Charcuterie - Show us your work

SciAggie

@lkapigian I’ll use the Flavors of Italy. I’m following the recipe from Two Guys and a Cooler - unless you have a better suggestion. 

lkapigian

@SciAggie , that's a great recipe ...with the flavor of Italy, it's fast , almost to fast...ferment on the lower end of the spectrum 70ish if possible limit the dextrose to .3%  and if adding other sugars take tat into consideration ..looking forward to seeing your work 

lkapigian

Let the Dried Italian Sausage No Starter Culture go at room temp 12 hours and into the chamber....i could have let it go safely for another day at room temp but day temps are still to warm for my comfort ...it will still drop oh slowly at chamber temp but not worried about it 



Had to put what was left hanging in the door to make room...these are all done just letting them are a bit more 

SciAggie

You need a bigger chamber.
OR - maybe you need a few more mailing addresses, lol.
The color on the last sausage is beautiful.

Elijah

@lkapigian what in the world do you do with all that? I admire your work. I had the opportunity to spend four weeks in Italy last year for work and it gave me a new respect for charcuterie. 

lkapigian

Thanks @SciAggie I still have another 4.4 not using for curing but somehow became a spare fridge.... @Elijah , before the Covid we did a lot of cooks offs and small catering where it would have been used , now it goes to friends and family or being stockpiled 

lkapigian

Well I got it all in, 10pounds Dried Sausage ,10 pounds Fermented Snack Sticks ...theres a 5 pound Bresaola lurking in there plus the completed stuff on the door...i would not fill it this full long term but the 20MM stuff will shut k pretty quick ...the 20 MM casings I did use a culture , 72 hour ferment....checking the PH the one With Culture and the one Without were within .1-.2 of each other 

SciAggie

That's a lot of sausage.

SciAggie

Spanish Chorizo is happening. I’m using the recipe from Two Guys and a Cooler with lots of advice from @lkapigian. This is a lot of work but even more fun. http://twoguysandacooler.com/spanish-chorizo/

The sausage is fermenting at the moment. I put it in my (clean) fume hood in my classroom. Starting pH is 5.9. 

It will be ready to go into the curing chamber tomorrow.

SciAggie

Before making the Chorizo I cut the collar portion from the two butts I picked up. They are in the equilibrium cure for 3 weeks. They will become Coppa. 

lkapigian

Beauty !

shtgunal3

SciAggie said:

You need a bigger chamber.
OR - maybe you need a few more mailing addresses, lol.
The color on the last sausage is beautiful.

I would be more than happy to provide you guys with a mailing address.

SciAggie

Check out the color change after 24 hours. pH is 4.9. 

lkapigian

SciAggie said:

Check out the color change after 24 hours. pH is 4.9. 

Beautiful!

lkapigian

Made a tray for some friends Left to Right Pancetta Tesa , Lonzino ( new favorite) Cappicola and Basturma 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Elijah said:

Cold smoked some bacon. I let it cure too long and it ended up saltier than I'd like. Only slightly. The neighbor that I let try it said it was the right amount for them. I'm thinking about soaking it in water for a bit. I'm afraid of what it'll do to the other flavors, but whatcha going to do. Anyone have an idea for soak time?

If you are just trying the outer edge, it can be too salty. The salt mellows as you get a few slices in. I would cut one of those in half and try some from the middle before soaking. 

nolaegghead

This is true, but also true that a quick soak will remove it from where it came in (the outside of the meat) and is most concentrated. 

It you rinse it off well and let the salt equalize for a week or two the end should be as salty as the middle. 

Salt has full mobility in meat and the concentration will want to equalize and be the same throughout the cut, given enough time.  

In pork, salt moves about 4mm the first hour and slows down to around 15mm a day.

Source:  https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/diffusion.html

SciAggie

lkapigian said:

Made a tray for some friends Left to Right Pancetta Tesa , Lonzino ( new favorite) Cappicola and Basturma 

That looks so good. 

Elijah

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

Cold smoked some bacon. I let it cure too long and it ended up saltier than I'd like. Only slightly. The neighbor that I let try it said it was the right amount for them. I'm thinking about soaking it in water for a bit. I'm afraid of what it'll do to the other flavors, but whatcha going to do. Anyone have an idea for soak time?

If you are just trying the outer edge, it can be too salty. The salt mellows as you get a few slices in. I would cut one of those in half and try some from the middle before soaking. 

I did go several slices in. I did the overnight soak, and it came out barely under seasoned. I still vacuum sealed it and will use it, but it wasn't quite a success. Next time I'll cure for less time. I'm thinking a 4 or 6 hour soak would have been right. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Elijah said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

Cold smoked some bacon. I let it cure too long and it ended up saltier than I'd like. Only slightly. The neighbor that I let try it said it was the right amount for them. I'm thinking about soaking it in water for a bit. I'm afraid of what it'll do to the other flavors, but whatcha going to do. Anyone have an idea for soak time?

If you are just trying the outer edge, it can be too salty. The salt mellows as you get a few slices in. I would cut one of those in half and try some from the middle before soaking. 

I did go several slices in. I did the overnight soak, and it came out barely under seasoned. I still vacuum sealed it and will use it, but it wasn't quite a success. Next time I'll cure for less time. I'm thinking a 4 or 6 hour soak would have been right. 

If you use an equilibrium cure (the exact amount of cure by weight for the weight of the meat) you’ll never have to worry about this again. You can leave it in there for weeks and it will never get too salty. It’s nice to not have to pull it on an exact date or try to guess how early to pull it. All mine go around 7 days but I have gone days longer with no issues when life gets in the way. 

