Friday, February 11, 2011

Bresaola di Cervo - Deer Bresaola


Everyone knows beef bresaola.....it's a common salume that's generally a good starting place for people new to the hobby. In talking to Scott at Sausage Debauchery, I told him I was going to make a deer salame from a piece of deer roast a coworker gave me from a hunt. He intelligently suggested making a deer bresaola since I had such a nice piece and it would have been a waste to grind it up! I followed his advice, and this is what I ended up with. If you have a hunter friend who is willing to share his kill, I say give it a try!

Here's the venison roast. I have no idea what part of the deer this is from. Shoulder or leg I imagine. It's REALLY lean, and looks like really nice dark red beef.
The curing salt and spice mix
The roast was rubbed with the salt mix and put into a Ziplock bag for about 16 days. I massaged it and flipped it about every 5 or 6 days.
It was then rinsed and dried before casing it.
Cased in a beef bung and tied as tightly as possible.
Sprayed with M-EK-4 mold spray and fermented for 48 hours at 70 deg. F. Ready for the chamber.
Chamber is currently running at 55 deg. F and 75% RH.
Here is the bresaola after 30 days in the curing chamber. It's lost an indeterminate amount of weight, because I forgot to weigh it before it went in! I'm guesstimating about 25-30%. It actually feels hard, I think because it's so lean.

I wrapped it in a wet towel and let it rehydrate the casing for a couple of days.
A month or so in the curing chamber, a couple days in a zip bag in the fridge and it's ready to eat.
It's an amazing super-red color. It looks really beautiful. Smells delicious.
Sliced thin. It tastes quite similar to a beef bresaola, but richer and slightly more irony. It has a strong, delicious, flavor. It's very slightly salty, but not overly so. The herbs and spices are quite delicate and nicely balanced.

Overall this is a definite success.
at

33 comments:

  1. scottFebruary 11, 2011 at 9:46 PM

    Looks awesome! Mine should be ready in about 3 weeks. I hope it looks half as good as this.

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  2. JasonmolinariFebruary 11, 2011 at 9:48 PM

    thanks scott....it's real tasty.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 12, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    Looks great Jason! Deer meat is plentiful around here so this is next on the list.

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  4. MosaicaFebruary 14, 2011 at 7:52 AM

    Holy delicious! I need to prod my local game warden: I'm on the road-killed deer list (a venerable and awesome Vermont tradition) but I haven't gotten a deer this year. Yet.

    :-)

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  5. UnknownFebruary 14, 2011 at 10:18 AM

    thanks Mosaica...i would make sure that the deer is fresh!

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  6. mattFebruary 14, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    This looks fantastic. LOVE the color here.

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  7. AdrianaFebruary 25, 2011 at 11:40 AM

    Hi Jason, would the same recipe work for a plain beef bressaola, or would you alter the spices?
    Great to know you're back...

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  8. JasonmolinariFebruary 25, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    it'll work perfectly fine for beef

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  9. vietfoodrecipesMarch 5, 2011 at 7:46 PM

    It looks delicious. I'd like some of them !: ) beautiful color

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  10. Portland Charcuterie ProjectMarch 7, 2011 at 11:51 AM

    looks great Jason.

    Two logistics questions.

    1. where do you get your beef bungs?

    2. where do you get your hang tags? ( I looked on butcher packer and couldn't find them )

    Thanks

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  11. JasonmolinariMarch 7, 2011 at 1:24 PM

    PCP: 1) butcher packer has beef bungs
    2) staples/office depot (thanks to Scott @ sausage Debauchery who told me!)

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  12. JafaMarch 13, 2011 at 7:38 PM

    Hey jason, awesome blog mate! Been following it for a while and finally have everything to make my cabinet apart fromt he time to put it together haha! Should be done in the next fortnight.
    Lots of wild deer and goat in NZ so will be trying this and your goat salami recipes first - I'll post my results :p
    No idea how to blog but will get the hang of it I am sure. Awesome resource, thank you very much for sharing!

    Liam

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  13. JasonmolinariMarch 14, 2011 at 7:14 AM

    Sounds great Liam. Keep me updated on how stuff comes out!

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  14. JafaMarch 14, 2011 at 3:27 PM

    Will do mate, looks like we might try and rear our own pig too - just sourced as many oak, hazel and chestnuts as we want - even more excited now!

