Sauscutapalooza (AWSS5 - the final conflict)

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Holy crap man. That stuff was so good! We are still talking about it. Definitely my fave of any we have done so far. 

We had it with tomato pulau (basmati rice/tomato) and Bhuni Zucchini. That was a kickarse meal for just throwing stuff together. The wurst was the star but the zucchini was right there with it. 

20stone

Great looking meal, @The Cen-Tex Smoker.  Care to share the recipe for the zuch?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

20stone said:

Great looking meal, @The Cen-Tex Smoker.  Care to share the recipe for the zuch?

I will but it’s the same as the brussel’s sprouts dish you guys made for us last year and the Okra we had at Clay Pit before Shiny Ribs. 

20stone

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

20stone said:

Great looking meal, @The Cen-Tex Smoker.  Care to share the recipe for the zuch?

I will but it’s the same as the brussel’s sprouts dish you guys made for us last year and the Okra we had at Clay Pit before Shiny Ribs. 

Got it!  @20stonespice got tired of peeling and seeding eggplants every week for baingan bhartha, and we made zucch w the same recipe. Gotta mix it up w all the veg we are eating. I can’t wait to tuck into some masalawurst with some of that. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

20stone said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

20stone said:

Great looking meal, @The Cen-Tex Smoker.  Care to share the recipe for the zuch?

I will but it’s the same as the brussel’s sprouts dish you guys made for us last year and the Okra we had at Clay Pit before Shiny Ribs. 

Got it!  @20stonespice got tired of peeling and seeding eggplants every week for baingan bhartha, and we made zucch w the same recipe. Gotta mix it up w all the veg we are eating. I can’t wait to tuck into some masalawurst with some of that. 

We were all blown away. So good. 

caliking

In terms of feedback, the breakfast sausage was on point. Flavor, salt, everything was spot on. I added a small amount of DP Red Eye and it was perfect. 
 
The tasso really woke up the Brussels sprouts . Loved how the spicy tasso contrasted with the taste of the sprouts .

The ribs stole the show though. I did them turbo, but should have pulled them off 20 mins before I did. More my critique than anyone else's. They were midway between store spares and beef ribs. This shot looks a tad dry, because I took it after it had been on the table for a spell.

Foghorn

Wow.  You guys are making me hungry.  

After spending last week eating essentially only protein from our pigs (except for 2 meals) at the cabin on the river, I returned home and took inventory of what I still have in the freezer.  And after seeing these pictures I'm glad I still have a couple of packs of masalawurst and some ribs - in addition to a lot of other stuff.

blind99

bgebrent said:

20stone said:

Guanciale our of the cure and into the Meat Locker

[cheeks rinsed and drying]


[black pepper and fennel, ready to be ground- pro tip - toasting the fennel gives it a totally different aroma and taste]


[cheeks rubbed and ready to hang]


[tucked into the Meat Locker for a month or so]


These are not our first guanciales, but it is a new (to us) recipe. I am pretty stoked, and the Meat Locker smells great!

Dayum.  Wish you lived closer.

@bgebrent No kidding.  I had the pleasure of meeting @caliking and @20stone recently.  I made a pilgrimage the Garage Mahal. I left my starter in the airport hotel, and 20stone showed up to my house a few days later with a new batch.  

thanks again @20stone, that was very kind of you!  (BTW, after you left, my daughter had a friend over for a tea party.  She told my wife she wanted brisket to serve at the party.  She's learning!)

20stone

I finally got around to getting the coppa (collar) and fiocco (one of the ham muscles) out of their brine and hanging in the Meat Locker for a little weight loss (30%).

You have to stuff these into "casings" to keep the meat part from hardening and stopping the internal moisture from leaching out ("case hardening" is the term of art).  The casings for the coppa are beef bung, which is a dead end portion of the intestine, and is really big around (bologna-sized, and not by accident).  It looks like a King Kong sized condom.  The fiocco is going in hog bladders, which are stretched (and they stretch A LOT) and sewn to fit.
 
