It was a long journey, but the culatello is finally ready. Actually, it was ready about 4 months ago. We cut into it to celebrate the birth of my son as it just happened to have lost enough weight by then and felt hard enough to go for it. It lost a total of about 40% weight in about 7 or 8 months in the curing chamber. I guess I was so excited to taste it that I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing before cutting it!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Culatello – Tasting Notes
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Capocollo di Calabria
In the southern part of Italy what’s “coppa” in the north is called “capocollo”. That’s where the American term “capicola” or “gabagool” comes from. Most of the Italian immigrants to the US were from Southern Italy, bringing with them the term and product “capocollo”
I’ve already gone through the whole coppa making process in a previous post, but this one is slightly different. My buddy Scott at Sausage Debauchery, who’s family is original from Calabria, is a Calabrian FREAK. He’s so obsessed with the place that he opened a store to source and resell Calabrian chili pepper and other goodies. All I hear from him is how Calabrian cured meats are the best, tastiest, blah blah blah. Mostly in an effort to shut him up, I made a capocollo following the Calabrian DOP production methodology.
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Labels: Cured meat : Solid muscles, Cured meat : Solid muscles - Recipe, Cured meat : Solid muscles - Tasting Notes
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Prosciutto Cotto / Spalla Cotta
Prosciutto cotto is just an Italian cooked ham. Not really all that different from good American cooked hams, except maybe for the spicing. Technically, what I made here wasn’t a prosciutto cotto, as I didn’t use a prosciutto, I used a “spalla” or shoulder. No matter, this same method applies to both. I used a shoulder because that’s what was available at the market, and because a whole cooked deboned ham would have been a little unwieldy.
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Salam D’La Duja - Tasting
The Salam D’la Duja has been ready for a little while now, but I haven’t had a chance to post about it. The one pictured here on the left is about 10 months old. I tried some at 4 months and the flavor is pretty similar. This one might be a little more intense.
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Labels: Cured meat : Salame, Cured meat : Salame - Tasting Notes
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Boccia al Finocchio – Tasting
The boccia al finocchio has been ready for a while, but I’m just not getting around to writing about it.
I apparently forgot to take notes on timing so I can’t say how long it stayed in the curing chamber, nor how much loss there was when I took it out! I’m assuming it was 2 or so months and about 35% loss.
Either way, I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot!
It’s got GREAT flavor, but the fennel is not strong enough, in fact, I can barely taste it. It could easily use twice as much next time.
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Labels: Cured meat : Salame, Cured meat : Salame - Tasting Notes
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Fiocco – Ready to eat
The poor brother of the Culatello is ready! As described in the Culatello post, the Fiocco is made from the small muscle of the hog leg. It’s cured in the exact same way as the Culatello is, but because its quite a bit smaller it takes a lot less to dry.
This piece was in the curing chamber for 4 months and lost about 40-42% of it’s weight.
Let's look at some interior pictures, shall we?
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Labels: Cured meat : Solid muscles, Cured meat : Solid muscles - Tasting Notes
Thursday, July 28, 2011
For anyone is still reading....
I've been busy, really busy. I acutally have a couple things I need to post about, I just have to find some time to do it. One of them is quite interesting, so stick around if you're still there!
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