Fermentation Chamber for Salumi

I have been getting pretty deep into this Charcuterie thing.  The next big step is making some fermented salumis.  This is not as easy as it may sound.  I have been leaning a lot on some of my friends in the Charcuterie world, Jason from Cured meats, Matt from Wrightfood(an amazing photographer as well) and Scott over at Sausage Debauchery.  The advise they have given me plus all of the reading has led to this point.  The journey in to fermented salumi's. 

I have made the cure chamber, now I needed to make the prequel for this.  I took a lot of advice from Jason to make the Fermentation chamber. When making any type of "Fermented" sausages, a bacterial culture is added to the meat to inoculate it with good bacteria.  The mold you see on some salumis is a good thing.  This also helps give your fermented sausage an amazing flavor, in addition to keeping the bad bacteria away. The times and humidity that you need is dependent on the starter culture used.  Be sure to check, as some only need to ferment for 24 hrs and other 48-72 hrs. I started out buy ordering all the pieces parts I would need.  Then got to work.

Pig Trotter Terrine, August Charcutepalooza Challenge!!

I have recently joined the group Charcutepalooza.  A bunch of amazing people, are dedicated to learning the art of Charcuterie using Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie.  If you have not purchased this book, GET IT NOW... In fact, buy one for yourself and one as a gift for someone else.  This is not your typical cook book, more like an easy and fun to read text book that gets you back to the roots of Charcuterie.  Everything from curing meats, making condiments, and how to smoke all types of meats.  No I did not get an endorsement from Mr. Ruhlman. 

So when I find out that the August challenge was Binding. I got excited.  Participants were challenged to either do: The apprentice Challenge: Make a Liver Terrine or a Fish/Seafood Mousseline, or go for the Charcutiere Challenge: Make Headcheese, feet, or Trotter Terrine. Since I lack the storage space for an entire pigs head, I went with the Trotters.  I gave a call over to my buddy Mark, at Newman Farms Heritage Berkshire Pork .  And as soon as I mentioned trotters, he gave me the traditional Mark line "I have a deal for you"!!  I went there to only get a couple trotters and Mark used his Jedi mind tricks on me, I left with twelve trotters, eight pounds of pork belly, and five pounds of pig livers. He's good.  Okay back to the task at hand.  If you look back to my previous post, Primals The trotter is the pig foot area.  Look at diagram below.

Bacon Powder!!

That's right folks you read the title correct, I made bacon powder.  I am not just a one trick pony, I am into all areas of the culinary world.  Charcuterie just happens to me more of a passion.  So when I heard there was a restaurant making Pomme Frites(fancy word for French Fries) with bacon powder.  I had to try this.  And this is not a fake, synthetic, bacon "flavor" like you get in the sci fi creations of bacon salt and baconnaise.  If you are a fan of those products you can make this and be the pride of the Trailer park.

The first step was to render down some bacon to get the amount of fat needed.  If you wanted to render down bacon, why not go all in and do it with some Mangalista bacon, from Moosefund.  The most unctuous and fatty bacon on the planet.

English Bangers and Mash

A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with a gentleman that came from Scotland, I guess you really could not call him a gentleman but he is a great guy.  He turned me on to some good old British cooking.  Things Like the Bangers and Mash, Nips and Tatties, and Haggis.  Truth be told, I really like all of them.  They are all very filling comfort food.  So today, I had some pork shoulder left over, and had a hankering for some Bangers.  The term Bangers comes from WWII days when the sausages had a higher water content due to rationing, so the sausages would pop and explode in the pan when cooking.  This is a savory sausage with a sweet undertone and mildly spiced.  I served mine with a reduction of balsamic vinegar with caramelized onions.  Delicious.  Onto the sausages.  Very simple to make.

• 2 1/2Lb 1149g Pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into strips
• 1Lb 453g Pork Fat, I used pork jowl cut into strips
• 1 1/2C 173g dry bread crumbs
• 1 1/4C 10floz Chicken stock Chilled
• 4tsp Banger seasoning( see below)
• 9ft Medium hog casings, rinsed and soaked for 30 min

Smoked Polish Kielbasa, and Pierogies.

Ever have one of those days when you miss home, you just miss your roots?  Even though I move a lot I spent the majority of my life living in the area of Cleveland Ohio.  I know, I know I have heard all of the jokes about Cleveland, and sure our river did catch on fire,....Twice.  But to me, there is really no better place.  The people of Cleveland are Real down to earth people, and they all have two things in common, we love our sports!!  And we love our food.!!  The Cleveland suburbs are a huge variety of different cultures and demographics.  I remember going to the West Side market as a child. (Really, click the link)

Pancetta Arrotolata, hits the cure chamber Today!!

