I've made guanciale before, so i'm not going to go into too many details about its awesomeness. It's basically like pancetta, except different. The fat on a jowl is very different to regular fat. It has a rather odd texture to it, it almost has a "crunch" to it. It's much richer than pancetta too.
Thanks to Jimmy at Eatitatlanta blog, I found myself in possession of a jowl from my favorite pork place of all, Caw Caw Creek.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Guanciale
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Lardo D'Arnad
This is a pretty requested recipe, and I'm finally getting around to making a batch, so I hope this answers the numerous questions I've gotten about it.
Lardo in Italian means lard or fatback. It's cured in numerous areas of Italy, with the most famous being in Tuscany, where it's known as Lardo di Colonnata. This recipe is a recreation of a lardo style made in Arnad in the Valle D'Aosta region, or at least my rendition of this lardo. The fatback is cured and then sliced thinly and eating as a salume.
The hardest part of this recipe is procuring a piece of fatback that's thick enough to use. You won't be able to find it at a supermarket, you'll have to source it from your friendly local farmer. The rest is easy. It's just brine cured, not dry cured at all.
Friday, April 9, 2010
An idea for the lamb prosciutto
The latest cured meat I've made is lamb prosciutto. It's some outstanding stuff. Very gamey and extremely tasty. It's so gamey that it would really be too much in a sandwich. So I thought I'd give it a try dressed the same way a bresaola could be dressed.
You can see it here on the left. Dressed with some good olive oil, some lemon, black pepper and some Parmigiano Reggiano shavings. Really amazing. The tangy cheese and the gamey lamb go really well together. The lemon cuts through the richness, and the oil makes everything unctuous.
If you've made cured lamb, give this a try!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Lamb Prosciutto - Tasting notes
The lamb prosciutto, well one of them, is ready. Sure it doesn't look like the nicest thing in the world, but does it taste good?
Keep reading.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Lamb Prosciutto - Into the curing chamber
The lamb prosciutto spent about 30 days in its salt cure, and it was time to move it into the curing chamber to dry. I left it longer than i normally would, but I was traveling; no harm though...i don't think. About 13 days into the cure I opened the container it was in, and flipped and massaged the meat. There was a cup or so of liquid that had been pulled out of the meat. By the end of the cure, the container was dry. I guess all that brine got reabsorbed into the lamb. It smelled AWESOME.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Lamb Prosciutto
If you say "prosciutto" to someone, automatically the first thing they think of is a cured pig leg. In reality prosciutto could be ageneric term for a cured leg of any animal. It could be pig, goat; also known as a "violino di capra", or in my case, lamb, which would be "prosciutto d'agnello". I can't claim to have thought of this preparation first, the idea was put into my head when I saw a portion of a show on TV filed at Salumi in Seattle. They have a lamb prosciutto, and I said , "why couldn't I do that?". Well, I could. And I did. You really have to like lamb though, the curing process intensifies the flavor, so if you're not a lamb lover, you won't like this probably.
I've made this with a bone-in leg of lamb, but I prefer it boneless, it's a little easier to slice, and a little easier to handle.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Cheap humidity controllers
I've previously posted about humidity control, and how to control a humidifier inside the fridge. Back then, the only control i could find that was easy to integrate was quite expensive, about $120. Just recently I happened upon (read somewhere, or someone told me, i don't remember) a much cheaper controller. $50! They're available at Grainger.
They have one that is a humidifier controller and a dehumidifier controller. They look pretty nice! The disadvantage of these versus the THC-1 is that each one controls EITHER humidification OR dehumidification. The THC-1 offers a switch.
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