor this time.

1/3 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2tsp pink salt

1tsp black pepper

Check out a side profile of this pork. Not too bad looking.

Rubbed all the cure into the belly as well as I could.. put it back in the bag it came from and put it in the fridge for 4-6 days.

Stay tuned.. I'll pull this puppy out of the cure next weekend, rinse well, and let it sit uncovered in the man fridge for a full day to develop a nice pellicle ( this is a stickyish "coating" that allows smoke to 'stick' to the meat ), then I'll put it in JDub's little chief smoker for about 8 hours.. then finally, finish it in the oven for about 1 hour at 150degrees, just to make sure it's finished.

Guanciale -From package to Cure

2010-04-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

When I stopped by the PFM to meet up with Morgan Brownlow, proprieter of Tails and Trotters, to pick up a special ordered Coppa, he surprised me with what can only be called "Vacuum Sealed Love".

So here you go... 5 pounds of Hazlenut finished Pork Jowls. Looking at the size of these things, that Pig had to have had a big head ( but I'm sure he was still a nice guy ).

I opened the package, and put these bad boys skin side down so I could look for ( and remove ) and of the salivary glands that may still be in there. ( I love me some pork.. but I can do without eating their spitmakers)

As you can see, these jowls were pretty clean and I only had to cut out a few of them ( they're small little discs that don't quite look like meat, and don't quite look like fat ).

So there they are.. ready for "the cure".

I'm again using a modified recipe and Salt Box method ( see Spicy Coppa Entry for more details ).

Basically, make sure it's covered well in cure, and add spices you like.

Recipe:

5lbs of Hazlenut finished Pork Jowl ( berkshire pig )

~3/4 cup of kosher salt

~2tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cure #2 ( as an amateur that doesn't want to make anyone sick.. this is a must )

~4tbsp diced, chopped fresh rosemary

~2tbsp diced, chopped fresh thyme

1tbsp black pepper

1tbsp red pepper flakes

And there you are. I put these bad boys in a shallow baking pan, covered with plastic wrap then foil to protect from light ( not sure why, since the fridge light goes out when I close it ), but that's what Ruhlman said to do.

These beautys will sit in the cure for about 12-14 days, then I'll give them a light rinse and at that point can either smoke them and eat them as Jowl bacon, or hang them for 18-24 days and eat them as Guanciale - sliced thin and eaten raw, or added to cooked dishes. I think I'll probably do one of each.

Stay tuned.. I think this is going to turn out great.

Cheers.

Spicy Coppa - From Package to Cure

2010-03-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I finally got a Tails and Trotter Coppa last weekend at the Portland Farmers Market this weekend. I'm actually very lucky.. Most of the Coppa's are being sent to restaurants, but since Morgan ( the proprietor )and I are now Facebook buddies, I put a request in, and it was waiting for me when I stopped by to say hi Saturday.

Look at this thing!!! Almost 8 pounds of porky-backfatty goodness!!!

Morgan said that since he knew I wanted to cure the Coppa, he left the backfat on for me in case I wanted to take a shot at curing Lardo. It's not the 4" thick Mangalitsa Lardo I was saving myself for, but who am I to say no to free backfat? Of course I'll take the challenge.
Stay tuned for a future post that details my experiences with my first lardo.

The first thing I did after putting my daughter in front of the tv with chocolate milk for dinner ( mom was at sushi ), was to separate the coppa from the lardo. This was pretty easy, and while I'm sure the butchers among you will say I mangled it, I think it looks pretty good.

As you can see, it's a beautiful piece of meat ( that's what she said ), and the backfat is nice and thick, probably about an inch and a half. The pig breed is Berkshire.

Next up.. the Cure. ( not the weepy eyeliner kind that JDub loves so much, but the salt and spices needed to turn this hunk of raw pork into beautifully cured dried meaty goodness ). This time, instead of measuring the cure, I decided to try a combo of recipe/Salt Box Style ( described in Ruhlman's Charcuterie book ). Basically, "salt boxing" means making a big batch of 'cure' recipe, tweaking it with spices to your liking, then taking your item to be cured and dredging it really well in the cure, rubbing it in until it's worked into all the nooks and crannies.

