Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 5)

[jmolinari]

[Moderator note: The original Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 4)]

 

 

 

 

Ah yes, but i'm counting on non-deadly sickness !

again to cover my ass, i do NOT recommend any method for making salame. You're on your own!

Edited June 3, 2015 by Mjx
Note added. (log)

[FoodMan]

I wonder what kind of "sickness" one could get. The botulism risk i think is removed by using nitrites, so that seems to leave just regular food poisoning (which can be rather unpleasant from what i've heard).

How can a thread die with comments like these !! I love that matter of fact discussion of what the possibility of sickness is. I actually might give it a shot.

I have not posted in a while also because I've been repeating things and because I had a good stash of sausages and such in the freezer.

In the near future I am hoping to try out some new stuff namely:

- I recently bought the book by Andrea Nguyen, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, to make some excellent Viet food at home and was pleasantly surprised to see a chapter on Charcuterie with 6 or 7 classic Viet charcuterie preparations. So, I have to make some of these and apply my experience from this thread to make perfect fillings for Viet sandwiches.

- Another great book i bought is Michel Richard's Happy in The Kitchen and I am learning so many fantastic techniques from it. He also has a recipe for almost fat free chicken sausage that I am itching to try and use natural casing for instead of the plastic wrap he is so fond of.

- A Lebanese Makanek recipe

And that pate does look perfect Dan. Next give the one with pork tenderloin inlay a shot. I have pics of it somewhere in this thread and it was the best I've ever made.

[Jon Savage]

I'm placing my first order for casings and Bactoferm today.

I was wondering whether anyone had tried Bactoferm T-SPX instead of the F-RM-52 called for in the book since many seemed to feel that the F-RM-52 was too sour.

Edited April 6, 2007 by 6ppc (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

Thanks so much to the person who got me addicted to this thread!!! What an amazing amt of info and I am so excited about this...I ordered the book and just checked it should be here Monday YAY!!!

...I have a question..

how long are casings good for? the butcher I bought these from said "forever if you keep them packed in salt" but is forever like a year in the fridg because that is how long mine have been in there..they are packed in salt and there is no slime or off smell to them ..but a year is a long time and as cheap as they are maybe I should replace them now?

what do you think ..I can not believe how many you get when you buy a pound of those things!!! I made a lot of Italian and chorice last year and did not make a dent in my casing supply!

thanks

Edited April 6, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[jmolinari]

6ppc, i'm going to try T-SPX in my next batch in the future, so if you experiment with it, def. let us know.

Hummingbird: forever is really forever. If salted and kept in the fridge they will last indefinitely. Specially if they don't smell rotten.

[Jon Savage]

6ppc, i'm going to try T-SPX in my next batch in the future, so if you experiment with it, def. let us know.

←

I chickened out and ordered the F-RM-52, I wonder if using less than 1/4 cup for a 5 pound batch as some did upthread helped reduce the sourness.

[jmolinari]

sourness is dictated by the amount of sugar, not the quantity of bacteria. the sugar is broken down to acid, so that is what counts.

[Reignking]

I'm trying foodman's pastrami salmon recipe this weekend for an Easter brunch. I started the cure last night, so I hope that it will be ready in time. The first time that I cured salmon, two days was plenty of time.

[Jon Savage]

Well the pancetta seemed done after the better part of two weeks.

Just had a couple of slices raw while doing prep for spaghetti carbonara. Very, very tasty indeed seems almost a pity to cook it. Three bellies almost finished curing - will put them in the smoker Friday 'cos you can never have enough bacon.

[dansch]

So, a buddy of mine just sent me a snap he took when he came over for dinner and we had the country pate that I posted shots of up above. I also made the roasted veggie terrine (had a pescaterian over that night and didn't want them to miss this course completely)

My plating skills need some work, but you get the point.

Cooking up my VA country ham this weekend and will post shots and impressions (pictures of the ham-making process are here).

Cheers,

-Dan

[FoodMan]

Dan-

That roasted veggie terrine looks great.

Reignking-

How did the pastrami salmon turn out? I've made it a couple of times since and still love it.

[Jon Savage]

Yesterday was kind of busy.

Made a batch of saucisson sec, a batch of chicken/tomato/basil sausage, smoked three bellies.

We had the links on the plate for dinner man that is tasty sausage.

I don't seem to mind grinding using the kitchenaid grinder attachment but the "stuffer" is a f'n joke. Need to look upthread for an alternative.

Edited April 15, 2007 by 6ppc (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

Yesterday was kind of busy.

Made a batch of saucisson sec, a batch of chicken/tomato/basil sausage, smoked three bellies.

I don't seem to mind grinding using the kitchenaid grinder attachment but the "stuffer" is a f'n joke. Need to look upthread for an alternative.

←

Great stuff, 6ppc. It definitely looks like it was a busy day.

Btw, for stuffer information, look here:

Sausage stuffers - what to look for?, Recommendations, please

=R=

[DerekW]

Around the turn of the year the local supermarket had a special on pig legs. Time to try the cured ham thing:

Twenty pounds of pig-leg, dry-rubbed with the rum and molasses [and salt] mixture.