[bucket o' bung and bladder]


In the past, I have done the coppa commando, not adding any aromatics to the brine or after.  This time, I went with a toasted fennel and black pepper mix.  Toasting spices before grinding is the right thing to do, with this or with Indian food.

[pan o' fennel and black pepper]


The challenge here is that a typical coppa is about 2# (the last one I did was really big at 2.6# at the start).  The ones we have from our HUGE hogs are MUCH bigger (one is nearly 5# and the other nearly 6#).  I might have had better luck if I'd skipped the aromatics to help it squeeze in, but I was committed to the plan.

[seasoned coppa and bung, ready to stuff]


I managed to get them both (barely) into the bung, very much a 10# in a 5# situation, and had to play "seamstress" to close the end since the big one wouldn't get all the way in.

Next is the knot tying, which helps avoid air pockets (which would be a great spot for unhelpful bugs to grow).  You have to tie it VERY tight, since the coppa will lose a bunch of weight, you don't want the twine falling off loose in a week.  You also poke them with a sausage poker (a lot) to eliminate air pockets.

[coppa half tied]


The fiocco is a different story.  I opted not to add aromatics here, and rather follow our plain vanilla prosciutto recipe.  This is my first time using a bladder for this, and I was able to get fresh hog bladders for this purpose.  This should give the surgeons a good giggle (@blind99 and @Foghorn), but I had my hands full.  The bladder was trimmed to fit while I sewed along.

[sewing up the fiocco]


[fiocco number two going in]


Now they are weighed and hanging in the Meat Locker.  I will spray them with a "good mold" (Bactoferm Mold 600) to outcompete nasty stuff.

[coppa (L) and fiocco (R) tucked into the Meat Locker]


More pics when we start cutting this stuff open in a few months.

blind99

mother of pearl!  your stitching looks pretty darned good from here... we may recruit you!

maybe @caliking can chime in on what the technical term is for the bung.  just sounds terrible.  that said you may find me at your front door when you cut into this.

Foghorn

Yeah, I've seen how bladder surgeons sew and your work looks at least as good.

And rather than saying it was difficult, you should have said that you were able to do it because you've had experience putting 5 pounds of meat into condoms designed for - well not 5 pounds.  It's the first thought I had when the size discrepancy was mentioned.  I'm guessing that also thought of it but just wanted to keep this thread clean.  Yeah.  Let's go with that.

caliking

This is getting (even more) perverted. In a good way, I guess. 

@blind99 technically speaking ,the bung connects to the bung hole .

20stone

blind99 said:

mother of pearl!  your stitching looks pretty darned good from here... we may recruit you!

I can do work on huge stuff.  I don't see me competing with @caliking on ped bowels anytime soon.

blind99 said:

maybe @caliking can chime in on what the technical term is for the bung.  just sounds terrible. 

Sounds terrible, and also does not smell great.  Has a lot of "barnyard" notes, which was why it gets a long soak in the bucket before use.

Foghorn said:

... rather than saying it was difficult, you should have said that you were able to do it because you've had experience putting 5 pounds of meat into condoms designed for - well not 5 pounds.  It's the first thought I had when the size discrepancy was mentioned.  I'm guessing that also thought of it but just wanted to keep this thread clean.  Yeah.  Let's go with that.

This is a family show.

Seriously, though, it is not possible to make sausage or stuff a beef bung without a myriad of nasty jokes.... just not possible.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Oh my. This has gotten crazy.  Bladders and bungs. We are not in Kansas anymore. 

SciAggie

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Oh my. This has gotten crazy.  Bladders and bungs. We are not in Kansas anymore. 

This is about as good as any way to say it. I was at a loss for words. 

Sea2Ski

Do you inoculate the bung with 600 prior to stuffing as well? Or just spray on the bung once hung?  I have read about doing it both ways and based only on what I have read, I am deducing that can’t hurt to inoculate prior to stuffing, but may not help either.  Thoughts?

Since you did not post a picture of the dead end of the bung, thought I would share the picture I have so others can see.  Hope you don’t mind. This one was about 4.5 inches in diameter and was being rinsed for about the fifth time after a hour soak. Yea....  they stink like a barnyard! 

