New Flavors!

I took down the salami I had hanging of all the new flavors. I was more than happy with the way they all came out! The one that surprised me the most was the smoked salt and paprika. I wasn't sure how this one would turn out. I was a little nervous because I had to substitute some of the kosher salt in another salami recipe with some of the smoked salt. I wasn't sure they would act the same way during the curing process. It came out with the perfect amount of smokey flavor and complimented the finishing flavors of the smoked paprika. The one that I think might be my new favorite was the cocoa-chipotle. The pork and cocoa go together well and the cooca nibs add a great texture! The chipotle is a little subtle and comes out just at the end. I had really high hopes for the blueberry-maple salami and it also came out great. If I have any complaint about it, I think it would be that it wasn't the exact maple flavor I was looking for. I was having a hard time finding a maple flavor I was completely happy with. One of my favorite things about this salami was the way the blueberries looked when they were sliced. Overall, I think everything came out a success. I'm excited about getting them on the charcuterie plate and getting some feedback.

Salami Progress

All of the salumi I have hanging have been up for just about 2 weeks. They are all right on schedule and have lost around 25% of their start weight. I'm hoping they will be ready in another week or so. The sobresada was hung up about a week later then all the other salumi. I'm really excited to check out the new flavors in these next batches.

Not what I expected...

I finally sliced into the prosciutto and took out the bone. My initial reaction when I cut into the shoulder was that it looked great. The smell was fantastic. Aside from a little discoloration around the middle, I'd say it was just about right, except for a minor detail. It was closer to a traditional American ham, rather then the rustic, old-world prosciutto I was expecting. Next time I'm going to use a different recipe, and try curing it a different way. The recipe that I used called for a little heat added to the shoulder to speed up the curing process. I think that's when things took a different turn. Don't get me wrong. The ham flavor was great, and it tasted really good, but it just wasn't what I was looking for. I guess there's no way around speeding up the curing process for prosciutto. Any other method, other than time, would not quite give you the same result.