Hopefully you all remember my recent post, The Day of the Belly.  If you have not seen it, there is something wrong with you, click on the link and catch up!!  So after much anticipation, and belly rubbing (not mine pervs, the pancetta. Taking the belly out of the fridge every other day, redistributing the cure mixture, and flipping the belly, this is called overhauling) The Pancetta is ready to get rolled and hit the chamber.  There are two main kinds of Pancetta, Tessa, and Arrotolata.  Tessa is flat and looks like regular bacon that is not smoked.  Arrotolata is rolled very tightly, tied and dried for about two to three months.  I pulled the belly out and rinsed it well to get most of the cure mixture off.

The Belly Turns to bacon with a little smoke!!

I am sure you all have seen my recent Day of the Belly post, this is the continuation.  I have recently purchased an electric smoker....  I know for those of you who know me well how could I be using an electric smoker?  Does this make me less of a man, not to be tending my own fire and grunting throughout the day.  Well I live in an apartment, and hell it is so much easier.  I smoked a shoulder the other day, all I had to do was rub my meet (hehehe) and toss it in the smoker, set my temp and time and walk away.  WOW much easier.  I do have to admit I miss my big old offset smoker.  I love that type of cooking.  As soon as I get out of an apartment I will be the meat Viking once again.  On to the meat(that's what she said).  I used a beautiful piece of Newman farms belly for this.

It's a Pig Jowl Thing!

Two more jowls are hitting the cure chamber today.  You may remember them from my first blog on Guanciale.  I made a couple of important promises to myself and my friends when I started my Charcuterie endeavor.  #1, if I ever have a doubt that the project would be safe or not, I will toss it and start over (Trust me this is harder than it sounds when you think of the money and time invested), and #2, is to use only the Highest quality, sustainable ingredients.  I prefer to get my veggies from farmers markets and my meats to be of the Heritage variety.  There are really two big breeds of Heritage pork right now, the Berkshire and the Mangalitsa.  I use the Berkshire, not only because it's freaking amazing, but I know a really good farmer that is known across the country, and he is local, so there.  That being said I got two beautiful jowls a couple of weeks ago and prepared them in two completely different ways.  One was more traditional with very fresh herbs and garlic, and the next I did in a southern Italian, Calabrian style, spicy and smokey.  Lets talk more traditional first.  I got some amazing herbs from my buddies that have an amazing restaurant here in Memphis.  If you are ever near stop by!!! Andrew Michaels Italian Kitchen.  Here we go.

The Day Of the Pork Belly.......

Today I decided to tackle the Pork Belly that I got from Newman Farms at the Memphis farmers market.  I am all about using local ingredients.  I want to support my local farms for a few reasons.  Number one, the food tastes better, and number two, I know where my food is coming from.  The difference in taste and quality is second to none.  So here is the belly that Mark sold me.

That is one piece of delicious porky goodness. If you look back to the primals post I did you can see where the belly comes from.  It is not only the belly but the side of the hog.  You can see where the spareribs were once attached to this cut of meat.

My Calabrian Christmas!!!

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The Basic Cure!

The basic cure in Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman not only a fellow Clevelander but also as some refer to the Grandfather of the new Charcuterie movement.  This cure is in most of the meat curing recipes in the book.  I made the Dextrose version as I think it mixes better and the sweetness is not as profound as granulated sugar.  So here we go.

This recipe consists of:

450 g Kosher salt (one pound)
425 g Dextrose (13 0z)
75 g Pink salt #1 (3oz)

Mix all of these ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container until needed.  You will notice in most of my recipes that I use metric measurements instead of Cups, tablespoons, pounds etc... it is because these are more accurate and consistent for curing meats. The sizes of particles in a tablespoon will vary, but the weight content will not.  So if in any of my posts you see dry cure this is what it is. Get ready for some belly!!

Lomo Embuchado (take one)

Lomo is the Spanish word for loin, I used a quality Pork loin for this recipe.  Forgive me for the lack of prep pictures here, I deleted them on accident.  I will make sure this does not happen next time.  So on to what you will need.

