I think i’ve previously said that bresaola is always made with lean pieces of meat. This is true traditionally in Italy, but some discussion with other home curers made me wonder why, and what if I were to make a bresaola using a fattier piece. Would it be tastier? Would the fat taste funky? I wasn’t really sure, so I had nothing left but to try it.
 | I started with a bone in standing rib roast. this is basically a ribeye roast on the bone. |
 | The meat was removed from the bone, and trimmed just a little bit. This is one side of the rib roast |
 | The other side of the rib roast. Looks fantastic. Nice marbling. |
 | The curing mix. I kept it purposefully very simple to be able to taste the meat. |
 | The rib roast was coated with all the curing salts and spices, and vacuum packed. I’ve been doing this for a little while now and i really like that it keeps everything contained and in contact with the meat, and there is no chance of meat juices leaking all over the place. |
 | About 3 weeks in the fridge and the meat is nicely cured . |
 | The meat is quickly rinsed and dried. It’s now ready to be cased and put into the fermentation box and then the curing chamber. |
 | The odd shape of the meat made casing a little tricky. I had some casings which are unavailable here in the US, which are made from the membrane surrounding the organ cavity. They’re called “pelle di sugna” in italian. I’ve used them before in my capocollo di Calabria and they work nicely. If i didn’t have these i would split open beef bungs and layer them like sheets over the meat. Should work perfectly. |
 | The other side of the meat, just before going into the chamber. I sprayed this with M-EK4 mold solution and put it in the fermentation box for about 48 hours at 71 deg. F. I don’t have a picture of it, but a nice bloom showed up on the meat. |
 | After about 2 months the meat had lost about 33% of it’s weight. Didn’t take long. The chamber was held at about 55 deg. F and 75-80% RH. I think it' dried pretty quickly because it has a large surface area and the pelle di sugna casing is very thin. |
 | Had to slice this longways because of the grain. It’s AMAZING. It’s incredibly tender, the beef flavor is very evident and delicious. It’s MUCH more flavorful than an eye of round bresaola. The fat melts in the mouth and has a nice flavor as well. The few spices put on shine nicely without interfering with the beefyness. It’s a little salty, so next time i would reduce the salt to 2.75% or so. |
Out of curiosity (and a smidge of laziness), I've left the fatcap on a couple eye of round bresaolas. I was a little worried how the texture and flavor of the beef fat would turn out, but figured I could always trim it off after drying if needed. After pulling down the first one, I was quite pleased. When sliced paper thin, the fat has a melting quality in the mouth similar to pork fat, and I think it adds something considerable to the beef flavor. I'll be leaving eye of round untrimmed in the future.
ReplyDeletegood idea Dave. The fat does seem to be delicious. Makes me wonder why everything i've read always says to use lean pieces.
ReplyDeleteI often wondered why it always had to be lean meat for beef cures. Up that, I am certainly going to try this for sure! Looks fantastic mate.
ReplyDeleteThis is really fabulous. I wouldn't have thought it needed those weeks in the fridge, but I guess to get all the salt and stuff in. A bresaola normally would just be salted and stuffed soon though, no? Ken
ReplyDeleteKen, every piece of meat needs time to absorb the salt cure.
ReplyDeleteThe addition of Nitrates would be the reason why nowadays curing fatty beef cuts is possible. It inhibit lipid oxidation that leads to rancidity. For some reason the lipid oxidation in Beef Fat is faster (much faster) than in Pork fat.
ReplyDelete"The susceptibility of meat to lipid peroxidation varies
among meats from different animal species and muscles
from the same animal. Among meats, beef is the most
susceptible to lipid peroxidation." From "Factors Affecting Oxidative Stability of Pork, Beef,
and Chicken Meat" available at googledocs.
Traditionally the meats used for Bresaola were (are) cured without nitrates, so a lean cut of beef was (is) needed to avoid rancidity, otherwise the rancid flavor, even from small ammounts of fat, would spread in all the muscle, so, even the external fat had (has) to be removed. In pork, peroxidation is not an issue, so it is possible to dry a ham for months without nitrates and it won´t be rancid.
