mdbasile
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Posts posted by mdbasile
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I've used both Mark. Michael is sooooo right! It's like having a jar of stock jello in the refrigerator when you go to use some.
You mean smoked and not smoked?
The other thing I have used that works nicely a the end of a procuitto - I buy them from a local italian market. I like not only the gelatin, but that slightly sweet flavor.
Hey Dave -- I jut put up some Soppreseta - like yours in beef middles(camera is at my office- so not photos yet) - how long do you think the "hang-time" will be?
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thanks so much for the food saftey info...really helpful. we're going to use pink salt on this first try.
another question (as we're getting ready to cure our pork belly for bacon): should I trim the skin off my belly before curing to bacon or after?
thanks for any help..
If you are going to smoke it - leave it on. If you are going for a Pancetta style drying after curing, then cut it off.
It is tough to cut off, and typically when hot smoking it helps diffuse a too strong smoke flavor.
It is terriffic for Cassolet and other bean dished for imparting a nice smokey flavor -- so DO NOT Throw it away - Just freeze it for later use.
also add it to stocks, has an extraordinary amounth of gelatin. it was a customary ingredient in the troisgros brothers veal stock, for instance.
Huh - that is interesting Michael. I have used Ham Hocks - for my VEal Stock/Demi-Glace.
Do you think smoked or raw? I assume smoked.
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thanks so much for the food saftey info...really helpful. we're going to use pink salt on this first try.
another question (as we're getting ready to cure our pork belly for bacon): should I trim the skin off my belly before curing to bacon or after?
thanks for any help..
If you are going to smoke it - leave it on. If you are going for a Pancetta style drying after curing, then cut it off.
It is tough to cut off, and typically when hot smoking it helps diffuse a too strong smoke flavor.
It is terriffic for Cassolet and other bean dished for imparting a nice smokey flavor -- so DO NOT Throw it away - Just freeze it for later use.
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There is something repellent about a chef/restaurant that has outlets in Paris, New York, south of France and LAS VEGAS??? l'Atelier de quoi?
This is true.
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Nice - very nice - really like the size of those babies!!
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depends on what's being smoked. if the spores are there, then there could be trouble. are they likely to be there? probably not but you never know. there are a lot of spores in the ground, so if it's cured with a veg or garlic, there might be.
I am thinking about the salmon -- would liquor in the cure make any difference - like scotch? I am only using salt, sugar, lemon zest and scotch
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ron, the reason for pink salt in smoked salmon is to prevent botulism, which can grow on the outside of the salmon in a smokey warm environment. it doesn't have anything to do with dryness. i'll bet that comes from curing a really good lean wild fish--which requires considerably less time on the cure than grocery store salmon. because it doesn't affect flavor much, i'd leave the pink salt but cut down on the cure time.
Michael - do you think there is a risk of botulism in a cold smoke of 2 hours w/out the sodium Nitrate?
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Huh - that is 3 of you. I guess I should examine other parts of my diet - I assumed it was the salt pork and fat... though I am not one to eat alot of processed foods, I will eat my fair share from time to time.
Beef middles, Mark.
As Michael mentioned...the processed foods might be the kicker. I pretty much do not eat ANY processed foods. I realize that some slip in on a rare occasion. But I'm pretty hard on myself about that.
Edited to add:
Wow, Charcuterie as health food! Who'd a thunk it!
How many links from the 13 lbs? - photos to come I assume...
I will obviously need to work on the purity of my foods...
I raise a glass to the new health food!!
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interesting notes on blood pressure etc. mine went down after working on the book, both bp and cholesterol. i think that if we eat natural foods our body helps us to regulate what we need and what we don't. we're super sensitive to salt concentration when it's not in soda and lean cuisines, so when we gorge on bacon, we eat less salt the next day. cholesterol, i don't know. i just suspect pork fat isn't as bad as other animal fats, especially when combined with a diet low in processed food.
Huh - that is 3 of you. I guess I should examine other parts of my diet - I assumed it was the salt pork and fat... though I am not one to eat alot of processed foods, I will eat my fair share from time to time.
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Getting older doesn't help either....
Rub it in, will ya? That's exactly what caused me to lose 60 lbs!
Just to keep us on topic. I just finished stuffing 13 lbs of sopressata. It's in the oven to inoculate as we speak.
No doubt, this is my favorite of all the cured salami I've made. But, even with the Grizzly, this is a labor of love. Dicing all that pork and fat by hand is a CHORE!
Yum!! What kind of casings? I just bought some beef casings to try and make some bigger salamis...
... and I can't disagree on the labor of cutting up all the meat by hand...
... is there such thing as a meat cuber? (kidding..)
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So here we all are making and eating salted, smokey pork fat to our hearts content...
So last week - Well - I went to the doc for a check-up....
He freaked - BP way high, cholesterol high, blood sugar high...weight up.....
Interesting. I've had just the opposite happen to me. I've lost just a tad over 60 lbs in the past 11 months. My b/p is down and my cholesteral has dropped so much my Dr removed me from the meds.
I admit to a pretty aggressive work out regimen, but I eat ALOT of my own stuff, nearly every day.
Interestingly, I too am quite active - daily excersie regimen - however there is only so much Na2 that my body can process....
Getting older doesn't help either....
