Salumi 2.0

We took advantage of Thursday’s lovely weather to take our pre-dinner wine and munchies on the patio.  Some crackers and sharp cheddar for Ann; a little provolone and some home cured bresaola, capicola and finocchiona for me. 

Finocchiona, Bresaola, Capicola (clockwise from top)

A simple pleasure all the more enjoyable because I made the product myself.

These salumi were started back while we were in the throes of the succession of snow storms this past winter.

For the bresaola, I kept everything the same as before but used a whole piece of eye round this time.

After the results of my first attempt at capicola I made some adjustments to the process and prepared a second attempt.  I was very careful to adhere to a tight ratio of salt to meat, plus I added some of the seasonings halfway through the two week curing process.  The object was to affect a good (and safe) cure but not over salt the meat as in the fist try.  And I changed up the spice mix a little for more character and flavor.

To stretch myself a little, I tried a third product…a finocchiona.  This is a Tuscan style salame flavored with lightly toasted fennel seeds.  I bought and trimmed up a whole Boston butt (pork shoulder) and cut it into manageable chunks. These were tossed with the curing salt and spices and then run through the grinding attachment of my kitchen center.  I also picked up a couple of pieces of fatback and coarsely chopped it up and blended it into the ground pork.  The mixed fat and meat mixture was then stuffed into a casing and tied. 

When it came to hanging the meats to dry, I again used our basement but added an inexpensive humidifier in an attempt to slow the process a little bit.  If the relative humidity of the drying area is too low, the outside of the meat can dry to the point that it prevents the inside from properly drying.  This is called “case hardening” and can lead to spoilage rather than curing. 

Then came the hardest part…the waiting.

Just before Easter, I checked on the meats.  By weight loss, they were pretty much on target.  The finocchiona still felt a little soft in the middle when I squeezed it so I left it to hang a little longer.  The bresaola was done.  I cut it in half, wrapped and bagged it and put it in the refrigerator.

The capicola, I cut in half to see how well it had dried.  It looked to need just a little more hanging time.  I put the pieces in a brown paper bag (a trick I picked up at a demonstration on making capicola given by John Scarpati of the Mercer County Italian American Festival Association), tied it up and re-hung it in the basement.

More waiting.

After another 10 days, I checked the capicola.  Fine!

Wrapped and bagged and into the icebox.

The Finocchiona still seemed a little soft in the middle but I was afraid the casing was getting too dry and wouldn’t let the center dry out appropriately.  Cutting the sausage in half, I was surprised to find a pretty well cured center.  The “give” appeared to come from the fact that I hadn’t compacted the filling as much as I should have.  The meat smelled good; tasted fine; and I suffered no ill-effects from eating it.  It too got wrapped, bagged and put into the refrigerator. 

I will admit the Finocchiona could use some work.  Rather than the hard salame I was aiming for, I had a “looser” but flavorful cured sausage.  I hand cut the back fat to add to the “paste” (filling mixture) and could have diced it finer.  The casing I ordered was about twice the diameter that I had anticipated, so the salame was thicker and that probably contributed to the uneven curing.  The oversized casing did have one advantage in that I was able to hand stuff it. This was a good thing because I also discovered that my lightweight kitchen center was not quite up to the task of real sausage making.  Something I’ll have to keep in mind if I’m going to continue to work in this particular area of charcuterie.

That said it wasn’t a total loss. There is a version of finocchiona that is more crumbly and somewhat “fresher” than your typical dry salame. “Sbriciolona” is something I’ve never actually tasted but it sounds close enough to my end result that I’m willing to call it that. 

It’s doubtful that I’ll try to prepare any more salumi now that the weather is warming up.  But I will continue to work in other areas of charcuterie until the fall.

Salumi

Warning: if you are a vegetarian, vegan or even a meat eater who would rather not think about the where and how certain items come to table, skip this.

As noted previously I have become interested, some would say obsessed, with the art and craft of curing meats. 

It began with a desire to make a pancetta less salty than some I have purchased.  My online research led me to the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. That in turn has led me to Ruhlman’s blog as well as Bob del Grosso’s A Hunger Artist, amongst others. 

Guided by the info in the book and the experiences of other bloggers I have plunged into the world of curing, drying, smoking various forms of animal protein for later consumption, much to the chagrin of my ever tolerant and patient wife.

 Along the way I have had some successes and a couple of failures.  No matter the outcome, I have pressed on…not in some Julie/Julia parallel, but in an effort to learn more about the foods I like. 

