While making the salame tipo varzi I also made a salame al Barolo. I actually didn't use Barolo, I used a Cote du Rhone. Basically it is a simple salame mixture to which a relatively large quantity of wine is added. The alcohol and excess water evaporate leaving behind the flavors of the wine used. Since I've never tried this before, I figured I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately things didn't turn out quite as rosy as one might hope.
I'm not going to go into the detail that i've given in the past since I don't think there is much point in repeating stuff. Just know that the method is the same; grind, add seasoning, mix, case, spray with mold, ferment, and then dry.Ingredient Quantity(g) % of Meat+Fat Pork ham meat 750 75% Fat back 250 25% Salt 27 2.7% Black Pepper (cracked) 2.5 0.25% Cure #2 2.5 0.25% Dextrose 5 0.5% F-LC Starter 0.4 0.04% Red wine (Cote du Rhone) 250 25%
Everything was ground and mixed, cased into natural beef middles, and sprayed with a solution (1.5g mold to 27g water) of M-EK-4 mold culture. It was fermented at 71-72 deg. F for 48 hours.
As you might immagine the mixture was quite wet after mixing in the wine which made for easy casing.
The salame was dried at about 54 deg. F / 70% RH for about 28 days, until it had lost 45% of its weight.
To the left here is a picture of the finished product, and where I can convey an important lesson.
You can clearly see a fairly sizable "air pocket" that somehow made it's way into the mix. Either there was an bubble in the mix that got pushed into the casing, or the wet mixture left air pockets upon evaporating. I'm not sure.
The problem with this is that it can allow bacteria to grow that could be dangerous. This is something that really needs to be avoided by making sure the mixture is properly compacted and massaged into the casings to force any air pockets out of the mix.
The flavor of the salame while first tasting it was OK. Too winey for my tastes, and just not very exciting. Interestingly, after about a month in the fridge, and retasting, it tasted not so great. It had a very oxidized flavor, which i think might have been caused by the air pockets..but I'm not sure. Either way, it was disposed of.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Salame al Barolo
Friday, May 9, 2008
A month an no post?
I know it's been a month with no posts. Unfortunately time has been very tight lately, even on the weekends. I'm also trying to think of something new that i haven't made before as my next post.
Hopefully it won't be too long, so hang tight!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Salame Saturday! - Faceoff: farmer vs. commercial - rematch. - Results
I know, it's been a long time coming. I'm sure many of you have been wondering what the heck happened since the last farmer vs. commercial post a month and a half ago! Well, it took a good 30 days for the salami to lose about 40% of their weight, so that's where most of the time went. The rest was just my slowness in taking pictures to post!
You can see here on the left side of the picture is the farmer meat salame, on the right is the commercial meat one.
I made sure to remove them from the curing fridge after they had lost an equal amount of water weight. These were at about 43% loss. The farmer one took a good 7-10 longer to lose that weight than the commercial one. I attribute this to the difference in the intramuscular fat.
The commercial one has an obvious, common, defect. You can see that the meat paste wasn't properly bound before i put it into the casing, which has caused the small "cracks" in the salame, leaving small air pockets. This is a dangerous defect, since air inside the salame can cause problems. It doesn't seem to have affected this one though. I'll definitely mix the meat paste longer next time to get a better bind.
There is an obvious difference in color, i'm not really sure why. The textures are also a little difference. The commercial one is a little tougher and chewier.
What about the flavor? The verdict is in! Let me preface this by saying BOTH are FANTASTIC. By FAR the best i've ever made. I attribute this to the F-LC starter i used this time, as well as the lower (72 deg.F), and longer (48 hrs) fermentation. The flavor of both is just outstanding. It is as good as any available, including the best artisinal ones.
So, which is better. I guess i'd have to give the edge to the FARMER one. It is a little richer and deeper in flavor. The texture is a bit better, but I could probably achieve the same texture by drying the commercial a little less.
Would I keep paying 4 times the cost for farmer instead of commercial based on flavor alone? (ignore the whole animal welfare for now). No. Not for salame. For roasts and grilled meats, hell yes, but I think much of the deliciousness of the pork is lost over the drying and spicing and curing. If I could get farmer pork for a small cost increase, I'd use it, but at current prices which are 3-4 times higher than commercial, I don't think i'll use farmer pork.
On a side note, I sort of accidentally removed one of the farmer salami at about 35% weight loss. It is considerably softer than the 43% loss, and also very good. Which do I prefer? I guess if i were making a sandwich, the softer, moister one, if eating out of hand or as an appetizer; the harder one.
I have one more of each type still drying, i expect them to be at about 50-55% loss right now. I'll take them out in the next week or 10 days, and see what they're like.
Guanciale - Cured; off to dry
Whoops! I meant to leave the guanciale in the salt cure for about 7-9 days, instead I left it 16. I hope it doesn't come out too salty... I just totally forgot about it!
Anyhow, today I took the 2 pieces out of the plastic bag, rinsed one off well, and the other not as well ( to see if it has an effect), and hung them.
Not much to this post. Now we wait. Will let one cure at least 30 days before using, the other at least 2-6 months.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Guanciale
Guanciale is magic. Imagine bacon, only better; porkier, tastier, richer. Guanciale is the cured jowl of the pig. It is cured in similar fashion to pancetta, which is unsmoked cured pork belly, but the location on the animal gives it a very different taste and texture. Since the cheeks/jowls of the pig see a lot of exercise the hunk of pork derived from them is tougher than the belly, and has much more intramuscular fat instead of layering as is seen on the belly.
I used a very simple formula to not hide the quality of this pork which i got from Niman Ranch. Unfortunately this piece of meat is very difficult to find, even in ethnic butchers. You can sub a piece of pork belly and get good results as well.Ingredient Quantity(g) % of Meat+Fat Pork jowls 1257 100% Salt - Kosher 44 3.5% Black pepper crushed 9 0.7% Sugar 22 1.75% Cure #2 3.2 0.25% Thyme (Dry) 1 0.08% 
I mixed the cure well, trying to make certain the cure #2 was well dispersed in the sal
The cure mixture is rubbed onto the jowels, making sure to get into the "nooks and crannies".
The jowls are then put into a ziplock bag, and they'll be turned every few days.
Once cured, they'll be hung to dry for anywhere between 1 and 6 months.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Coppa V2 - Tasting notes
Last week I took the plain coppa that was made a few posts ago. I let coppa A, the plain one almost exactly 1 month, at about 52 deg. F and 72% RH. It lost about 35% of its weight through drying. The 2nd coppa, which was a fennel one stayed about 1 week longer in the chamber and lost about 2.3% more water, for a total of 37.3% weight loss.
You can see in these picture that for whatever reason the mold i sprayed on it did not fully cover the surface like it did for the bresaola.
On the right is the plain one sliced. It is beautiful. The flavor is fantastic, just perfectly salty, the spices come through (maybe still a tiny bit too much clove!), and it is wonderfully tender and soft without being mushy.
I would say this one is definitely the best coppa I've made. Really really good.
The fennel one that was just a touch drier and the flavor was also fantastic. The fennel was very light in the flavoring, and I would probably use a little more next time so it is a little more pronounced.
I don't think i could be more pleased with both of these coppe!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Salame Saturday - Slightly updated
Just a quick post to let people know that I added some more information about the fermentation and a picture of the fermented salame to the Salame Saturday post.
