[Made my own Prosciutto]

I started a prosciutto last May and another in June. And another two months ago. I think there's a name for this particular disorder. I 'opened' the first one last week (at 11 months) and the flavour is exceptional! A wee bit salty by prosciutto standards, but salt-free by ham standards, and more moist than I expected. It is very tender, with a nice nutty sweetness and a distinctive 'bite', and slight acidity, which I presume is mainly from the lactobaccilus fermentation.

I started with a Berkshire leg, because I knew the flavour would be like pork used to taste fifty years ago i.e. like pork. At almost double the price, it's still cheap compared to finished prosciutto. There are lots of web sites dealing with how it's done, if not exactly how to do it.

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This is the best write up I could find - thanks - any update on your results of your multiple Prosciutto's? I'm interested to hear what more you may have learned. Thanks!

[Starch-Infused French Fry Perfection]

Tried the Heston fries (per his cooking show on YouTube ) today. Did per video's instructions, adding freezing step between steps 2 & 3 (per his book, I hear). Very good - Thinking this one through, the freezing seems key - between steps 1/2 and 2/3 - not for direct drying, but for indirect, as a frozen baton of potato will take more time in the oil to get to the cusp of browning in step 2, and browning, in step 3, if frozen. This gives the water on the outer portion of the baton more time to boil (or sublimate, in the beginnning of 3) away before being "done". Either way, yummy. It also explains at least part of why frozen pre-cooked store bought fries are quite yummy.

[Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine" (Part 3)]

I tried the starch paste a second time. This time I made sure that the solution was evenly spread out across the bag so that I didn't end up with huge clumps. It ended up looking much clearer that way and but the end result was the same - consistency of thick syrup. Is the 400 grams of water too much? I blended the water with the cooked "paste" in my blendtec - can you over blend the paste?

I too failed with this one - definitely does not look like the picture in the book - anyone figure out a correction yet?

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2011]

I have had excellent SV results with tougher venison (wild, that is) cuts - ie neck roast and round - with 24 hrs at 55C. Put in bag frozen, suck a vacuum, then SV. Brown in very hot oil pan when I'm done. mmmm mmm good. No nasty gaminess or mushiness - just good venison flavor and an appropriate meat texture.

[Wet-Cured (Brined) and Vacuum-Cured Bacon]

That's not how it was calculated - total mass of everything is 29.6 lbs, total mass of water is the 24.27 mentioned in the calculations:

6a. a. Add up the weight of everything -- water, meat, salt and sugar: 24.27 + 0.728 + 0.485 = 25.483.

So if you need 200ppm of TOTAL mass, it's 41.3 g (41.3/(454*29.6))= 200 x 10-6

updated spreadsheet showing my work: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxhjOiDfzB8ENmI5OTMyMmQtZDQwNS00YzNhLTkxZDYtYzM1YmQ2N2VhNWJl

[Wet-Cured (Brined) and Vacuum-Cured Bacon]

wrt calculation a la Bertolli:

I know it has been a while, but... a couple questions, as I'm going to attack a Berkshire Belly, pretty high % fat.

1) Moisture content of fat is ~ 0% - this should be accounted for, no? If I conservatively assume 50% fat, we're down to 30 g pink salt and 250g salt and 185g sugar...

2) Is the 200 ppm for all the water content (as was calculated) or all the mass (as was stated)?

If attachments work, I've put my spreadsheet below (unpolished)

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxhjOiDfzB8ENDBiMDlkZTktOWZiMS00ZGQ4LTk3OGMtNTcxMTNhMjc4NTE4

wrt calculatiing % salt: http://chemistry.about.com/od/lecturenotesl3/a/concentration.htm