Here in south of Brazil we have the traditional Charque: a beef cut 1.5 inch thick heavily salted. The salt slows the peroxidation, but not as much as the nitrites, so the flavor becomes rancid after about 1 month, stronger over time. The flavor is characteristic (many lactic bacteria plus rancidity). So the salt is worse than the nitrites to slow the peroxidation. If small amounts were to be used (like jerk beef but without nitrates), it would be less effective and the meat would be rancid in a few weeks. It is desalted as the Salted Codfish and traditionally eaten like an risotto.
For larger cuts os beef (longer drying times) nitrates may not be as effective as for small cuts (I wonder), since it slows but not blocks the peroxidation. So it is unlikely that we will see a whole leg of cow cured and dried as a Parma ham (even using nitrates)!
Rafael, very interesting, and it makes perfect sense. Thank you for the explanation!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool, how come no one is producing it for the commercial market?
ReplyDeleteFred
delicoustapas.blogspot.com
Fred, not really sure!
ReplyDeleteHey Jason,
ReplyDeleteJust came upon your blog a few days ago and love it!
I am curing a braesola right now, w/o nitrates, Just sea salt, sugar and spices; do you think the fat on my fatty piece of beef go rancid as Rafael said?
Also, you mention Mek4 spray on mold a lot, how do you get it to spray on?
I was at Butcher and P. and all they had was Mold - 600 Bactoferm™ Sausage Mould( Formerly M-EK-4 ), which is Penicillium nalgiovense---is this the same stuff you use, and if so how do you get it to spray?
Thanks!
Chris
Chris, what Rafael says makes sense, but i don't have e crystal ball to tell you what will happen with your piece. Let us know!
ReplyDeletethe 600 bactoferm should have come with instructions. Basically you dissolve some in distilled water and spray it on there. I've explained this in previous posts. Try looking back or searching.
Well Jason, I have the results of using a very well marbled chuck roast for my braesola, using no nitrates or nitrites.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, it was awesome! Over 100 people tried it and all loved it, some want me to make it for them.
There was NO rancidity in the fat, it was delicious, and like I said, I did not use nitrates or nitrites.
However, since this is winter, and the temps are lower than summer, I think the fat had less chance to go rancid.
I let it age about 2 mo and could have gone longer since it was still fairly moist inside.
Well there it is, a success!
Glad it worked, Hotsauce!
ReplyDeleteJason, you should do a Tyrol speck. I searched your blog site for speck, but no speck per se. I have one I cured in juniper berries I collected and all the other usual suspects, but what is interesting about speck in northern Italy is that they smoke it with juniper wood, leaves, berries, etc. It smells absolutely delicious, and after smoking it off and on for a few days (in Italy, from what I have read they smoke it off and on for about 2.5 weeks), I hung it to dry age. So we will see. I'd like to see you do this one if you havent.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you done any spallas? I have 5 of them hanging now.
Let me know!
hotsauce, speck is on my to-do list. I have a deboned leg ready to go, i just hav eto find time to do it.
ReplyDelete"pelle di sugna" This membrane that surrounds the organs is known as the "caul" in English. It was considered a great delicacy. Traditionally it was used to wrap the liver before slow roasting but is also used as a wrap for various preserved meats.
ReplyDeleteWhen slaughtering a beast I never waste the caul under any circumstances!
Ulf, i think you're thinking of caul fat. This isn't that.
ReplyDeleteThis is a thin membrane, kind of like the one on the back side of the spare ribs. It would be rather unpleasant to eat.
As I understand it Caul fat is a very misleading term and should properly be called Leaf fat- the fine fillets of fat found on the inside of the body cavity above the kidneys. It is the purest and most prized fat on the animal and is located right beside the Caul itself. I quite agree it would be most unpleasant to eat the leaf fat but I have regularly consumed the Caul in various dishes and can assure you it is not at all fatty.
ReplyDeleteThe Caul is a thin filmy membrane with an almost spider web pattern on it when it is held up to the light, it should have no fat on it whatsoever. It is found surrounding the internal organs of the animal.
I suspect the confusion could arise from the different nomenclatures used between American and British speakers of English. In Australia we tend to use the old British definitions for most things.
Hi Jason
ReplyDeleteI have got my fermentation and curing chamber ready to go. I have some bacon in it at the moment. It could probably cure in the garage (temperature 2-10 degrees C and about 90% humidity (mid winter here). My first project is going to be bresaola. It will not be ribeye as it costs about $40 a kg. Any sugestions of other cuts I may try.
