Andouille

Will have pictures. First Andouille today. In smoker right now. Looks good. Recipe:incinc

7.5 Lb Pork Soulder (Picnic this time)
3/4 Lb Pork fat (jowl this time)
3/4 cup chopped garlic
1/3 cup coarse ground black pepper
3 TBSP cayenne
1.5 TBSP dry Thyme
6 TBSP Kosher Salt
1 t. Mace
1 t. Allspice.
Coarse grind partially frozen meat and fat, keeping as cold as possible. Mix in remaining. Stuff in 38- 42mm natural casings. Tie into 12 inch lengths with knots at both ends. Smoke until 165 internal temp.

Maple Bacon done

12 Lbs gone in the freezer today. Worked perfect skinless.

Bresoala bomb

I believe it got to warm with a hot spell here in mid October. Nasty mold. Gone.

Maple Bacon

Started a whole side in Maple Bacon today. Trying skinless. Will be ready to rinse and drain Sunday the 16th, put in fridge to dry a day and smoke on Monday the 17th.

Off and Running

Bought a good market hog the 1st of Sept and starting curing. Yesterday October 1st hung Proscuitto, Sweet and Hot Coppa, Bresoala, and Guanciale! Pictures coming.

Catching Up

I don't due a lot of Salume in the summer months here, too hot. Back at it come September. The Copa/Lonzino turned out great, probably our house favorite!

Copa

Made a sweet Copa from the Polcyn book with the exception of using a whole pork loin as in Lonzino. Hung tonight 5/17 in beef bung. Should be ready in a few weeks.

Food Saver

Finding completed Lonzino and Beasola begin to mold in fridge in 2 or 3 weeks. Bought Food Saver to hopefully take care of this!

Guanciale

Bought a 50 lb. box of pork cheeks. Not the quality of buying a whole pig. They are cut weird  (cut across the grain at 1.5 inch intervals) and probably only got 20 lbs of use full cheeks for making guanciale. Will use the rest in sausage. Cured 9 of them and hung them in netting beginning April 29. Done in about 2 weeks.

Lonzino

Pulled Lonzino at 28 days. Maybe a little long as it is a little dry at the ends. The spicy one didn't bring much to the party, next time will add Cayenne to see if that spices it up more.

Lonzino and Spicy Lonzino

Hung 1 of each last night. Both about 4 lbs. For the spicy I added 3 tbsp of New MEXICAN CHILI POWDER (mild) to regular recipe listed in another post!

Spicy Lonzino

3/7

Started an experiment tonight with a Lonzino using the recipe written earlier in this blog, but adding 3 TBSP of Mild New Mexican chili powder to spice it up. Should be good!

How cool is this! Prosciutto is ready!

Prosciutto is ready after 4.5 months. Probably could have improved with age, but I don't know how..it's out of this world!

New Batch March 5, 2011

Started new batch of Maple Bacon, Guanciali, Pancetta and Lonzino today. Bought local pig this week. 206 lb. meat, must have been a huge pig!

Christmas Party Food 2010

 Homemade Hummus and Muhammara

 Carnitas Caliente with Chipotle Mayo

 Homemade Tuscan Sausage

 Yakitori with candied ginger and scallion sauce

 Thai Beef Salad

 Homemade Bresaola

Homemade Gravlox with Cream Cheese Dill Spread

Changes to blog..

Our journey into "Charcuterie" is part of a larger exploration into "slow food" or the concept of eating locally grown fresh meat and produce whenever possible. My pasion is peasant cooking from around the world.  Nothing we do here is fancy, just real home cooking from around the world.

It was a combination of James Michlers "Poland" , a great little paperback cookbook "Great Peasant Dishes of the World, and being part for a while in a ethnic group where I learned old world Balkan cooking from old church ladies, that got me started on the path, and now continues with our affinity for all things Italian.

So, in short I am going to start including general cooking thoughts in this journal.

Lamb Prosciutto

I overcured the lamb by 10 days. The recipe I used said 12 days after a second salting and I read 21. Proceeded anyway and hung it yesterday. Should be interesting.

Bresaola done early

The Bresaola was ready after only two weeks at about 55 percent average humidity. Update 12/15..started to develope pinkish mold in fridge after 1 week. Threw out. Was good until then.

Bresaola hung to dry

out of the brine

hung

Tuscan Salami Update

After drying the fridge for a few more weeks this Tuscan Salami is great.  Everyone at Thanksgiving prefered this and our Lonzino by far to any of the deli bought stuff I had!