• 5lbs (2268 grams) Pork loin
• 60 grams Turbinado Sugar
• 9 grams Pink Salt
• 9 grams Black Tellicherry peppercorns Toasted
• 9 grams Fennel seed Toasted
• 9 grams Coriander seed Toasted
• 45 grams Kosher salt
• 9 grams Spanish Paprika, sweet
• 10 grams Garlic chopped (approx. 3 cloves)
• 3 grams Thyme leaves
• 3 grams Cayenne pepper

Toast the peppercorns, fennel seed, and coriander until fragrant.  Put in a spice mill and pulverize.  Mix the sugar, salt, the toasted spices, pink salt,  paprika, garlic, thyme cayenne, and coat all sides of the pork loin evenly, not forgetting about the ends, reserving a third of the spice mixture for a second cure application.  Put pork loin in a nonreactive container, I use my Food Saver and seal on the low, moist setting.  Refrigerate for 7 days.  After 7 days, apply the reserved spice mixture and refrigerate for another 7 days.  Rinse the pork and Tie with butchers twine.  Put into cure chamber at 57-60 degrees F, and 70-75% RH for approximately 45 days.  By this time your meet should be firm to the touch and smell sweet.  If your meat has developed any white mold, you can wipe with a clean towel dipped in a white vinegar and distilled water solution.

Guanciale! (Updated 8/13)

The word Guanciale just rolls off the tongue.  The first time I had this I was like "looks like bad fatty bacon".  Then I tasted the Porcine goodness that is Guanciale.  My world had changed forever.  If you are one of the few people that like bacon. You will want to cast a pork jowl in bronze, put it in front of your house and say this is why the pig was created... OK I may be a little over board, but this is how passionate I am about this piggy part.  If your look back to our Primal cuts you can see where the jowl is from.

MMMMM Jowl.

Primals!! (Updated)

I feel like I did not get as in depth when I first posted this. I have recently aquired a copy of Primal Cuts by Marissa Guggiana, if you love your meat buy this awesome book!! See below for the update beauty we call the Pig, or as Webster's Thesaurus states: boar, cob roller, hog, piggy, piglet, porker, porky, shoat, sow, swine

As I begin my blogging endeavor, I have to talk about the beast that means the most to me and the cuts that it entails.  That being the pig.  I grew up on a farm with my family in Denmark, Ohio.  Don't worry no one else knows where that is it either.  We had horses, chickens, a mean ass rooster, some cows and a bull, a couple goats, rabbits and pigs.  My mom grew very attached to her pigs and in true Mary Ellen(my wonderful mother) fashion, she trained them.  These pigs loved my mom, they did what she asked, she trained them to go up to the cars that came to our farm and would snort at them, they would come running whenever she left the house, and would follow here wherever she went.  Pretty cute.  Only down side is that she named them.  I remember Pork and Beans and others, feeding them and petting them, then all of a sudden they were gone.  When I would ask what happened to them, I would get "Don't worry about them....want more bacon?"  Of course I wanted more bacon.  This could be where my obsession started, only to sit in waiting until I was 35 and have discovered the wonderful world of salty, porky, treats. I had an opportunity that I held for granted as a child, we were a semi self sustaining farm..... I would love that right now.  I remember my mom giving my sister and I each a small salt shaker and sending us to the garden for a snack.  The fresh tomatoes, beans, and other vegetables were amazing.  I am slipping away into another time right now and losing focus. Now for the business at hand.

Dried Salted and smoked Pig's Liver.

I know what you are thinking.... Not only is it Pig's liver, but you are going smoke it, then dry it?  Are you nuts.  I would have to say.... Maybe.  I have jumped in with all feet when it comes to Charcuterie as well as Offal.  It seems like we as a society have forgotten where we came from.  We have gotten so used to going to the store and finding our meat miraculously in a plastic and Styrofoam container.  I am done with that.  We need to get back to our roots, and have our food the way we were meant to have it.  It is a lot of damn work but guess what.  It is Delicious, and hearty and makes you feel good when you eat it.  The difference between getting a pork chop at Kroger, and getting a Heritage one can not be put into words.  Sounds like a good idea for a post, have the old Pepsi challenge with pork..  Note to self.  Any way I am getting side tracked.  I went to my friends restaurant the other day and he surprised me with some amazing pasta with grated Bottarga (click the word if you do not know what it is, then find it and put it in your belly, it is great) He and I started talking and he mentioned this salted pig liver thing, and doing something similar with it.  It turns out I just so happened to have a copy of Fergus Henderson's The Whole beast at home with a recipe.  And here we go.