As you may have gathered prices for some things in NZ are megga. I cannot get hold of beef middles or bungs (due to BSE concernes, why they do not produce them here I have no idea). The best I can do is for sheep bungs. My other option is for colagen wraps 'This collagen curing wrap is a natural, kiln dried wrap used for the production of cured meats, pancetta, capocollo, and others.
This product can be used wet or dry. We suggest you wet this product if you are using a dry recipe mix. Use cool water or wine and dip for a few seconds to make sure the entire sheet is moist.
Store in a dry cool place
Sheet size 70 x 50cm
Pack of 5 or pack of 10'
http://sausagesmadesimple.com.au/products/collagen-wrap-sheet-natural-70x50cm-5-pack
I can get them in from Australia. If this is a no goer can I get away without stuffing the meat.
Mark
Mark, look for my prior bresaola posts. I normally make it with eye of round. And have often used collagen casings. They work well, not as nice and stretchy as natural, but certainly better than no casing.
ReplyDeleteIf a sheep bung is big enough that might work too!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBeen wanting to do this for almost a year now and will be my first cure. I know it's not ideal, but can I get away with keeping it in my regular fridge hanging in a closed container with cigar humidor 2-way packs (these will keep humidity at 75 or 80% RH). In practice the only difference than using a true curing chamber is that the temp would be lower which, I assume, will only mean it will take longer to cure and shouldn't affect the taste or quality, right?
ReplyDeletejared, drying an the fridge maintaining 75-80% RH should work.. i would air it out every couple days.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jason! I've seen you and other using cheese cloth for dried meats, if I'm not mistaken. You think I can get away with it for a bresaola? I would still wrap it, tie with with string and then coat the cloth in 600 Bactoferm.
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't use cheesecloth. I think it makes no sense when real or artificial casings are so easy to get. But some people do.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies, I mistook a comment on your post about your Coppa as being yours - it wasn't. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of being relegated to the cheese cloth, despite being inferior, because I'm using kosher parts, and after contacting multiple local and online suppliers of kosher meats they have all told me they can't get either collagen casings (supply disruption) or beef bungs (may not exist for market in kosher form). I don't think I have any other options unfortunately.
that makes sense Jared.
ReplyDeleteExcuse this naive question. Why did you choose to Ferment your Bresaola first. Do you do this with all of your whole muscle meats? I know one would first ferment sausages but never have heard of whole muscles being fermented. Advantages ? thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe ferment/initial drying helps the casing adhere
ReplyDeletethank you Jason....
ReplyDeleteHey Jason
ReplyDeleteHope all is well. Out of interest, i got to sample this sublime guy in Sydney last year. It was made from wagyu beef, there is a lot of wagyu rearing out there, and they apparently sell the product back to Asia, although some it ends up on the Australian market.
http://instagram.com/p/Ro5itTCmC2/
Well they claim it is wagyu. From what I understand Japanese wagyu has it's particular characteristics because they don't get to move much at all, whereas in Australia they are free to roam. I don't mind as long as the marbeling is this good.
Can anyone guess the cut. Judging by the shape and size I'm guessing it could be rib eye, it's definitely not eye of round.
I've done this with a wagyu Angus cross eye of round here in the UK from a Welsh farmer, was bloody delicious and quite fruity and nutty, but didn't have enough marbeling
Adam
Could be a well trimmed ribeye, or even a portion of the round of the animal.. i'm no butchery expert.
ReplyDeleteIn a single word, this is pornographic.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure where you guys found a old Italian recipe of curing meats and a fermentation box? Lets make it clear. 95% of this "experts" on internet have no idea of what they are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI got my hands on about 4lbs of "sliced" ribeye where each slice is roughly 1". Do you recommend a) putting all the slices of ribeye (lined up together to form the original complete ribeye) in one casing or b) casing each slice individually?
ReplyDeleteI recommend you enjoy them as steaks. Don't reassemble and they're too thin to do individually.
ReplyDeleteWhat I didnt mention is that the ribeye has been curing with curing salts + spices in individual vacuum sealed bags for almost 4 weeks and are ready for the curing chamber...
ReplyDeletei guess you can try stacking them and casing..not idea what will happen
ReplyDelete