Here's the Recipe:

6.5lbs Coppa

3/4 cup kosher salt

2.5 tbsp sugar

1tsp cure #2

1tbsp black pepper

1tbsp cayenne pepper

1tbsp red pepper flakes

1tbsp Chile de Arbol powder

1tbsp Annatto Chile powder

1tbsp dried garlic powder.

As you can see, it looks an awful lot like my "Lonzino Da Diavalo". I think You and I are going to find that the "base cure" recipe will work for almost anything we make, with some tweaking to our individual tastes.

I placed the coppa in a large nonreactive plastic container, put the lid on it, and wrote myself a note to check on it in 9 days. At that time, I'll drain off any of the liquid that has been released, and rub it down with the remaining cure mix, and leave it for another 9 or so days ( until it "feels cured". ).

Stay tuned.. I have a feeling this is going to be a good one.. ready just in time for prime deck weather.

PS.. I ordered tshirts and they should be in next week... depending on how they look, I'll then be looking for a tshirt printer and e-storefront so all of you guys can get your PCP tshirts, thongs, codpieces, helmets, etc.

cheers.

Lamb Proscuitto - update from the "curing chamber" - Week 3( plus lonzino, bacon, and tshirts )

2010-03-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

So we're ending week three of our 4-6 week first attempt to create Lamb Proscuitto.

I originally hung my two LP's ( Lamb Proscuittos ) in my "curing chamber" which is a dorm size fridge with temp controlled by a petsmart reptile cage temp control, and humidity kept close to 70% RH with a supersaturated salt solution in a tupperwear pan at the bottom.

As we discussed in my previous post, the first leg began showing spots of white fuzzy (not quite furry ) mold and the surface became sort of "tacky" .. not sticky, but a little bit "gooey".

Jason at the Cured Meats Blog thought that it was just proteins coming to the surface of the meat, as a normal component of the meat shedding water, but I didn't have a good feeling about it and didn't want to throw $50 bucks out the window on my first LP, so I gave it a mild vinegar rubdown per Jason's instructions and then hung all my meat ( insert drum beat ) in the man cave.. which averages 62 degrees or so, with about 60-80% RH, depending on the weather outside ( and it's pouring.. )

Both legs are firming up great, as is my new Lonzino Da Diavalo. I estimate my leg will be ready in 2-3 weeks, with Paul H's leg ready 2 weeks or 3 behind mine.

The lonzino is looking great, although it developed white and green mold spots while in the fridge, er curing chamber. Since I washed it and hung it next to the LP's, it hasn't seen any more furry mold of any color, and has started developing that magical white mold that all great Salume develop.

Stay tuned.. we're getting closer to tasting.

Tomorrow, I'm going to meet Morgan Brownlow of Tails and Trotters at the Portland Farmers Market for a hazelnut finished coppa. I'll be making (hopefully) a freaking awesome Capicolla from it. If that coppa tastes anything like the pork hangar steak (who even knew pigs have a hangar steak .. see pic below) he sold me last week, I'll be in pig heaven.

I make bacon pretty often, and it's ridiculously good ( not my words.. check out the best wine blog ever Sip With Me ). Special thanks to John Pence for teaching me the basic recipe over a year ago.. and special kudos to JDub, for "loaning" me his smoker for the last year :)

I'm finally going to get off my butt and order some tshirts this weekend. Since I just want to test the concept, I'm going to order them from cafepress.com, and they're a bit expensive at $25 each, so I won't be handing them out like pickles. I will however, give a few to those people who have inspired me and supported my efforts to improve the world ( and SE 20th ave ) through a little charcuterie.

If the tshirts prove popular, I'll find a local producer or some kind of pass through storefront to sell them on here.. when and if that happens, feel free to buy them, knowing your purchase will support me and my love of pork products and alcohol. ( oh, and my little girl )

Cheers... have a great weekend!!

