FAILURE! Well, you have to imagine it happens! Trying new things, new methods or formulas will inevitable lead to some less than ideal results. Oh well.
A while back, in my 1st coppa post, I cured 2 pieces of meat using different curing methods. One,that worked, was my usual 9-15 day cure in salt and spices, the other was to soak the meat in a brine for 48 hours.
Now, at the time, I thought this was not nearly enough curing time, but I double checked with the gentleman who gave it to me, and he confirmed that it would work, and that he's done it.
Well, I tried. I soaked the meat for 48 hours, rubbed it in chili pepper and put it in the curing chamber. Lo and behold, the meat wasn't cured enough to dry properly. Even after 60 days the center stayed soft, like raw meat. I'm not sure of the chemistry behind it, but I believe this is due to the meat not being fully cured.
So there you have it. Pure, unadulterated FAILURE!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Coppa V0.5 - FAIL!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
More humidification ideas
I just received an email from another reader, Drew N., about another method for maintaining humidity in the curing chamber.
It would seem that a 50/50 mix of propylene glycol and distilled water will maintain somewhere around 70% RH. I'm told this would be considerably cheaper than using the beads or sheets I mentioned yesterday, since PG is about $8/pint. I'm not sure where you can buy it, but I can't imagine it being that difficult to source. Again, I have no idea how fast or slow this method changes the RH, but it might be worth a try.
PS: It does seem to be FDA approves, and food safe based on the Wikipedia entry.
Monday, January 28, 2008
A few thoughts on humidification
A few people have emailed me asking about humidity control methods for a chamber, and some even gave me some really good ideas, which I thought I'd pass along. Mind you, i've never tried any of these products.
A gentleman, John D., emailed me about a humidifier that can be found on Amazon, which has a built in hygrostat. It is an ultrasonic humidifier, which is what we want. I don't know what the control limits are for the hygrostat (what is the max. humidity which can be set?), or how accurate or inaccurate it is. Accuracy isn't critical, as long as it can keep a relative humidity of 65-75%. This might be something worth looking into, at only $43 shipped.
Another fellow emailed me asking about another humidifier/fridge combo, and I thought about looking into "mechanical" means for maintaining humidity. I've already discussed using a tray of wet salt, but there are other chemical that work too. These methods are used in cigar humidors, so i assume they are food safe. These are just chemical beads, which maintain the environment at a 65% or 70% RH by absorbing, or releasing water into the environment.
There seem to be 2 types. Beads and sheets. I've only looked up one brand, which seems to be well regarded in the cigar world, Heartfelt Industries.
The sheets are available in 60% and 65% RH varieties. I think the sheets would work better for bigger chambers or fridges.
The beads come in 60%, 65% and 70%. I think for a full size fridge you would need a few pounds of them. Not very convenient.
I think both these methods would work well for smaller dorm fridge size curing chambers, or wine coolers being used as wine chambers. I have no idea how often one would have to "recharge" the beads or dry them out, so they may not be very useful.
If anyone tries any one of these, the humidifier, sheets or beads, I'd love to hear about it. If you have any other ideas, or any product which may be useful, don't hesitate to email me, so I can post it, it may help other people too.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Coppa V2
I put up in cure another batch of 2 coppe a few days ago. I didn't take any pictures, because they'd be exactly the same as the other coppa pictures, so i'll just give you the formula I used.
The recipe I used is pretty similar to the last one, with a few minor changes. The 2 coppe I made were just slightly different from each other with one of them have some crushed fennel seeds. I lowered the salt a touch in both of them since the last batch was just a touch too salty.
The biggest change was the HUGE reduction in clove since the last batch was incredible over-clovey.Ingredient Quantity(g) % of Meat Pork Coppa 1000 100% Salt ( Kosher) 35 3.50% White Pepper 10 1.00% Cloves 1 0.1% Cinnamon 0.75 0.075% Cure #2 2.5 0.25% Myrtle Berries 2.0 0.20% Fennel (in 1) 3.5 0.35%
Myrtle berries are unavailable here in the US, they can be substituted for juniper berries, they're quite close. I have a feeling the fennel I put in one of them wasn't enough, it smelled great in the spice mix, but then after the cure the fennel smell was overwhelmed by everything else. We'll see, I guess that's the point of documenting recipes...so next time I can adjust as necessary.
I rubbed the cure and massaged it into the meat chunks, and then put in the fridge for 9 days. I flipped and massaged the meat in the bag every 4 or 5 days.
I made a mold solution of 0.5g (1/8 teaspoon) of M-EK-4 mold mixed in 20g water, and let it sit for 12 hours. I then mixed that solution with 200ml of water, and let it sit for 20-30 minutes.
I cased them in 100mm collagen casings, and then sprayed with the mold solution and put in the fermentation box which was set at 69 deg. F.
36 hours later I put them into my curing chamber at 52 deg. F 72-75% RH.
They look great so far, and I think they'll be delicious!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Bresaola - Tasting
Well, almost exactly 30 days from when the bresaola went into the curing chamber, it's ready. The mold over the past 30 days beautifully coated the whole piece of meat, developing a nice white bloom. You can see what a nice lean piece of meat the eye of round is. There is just 1 fat vein in the middle, and this is pretty uncommon.
Here is a picture of the uncut bresaola, you can see how nice the mold looks. I have never been able to get this before, so I attribute it to the use of the mold solution I sprayed on them.
The bresaole lost 38-40% of their weight (each one was a little bit different, based on they location in the chamber, and their thickness), and only took about 30 days because they are rather lean. I maintained the chamber at about 54 deg. F, and 75% RH.
Here is a plate of thinly sliced bresaola. Look what a beautiful crimson color it has.
