Busy days...

I finally have all of the cuts of pork all in cures. The prosciutto each weighed around 11 pounds each. I used about a pound and a half of salt, with about 5 tablespoons of pink salt and divided that up into 2 batches. Since I left the hoof on, I wanted to wrap in in parchment paper and pack it in salt. I rubbed all around the exposed bone and covered the meat area in about and inch thick layer of salt. After coving the leg, I used a non-reactive pan to prop up the leg from under the thick side, drawing a lot of the moisture from the thicker side, down to help it speed up the process. I referenced several resources and decided, what I thought, would be the best way to cure it. Today I will redistribute the cure and decide if I still want to weigh down the prosciutto to help speed up the process.

The coppa is in the cure and looks good. After 9 days, I will re-distribute the cure over the muscles. The lardo that I have is a little thicker than the last batch I did. It might take just a little longer to cure.

Mangalitsa

I have not blogged in quite a while. It has been a busy past month. Our chef at the restaurant left to another place. With that, they wanted to cut the charcuterie program for a while during the transition into getting a new chef. In that time, I spent a week in Los Angeles staging at a restaurant there that was interested in starting up a charcuterie program. I had a great time while I was there, meeting some new faces and learning a couple things. When I came back, our new chef, a great local talent, was hired and his first move was starting up the cured meats. It took 2 days to get what I had been asking for, for at least 5 months. We received 2 shoulders of mangalitsa pigs, each weighing around 29 lbs. After butchering, I have about 9 lbs of lardo, 6 lbs of coppa, at least 10 lbs for salami, and two 11 lb paletilla's for front leg prosciutto. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to use both for prosciutto, or use one for salami. Here are some pictures of the whole shoulders, then one leg, after butchering, for prosciutto.

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.

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!