Lonzino Da Diavalo -Heading into the Curing Chamber

2010-03-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Lamb Proscuitto - Update from the curing chamber ( end of 2nd week )

2010-03-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a quick update on my whole leg of lamb I'm ( hopefully ) turning into Proscuitto

Around March 10th, I noticed some white mold growing on the leg, so I consulted Jason from http://www.curedmeats.blogspot.com/, and confirmed what I thought.. it's ok to leave it or wipe it off, so I watched it for a few days, then on March 15th, wiped it off with a clean cloth soaked in a mild vinegar solution ( the acid helps in preventing additional bacteria from growing ).

Here's a pic of the leg after 2 weeks in the "curing chamber" ( otherwise known as a dorm fridge purchased off of Craigslist for $50. )

The first pic shows the mold when I first noticed it.. (notice the mold on the left side, about 2 or 3 inches below the hook )

Now look at it 4 days later ( more pronounced mold ). This is when I wiped it down with a mild vinegar solution ). It feels a little "tacky" and kind of sticky, for want of a better word. I'm sure it's because of the high humidity and I'm tempted to just hang it in the mancave like we did with our pork proscuitto, but I'm going to hold on and follow the instructions ( the pork proscuitto did have a very hard skin on the outside, and maybe this one won't ).

My estimate is that the leg has probably lost about 5% or so in water weight. I'm going for 30% or so, and about 30-45 days, so I won't even bother weighing it for another 3 or 4 weeks.

The second lamb leg was still not feeling "cured" so drained off all the liquid, and rubbed it down in salt and cayenne pepper ... in the 3 days since, it's really shedding liquid and I'll be pulling it out to hang in 2 days.

Stay tuned for more exciting lamb proscuitto updates.

PCP Logo.. You've been waiting for it, now it's here!!

2010-03-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

Ok.. I'm a dork, but with all the great blogs I've been reading, I've realized that I can't find true Charcuterie Happiness without having my own Logo ( which I will now plaster on all sorts of merchandise you can buy, starting with tshirts ).

Observe and be amazed.
Oh.. by the way, this logo is copywritten 2010, for exclusive use by the Portland Charcuterie Project. It may not be copied, distributed, or altered in any way ( palmer ) without my express permission.

I'm looking at tshirt designs now and should have a link where you can buy one if you'd like, up within a week or so. Regardless of whether you like my blog.. there's something cool about a pig riding a bike with one of his legs cured and turned into proscuitto in the basket. ( or maybe it's just me ).

Enjoy.

A bit about me

2010-03-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd take a minute to tell you a bit about me, so all my faithful readers can know and love me, like my friends do.

Since moving from Philly to Portland almost 8 years ago, I've really gotten more aware of where our food comes from, and even more interested in making my own. I'm fanatical about my new hobbies of curing meat, pickling, drinking great wine, and generally living the sweet life on 20th Ave.

This is me.. Timberline at Mt. Hood.. catching some air on my 40th bday this past Jan ( I know it doesn't look like a lot of air, but my friend Jdub caught me coming down from what was a pretty sick jump for an old man)

This is my Wife, Amy, my Daughter, Ella and I. ( Wildlife Safari in Roseburg, OR Aug 2009.)

This my raison d'etre.. my little nugget, Ella. She's almost 4, and tons of fun. This year she started skiing, and it's all downhill from here ( insert drum beat ).

This is the Chocolate Bacon Love Cake my good friend and neighbor Caprial made for me ( I think John helped a little too ). All I can say is "Wow"

Here is my urban farm. I converted half my front yard into 4 raised bed containers, and have been growing quite a bit of produce year round. Most of the produce is either eaten immediately, shared with my great neighbors, or pickled. I'll be discussing Pickling in more detail in the future, but for now I just wanted to show you where the great pickles you may have heard about ( or tasted ) come from.

