Makin' Bacon

I picked up some pieces of pork belly from the relatively new Asian market on Central Avenue in Albany. Four pieces weighing about 5 pounds in total. One piece went into a pancetta cure (salt, pepper, bay leaf, garlic dark brown sugar, some thyme and pink salt). This is what it looked like coming out of the cure.

The pancetta was then wrapped up in cheesecloth and put into the makeshift curing chamber in the basement. I smile just knowing I have that set up down there. Simple pleasures...Anyhow, the pancetta will hang for about a week before I split it up and give it to some friends at work.


The other three slabs of pork belly just got rinsed too. They went into a simple bacon cure (salt, raw sugar, pink salt) and are going to air dry in the fridge overnight. They will get smoked tomorrow. I think I will use some apple wood. Some of this bacon will be used to wrap scallops on Thanksgiving.

Finished Tuscan Salami

Took it down and weighed it last night. There was a 45% weight loss. I was nervous and thought it might be too much. Not a problem. I think it tastes pretty damn good. I would also say it is better than a lot of higher end salami that is available in this area. A while back, I used to be my own 'toughest critic.' That has changed and earlier tonight, I faced my current toughest critics.

My daughter Allison gave it the rating "I love it."

My daughter Casey gave it the rating "Yummy, Daddy."

The two of them ate the rest of the small salami I had been cutting for tastes. Needless to say, I was a wee bit proud of my efforts.

More Tuscan Salami

The next step was to set up a curing area. I had a 12 foot length of poly and decided to with something close to a 3 foot square shape. Instead of the original plan to use staples, i bought small hooks that I screwed into the floor joists. Using a punch I put holes in the poly and hung it like a curtain. This way, the chamber can come down a lot easier. I have a humidifier with a humidistat set at 70%. I also added a shark fin I had in the basement (it is a throwback to my younger parrothead tailgating days). The fin acts as a wall between the humidifier and the salami. I thought the humidifier fan moved to much air and the fin keeps the salami out of the breeze. Using the uotdoor part of an indoor/outdoor temperature/humidity weather gadget, I found that the relative humidity closer to the floor was pretty constant at about 70%. Here is a shot of the chamber, ironically located next to a home made dehumidifier (the duct work in the lower right of the picture).


Now it was time to grind the salami. I Use the Kitchen Aid attachment. Fat was ground through the larger plate, meat through the smaller plate. Someday, I think I will upgrade to a dedicated grinder, but this attachment has been working for the amount of sausage I make.


Toasted fennel seeds were added and every was mixed well. Then, it was into the sausage stuffer to get pushed into casings.

The hardest part of the prpject was tying the salami for hanging. I usually make a fresh sausage and twist it into links. Here, I had to tie them in a way where the know could support the weight of the salami. Then I used more string so the salami would hang low enough in the chamber. I ended up using what I would describe as a "bizarro" surgeon's knot. So far they have all held up. Here's a shot of the salami starting to age.

Halloween Salami

I have been meaning to make a Tuscan salami for a few months now. I decided to try and have it ready to eat for Thanksgiving. Not sure if I'll make it, but it should be close.

Chef Bob Del Grosso made a similar salami over at A Hunger Artist. I'm not sure how many times I've read the post, but I promise the count is over 10. I compared his recipe to the Tuscan salami is the Charcuterie book and they were pretty similar. I followed the Del Grosso formula switching Instacure#1 for Instacure#2. I also like the way Bob sets up his percentages of ingredients. Being the nerd that I am, I set everything up in a Tuscan salami spreadsheet. Once you enter the weight of the meat in grams, the spreadsheet calculates how many grams of the rest of the ingredients you need including back fat. I kind of cheated with the bactoferm. I've seen people use a gram of it, and I've read that you can't use less than 5 grams. I split the difference and went with 3 grams.

The rest of the plan is to build my version of a mini curing chamber Bob put in his basement. I picked up some 3 mil thick poly drop cloth at a Lowes. I'm going to staple it to some floor beams and place a humidifier with a humidity sensor inside. I'm going to skip the fan for now and just open everything up to circulate the air once in awhile. The basement is typically in the low 60s. Hopefully the humidifier will keep the humidity up. Here is the recipe I used and some pictures of the meat. The meat is going to see a 3 or 4 day pre-grind age. I'll use the few days to get the chamber set up.

The recipe.





Ready for the rest of the ingredients.





To the fridge for a 3 to 4 day soak.

The Golden Spoon

If you have ever watched a food related reality TV show...then this is funny. My favorite part the childhood cooking story about cooking with mom(2:10 into Part 1). Just a warning, there is some bad language in the movie. Not Gordon Ramsey bad...but if you are easily offended by bad language, this will easily offend you. Also, thanks to Sky Full of Bacon for letting me know the film exists.

PART 1



PART 2

A new take on 80s music

I recently heard about the internet phenomenon of "Literal Videos." the lyrics of a song a changed to describe what is happening in the old MTV music video (Note: at one time MTV actually showed music videos). Some attempts at literal videos are terrible. Some are just so-so. I would argue this one is brilliant. It captures the "full cheese" of 80s music and is a great take on a very memorable song. Hope you like it as much as I do.

A video you should watch

I really like the Sky Full of Bacon Videos and the latest is really very good. The video is about La Quercia in Norwalk, Iowa. They were featured awhile ago in the New York Times food section. Their operation is very impressive and their product looks amazing. And now, for the very first time in this blog's short history, I will attempt to embed a file. Wish me luck. Should all else fail, go here to watch the video.

Sky Full of Bacon 10: Prosciutto di Iowa from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.