Charcuterie - Show us your work

SciAggie

We need a place for our dry cure, fermented sausage, and whole muscle projects. This is meant to be like the Lacto-fermentation thread - a place to share, ask questions, and show us what’s going on in your kitchen, cave, or curing chamber. 

I’ll start with my curing chamber (since I don’t have a cave). Many thanks to @lkapigian for his patience and expert advice as I worked over my freezer. 

I finally obtained a 13 cu ft frost free freezer. I added an ITC-308 temp controller and an IHC-200 humidity controller, both manufactured by Inkbird. I added a dehumidifier by Seavon and a small electronics cooling fan for air circulation. 

Here are a few pics of the process:
here’s the basic freezer. 

I had to remove a panel and find a place to drill a hole so that I could run the temp and humidity probes into the freezer. I also needed to run out the power cord for the dehumidifier and the fan. 

Next, I drilled the hole being careful not to run into anything important, lol

Once the hole was made, it was just a matter of running the wires and then filling the void well with insulation. 

Now it’s ready to accept my first project.

lkapigian

There is a lot of excellent cured meats on this Forum , @stike would be proud...

nolaegghead

This is going to be epic!  (Actually heard briefly from stike today)

lkapigian

Just rotated mine today 



My rudimentary log sheet

SciAggie

This is going to be fun. 

SciAggie

@YukonRon You need to follow this and give wine recommendations for the different meats and sausages...

20stone

Oh, man, I was juuuuuust escaping this.

Sexy hole punches in your setup.  As nuts as I went on everything else, I just slid the wires through the hinge side.

Nice to see a lot of folks going uncooked.

SciAggie

@20stone If I can corrupt (or re-corrupt?) someone - that’s the forum equivalent of paying it forward...
On a related note - I went into a Mexican market in Dallas this weekend and they had whole hog legs for sale...
Maybe a project for a later date...

20stone

SciAggie said:

@20stone If I can corrupt (or re-corrupt?) someone - that’s the forum equivalent of paying it forward...
On a related note - I went into a Mexican market in Dallas this weekend and they had whole hog legs for sale...
Maybe a project for a later date...

You're a menace.

As for the leg, for curing I would get as awesome a leg as you can find.  With a little lead time, I could source one from my guy and drop it off your way.  Alternatively, in your neck of the woods, I'll bet there's an FFA hog that might hang nicely.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

SciAggie said:

@20stone If I can corrupt (or re-corrupt?) someone - that’s the forum equivalent of paying it forward...
On a related note - I went into a Mexican market in Dallas this weekend and they had whole hog legs for sale...
Maybe a project for a later date...

I don’t want to speak for Jones, but We have a way better source for pig meat. We can take a picture of them happily eating in the field with piggy friends on their very worst (last)  day. Commodity pig meat is the enemy of good food. 

SciAggie

@20stone I honestly agree about the quality. For the amount of time a leg has to hang, only the highest quality would be worth it. The one I saw did get me thinking though. 

You’re right about the FFA projects. That’s why I wanted to get set up. There is always a  project animal that’s been fed on a silver platter for months - that gets sold for market price. Both hogs and lambs. You just have to be ready to strike when the deal is available. 

Ozzie_Isaac

Epic shark coochie thread ahead!  Will definitely be following this gem!

20stone

Pro tip - If you can get a great collar, coppa is my favorite cut to cure.  I like eating it as much/more than prosciutto, and it takes way less time and space.

Time to go scouting those FFA hogs.  Give a guy a heads up if you need to share one.

Ozzie_Isaac

This year all the 4H auctions were online.  If I was more daring I would have picked up one of those hand raised/fed animals.  Some beautiful cows and pigs sold around here.

SciAggie

Coppa is really what I’d like to do first. 

As for the FFA projects, I’ll let you know. Since they cancelled Fort Worth there may be some animals available. I haven’t heard what’s happening with SA or Houston. 

SciAggie

Ozzie_Isaac said:

This year all the 4H auctions were online.  If I was more daring I would have picked up one of those hand raised/fed animals.  Some beautiful cows and pigs sold around here.

I’ll talk to my Ag teachers this week. That’s the great thing about small schools. 

U_tarded

Ozzie_Isaac said:

This year all the 4H auctions were online.  If I was more daring I would have picked up one of those hand raised/fed animals.  Some beautiful cows and pigs sold around here.

