Wednesday, March 30, 2011

La Boccia al Finocchio

IMG_2189Boccia translates to “ball”, and the reason for this name should be obvious given its shape. This isn’t a salame that’s classic of anywhere, as far as I know.  The round shape is from the fact that it’s stuffed in a hog bladder. I’m guessing any salame paste can be put in it, I chose to use a fennel based one.










I read about this salame on an Italian cured meats blog called Salumi Casalinghi. The owner of the blog made it with chili pepper, calling it a “Boccia Piccante”, baf

IMG_2582 I used pork shoulder that I trimmed up a little bit.
The fat was from a pasture raised pig from Caw Caw Creek.
IMG_2584 Meat and fat mixed up. Very exciting. This was put in the freezer to harden up before grinding.
IMG_2585 Meat and fat was ground with 8mm plate.
IMG_2589 The meat was well mixed with the spices, salt, cure and starter. It was mixed until a good bind was achieved. It took about 2 minutes on low speed on the Kitchenaid mixer.
IMG_2586 This was then stuffed into hog bladder. It was actually kind of a pain to get it really stuffed full, get any air pockets out and then tie up the open end.
IMG_2189 The boccia was tied up, and fermented at 70-72 deg. F for 48 hrs.

After fermentation, it was off to the curing chamber, running at 55 F and 75% RH.
I’m guessing, given its size and the fact that a bladder is pretty thick and relatively moisture proof, this will take a good 2-3 months to be ready. My main fear is air pockets in the meat paste; stuffing these large diameter salami is tricky.

11 comments:

scott said...

Paolo would be proud. Oh yeah, send me some, too.

Jasonmolinari said...

Ask again in 3 months!

Reg Pelletier said...

Good stuff Jason !

I look forward to all of your postings

Reg

Jasonmolinari said...

thanks Reg.

Etienne said...

I see you are varying starters. It would be nice, if I may, to have you discuss (in a next post) on starters. How you chose it, when to spray, when to mix ?

Or maybe I've overlooked and it's already there, waiting for me.

Etienne

Jasonmolinari said...

Good catch Etienne! Actually this is the first time I've used tspx. I did a few batches of simple salami for a side by side of flc and tspx to see how they're different. Expect that post in the comingn weeks!

Anonymous said...

Howdy Jason.

Where did you source the hog bladder? They are not the easiest things to track down.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Thanks for all the info. I wanted to know if T-SPX Bactoferm can be used in place of F-LC Starter?

Jasonmolinari said...

Yes, T-SPX is a good substitute for F-LC

Unknown said...

Hi,
Lately I have been reading and just start using SafePro B-LC-007 for small to medium diameter salami. Do you think that will be a good fit for boccia? Thanks!

Jasonmolinari said...

yes, it'll work well. I just used some BLC007 and i like it a lot.