The leg went into the cure on the 13th of January, and stayed there for three weeks, in the un-heated outbuilding. Refrigerated, but not frozen. The recipe calls for what seemed like a lot of #2 cure. Mr Ruhlman was kind enough to look into things, and confirmed that the high level of curing salt was correct.

After a couple of weeks, the cure had drawn a gallon or so of moisture out of the pig-leg.

At the end of the three week cure, the leg was cold smoked for many hours - eighteen or so. Lacking a sophisticated cold smoker, I just made a wooden box and fitted that to the top of the electric "little Chief" smoker, moving the ham-to-be away from the heat source. Relying on the sub zero out doors temperature and an uninsulated box seemed to work well enough. After the smoking, the ham was hung in the unheated building.

It stayed there from mid-February until mid-April, at which point the rising temperature started to make me nervous.

Never having had a cured ham to play with before, I wasn't too sure how best to deal with the end result. Since Craigslist has so far failed to provide an antique Hobart slicer at a sensible price, I eventually just took big lumps off. The bone and some of the more shoe-leather sections of rind are destined to make a great pot of beans.

Sliced thinly, [or even not so thinly] the end result is meltingly delicious, moist and tender.

cheers

Derek

[jmolinari]

Looks awesome derek. Did you cook it or eat it as is?

[ronnie_suburban]

Excellent, Derek! I'm also curious if you cooked it before you ate it. In either case, that is a most admirable project. Congrats!

=R=

[DerekW]

Did you cook it or eat it as is?

←

We took thin slices off one of the "hunk o' ham" pieces and ate it uncooked. The book talks about the end result ideally being dried through the middle, and "as dense as any dry-cured ham". I think our humidity was perhaps too low to allow this. The texture achieved was softer and silkier then a commercial ham. Most of the big lumps went into the freezer - perhaps we'll try cooking one later.

cheers

Derek

[FoodMan]

Very tasty looking work Derek and 6ppc. I doubt I'll even manage to try a whole cured ham in this part of the country without a temp controlled space like a wine cooler or fridge of some sort.

BTW, 6ppc the Grizzly stuffer is one of the best things I bought and highly recommended.

[BRM]

BTW, 6ppc the Grizzly stuffer is one of the best things I bought and highly recommended.

←

I second this 6ppc...I tried the KA stuffer once and that was enough. The Grizzly was only about $70 and is a pleasure to use. You won't be sorry.

[jmolinari]

IS anyone else annoyed by the lack of different size plates for the KA grinder? I wish they had a bigger plate.

[BRM]

I had a busy weekend too. I made a batch of Ciauscolo from Len Poli's site that doesn't have to cure for a very long time. It also uses no starter culture and thought it might be good to try given our discussions upthread. I am also going to try the Ledenspeck from that site that looks awesome so I put those items in to cure. I am away on business the latter part of this week and first of next but will post pics when i return. Should be able to get a read on the Ciauscolo by the middle of next week.

[Jon Savage]

Very tasty looking work Derek and 6ppc. I doubt I'll even manage to try a whole cured ham in this part of the country without a temp controlled space like a wine cooler or fridge of some sort.

BTW, 6ppc the Grizzly stuffer is one of the best things I bought and highly recommended.

←

Ordered it today.

IS anyone else annoyed by the lack of different size plates for the KA grinder? I wish they had a bigger plate.

←

Yes. I'd really like a larger plate. I keep thinking someone with more talent than I have should market accessory plates and blades for the KA grinder. Didn't someone once make a grinder attachment for the KA that took standard plates?

[BRM]

IS anyone else annoyed by the lack of different size plates for the KA grinder? I wish they had a bigger plate.

←

Yes...I stewed about whether to get the KA or some other grinder and got the KA because I had a KA and it was a pretty inexpensive way to get started. I find it ok for pate because ususally you want the grind smaller. Its also good for fresh hamburger and some beginning sausage making. I think you outgrow it pretty quickly though.

Its probably cheaper to buy a #10 or larger grinder from B-P or some other vendor that it is to pay a machine shop to make one or two plates with different size holes. If you know a machinst (who likes sausage!) that is a different story. If you do let us all know.

[jmolinari]

heh. Well i have access to a machine shop, so i'm going to try modifying a plate of the closest size. I already have the plate, (from my old manual grinder), it needs to be reduced in diameter about 2mm, and then i need to add some pins where the "ears" of the KA plates are.

Just haven't had time to do it.

[Jairo Castellanos]

Hello,

this is my first post on egullet. I love this place, I just can't figure out why it took me so long find it.

I made a batch of the ginger/basil breakfst sausage on Sunday but I have two questions:

1. How do I store the extra sheep casings?. I added a lot of salt and then put them in ziplock bag in my fridge, but it is still fairly wet. Is this OK? or Should I makesure they are compleatly drained and then salted before I put them in my fridge?

2. I found it very difficult to stuff my sausages using the sausage stuffer attachment for the KitchenAid Grinder. Any tips one how to make this process a lot smoother? I found it REALLY slow...

Thanks