Large Spicy Salami Toscano

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)

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.

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.

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.