PigBeanUs

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

If you use an equilibrium cure (the exact amount of cure by weight for the weight of the meat) you’ll never have to worry about this again. You can leave it in there for weeks and it will never get too salty. It’s nice to not have to pull it on an exact date or try to guess how early to pull it. All mine go around 7 days but I have gone days longer with no issues when life gets in the way. 

The old french farmhouse approach was to do a simple brine or “pickle” of salt and herbs. Maybe salt petre, but not necessary. It was an equilibrium cure of sorts, though no one was doing any chemistry, it was a practical method learned by trial and error. Pretty cool frankly. 

This was pre-refrigeration. 

Basically, a tall crock would hold a few gallons of brine, amd you would toss in a couple joints, a loin (cut into small roasts), maybe some belly. 

And it would stay there in perpetuity. 

Couple months even. 

Reach in, take out a loin or shank or whatever. Mild cure. 

They would toss in more meat as they came across it. 

The lid was a circle of wood that fit inside on top of the brine which held the meat down. 

Every now and then, when they got suspicious about the cure, they’d boil it (and the lid), skim the scum, top off the brine with some more. 

Curing was still a practical solution to a real problem (viz: “what are we going to do with all this meat”) as little as fifty to seventy-five years ago. 

nolaegghead

Curing as a means of preservation is still used today by nearly a billion people who have little or no electricity.  I'm sure they would all love Sub Zero freezers, but out of necessity they utilize ancient techniques to preserve perishable food.  Bushmeat biltong is prevalent in Africa.

johnmitchell

A few pics of my last batch of Biltong.

nolaegghead

Nice, John.  I've been meaning to try to make some biltong.

BTW: In the etymology of the word "biltong" are the Dutch words for butt and tongue.  Quick, someone call @SGH!!!

PigBeanUs

nolaegghead said:

Curing as a means of preservation is still used today by nearly a billion people who have little or no electricity.  I'm sure they would all love Sub Zero freezers, but out of necessity they utilize ancient techniques to preserve perishable food.  Bushmeat biltong is prevalent in Africa.

Well sure. 

I wasn’t saying curing is no longer done. It’s just that Mr. and Mrs. America don’t give a second thought as to why we have such a thing as bacon or salted pork or ham. 

My point about the french farmhouse crock was that it wasn’t about making tasty jambon, it had to do with making sure the pork didn’t rot before you could eat it, and as long as we are submerging it in salty water, we might as well add some herbs and wine and maybe some sugar to take the edge off. 

Goes all the way back to meat caches. Gravlax for example. Or mastodon bones found under piles of rock (to hold them under water).  

But now I make mastodon hams because I want to, not because I have to. 

FarmingPhD

@johnmitchell what is the contraption in your last picture that the meat is sitting on?  

Elijah

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

Cold smoked some bacon. I let it cure too long and it ended up saltier than I'd like. Only slightly. The neighbor that I let try it said it was the right amount for them. I'm thinking about soaking it in water for a bit. I'm afraid of what it'll do to the other flavors, but whatcha going to do. Anyone have an idea for soak time?

If you are just trying the outer edge, it can be too salty. The salt mellows as you get a few slices in. I would cut one of those in half and try some from the middle before soaking. 

I did go several slices in. I did the overnight soak, and it came out barely under seasoned. I still vacuum sealed it and will use it, but it wasn't quite a success. Next time I'll cure for less time. I'm thinking a 4 or 6 hour soak would have been right. 

If you use an equilibrium cure (the exact amount of cure by weight for the weight of the meat) you’ll never have to worry about this again. You can leave it in there for weeks and it will never get too salty. It’s nice to not have to pull it on an exact date or try to guess how early to pull it. All mine go around 7 days but I have gone days longer with no issues when life gets in the way. 

I did do the salt box method for this. I was in a hurry. If I plan to spend hours making it you'd think I'd spend the extra few minutes to weigh everything. 

SciAggie

@lkapigian I have an idea. Sometime when you have the opportunity, it would be great if you explained how you dry your chilies and make garlic powder. I know you have mentioned it before but it is lost in a thread somewhere. I think it’s great how you do that. You have a wealth of knowledge that others can benefit from. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Elijah said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Elijah said:

Cold smoked some bacon. I let it cure too long and it ended up saltier than I'd like. Only slightly. The neighbor that I let try it said it was the right amount for them. I'm thinking about soaking it in water for a bit. I'm afraid of what it'll do to the other flavors, but whatcha going to do. Anyone have an idea for soak time?

If you are just trying the outer edge, it can be too salty. The salt mellows as you get a few slices in. I would cut one of those in half and try some from the middle before soaking. 

I did go several slices in. I did the overnight soak, and it came out barely under seasoned. I still vacuum sealed it and will use it, but it wasn't quite a success. Next time I'll cure for less time. I'm thinking a 4 or 6 hour soak would have been right. 

If you use an equilibrium cure (the exact amount of cure by weight for the weight of the meat) you’ll never have to worry about this again. You can leave it in there for weeks and it will never get too salty. It’s nice to not have to pull it on an exact date or try to guess how early to pull it. All mine go around 7 days but I have gone days longer with no issues when life gets in the way. 

I did do the salt box method for this. I was in a hurry. If I plan to spend hours making it you'd think I'd spend the extra few minutes to weigh everything. 

Totally get that. I started off doing that several years ago but it made things so much easier and repeatable when I started weighing/measuring everything. Especially with the ruhlman salt box method. Just like everything else he does, way too salty (and I’m a salt fiend) 

nolaegghead

FarmingPhD said:

@johnmitchell what is the contraption in your last picture that the meat is sitting on?  

I was thinking it was a nut cracker (owch!).