Prosciutto: Pork out, Duck up

I pulled down the pork shoulder prosciutto I have hanging. I was a little worried about how salty it might be, and I wanted to try a little piece before it is officially ready. I have to say, instead of being over salted, I don't think it was salty enough. I just cut a little piece of the outside, and to me, it could've used a little more. I think I'm going to let it hang just another week before I pull it down and slice it. I left the bone in on this one to see if it adds any more flavor than a deboned prosciutto. We'll have to see how it comes out.
The 2 types of duck prosciutto are up and hanging. A regular salt cure, and a lavender salt cure. I know I keep saying this, but I really plan on getting another pig head early this week, and start another porchetta di testa.

New Salumi

The picture on the right is of some lardo butter I made yesterday, that will probably garnish the charcuterie plate. I thought it would be a cool idea to serve it with the bread, and possibly with some N'duja. The butter came out really well. Creamy and smooth. Today I put some pork belly in the cure. I also put some duck prosciutto to cure. I put 5 breasts in a lavender-salt cure. My girlfriend and I stopped by the store today before work and bought some spices to try out some new salami flavors. I was able to make a couple different spice mixes, but didn't mix anything because I haven't gotten the casings yet. Maybe sometime the beginning of next week. I'm planning on making a spreadable sobresada, maple-blueberry, cocoa-chipotle, and smoked salt. Looking forward to see how they come out! Prosciutto is almost ready to be pulled down. Right on schedule!

Local Farm

I've been in contact with a local farm that raises a special breed of pig perfect for charcuterie. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be getting a 30 pound shoulder to make some new salami. I want to test the flavors against the kurobuta that i use now to see which one I like better. I am still trying to decide about buying the leg for prosciutto. I want to wait until the one I have hanging now is finished before I start another one. I want to see how it comes out.

Next week...

I have the prosciutto hanging still and it wont be ready until around the beginning of April. It's coming together pretty good. Starting to lose a good amount of weight and still holding together great. This week I'm going to start hanging another batch of salami. I have about 24 pounds of pork that I need to do something with. Tomorrow I am off and I'm going to start brainstorming some ideas for some different flavors. I made a cocoa-spice blend that I intend to do something with. Maybe a cocoa-chipotle and some sort of nut. Also, I've wanted to do something with some smoked salt I bought a while back. The charcuterie plate has been selling well, and so far everyone has been liking the headcheese. I want to purchase another head later on in the week and get another one started. It would be nice to keep it a constant on the plate, and doesn't take too much time to make. The picture above is of the slices of headcheese.

Sliced Porchetta

After cooking the porchetta for about 15 hours, sous vide at about 160 degrees celsius, I let it cool for about 8 hours, to let everything gel together. I then cut it to see how it turned out, and it looked awesome and tasted even better! I was so happy to see it turn out looking amazing and tasting even better. We tried some cold, sliced straight from the head, and then tried some pan fried. The lemon zest and rosemary came through perfectly. The texture was even better than I could imagine, and better than any headcheese I've tried before. Even behind all the spices, you could tell exactly what part of the head you were eating, and they all were perfectly balanced! Everyone who tasted it thought it was amazing. A must try for any pork lover!

I also pulled the prosciutto from the warmer. I had it held at about 90 degrees F for about 40 hours. I wrapped it in cheesecloth at hung it to dry in a room at 60 degrees and 70% humidity. It weighed in with about 10% weight loss. It's still going to need about 30 days of hanging. Patience.

Porchetta and Prosciutto

Yesterday I was able to pick up a pigs head before work. I deboned it and started my porchetta di testa. First, I cut off the ears, boiled them down, and had a crispy pig ear salad. Great snack! Next I placed the pig meat skin side down and seasoned the inside of the head meat with salt, pepper, rosemary, lemon zest, garlic and red chili flakes. Next, I'm marinating it for a couple of days. It will then be rolled up, tongue and all, and then sealed and sous vide for about 15 hours. I'm excited to see how this turns out. I've done traditional headcheese, and done headcheese torchon, now I thought it would be fun to try it like this. Also, I pulled the prosciutto from the cure and placed it in an oven at about 90 degrees and pressed it between two racks to help dry it out. Its going to stay there for about 48 hours. Today I'm going to weigh some of the salami and track their progress. Should be ready soon.