Too long of a salt cure

[faronem]

I'm sure this matter has been discussed in part or whole somewhere on egullet, but after 20 minutes of various searches I sure can't find it!

]So, thanks for a pointer if you know of a previous thread.

In short, I recently cut down a coppa I made and the end product ended up having too salty a taste. I've made this recipe several times with great success. This time, I'm positive the extra saltiness has to do with the fact that, due to an personal emergency, it had to spend too much time in the salt cure before it was hung (as in over a week extra).

This raises a few questions for me about procedures and troubleshooting.

1. First, obviously, any suggestions for an after-the-fact how to rectify this too-salty coppa? Of course, I could chop it up and mix it into some sort of cooked dishes, but in this case, I'm specifically curious about ideas to rescue it to make it more palatable to eat on it's own. I'm open to experimentation.

2. Given that I knew that it had spent too long in the cure, what would have you advised that I had done previous to air curing? I gave it a good vinegar and water washing and about a 1 hour cold water bath before hanging.

3. Can a too-salty result be the result of too much salt in the cure? I wouldn't think so, but now I'm curious. It's been my experience that the amount of salt is less of an issue than the length of time it spends curing. I've always relied on visual cues and firmness.

Thanks for any ideas.

[thirtyoneknots]

Additional aging may mitigate the perceived saltiness, as in confit and hams.

[qrn]

If it really to much, you could put it in a pot of water,in the fridge for a week or so, that may leech a lot of it out of it,so its not off the wall salty...

Bud

[BadRabbit]

If it really to much, you could put it in a pot of water,in the fridge for a week or so, that may leech a lot of it out of it,so its not off the wall salty...

Bud

If you put it in water for that long, I'm guessing the water content is going to increase and you're not going to have something with the texture of coppa.

[faronem]

If it really to much, you could put it in a pot of water,in the fridge for a week or so, that may leech a lot of it out of it,so its not off the wall salty...

Bud

If you put it in water for that long, I'm guessing the water content is going to increase and you're not going to have something with the texture of coppa.

Agreed on both points.

I wonder what the impact on texture would be if I let it bathe, then re-hung it for a few days?

[BadRabbit]

If it really to much, you could put it in a pot of water,in the fridge for a week or so, that may leech a lot of it out of it,so its not off the wall salty...

Bud

If you put it in water for that long, I'm guessing the water content is going to increase and you're not going to have something with the texture of coppa.

Agreed on both points.

I wonder what the impact on texture would be if I let it bathe, then re-hung it for a few days?

I imagine the texture would eventually get back to what you're looking for but putting the whole thing in water for any significant amount of time is going to leech out more than just salt. You'll probably lose a considerable bit of flavor and it might even make it unsafe to rehang. On the safety issue, that's just a guess; somebody else may be able to give you a definitive answer on that.

Edited March 2, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[OliverB]

I'd probably just make a note about how not to do it next time and use this one for cooking, adding to eggs, beans, etc. Even just julienned and sprinkled on top, pasta, a salad, I can think of many places where it could work, just reduce salt elsewhere. Of course, I haven't tasted it and don't know how salty it actually is.

But I don't think there's any process that would reduce the salt without completely changing - or ruining - what you have. One week extra is a long long time.

And I hope that personal emergency turned out ok!