Olympic Fever

I've caught it. As a curler, there has never been a time where this much curling could be seen on TV. Unfortunately, the US curling teams haven't been doing that well. I stayed up too late last night watching Canada play Great Britain. The only Capital Region even I can compare watching curling at this level to is the Travers Stakes. You blow off work and head to the track some summer Friday to get an early start to the weekend. It's fun. You make some bets then stand by the rail and watch the horses run by. If you stand by the rail for the Travers, the horses running by you are breath taking. They are bigger, faster, stronger and very powerful. You ask yourself, "If these are horses, what were those other things that ran by before?"

That's how I felt watching last night's curling match. "If this is curling, what game am I playing on Monday nights?" The strategy was well beyond what I am used to seeing. The shot making ability was amazing. The judgment and ability of the sweepers was very impressive.

And happy 30th anniversary to the Miracle on Ice. I was 8 and I can remember watching the game. All of the other "where where you when..." events aren't happy. Pearl Harbor, Kennedy getting shot, the Challenger explosion, 9-11. Not many happy occasions get imprinted into the memory of a nation. But these guys really captured the hearts of this country. But enough reliving past Olympic glory. The American woman's curling team has a game on now.

Side Note: In completely un-Olympic related news, I ate a piece of sopressata yesterday. It was tasty, but I think it needs a little more time to dry. Should be done by this coming weekend.

Sopressata Part 2: And now we wait...

Last night I ran the pork through the grinder attachment of a Kitchen Aid mixer. The long stips worked pretty well. There were definitely piece that grabbed and pulled themselves through. Next time, I think I will be able to cut more pieces that do this. Pretty neat trick.
It looked like it had at least 25% fat so I didn't add anymore. The milk powder got added and the paddle attachment went on the mixer for a quick mix. A bigger mixer would have made the job easier. For some reason, I wanted this type of Kitchen Aid 10 years ago (there's a hinge and the bowl is locked in place) instead of the larger one where the bowl moves up and down. Can't remember why though.

I didn't get any pictures of filling the casings. My hands were a little messy and my wife uses the camera too. I started with the collagen casings which stuffed very easily. I moved onto the natural casings and only had one minor glitch - I over stuffed and split the casing. Not a big deal, just pulled out a little more casing and kept going. Here's the setup I used on the kitchen table. The sopressata on the right (darker brown casing) are collagen cased. The sopressata on the left are in natural casing.

The hardest part of doing this, besides cleaning up, is tying the sopressata to hang in the chamber. I'm not the best with knots. In the books I've read on sausage making, they have lovely pictures on how the know should look, but no real instructions. I'm going to have to ask around for pointers. Tying the collagen casings would have been much easier with an extra pair of hands. Since I do this after everyone else has gone to bed, I'm out of luck there. An el-cheapo kitchen dedicated vise grips might help. Maybe next time I'm in Harbor Freight. My fear with the collagen casing is that as the meat shrinks, a void will be created and the knot will slip. Tying the natural casing was easier, but also equally unprofessional. A seasoned butcher would probably get a good laugh. Here's a shot of some sopressata in bondage followed by a picture of the sopressata curing. I weighed each one so I will know what percentage of weight was lost in a few weeks. I'm going for 30%.

Getting Ready

Had some leftover white wine, so we put it to use in a clam and pasta dinner or Monday. There is something about this meal that is very satisfying. It is quick an easy to make. Drop some pasta into boiling water. In another big pot, heat some good olive oil. Dump in the clams and cover for a few minutes. Stir in a few cloves of minced garlic and cover it again. A few minutes later, add some wine and slap the lid back on. Once the clams are open, drain and add the cooked pasta (I like spaghetti with this). Stir it up so the pasta is covered with the sauce and add some parsley. Be sure to have bread to sop up the sauce. Dinner is served.

The chamber is up and getting ready. I have the humidifier running with the goal of keeping the sopressata curing in the 65% to 70% relative humidity range. I might need to reposition the fin. It depends on how many links of sopressata I make. The fin (a throwback to kid-free parrothead days) blocks the salami from being in the direct breeze of the humidifier fan. Hanging on the string is a outdoor part of a wireless temperature/humidity weather station. I picked it up a Lowes. I keep the receiver on the kitchen counter so it is easy to keep an eye on the temperature and humidity in the area the meat is drying. It works pretty well. At the time of the picture, the temperature was 57 deg F and the RH was at 57%. Last time I looked the RH was up to 61%. The humidifier is set at 75%, that gave me close to 70% near the meat.

