Salami 101

[manticle]

Hi MattC,

If it were me, I would pat the pancetta dry and maybe leave for a few hours for any excess from the rinsing to dry off, then roll and hang.

As for nitrite free/cooking pancetta - the main risk for cured meats is botulism and this does not affect whole muscle cuts - only minced meats (sausage, salami etc). I'd eat your pancetta any way you want if it smells and looks OK.

 

[Mercs Own]

Thanks Mercs, you have now convinced me to go back to plan A and hang it flat, which is what I was originally going to do but as it was very thin in parts, I thought about rolling it.

Your pancetta in the picture looks quite dark, do you re-season them after rinsing and prior to hanging?

I just moved to Broken Hill at the start of this year and you cant get everything you need out here. I had an extensive look around woollies but could not find the juniper berries anywhere, or kosher salt. It was a very last minute thing to try this as we bought some pork belly (from woollies, thought Id go budget just to try it for the first time) as we were having it for dinner and it was a fairly large piece so I thought id do pancetta with the other piece.

Will be rinsing it this arvo and hanging it. As I didn't use nitrites, when it is ready I might start by cooking it first, then trying it next time cooked a little less and then work up to eating it totally uncooked, rather than go in head first.

Thanks for the advice, a great thread that I will be referring to frequently when the sausage filler is purchased.

Cheers

Hey Mattc - I hang my pancetta for almost four weeks and they are pretty dry - taste bloody delicious (first taste today!) Cured them for ten days then washed them off and dried them then coated in chilli flakes and black pepper that I had ground up. Poked a hole each side of one end - food grade twine through them and hung!

I went down my friendly deli today (friends with the manager) and they sliced some of my pancetta real thin and we ate that - really good! I don't use nitrates or nitrites etc but make sure the salt ratio is spot on. Also you mention cooking salt - I am hoping it was non iodised salt as it is a real no no to use iodised salt in curing things. Don't know why only know that you shouldn't as it interferes with the curing process.

Did you remove skin before curing? I do mostly because it is easier to cut and eat later on as the skin goes pretty hard.

Herbies Spice ( http://www.herbies.com.au/ ) are great for getting things sent out real quick and if they don't have it no one will.

 

[benno1973]

Also you mention cooking salt - I am hoping it was non iodised salt as it is a real no no to use iodised salt in curing things. Don't know why only know that you shouldn't as it interferes with the curing process.

I've wondered why myself. I know with vegetable fermentation and cheesemaking, iodine being an antibacterial agent affects the probiotic bacteria that do the fermentation such as lactobacillus. In some sense, if you add a starter culture (i.e. salami), iodised salt could affect how effectively this works. But I know that iodised salt has been discouraged with nitrites, and I found this article which discusses it:

At the time of the study, it was not permitted to add iodine to nitrite curing salt... According to Wirth and Kühne (1991) there have been reports that the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines from secondary amines and nitrite is accelerated in the presence of iodide ions. Such an effect could be catalytic or iodine could react in its own right... The authors concluded that addition of iodine to salt had no influence on the formation of nitrosamines in the meat products studied.

 

[Mercs Own]

Further to this - you can buy kosher salt that is iodised so you need to be careful and read the packets! Basically pure salt is what you need to use ie nothing added to it.

A couple of pics of my pancetta freshly sliced. Two pics have the flash on and look good but the pic with the flash off show the true colour of the pancetta.

 

[MattC]

No it was just normal cooking salt, I recall reading somewhere (probably on here) not to use iodised so I steered well clear. Yep I also removed the fat layer.

Some sources say to hang for min of two weeks, however I'm guessing the two weeks is only a guide as it is supposed to reduce in mass by 30%, so I'm thinking 2 weeks minimum, but longer if required to reach that 30% mark?

Cheers

 

[doon]

http://www.orangefarmhardware.com.au/CuringPickling/MeatCures?product_id=83

Is that the curing salt we should use for bacon etc

 

[Mercs Own]

Its ready when it is firmish - although I reckon I hung mine a little too long. Hope you didnt remove the fat layer just the skin and left the fat - fat is flavour!

 

[Mercs Own]

http://www.orangefarmhardware.com.au/CuringPickling/MeatCures?product_id=83

Is that the curing salt we should use for bacon etc

I dont use curing salt in my bacon - and I really dont know what that is other than it looks more like a prep for butchers?

Funny term curing salt - pure salt used in the correct quantities will cure meat.

 

[MattC]

No only removed the skin, tried to leave as much fat as possible but as it wasn't the best cut, pretty thin all over.

 

[fortmonty]

Hi Guys

I have been making cured meats for a few years now and I have to say it's hard to go back to store bought products. The process is not difficult , you just need to have a little bit of patience a place to hang it and then somewhere to store it. I have made everything from salami, coppa, capicollo, pancetta, prosciutto, guanciale, bresaola and other stuff. I suppose being born Calabrian has given me a little bit of a head start, however there is plenty of info on the net on how to cure meat. It certainly is worth having a go and believe me once you get it right there is no going back to store bought meats.Here are some pics of some of my stuff.

