James Satriano

I got a few pounds of lupini. Soaked overnignt, simmered one hour and brined day two. Will continue to brine with water and salt changes for five days. Anyone do fun sutff with these?

Hi all, Happy New Year! Got a bone from a great ham and am looking for suggestions for soup.

Thanks guys. I have de-fatted my duck stock, added the jelly and am reducing for demi.

I made duck confit this past weekend and chilled the fat in an upside down mason jar in order to remove the "jelly" before storing the legs in the fat. Is there any good use for this wonderful looking jelly. I made a brown duck stock from the carcasses. Can I add the jelly to this? Should it be frozen and added to sauces or do I pitch it.

I made a confit of 4 duck legs a few weeks ago and had kept them covered in fat in the fridge. This past weekend my fridge went belly up. I put the pot on a covered poarch but the daytime temps have reached into the 60's F. While I know that confit is a method of preservation, has the time spent over 40F spoiled my product? Any advice here?

thank you vadouvan for the response and recipe. i have to admit i had to google "methocel" and for the rest of the uninformed it is a water soluable polymer. I thinik I'll stick to the egg and cream. I am going to try these on Saturday and will report back next week.

Check out www/virtualweberbullet.com click on "site map" and look in the "pork" section. happy pullin'

funny, on the Babbo website the menu listing says goose liver ravioli.

thanks carolyn was wondering what mario does at babbo with his goose liver ravioli

I have some tinned goose liver imported from france and wondered about making ravioli with it. Would you add anything to the tinned liver before making the ravioli? Do you think that it could be put in a pastry bag and piped on a sheet of fresh pasta and make like the agnolotti described in the French Laundry cookbook. I was also thinking of using a brown butter sage sauce. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey guys Been away for a while but am happy to report that I just got half of a farm raised pig. I managed to get both jowls and was looking for a good way to cure them for guanciale. Any suggestions?

I am in ht NYC area and having trouble locating back fat. I tried Niman ranch but they wanted $19 for 5 lbs and $20 to ship. Almost $40 for 5 lbs of fat seems a little over the top. Any suggestions. Jim

Jason I am incubating in my oven with the light turned on. It stays at about 87F. I'm assuming that the light is not a bad thing. Let me know if I'm wrong. Jim

jason thank you so much for your help. I'll report on my progress. jim

yet another question. I just bought a bone in pork shoulder picnic. It has a good deal of fat on it. Can I use this fat instead of the back fat when making soppresata? Any help would be appreciated.

Jason thanks for the tips. I was going to add the bactoferm just had not done it as yet. I will search out unsalter fat and grind as you suggested. One question. My scale is not that sensitive so about how much bactoferm do I use for 5 lbs of salumi? Is a half teaspoon sufficient?

Soppressata - a tale of woe. Well I attempted my first soppressata yesterday and, as you probably surmised, it didn't go so well. I stopped at my favorite butcher in the Bronx and secured the casings, 5 lbs pork back fat (some to be frozen for future projects) and 4 lbs boneless pork shoulder. I steralized all of my equipment in a bleach solution and put them in the freezer, prepared the dry ingredients (instacure, salt, dry milk dextrose, pepper) removed the back fat from the plastic and noticed a great amount of salt on the back fat. I decided to rinse it off and then grind the fat into my chilled bowl in an ice bath. I used the grinding attachment on my Kitchenaid and all proceeded smoothly for the first 15 seconds. Then the mixer started to make noise like the motor was straining and the fat comming out began to look melted. The mixer finally ground to a halt. Well, lo and behold, there is a very tough rind on the back fat that I was too stupid to have removed. So, off came the grinder attachment and after many curse words and the use of several un-chaarcuterie like tools managed to pry the drive shaft out of the grinder. Throw the entire mess away and start over says I. So after re-cleaning and sanitizing everything and re-freezing the impliments of destruction I retreved more back fat from the freezer (good thing I bought extra), rinsed off the salt, REMOVED THE RIND and ground the fat through the fine die into my ice bath bowl. I then went to the fridge to retrieve my boneless pork shoulder that I had stowed in the fridge in its brown paper sack only to learn that they had sold me 4 lbs of pork bones. A few more curse words and then I began to laugh. Oh did I mention that one of my kids had strep and was vomiting during this episode. Oh yea, my wife was at work and a friend who was going to come to help me canceled because of the strep. Now a few questions from the soppressata rube. Is the fine die on a Kitchenaid too fine for the fat? It look kind of fine to me. I vacuume sealed the ground fat and refrigerated it. I asume this is ok until I get real pork. If not, please advise. I also asumed the dry ingredients would be ok. I didn't add the garlic or wine or bactoferm. Should I try this again for your continued amusement?

I am going to try the soppressata recipe from the book. Can anyone tell me how to gauge the pH? Is this done after it is in the casing and has incubated? If so how do you test with pH paper? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Jim

Thanks Jason Do you add any sugar to your bresaola dry cure and if so how much? Also, I am looking for soprasatta recipes if you will be kind enough to share. Jim

I finished curing my bresaola last night. I used the book recipe. It weighed 30.5 oz prior to hanging and hung at 60 F and about 65% humidity for 10 days. After that time it weighed 20 oz. Color and is good deep red. No mold at all. It seems very dry on the outside and while I have only sampled a small portion, it seems overly sweet. I did rub it lightly with evoo prior to hanging but this does not seem to have been sufficient to prevent a very dry outside. I recall reading that someone puts it in casings. What kind? How do you get the meat in the casing? Anyone have any ideas about alternative curing rubs that would result in a less sweet product? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have begun to dry my bresaola. It is hanging in my basement at 60 dregees and 60% humidity. I rubed it lightly with EVOO. I will keep you informed. In response to questions on previous posts, no this isn't my first attempt at charcuterie. I have been curing and smoking Canadian bacon for about a year now. This is my first attempt at air curing anything. I want to try soprasatta next but I fear I am spoiled. I frequently stop at the Italian section of the Bronx called Arthur Ave. and get some of the best soprasatta I have ever tried. Hard to compete. But I digress. For Christmes I made the scallop and crab terrine with very good results. Note to Michael R. The recipe states that you need 8 leeks and it should be 8 leek leaves. Thanks to all Jim

Hello All This is my first post on e-Gullet. I am very pleased to join you. I currently have a bresaola and Canadian Bacon curing in my fridge. The bresaola is due to hang this weekend and I will also hot smoke the bacon for about 6 hours on Sunday. One question. I noted that Food Man cured his bresaola in the fridge and thus avoided bad mold. Isn't the fridge too dry an environment? The stuff he made looked great in his pics. Any thoughts? Jim