This is my favorite way to eat it. Dabbing it with a mixture of oil, lemon juice and black pepper. Wait about 5 minutes to let it soak in a little bit, and eat with crust bread. So good, so good.
As far as tasting notes, I think this bresaola is one of the best I've ever made. It is just a little bit too salty, but it may just be nit picking. The herbs are nicely balanced, with none of them being overly strong. It is beefy and herby. Really wonderful. Next time I'll leave it in the cure maybe 1 or 2 days less.
The texture is perfect in the thicker, central, sections. Soft, but not raw feeling. The ends are a little drier and harder, but that is impossible to avoid since they are smaller. I think the 38 or 39% water loss is just about right for eye of round bresaola.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Bresaola - Drying
So, the bresaola cured in the salt and herb mix for 11 days, and it was time to put it into casings and hang to dry. I decided on 11 days because it felt cured. You could go a little longer, about 15-20 if you're unsure.
I'm trying something new here. Since I seem to be unable to develop mold on my salumi naturally, I resorted to spraying them (once cased) with a mold culture from Butcher Packer of Penecillium Nalgiovense. The mold on the casing slows the drying a little bit as well as impart flavor into the meat. We'll see if it makes any difference, more on that below.
I started by rinsing the meat off with cold running water, and drying it off well. Which is what is shown in the picture above.
I used 100mm collagen casings, and put the meat piece in there. You want to use a casing that is just about the same size as the meat, or as close as possible. I could have use a 90mm casing for a tighter fit, but I didn't have any, and this will be fine.
Twist the open end, and tie it off, trying to get out as much air as possible. There will still be a fair bit in there.
Using butcher knots tie off the bresaola every 2-3 inches. You want to make these nice and tight. The air will fill into pockets on the casing.
Using a clean toothpick or a sterilized needle prick the casing all over, concentrating on the pockets of air. Massage the meat to force the air out of the holes you just made. It may squirt some liquid, don't worry about it. Get all the air out of the casings. Weigh and label them.
12 hours prior I had made a solution of 1.5g of mold culture (M-EK-4) with 30g of water. I left it out at room temperature, and then added that to 400g of tap water in a spray bottle. Using this solution I sprayed the bresaole heavily until they were dripping, and put them in my fermentation box at 69 deg. for 36 hours. It is important that they hang without touching each other or the sides, as I noticed that the mold is not developing where they were touching each other.
After 36 hours, the bresaole get hung in the curing chamber at 54 deg. F and 70% RH.
At first it looked like nothing was happening that I would be getting no mold growth, but after 2 days, a nice bloom of mold was developing.
This picuture is after 5 days. The mold is developing beautifully.
I'll leave these in there until they've lost about 35% of their weight, I'm estimating about 50 days.
Tasting notes to come!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Bresaola - Curing
If you've ever eaten in a high falootin' Italian restaurant you've no doubt seen "bresaola" served with Parmigiano shavings, maybe some rucola/rocket/arugola salad, some nice oil and lemon juice.
Bresaola is a great cured meat. It isn't made from pork, which is uncommon as far as salumi go; it is made from beef, or also, quite commonly in Italy, horse or donkey. Basically a very lean piece of meat (most commonly beef, especially if bought commercially) is salt cured with spices, then dried.
Sliced thin it makes a superb antipasto when drizzled with a mixture of oil, lemon juice and black pepper, it great in a sandwich, and is delicious just eaten out of hand. This is one salume people worried about cholesterol and fat don't have to feel guilty about eating.
So lets get to how it can be made at home. Now, given the preliminary results of the survey, I'm going to post this without having tasted the results. This means my spices could be entirely out of whack. This is unlikely as I've made this before, but it might happen!
Ingredient Quantity(g) % of Meat Eye of round 1537 100% Salt ( Kosher) 78 5%
Sugar 15 1% Black pepper 7.6 0.5% Fresh rosemary 3.5 0.25% Juniper berries 1.7 0.1% Dry thyme 1.5 0.1% Cinnamon 0.8 0.05% Clove 0.4 0.025% Cure #2 5.15 0.33%
EDIT 1/3/2014 : Since i posted this recipe i've moved to lower salt % in my whole muscle meats. I now use 3%. 5% is very high.
I started with 3 whole eye of round roasts (each one weighed about 1.5kg/3.5lbs). I made sure there was no surface fat or silver skin anywhere. You want the meat nice and clean, a solid block of meat. I like this cut because of the shape and size. It lends itself well to being put into casings.
Mix up the spice mixture after grinding the cinnamon, clove, and juniper berries, chopping up the rosemary and crushing the black peppercorns.Make sure you really mix everything up, especially if you're making a double or triple batch for 2 or 3 pieces of meat, as I did.
Take the mixture and really massage it into the meat. You really want to get the meat and salt nicely worked into it. This should take 1 or 2 minutes, don't do it for 15; this isn't a cow spa!
Take you piece of meat and put it into a ziplock bag, including all the salt and spices that fell off it while massaging it. Get out as much air as possible from the bag, and seal it up. Put it in the fridge for 15-21 days.
Massage the meat while it is in the bag every 2 or 3 days, flipping it to make sure it is getting even exposure to the liquid which will have formed in the bag.
This method can be used on many lean pieces of beef. My notes from 2005 tell me I used a rump roast once. As long as the piece is nice and large, somewhat regularly shaped and LEAN, you should be able to use it. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure why it HAS to be lean. I imagine a nicely marbled piece of beef would taste pretty good cured! But, as I've said, i like the eye of round, as it is a good size and shape.
Normally I'd use 1/2 eye of round roasts which are commonly found at markets, but this time i found whole ones. Either way, just scale the formula as needed by weight.
I'll be back in about a week to detail the casing and hanging. I'll be using 100mm casings for this.