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  15. UnknownMarch 28, 2011 at 12:34 PM

    Hi Jason,
    Somehow we think a like. When I started to make beef bresaola, I decided to try deer meat too. I used your original instructions. Of course I cold smoked it.
    It is out of curing chamber and my wife and I love it.
    Thanks for inspiration. I am looking for more ideas.
    Thanks again.
    Constantin

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  16. JasonmolinariMarch 28, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    Great to hear it turned out well Constantin! Scott @ Sausage Debauchery smoked his venison bresaola as well, and I agree, it's delicious

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  17. UnknownMarch 29, 2011 at 1:53 PM

    Jason,
    I have quick question. Piece of meat that I used for deer Bresaola was not as big (third of the size). But I still kept it in fridge for 21 days. Does number of days in fridge should depend on the size of the piece of meat or not? Is there “rule of thumb” with minimum time in the fridge that depends on size, weight of piece of meat?

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  18. JasonmolinariMarch 29, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    Constantin, the days in fridge will depend on piece thickness and fridge temp. I don't know of any good rules of thumb that have much scientific basis on them. I like to "overcure" to make sure the salt and cure is fully absorbed rather than undercure.

    21 days is really about as long as i'd go for a solid muscle piece.12-15 is more likely. But again, it's just based on past experience..no real scientific study.

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  19. UnknownMarch 29, 2011 at 2:47 PM

    Thanks Jason.
    So, I guess I will go with "over-curing". I think as long I keep spice/salt proportions correct extra time in fridge won't do me any harm.

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  20. JasonmolinariMarch 29, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    Right Constantin. Just keep the salt/spices proportions correct and the extra few days will be no harm

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  21. mike hMay 10, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    Hi Jason, I am about to jump into meat and sausage curing. i have a few questions. first, why do you spray mold on the bresaola ? how do you prepare and store the mold spray? thanks

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  22. JasonmolinariMay 10, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    The spray mold gives the product a nice appearance and also slows down the drying, as well as protecting it from other "bad" molds.

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  23. PollyMay 22, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    Hi Jason,
    This recipe looks fantastic! And I just happen to have a deer roast for it.
    For the second step, is the meat left at room temperature with the salt mix? or at a lower temperature?
    Thanks!

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  24. JasonmolinariMay 22, 2011 at 11:03 PM

    Polly, in the fridge. The salt curing always occurs in the fridge.

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  25. PollyMay 23, 2011 at 12:13 AM

    Thank you, Jason. This is my first curing project (been trying to do it for years, but other projects have been getting in the way. There is absolutely no excuse anymore!).

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  26. DenisJune 5, 2011 at 7:04 AM

    Bloody awesome blog mate !
    I'm gonna do this recipe with the deer from the little city of Ooshika in Japan. Thanks a lot !

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  27. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2013 at 2:18 AM

    Jason, is the fermentation necessary?

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  28. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2013 at 4:11 PM

    The reason I ask is because most of the breseola recipes basically say to cure it, rinse it, truss it and hang it - with no fermentaton step.

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  29. JasonmolinariSeptember 9, 2013 at 1:56 PM

    the fermentation step helps the casings adhere.

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  30. nykidies@gmail.comApril 28, 2014 at 4:05 PM

    I have a newbie question. I saw a similar Bresaola over at the THE sausage debauchery called Bresaolina di Cervo Affumicata (which is cold smoked)and there was a link that took me here. My newbie question is this. Reading Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by Stanley Marianski he had mentioned that using Cure # 2 is for food that is not cooked or SMOKED. What are your thoughts about using Cure # 2 and smoking the meat? Am I missing something? He also uses a higher % .60% for his bresaola.

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks

    Thanks

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  31. JasonmolinariApril 28, 2014 at 4:16 PM

    lloyd, the bresaolina is cold smoked, and then aged, so it should use cure #2.
    also i don't see where you're getting 0.6%. Either way , it should always be 0.25%.

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  32. UnknownAugust 21, 2015 at 1:59 PM

    That muscle is definitely from a back leg. Looks like the top round. That seems to be the right cut to use for venison bresaola. There is sometimes a small gland that needs to be trimmed out of the inside of that roast. It looks like a small fatty nodule. You want to get rid of that gland as it is the source of "gamy" flavor.

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  33. JasonmolinariAugust 21, 2015 at 3:55 PM

    thanks tim

    ReplyDelete

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