Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 4)

[ronnie_suburban]

That's great-looking stuff, Dave. That coppa is just obscene. Congrats!

I love Genoa salami. Which recipe did you use?

=R=

[Bombdog]

That's great-looking stuff, Dave.  That coppa is just obscene.  Congrats!

I love Genoa salami.  Which recipe did you use?

=R=

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Thanks Ron.

I didn't use a specific recipe, just put it together after doing a bit of Google research. It's basically 25 % fat, 50 % beef and 25% (give or take a bit) of pork shoulder, minced garlic and pepper corns. There is a nice slightly sour flavor, but not as much spice as I'd like. In the future I'll add some red pepper flakes.

Edited August 26, 2006 by Bombdog (log)

[jmolinari]

Dave, nice looking stuff. Coppa is 1 piece, not multiple chunks. I don't know what you made, but it looks very tasty:)

[francois]

Just had a very nice meal (not exactly fast food nor diet food...). I smoked a kielbasa (p.163) this afternoon. Ate it on buns (from Peter Reinhart's book), with dill pickles (p. 71) and mustard. Yum!!!! Should start brewing beer...

The sausage was rather easy to do but a bit more time consuming that I expected. I used the kitchenAid stuffer but next time I will probably use a pastry bag - feeding the stuffing through the tube is a pain in the ***.

[jeniac42]

Just wanted to pop in and say I'm still planning to do some curing from Charcuterie. I meant to do things over the summer but I've been in and out of the hospital for the past two months and haven't been able to do so.

In good news, I found a source for pork belly, so once I get back on my feet I'll be makin' bacon.

[Bombdog]

Dave, nice looking stuff. Coppa is 1 piece, not multiple chunks. I don't know what you made, but it looks very tasty:)

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I remember well the discussion we had a few months ago about that. I used your pictures to remove the coppa. After curing it I cut it into smaller, more manageable pieces to get it into the casings.

[jmolinari]

Dave, got it. You should get some bigger casings so you can leave the piece whole. I've gotten casings from butcher-packer in collagen up to 120mm. For coppa i've found the 100mm work best though.

jason

[francois]

As mentioned upthread, a saturated brine also helps keep the humidity at 70%

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And that does mean saturated! I used a locally available block salt which comes in pyramid shapes about three inches tall, I have found that once the salt is saturated the blocks become water logged and actually help in transferring the moisture to the atmosphere in the refrigerator as they stick up above the water about two inches. Saves having to use a container which has a large suface area of water!

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What kind of store would sell block salt? I have never seen that anywhere.

[Bombdog]

Dave, got it. You should get some bigger casings so you can leave the piece whole. I've gotten casings from butcher-packer  in collagen up to 120mm. For coppa i've found the 100mm work best though.

jason

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Thanks for the size tip Jason. I've got an order to place soon anyway and I'll add some bigger casings. Although this stuff tastes good, it's totally unmanageable. When you try to slice it, the chunks just kind of fall apart. Which is rather odd, as Michael says you can use chunks in the book.

[tristar]

As mentioned upthread, a saturated brine also helps keep the humidity at 70%

←

And that does mean saturated! I used a locally available block salt which comes in pyramid shapes about three inches tall, I have found that once the salt is saturated the blocks become water logged and actually help in transferring the moisture to the atmosphere in the refrigerator as they stick up above the water about two inches. Saves having to use a container which has a large suface area of water!

←

What kind of store would sell block salt? I have never seen that anywhere.

←

Hi Francois.

You don't say where you live, but I am in Indonesia. I would suggest that you try an asian store for these, the ones I have look like a pyramid but with the top cut off flat. They are widely available in Java and are certainly available in China as well. I believe that in the West something similar is sold for water softeners and dishwashers, and for horse and cattle mineral supplements! It doesn't matter if it is not for human consumption as you will not be consuming it, you are just using it to maintain the moisture level in the atmosphere of your refrigerator!

Regards,

Richard

[ronnie_suburban]

Charcuterie gets a mention in a great piece by Russ Parsons in today's L.A. Times:

Of course, you don't have to go to a restaurant to enjoy these products. A few hard-core home cooks are making their own from the new book "Charcuterie," by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman. But this takes dedication (to say nothing of a storage space that will maintain temperatures in the 60s and 60% to 70% humidity).

The ABCs of salumi

=R=

[Abra]

We're so hardcore!

[Bombdog]

We're so hardcore!

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Have to admit, it's not the first time I'm been accused of that! It does sound better than fanatical though.

[Comfort Me]

I love making my own sausage, and particularly like chicken sausage. I generally make it in a way I learned from an old videotape from a California culinary school -- instead of adding fat, I add crushed ice when making the forcemeat in the food processor.

Do you think I could freeze broth -- chicken, turkey, or a combo of both -- in ice cube trays, then crush them and incorporate them into the sausage? I don't know if poultry stock freezes or thaws at a different temperature or if that would be relevant anyway.

(I'm thinking of whipping up a batch of chicken sausage with cilantro, red onion, and chipoltle peppers in adobo. Yum.)