The next photo shows the infamous "Wall of Pickles". This is an old French wine cupboard that is now used to hold my treasure trove of pickled goodness. Typically, I make blueberry/rasperry preserves, balsamic onion Jam, Hot ( and not so hot ) kosher dill pickles, pickled beets, salsas, chutney, italian style tomatoes.. and something new this year "Garden Mix" - Basically, I pick from the garden, and whatever is ripe, get's pickled ( beets, radishes, cukes, squash, zuchini, eggplant, beans ).. it's really good and recieves rave reviews.

Lonzino Da Diavolo

2010-03-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

My first Lonzino was such a hit with my wife and friends that I'm going to make it a regular in the rotation ( and alway try to have one ready, or close to ready ).

Whole pork loin is relatively inexpensive... I got this 6 pounder at QFC for 6 bucks on sale.

Now if you know me, you know that I prefer to buy my meat from a farmer who has raised the pig humanely and healthily(is that even a word ? ). But, I happened to see it on sale and thought of a post I saw on Jason's Cured Meats blog Lonzino recipe, and thought "what the heck?". Now, after a getting such good kudos, I'm going to try again.

On March 2nd, I started my newest creation, Lonzino Da Diavolo ( my apologies to my readers who actually speak italian )

This one is going to be spicy.. I'm talking SPICY... ( sorry Harry.. there's always bacon ). You'll notice that I left the fat cap on it.. turns out that stuff tastest pretty darn good when it's cured.

I took the rest of the blue light special pork loin ( 3lbs ) and applied this cure to it. ( slightly tweaked the basic recipe after starting to read Ruhlman's Charcuterie book and learning a bit more about ratios.

3 Tbsp salt
1/3 tsp Cure # 2
1 tsp Black Pepper
2 Tbsp Cayenne
2 Tbsp dried Annatto pepper
2 Tbsp dried Chile de Arbol
1 Tbsp Red Pepper Flakes

I took the entire amount and rubbed it into the loin for about 1 or 2 minutes, really making sure it had permeated every possible bit of surface area.

I then placed it in a gallon size ziploc baggie ( I would normally use a reusable container, but my man fridge is a bit full of lamb and beer.) I poured the rest of the spice mix in there and packed it on to the lonzino the best I could, with the rest of it sitting on the bottom of the bag.

Today ( March 4th ), I checked out the Lonzino when I got home tonight and noticed that quite a bit of liquid ( looks like 4-6 oz's ) has already come out of the lonzino. My plan is to keep it in the bag for a total of 10 days or so, then hang in the curing chamber for 2-3 weeks.

Stay tuned.. my next post about this topic will include "how to tell when your meat is done with the dry cure and ready to hang", as well as a discussion about "curing chambers" ( Sometimes known as an old fridge, unfinished basement, garage, or man cave.).

Thanks for reading,

Lamb Proscuitto

2010-03-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

Something I've always loved, but don't often see in stores, is Lamb Proscuitto.

What's not to love? Lamb and Proscuitto, all in one.

So about a month ago, I decided to give it a go.

I'm going to give you the specifics and then attach a few pics.

I'm doing 2 legs now, One for me, and one for a fan of PCP, who we'll give the secret name Paul H.

On Jan 28, 2010, I started with an Anderson Farms whole lamb leg. ( 6.5lbs )... it's a beauty and almost went into JDubs Traeger.

Cure Mix:
9 TBSP Kosher Salt
6 TBSP Sugar
1 TSP Cure #2
1 TSP Black Pepper
1 TSP Cayenne Pepper

2 TBSP chopped fresh Rosemary

I split the cure into 2 halves, and then applied one half to the leg, placed it in a tupperware container and

then put in my "man fridge" to cure

On Feb 15, 2010 I drained the liquid in the container, took the remaining half and applied it to the leg.

On March 2nd, 2010 I pulled the leg out, rinsed it well, then hung it in my curing chamber ( approx 55degrees F, 70% Humidity ) for 30-45 days to finish. I'll expect it to lose about 30% of it's weight before it's fnished.

Stay tuned for our next post, when I'll provide an update, and hopefully a taste test with some great Oregon Pinot Noir.