20stone

Sea2Ski said:

Do you inoculate the bung with 600 prior to stuffing as well? Or just spray on the bung once hung?

I have heard of dunking the casings before stuffing as well, but haven’t done that.  For this stuff, I sprayed. We’ll see how it goes, since the batch I had was best by 12/17. 

caliking

caliking said:

This is getting (even more) perverted. In a good way, I guess. 

@blind99 technically speaking ,the bung connects to the bung hole .

Correction - bung is not what I thought it was . It's the appendix, as it turns out.

blind99

caliking said:

caliking said:

This is getting (even more) perverted. In a good way, I guess. 

@blind99 technically speaking ,the bung connects to the bung hole .

Correction - bung is not what I thought it was . It's the appendix, as it turns out.

now it's all making sense!  that's one heck of an appendix.

speaking of stuffed animal parts: i was reading about how to tenderize octopus, and came across a post from someone who was saving the octopus head, cutting out the beak, then stuffing the head and sewing it shut. they cooked it up and called it something like "Neptune's Haggis."  Sounds completely ridiculous and a waste of time - in other words we need to try this.

20stone

blind99 said 
....came across a post from someone who was saving the octopus head, cutting out the beak, then stuffing the head and sewing it shut. they cooked it up and called it something like "Neptune's Haggis."  Sounds completely ridiculous and a waste of time - in other words we need to try this.

Okay!  Who has an aquarium?

20stone

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Foghorn

20stone said:

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Seriously?  There’s no way we could pull that off. 

20stone

Foghorn said:

20stone said:

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Seriously?  There’s no way we could pull that off. 

You're right.  If only we had some pork fat and a guy with a cooler full of wagyu, we'd have a shot.

For those playing at home, the video is not that far from the mortadella we made, though the mortadella gets SV'ed instead of smoked.  Smoked would be awesome, though.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

20stone said:

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Seriously?  There’s no way we could pull that off. 

You're right.  If only we had some pork fat and a guy with a cooler full of wagyu, we'd have a shot.

For those playing at home, the video is not that far from the mortadella we made, though the mortadella gets SV'ed instead of smoked.  Smoked would be awesome, though.

can't see a lot of smoke getting through that "large format casing"

20stone

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

20stone said:

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Seriously?  There’s no way we could pull that off. 

You're right.  If only we had some pork fat and a guy with a cooler full of wagyu, we'd have a shot.

For those playing at home, the video is not that far from the mortadella we made, though the mortadella gets SV'ed instead of smoked.  Smoked would be awesome, though.

can't see a lot of smoke getting through that "large format casing"

...and that is where the bung comes in!  Circle of life (and sausage), baby!

GATraveller

I love this thread.  Thanks for all the inspiration!!

Foghorn

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

20stone said:

Just gonna leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/eater/videos/2389734871052818/

Seriously?  There’s no way we could pull that off. 

You're right.  If only we had some pork fat and a guy with a cooler full of wagyu, we'd have a shot.

For those playing at home, the video is not that far from the mortadella we made, though the mortadella gets SV'ed instead of smoked.  Smoked would be awesome, though.

Our manglitsa fat is probably better than the fat they used. Seriously. 

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Holy crap man. That stuff was so good! We are still talking about it. Definitely my fave of any we have done so far. 

We had it with tomato pulau (basmati rice/tomato) and Bhuni Zucchini. That was a kickarse meal for just throwing stuff together. The wurst was the star but the zucchini was right there with it. 

I'd hit that!

caliking

Mold has a “best by” date?!?! 

Sea2Ski

caliking said:

Mold has a “best by” date?!?! 

In the package, yes.

I think you are supposed to store it in the freezer below a certain temp (I want to say -4F) and it will become viable once warmed for almost an infinite  amount of time. Above that temperature, it is not as "fresh" and can even expire. 

So they say.

They probably just say that for you to buy more. But when you spend all the money to get the meat, and then the time and effort to cure it, or stuff it or get to the point you want to add the mold, are you gonna risk it? Many would not.

I find keeping some fresh product in the curing chamber and transferring mold from one piece of meat to another keeps your culture going just fine.

...at least so far it has....