Aidan

[tristar]

I love making my own sausage, and particularly like chicken sausage.  I generally make it in a way I learned from an old videotape from a California culinary school --  instead of adding fat, I add crushed ice when making the forcemeat in the food processor.

Do you think I could freeze broth -- chicken, turkey, or a combo of both -- in ice cube trays, then crush them and incorporate them into the sausage?  I don't know if poultry stock freezes or thaws at a different temperature or if that would be relevant anyway.

(I'm thinking of whipping up a batch of chicken sausage with cilantro, red onion, and chipoltle peppers in adobo.  Yum.)

Aidan

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Hi Aidan,

I don't see any problems with substituting the crushed ice with stock, but I would be sure to skim off any fat from the stock before freezing, I believe the rendered fat would smear in your sausages and could possibly make them oily or spoil the texture. I normally make my chicken sausages with added chicken skin and fat, plus the crushed ice! or if using chicken meat only I make a mouselline sausage with double cream and egg! Not for the calorie conscious of course!

Regards.

Richard

[Abra]

Michael, any update on when the hot dog recipe will be ready for testing? I really want to turn out some perfect dogs for 9/23.

[guajolote]

I should add that the worst part about this whole Green Bacon Affair is that I really don't feel like I can share it with anyone -- and I have a lot of the stuff.

I mean, I've eaten it a few times, it's quite delicious and I really doubt that it's unsafe but I just couldn't give it to anyone else without knowing with absolutely certainty that it really isn't harmful.  And I just cannot find enough information to get me past that point.

=R=

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you gave some to me

[ronnie_suburban]

I should add that the worst part about this whole Green Bacon Affair is that I really don't feel like I can share it with anyone -- and I have a lot of the stuff.

I mean, I've eaten it a few times, it's quite delicious and I really doubt that it's unsafe but I just couldn't give it to anyone else without knowing with absolutely certainty that it really isn't harmful.  And I just cannot find enough information to get me past that point.

=R=

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you gave some to me

←

And you lived to tell the tale

=R=

[Abra]

Here's the Shrimp and Salmon Terrine with Spinach. The original has mushrooms, but I had a fungusophobe at the table.

It's dead easy to make, and is a lovely cool treat in our current hot spell. I added some baharat for seasoning to the shrimp mousse, and tucked in some slivers of home-preserved Meyer lemons. Next time I'll put the lemons all the way around the salmon, for more of a jeweled effect.

[Bombdog]

Abra, that looks FANTASTIC!

[Chris Amirault]

Two thoughts on the theme of "When Sausages Attack!"

Do you think I could freeze broth -- chicken, turkey, or a combo of both -- in ice cube trays, then crush them and incorporate them into the sausage?  I don't know if poultry stock freezes or thaws at a different temperature or if that would be relevant anyway.

←

FYI, I tried using some crushed ice in the water for my Italian sausage primary bind yesterday, and had bits of ice flying around the kitchen. Probably obvious, but 1-2 minutes of paddling doesn't melt ice in cold meat.

Not that it was entirely cold, mind you. I wasn't careful enough with the temperature of the meat, and the emulsion never took. So, since I've lovingly depicted successes, here's the disaster's gory detail:

It may look oddly juicy, but take my word for it: it's dry, crumbly, and truly unpleasant to bite. I crushed a bit into some tomato sauce on the plate, and that seemed to redeem it slightly, so sauce it will be.

[Abra]

That looks just like my very first sausage, Chris, and I was pretty proud of it at the time. Amazing how experience and developing expertise makes you be hard on yourself!

I see fat in the sausage, so I assume you weren't using ice instead of fat, as ComfortMe describes above, but ice in addition to fat, right?

[Chris Amirault]

That's right, Abra, ice and fat both. (I'm definitely incapable of making sausage without fat!)

[tristar]

Two thoughts on the theme of "When Sausages Attack!"

Do you think I could freeze broth -- chicken, turkey, or a combo of both -- in ice cube trays, then crush them and incorporate them into the sausage?  I don't know if poultry stock freezes or thaws at a different temperature or if that would be relevant anyway.

←

FYI, I tried using some crushed ice in the water for my Italian sausage primary bind yesterday, and had bits of ice flying around the kitchen. Probably obvious, but 1-2 minutes of paddling doesn't melt ice in cold meat.

Not that it was entirely cold, mind you. I wasn't careful enough with the temperature of the meat, and the emulsion never took. So, since I've lovingly depicted successes, here's the disaster's gory detail:

It may look oddly juicy, but take my word for it: it's dry, crumbly, and truly unpleasant to bite. I crushed a bit into some tomato sauce on the plate, and that seemed to redeem it slightly, so sauce it will be.

←

Did you use any chicken skin Chris? I have read somewhere that different meats have differing amounts of water soluble protein and it is the water soluble protein which effects the bind. It is possible that the chicken skin is where the most water soluble protein is? I have not had any problems with my chicken sausages apart from those to which I didn't add chicken skin, as I said in an earlier post, I now normally add egg to give me the bind in those.

[thursdaynext]

Here's the Shrimp and Salmon Terrine with Spinach.  The original has mushrooms, but I had a fungusophobe at the table.

Lovely!