Smoked Steelhead

2010-02-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

Ok.. this is my 4th post and I'm starting to learn more about "blogging".

The problem with starting a blog about doing fun stuff is that most of the fun stuff has already been started, and you're joining me in the middle ( 0r end ) of projects.

I promise to start you guys at the beginning of my next project, which will be another Lonzino (cured pork loin ). You'll start at the beginning with me and stay tuned in up until the first bite ( then you're on your own ).

Last Monday I had the ball and chain pick me up a Steelhead fillet at QFC ( Shock and Horror!!! I know what you're thinking.. " I can't believe he didn't get his ass out and catch it himeself" ) Well, if you knew my backbreaker of a boss, you'd know that just isn't in the cards this week :-)

I used a simple cure.

4 tbs kosher salt

2tbsp brown sugar

1tsp cure #1 ( quick cure or "pink salt" )

little bit of cayenne, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.

1. Rub the cure into the fillet( both sides ), put in a bag for 3 or 4 days until it feels "hard" ( not that hard JDub, you perv ).

2. Take out of bag and rinse well.

3. Put on paper or in a non-reactive container, let dry in the fridge overnight ( to develop a "pellicle", which you can google for more info, but makes smoking better ).

4. Then pull out your ( or JDub's ) Little Chief smoker.. place fillet in smoker.. fill up with chips and forget about it for 4-6 hours.

I'll attach a pic of the finished filet later tonight, when I pull it out of the Smoker.

This baby will go great with an Oregon Pinot Gris, some great bread ( see recipe below ) and your honey-bunny.

Baby Boule

2010-02-25T10:18:00.001-08:00

One of the benefits of living on 20th ave in SE Portland is the proximity of great neighbors.

One of my neighbors, we'll just call him JDub, is quite the amateur baker.

He's been telling me for months how easy it is to make, so I finally decided to take the plunge and try it. I've been making awesome bread now for about 3 months.. and it's all thanks to JDub.

Here's the simple recipe and baking process:

6 1/2 c flour

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp salt

3 cup water ( 110 degrees or so )

Dissolve yeast and salt in water.. let sit for 10 mins to give that yeast time to bloom.

Mix liquid with flour. Rise 2 hours, put in fridge.

When you want bread.. reach in the bowl.. grab a handful ( depending on how big of a loaf you want ). - Use flour on your hands and board to avoid sticking.

Form into a round ( boule means ball in in French ). Rise for one hour

Make sure to put down semolina flour or cornmeal on your board to keep from sticking.

Cut 1/4" slits in top, throw a bit of salt on top.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Put loaf in ( on baking stone preferably ).

NOTE - For that "crispy crunchy crust" put a pan in bottom of oven, place one to two cups of water in the pan when you put the bread in. The humidity will crisp it up.

Enjoy!!!

Lonzino Win

2010-02-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Wow.. last night I tasted the second best charcuterie I've ever made ( Buttercup's proscuiotto leg being the best ).

This started as an 8lb pork loin, cut in half long ways ( since this was my first one, I didn't want to use it all in case it failed ).

I used my standard mix

6tbsp kosher salt

4tbsp brown sugar

1tsp cure #2 (long term cure with Nitrites and nitrates )

and a mix of spices fennel seed, garam masala, cumin, coriander, cayenne, black pepper, grains of paradise.

I rubbed the loin down with the spice mix, put it in a 100MM collagen casing, and put it in my unfinished basement bathroom to hang for almost a month. ( it's about 55-60Degree F in there, with about 20-30% humidity ).

My wife Amy, loved it... it turned out ridiculously good.

I took some over to my neighbors Walker and Pence, gave some to my buddy Paul at work.

I have about a pound left, which will hold us until the next one is done, sometime around April.

Welcome to PCP!

2010-02-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

So here we are.. Portland Charcuterie Project.

This blog, like almost every other one out there, will consist of my musings, ramblings, recipes, adventures and anecdotes in the world of Charcuterie, Pickling, Distilling, and life on 20th ave in Portland Oregon.