Cheers

 

[MattC]

Very impressive Fortmonty. That collection looks awesome!! First pic pancetta? What is the second pic? are those two big slabs in the 3rd pic pancetta? Also where in your house is that last pic? Is it a specialised cool room?

 

[Aces High]

I managed to sneak my pastie ranga self into an italian family cacciatore weekend a few weeks back. Very interesting to watch the whole process (well they actually put me to work as soon as I walked through the door). No photos sorry as i didn't want to push my luck.

They used 2 full pigs (female only as males can get boar taint apparently), and this year they got the butcher to do the mincing for them. It was all mixed up on the saturday and left on a big table in the shed overnight. They only used salt, no nitrates and when we cooked up a batch it was much saltier than what i make. I missed most of the saturday mixing unfortunately so a I didn't get to see how they worked out salt content.

On Sunday the stuffing started. They were using about 60mm ox casing and had a 5kg horizontal stuffing machine. The stuffing machines are awesome compared to using the mincer to do the stuffing. I am definitely going to have to consider getting one myself.

They didn't bother to tie the ends and just tied from the middle. Tying a 500mm length into about 4 sausages and hanging them from the middle. The ends were dipped in dry white pepper which apparently keeps the insects away, then they were pricked a number of times with a 5 pronged pricker (is that a word?)

Then they were tied onto a big gal pipe that ran the length of the shed and left. After talking to the boss (the eldest brother in the family) they would be hung there for about 2 weeks then taken down and cryovacked and frozen. They then just pull them out and hang them in the fridge one at a time over the year.

This was their traditonal family recipe and technique and they only starting doing the caccatore weekends again about 3 years after a break of about 20 years. All the kids are now in the 20's and are starting to have their own kids and they wanted to revive the process.

 

[fortmonty]

MattC

The second pic is the cheats way of making prosciutto , rather than trying to cure the whole leg intact , which takes over 12 months, I split the legs and de bone them. What you see in the last pic is the big slab of leg hanging to dry. The curing time is cut to less than half, and it avoids hanging meat in our hot summer. I have a commercial grade slicer at home , so when I slice my meats they come up like you get in the gourmet deli's . Thats my shed at home, which is lined with 75mil polystyrene foam walls and ceiling. I was going to put in a cellar but to much stuffing around and this was an easier /cheaper solution.

As I said because I don't cure the whole legs as a single unit, I don't need to have meats hanging over our summer. I have made whole legs as well as culatello ( which is the ants pants of cured meats ) see below. The other pic below is my pancetta with fillet intact.

I didn't get a chance to make anything this year as I went back to the home country for a month and only just got back. I figure though I still have time to make nduja ( spicy hot spreadable calabrian sausage ) this is the big new thing in cured meats despite that fact that calabrians have been making it for ages.

 

[fortmonty]

MattC

Sorry yes the first pic in my first post was pancetta , made as a flat slab i.e. not rolled. Personally pancetta is my favourite as the fat content gives it the extra flavour and maintains the moistness to it. It is magnificent cubed and stirred through pasta such as carbonara ( however nothing beats guanciale for that ).

Put it this way I love going out to my deli and slicing up some cold cuts for the Sunday antipasto platter.

Cheers

 

[Mercs Own]

Hey fortmonty - looks fantastic! Looks like we have a new go to guy for all things salami and cured!!

I have only just in the last 12 months been introduced to nduja and LOVE it! Use it mostly in pasta sauce. Would love a recipe for it and look forward to hearing from you and how you make it.

 

[fortmonty]

I tried it for the first time in the home town only a few weeks ago. I have traditional recipie for it and hope to make it in the coming weeks when I get a chance. I will let you know how it turns out.

Cheers

 

[MattC]

Could you point a real charcuterie noob towards a real good reference, whether it be Internet or a book?

 

[fortmonty]

One of the best books is "Charcuterie the craft of salting and curing " by Ruhlman & Polcyn. They set out the fundamentals and their basic cure ie salt / sugar is excellent ( minus the curing salts ie nitrates etc).

I have noticed that most if not all US websites advocate the use of curing salts. Personally I think that comes from the fear of being sued should someone get sick because they don't know what they are doing. All I know is that all the Calabrians I know have for generations made salami and cured meats with just salt.

There is also anther book which I have leant to someone at the moment and I have forgotten the title , but it is basically a collection of traditional Calabrian and some other Italian recipes. Not just cured meats and salami but everything from pickled vegetables to bread. This book is excellent if you want to preserve food tge way most Calabrese do. Many of the recipes are similar to how my parents, grand parents and so on preserved their food.


Cheers

 

[doon]

So with bacon if you dont use pink salt will you still get the traditional colour and flavour?

Everything I can find says it will come out Grey and not have the same taste

 

[fortmonty]

I have not made tried to make bacon , however pancetta is probably the Italian version of bacon though cured to a greater extent. The curing salts are used to maintain colour. I would have tgought that the taste should not be affected only colour. Ruhlman & Polcyn have a recipe for Canadian smoked bacon, which is brined for 48 hrs then smoked. The brine mixture is salt/sugar/spices plus curing salt
( which they specifically say is to give the cured meat colour). You might try playing around with brining time ?

I suppose used properly there is nothing wrong with using curing salts. It's just that I have never used it.