At the very least I hope to deepen my appreciation and understanding of what it takes to make excellent bacon, pastrami or sausage.  And if along the way I produce some tasty consumables so much the better.

Spurred on by the non-toxic results of my efforts so far I decided to attempt larger projects involving longer curing and drying times. 

A sale at the local grocery store prompted me to purchase a piece of beef eye round to turn into bresaola.   

At the same time, I picked up a small pork loin roast to turn into a version of capicola. Commercial capicola is a product that I often find lacking in flavor.  Traditionally, a pork butt (aka Boston butt, pork shoulder butt) would be used, but for this trial, I wanted to try something leaner and a little smaller…hence the pork loin.

 The process for both products is very similar.  After trimming the cuts, a “cure” is applied to the meat.  A second dose is applied a week or so later. After another week, the meat is rinsed of the spent cure and seasonings, dried and prepared for hanging in a cool spot to slowly dry and age.

Photo by Mark Stradling

 

 The beef was trimmed of all silverskin and external fat.

 

 

In both cases, I scaled down the recipes from Ruhlman’s book and set about the process.

For the Bresaola, I prepared a mixture of salt, garlic, and juniper berries that was ground to a paste and rubbed all over the eye round.  I then slipped the roast into a plastic bag and placed it in the refrigerator for ten days.  Every other day or so, I would redistribute the seasoned curing mix evenly over the meat and flip it.  At the end of that period, I removed the meat and discarded the bag and any accumulated juices.  Another dose of the cure was applied to the beef before placing it in a fresh bag and returning it to the fridge for another week or so.  Again, I would massage and flip the roast every other day. 

Photo by Mark Stradling

The cure and seasonings are rubbed onto the beef.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The copicola was processed in much the same way as the bresaola only the seasonings were added after the curing process but before hanging to dry.  I used  a basic cure of salt, sugar and sodium nitrate. (The sodium nitrate will, over time change to sodium nitrite and provide some protection against the growth of the bacteria resposible for botulism.  It is perfectly safe in the small amounts used in the curing process.) 

Photo by Mark Stradling

Photo by Mark Stradling

Left: the pork loin has been trimmed and weighed.

Below: the curing mix will be rubbed into the pork.

 

 

 

 

 

Both products were put into separate baggies and refrigerated for a week and half.  Every other day or so, I would massage and flip them to make sure the cure is evenly dispersed.  After nine or ten days, the meat was removed from the bags, rinsed and dried.  Another dose of the seasoning/curing mixes were applied and then the meat went into new bags.  The massaging and flipping ritual was repeated every other day for another week and a half.

After almost three weeks…the meats were removed once again from their respective bags, rinsed and dried. 

Photo by Mark Stradling

This capicola was going to be seasoned according the “sweet” recipe in Charcuterie.  I actually prefer a hot (spicy) capicola, but upon consulting with friend Mark it was determined that the sweet cure would allow a fairer judging of the process than the hotter version. 

Photo by Mark Stradling

After the cured pork loin was rubbed with the seasoning mix, I inserted it into a natural beef casing.

Photo by Mark Stradling

Photo by Mark Stradling

The capicola was then tied and readied for hanging.

The Bresaola was also tied with butcher’s twine in preparation for being taken to the basement to hang in a cool, dark, spot until done (looking for about a 30% weight loss or 21 days, whichever comes first). 

Photo by Mark Stradling

The bresaola and capicola were hung in the basement on December 30, 2009.  It was expected to take about three weeks for them to dry cure to completion.  Upon weighing them on January 12, they showed the expected 30% weight loss.  I let them hang a couple of more days just to go a full two weeks.

The speed with which the meats lost weight was due to the lower than ideal humidity in the drying area.  This was reinforced when we cut in to the bresaola and capicola.  You could tell by the rosier, softer centers that the outside of the meats had dried too rapidly.

Still, the meat was done, and not at all unpleasant to eat.  The bresaola I probably wouldn’t change a thing on except to do a whole eye round instead of the half I used for this trial.

Bresaola anyone?

The capicola was a bit too salty.  I suspect that came from too liberal a use of the curing mix.  Again, the pork loin was smaller and leaner than a pork butt,  I think that usinge a larger, fattier piece of meat, along with a more judicious hand on the curing mix, would mitigate the saltiness somewhat.

 

Capicola sliced and ready to eat.

 

I will definintely work on finding a way to increase the humidity level in the curing area for the next round of experiments.