And last, but not least, the casings I recently order came this evening. I got some larger diameter natural casing a few types collagen casings. Starting from the top, 30mm diameter clear collagen casing, casing for a large summer sausage, 38 mm diameter collagen casing and 35 mm+ natural casing. I think I will use the natural casings and some of the 38 mm collagen casings for the sopressata.

Sopressata Part 1

Got the meat curing tonight. The pork but is from Cardona's on Delaware. After preparing this, they are my new official supplier of sausage pork. Pork looked and smelled good. I look forward to trying it in some fresh sausage in a few weeks - this years Summer in February celebration is on Valentine's Day and I'll be making some for that. Here is the sopressata recipe I am using. The proportions are basically ripped from the pages of Charcuterie. The two numbers in yellow are a guess. The total meat and fat number is correct. I will look and see how the meat is grinding later this week. I might add some more fat. The meat/fat ratio of the pork looked good to me. Hard to be sure though.

Ingredient	Weight (g)	% ingredient	Notes
Meat	1686	1	Grind fine
Belly fat	562	0.25	Grind coarse
Total meat and fat	2448	1
Salt	44	0.0178
Instacure #2	7	0.0027
hot pepper	2	0.0009
Garlic, fresh	7	0.0027	Fine mince
Pepper, white	3	0.0013	Coarse grind
White Wine	65	0.0267	Dry
Dextrose powder	33	0.0133
Bactoferm F-RM-52	1	0.0004	Disperse in water
Water, cold	65	0.0267
non fat dry milk powder	76	0.0311

Here's what I did tonight starting with gathering all the seasonings. From the right: garlic, cure#2, dextrose, salt, white pepper, hot pepper and wine. The bactoferm stays in the freezer expect when I'm using it, the bottle of distilled water was handy enough and the non-fat milk powder will be added later.

 

The wine was recommended buy a salesmen at All Star Wines in Latham. The recipe calls for a Pinot Bianco. I've never had one and he recommended this Pinot Gris. I'm not much of a white wine guy. I always go red. A true connoisseur.  I was pleasantly surprised by this wine. It is very sweet, but has a nice flavor that I hope intensifies as the sopressata dries. 65 milliliters for the salami, the rest is for me. Here's 3 grams of bactoferm weighed out. It gets dissolved in the distilled water.

And then everything is measured and ready for mixing. I cut the pork into long strips. I read on THE Sausage Debauchery that the pork just swirls around the auger and grinds easily. Definitely worth a try. If it isn't working for me, the pieces will be easy enough to cube.

Off to the fridge for a few days for the bactoferm to bloom. I didn't get around to setting up the curing chamber today. Should only take a few minutes tomorrow. Grinding and stuffing should be Wednesday or Thursday night.

And so it begins....Sopressata

Yesterday I ordered a bunch of different casings from Butcher & Packer. I'm getting some that are natural and a little bit bigger than typical sausage casings. I'm also going to try out some collagen casings. And while I was ordering, I picked up a pound of pink salt (aka DC Curing Salt, Insta-Cure, or Prague Powder #1). I've been giving some of mine away to people interested in making their own bacon. Pretty sure my friend Mike has some slabs curing in his fridge as I type.

This project was supposed to start earlier in the month, but for some reason January got very hectic. Back in December, I purchased a bunch of pork butt at Cardona's. Vacuum sealed it and put it in the freezer. A good three week freeze eliminates any doubt about trichinae larva in the meat. I'm not sure how much it impacts the quality of the final product, but I'm new at this so I'm going with all the safety precautions. The meat came out of the freezer today. I'm planning to cut it up and season it on Sunday. I'll fire up the humidifier in the mock chamber on Sunday too. The mix will sit in the fridge a few more days and then I'll grind/stuff/hang later in the week. I've got all the spices together, just need to pick up a bottle of white wine.