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My only real complaint is, in spite of what the pics show, that the fish was a bit drier than I am used to. Lox, as I know it, is much oilier. I attribute this to the use of curing salt but I'm not sure that's accurate. What I do know is that the fish's texture changed very little after it had been smoked. After 36 hours of curing, it was much stiffer than I am used to when I make gravlax, which contains only Kosher salt. Next time out, I will almost certainly omit the pink salt and see how it affects the final product.
=R=
I have not used the curing salt and the mosture seems fine. I have found that whenever I make the gravelox - a couple of days in the fridge - esp in a food saver package - helps the texture immensely - frankly seems to get better after a week or two. The dry edge and the more wet middle seem to have a little osmosis going on...
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So here we all are making and eating salted, smokey pork fat to our hearts content...
So last week - Well - I went to the doc for a check-up....
He freaked - BP way high, colesterol high, blood sugar high...weight up.....
However, he is a good friend too....
So there we are having dinner at his house the next night(a revolving dinner group) and I brought a plate of my finest:
Tuscan Salami
Chirizo
Lamb Procuitto
Cold Smoked Salmon
Venison Salami
Andouille
Pancetta
..... and always a crowd pleaser - Guianciale
Soo... we are all devouring the goodies, and he came up to me and just smiled with a piece of Guianciale in his hand and said yup - we'll obviuosly going to fix your issues with medication - because a change in diet does not seem to be a good idea not only for you - but me :-)
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Nice job Ron -- great color on that Coho. My experience has tought me to lower the salt level, but I have not yet gone 100% w/out.
I have been making the gravelox version for the last 6 months - about 8 times, but finaly did my first cold smoke a week ago. I found that myself and "friends and family" felt that 4 hours was almost too smokey - one at 2 hours seemed perfect. Maybe we have just been used to the pure brine cured.
FWIW - I have been using 1/2 cup salt 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup scotch and the rind of one lemon - on a 2.5 lb salmon... all types... but no wild coho yet....
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Abra, forgive me if you've covered this in the preceeding 61 pages (!), but what kind of stuffer do you use?
Michael, do you wish to share a recipe with us? I sure don't want to buy another book because the one I have is so nicely marked and splattered up!
If you don't mind Abra -- I would like to revisit this for a bit.
First of all nice job - really interesting. One of the things that was not clear to me was your verdict about the food processor vs the paddle -- what did you and Michael conclude?
Thanks,
Mark
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Of course, this advice comes from the man who unhesitatingly ate green pork.
LOL --hey - but he's still here.....
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This really is a case of "If you've eaten in one, you've eaten in all ". Robuchon has managed to standardize his dishes such that the first week his Monaco restaurant opened, the same dishes and even the same fellows I saw in Atelier Robuchon in Paris were there. And everything tasted exactly the same in Monaco as in Paris. This in more of the internationalizing of food, so I guess Monaco is an appropraite spot for this restaurant. If you want to delve into the heart and soul of the cuisine of the region, the restaurants I mention below are better and cheaper. I'm sure
Robuchon is making 5-10 times more money than he did when he had the three-star restaurant in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, which is why the food there was 5 to 10 times better than what he's now serving in these amoeba-like establishments.
I was sort of afraid of this. I have noticed this trend throughout the Cote d'azur esp. in the last 5 years or so...
I am sorry Robert - but your list didn't make it.
Thank you,
Mark
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Joel Robuchon's place in the Metropole -- an experiences?
Thanks.
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cold smoked chirizo....
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Two things:
I too would love to learn from you all about how to tell when a piece of meat has cured- I imagine by touch, but I suppose weight could be used, even when it is in a dry cure- messy as that would be. There ought to be many years of experience among the members of this board by now, especially some of you who mess around with more than one project a week like me!
Weight is the only really objective measure, and I rarely use it. There is no substitute for experience and the touch/feel you learn.
Also- Salt. Reading this book and Mark Kurlansky's book on salt have filled my imagination for the last six months. First, where can one get large quantities of un iodized salt? Neither Costco nor the more evil twin of it seem to carry it (though I once was able to get unbleahed flour at 25lbs/$5). Any ohter ideas? Also, where might one find other salts? I am happy to pay a bit of money for hand-made salt, but would really love to find interesting salt with mineral 'impurities' for better than the boutique prices I would pay now- after all, natural salt is not all that rare...
I just buy Kosher salt in 3 lb boxes from my local market
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Welcome, Wurst Case! Yes, this Charcuterie can take over your life. I'm just waiting until I've finished doing some home maintenance and getting the kids re-installed in school until I can get back to the job at hand -- stuffing and curing!
Hear Hear !!! Just getting back myself....
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Here is my cold smoked Chirizo... great flavor and makes Paella very special....
As you can see it is somewhere between salami and sausage. I have decide to take one link and hang it dry for another week or so - just to see....
That is a bit of sliced jowl bacon on the side....
... and the Paella....
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Quick question...
Anyone out there hanging any meats to dry for longer then 3 weeks? We would hang Guanciale and Pancetta for at least 3 months prior to eating. I guess the main difference is that we would eat the dryed meats without the addition of heat. We would simply slice and enjoy.
Is anyone curing like this?
Thanks
My lamb procuitto was about 6 weeks...
I have a Guanciale, that will probably be the 5 weeks before I take it down... though I will probably add some heat...
Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 4)
in Cooking
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k - thx