Supplies

Jim — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:23:07 +0000

I ordered more casings from Butcher and Packer, and some mold and bacteria. I got some of the largest hog casings for making fresh sausages, and more of the beef middles I’ve been using both for dried sausages and for stuffing the loins. I also ordered some larger beef middles so I can vary the size of the dried sausages a bit.

Everything looks good. The Lomo has a few more days, and the Saucisson Sec is darkening (albeit slowly). I’ve been turning the loins and the beef eye round that are curing daily.

A little concerned about humidity. It seems to drift up into the high 70’s - I’d like it to be down between 60 and 70%. Don’t mind it drying more slowly, but don’t want to see any green mold. I’m also getting ice on the back of the fridge, a sign it’s too humid. I guess I should check my humidistat.

Saucisson Sec

Jim — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:08:53 +0000

Finally got around to the Saucisson Sec this afternoon after a trip to JFK with Chris, Micha and August. It all went smoothly, but by the time I’d let them sit to condition it was almost midnight. I’m going to hope for the best - without the bactoferm, they’re hit or miss.

Nonetheless, it was good to be stuffing sausage again.

Bresaola

Jim — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:47:42 +0000

I woke up this morning planning to make Saucisson Sec, but got a late start and didn’t get home until three or so. Along the way I picked up a nice looking beef eye round that seemed manageable in a couple of hours, so I started with that.

Trimed and Ready For The Spices

Since I hadn’t planned on making it, I hadn’t looked at the recipe before I left and didn’t pick up the herbs I needed. Kate to the rescue - her herb garden had plenty of thyme and rosemary, which, along with some juniper berries provide the spice.

Bresaola To-Be

I’m kind of excited - it looked great. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. My biggest concern is the mold problem. I’d tried once hanging a pork loin that was too big to fit into a casing, and it got moldy much faster than anything else.

Lomo is Embuchado-ing

Jim — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:01:37 +0000

As near as I can tell (and you’d think that living with a native Spanish-speaker I could be sure), “Embuchado” means “Cured”. Kate says it means “Sausage”, but that doesn’t make sense in terms of how I see it used. “Lomo”, which I thought for years meant “Pork” just means “Loin”. Duh.

I took the loins out of their bags and washed them down, then let them sit on racks for four hours at room temperature (before you think there’s a magic to my four-hour calculation, I just got called away and that’s when I got back to it). Stuffed them into casings with the usual amount of difficulty, although now that I’ve started trimming anything that gives me trouble with a knife it’s gotten a little easier.

Why I can’t get myself to trim them BEFORE they go into cure I don’t know.

They’re hung up to dry, with the power back on to the humidifier as the weather has dried out again.

I haven’t seemed to have had any trouble with the spicy sausages - I assume there’s something in the chemistry that makes them easier to cure. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Lomo

Jim — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:57:31 +0000

Bought six more loins and put them aside to cure with the Spanish “Lomo de Embuchado” recipe. Kate gave me a package with three kinds of imported Spanish pimenton: sweet, mild and hot. I did two loins using each kind, although quickly lost track of which was which. If we can’t figure it out by tasting them, it must not matter which we use.

This time I remembered the curing salt.

Ummm…

Jim — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:53:27 +0000

The loins are dry and look wonderful, but I was looking at the recipe for my Spanish version, and it has curing salt, which my recipe for this version didn’t have. The Italian version has it as well. Is it an omission? Or is it optional? Now I’m afraid to eat it.

Mold

Jim — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:50:01 +0000

I guess I should have attacked the humidity sooner. I’ve got mold growing on the loins to varying degrees. Most is the harmless white stuff, but one had some green mold on it and I had to chuck it out.

The others I wiped down with vinegar. I’ve set up the dehumidifier, which is outside the cabinet, to try to bring the humidity down.

Humidity Problems

Jim — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:48:32 +0000

For some reason this fall is damper and cooler than normal. As a result I’m having trouble keeping my humidity down. It’s running around 75-80% in the curing cabinet. Hope it drops down soon.

Casings

Jim — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:45:08 +0000

Managed to stuff the loins into casings and hung them up to dry. I’m using “Narrow Beef Middles”, and they’re a tight fit, even though I’m careful to select the thinnest pork tenderloins I can find.

To try to help them along, I let them dry at room temperature for a couple of hours before stuffing them.

Sausage Making Season

Jim — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:16:42 +0000

With summer holidays and high humidity, I didn’t make anything all summer. The sailing trip was great. The three weeks in Maine were a little hectic - I took too much work with me.

Now my sausage partners are gone - JJ at school in Vermont, and Chris moved out to San Fransisco. Nonetheless, we must move ahead.

I bought six pork tenderloins and put them in individual plastic bags with 15g of salt, 5g dextrose, 2g white pepper and 1g garlic powder (they were about 500g each).

Also, over the weekend I bought a couple ducks and cut them up, serving the breasts for dinner (perfectly cooked if I do say so myself, with an apricot glaze). I mixed the legs with salt, pepper, clove and garlic and let them sit for a couple of days, then confited (is that a verb?) them last night. Unfortunately, the beautiful duck fat I had saved in the freezer and the duck fat I rendered from the trimmings all were thrown away by some over-zealous cleaner, so I had to run out at the last minute and buy some expensive duck fat in the store.

If they’re as good as they were the last time, it’ll be worth it.