We have half an FFA pig in the freezer we split with the in-laws.  I’m not in love with how it was butchered (roasts split in half, thin chops etc) but the meat quality is amazing and the price was awesome. Now that I know I will work with the meat cutter in the future instead of letting the in-laws do it.  

paqman

That’s pretty cool!!!  I was looking into converting our barely used basement fridge into a curing chamber but with COVID we have started using it again so not happening.  Maybe one day in another world 🤷‍♂️

Foghorn

@lkapigian, can you tell us a little more about each of the hanging meats?

lkapigian

@Foghorn the front two left are Salamis , winged recipe with Sumac, herbs de province ...they are from a fermented snack stick experiment ( remainder was stuffed in 22mm casings) the 2 on the far right are Cappicola ( money muscle on a pork butt) sourced Kurobuta pork Collar from SRF , they started back in August , both Calabrese 
The large one behind the salami is Pancetta Arotolata ( rolled pork belly ) , that has been going since July...its being stubborn on weight loss but maturing nicely .....in th back are a couple Calabrese Salami ( ground pork)Soprasetta (pressed),below, those will be ready in 4 weeks ..your whole muscles are the simplest and take the longest , salami is pretty quick...tje far left in the picture below is Lonzino ( cured pork loin) started back in September 

SciAggie

@lkapigian Only one pork collar will fit into one bung, right? So if I have a 4 or 5 pound pork collar like the SRF above, each one needs a bung. Is that correct?

lkapigian

SciAggie said:

@lkapigian Only one pork collar will fit into one bung, right? So if I have a 4 or 5 pound pork collar like the SRF above, each one needs a bung. Is that correct?

I used 2, but depending on the length you may be able to get 2 into 1 ...they are about 28-32" each ( the bungs ) and you will want a few extra inches on each one for tying...With the Collagen sheets, 2 per sheet easy 

lkapigian

Thought I would throw this out for anyone with questions ( like I had ) when getting started , it can be confusing but here are some basics

Chamber- Do you have to have one, no , but it will give you consistent repeatable results. I have aged out doors, in the fridge , and recently in a closet   

Curing Salts- There is a lot out there on this and the science of it-To keep it simple Cure 1 if it will cure/age less than 30 Days and you will cook it- Cure 2 if Longer than 30 days and you will eat it uncooked ( but can be cooked ) 

Salami-Typically refers to Ground Meats that will be fermented then aged/matured/dried ....

Salumi- When you hear people talking about curing Whole Muscles that is Capicola , lonzino, pancetta etc

Fermentation- Usually done with Salami to bring down the PH, you do not need a special chamber but can. The Starter Culture I use does well at room temp....For those fermenting hot sauces and such, Yes You can use that as a starter.....Do you have to use a starter culture, no but it gets you over a safety hurdle 

Curing- You Cure Whole Muscles , several ways , but I always use Equilibrium Method, This is done in the Refrigerator then after that process it goes into the Chamber 

Recipes -The only real hard and fast rule you should follow is 2.25% salt and .25% Curing Salt everything else is seasoning...I have a few go to's that work and are easily tweaked

Mold-White Good Green, not horrible, black Toss It 

Yes there is a ton more, but these are common questions , @nolaegghead an better explain the science of it all 

If @Little Steven suitcase chicken won't hurt you, curing meats won't either 

caliking

SciAggie said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

This year all the 4H auctions were online.  If I was more daring I would have picked up one of those hand raised/fed animals.  Some beautiful cows and pigs sold around here.

I’ll talk to my Ag teachers this week. That’s the great thing about small schools. 

Those animals are pampered, for sure. A few kids I know raise animals for FFA. They dig that I always ask them about their animals, but are just a tiny bit miffed when I talk about eating them. The parents are all for it!

Daughter of a colleague raised a hog for FFA. He named it Tasty, and was happy with the sausage and other cuts he got from it. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

A few things we have done over the years. Some lonzo, coppa, prosciutto, looks like some fermented sausage (But could be masalawurst by the color). A few cheeses and other fun stuff

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

A few things we have done over the years. Some lonzo, coppa, prosciutto, looks like some fermented sausage (But could be masalawurst by the color). A few cheeses and other fun stuff

Hey Now !

SciAggie

Dang! I’m excited to finally be in this game. That stuff looks crazy good @The Cen-Tex Smoker

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Pancetta and holiday ham:

SciAggie

I didn’t realize you had done this many cured foods. You are a man of many talents. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

SciAggie said:

I didn’t realize you had done this many cured foods. You are a man of many talents. 

Jones did most of the Heavy lifting on the whole muscle stuff with our sausage pigs. 

alaskanassasin

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