I have only begun to make cheese late last year, but I've been making sausage and cured meats for two years now. I thought you might be interested in a couple of things I made in this period.
I started out with traditional German sausages like Blutwurst and Leberwurst. These are made with cooked meat and cooked again after stuffing. I usually cold smoked them with my ProQ Frontier BBQ smoker. And of course there must be Leberkäse. I also tried to recreate proper Mortadella di Bologna which turned out quite well.
I use my basement for curing meat, I don't have a proper "chamber". I can only use it from October to April, but then the conditions are perfect for curing. Last year I managed to make a few very nice salamis including one with horsemeat. This year I've been less lucky, the sausages turned out too crumbly. Either my meat grinder has turned blunt or the meat was not cold enough. I will have to look into this next season.
But I made some very nice whole muscle pieces over the winter, like guanciale, coppa and a boneless ham whch I cut yesterday to conclude the curing season. I will try to cure an entire ham in the next winter.
Very nice Olikli. Looks like your cure came out perfectly, good stuff. I also cure a lot of sausage and whole muscle cuts from late November to the end of April in this region. I do have one special cut called a Culatello which is the large muscle on the rear leg that is boned then cased. It will be two years old in November. The first one was great after one year so we will be looking forward to cutting this one.
Good luck with your curing projects
Thanks for sharing olikli, those look absolutely great! ....was that Westphalia ham I see there?
I am a good sausage maker, but just getting into the cured meats. I used to be a chef and retail meat cutter, so, good knife skills for this stuff. I now have a new grinder, scale, cure and ingredients to begin my cool new hobby of charcuterie, alongside my already awesome cheese making passion.
I wish I was near neighbors to you and Reg (I'm just north of Toronto in case you ever have an open house:) I would love to see (and help) with some of your creations. I'll bring my smoker and 37 Liter pot over, and we'll double our production ;)
Hey Fritz I did notice you were from Toronto, I have a lot of friends from the Toronto area. My son is a golf pro working at Deer Creek up in Whitby.
I am a retired chef but still do a lot of cooking and meat curing. My newest hobby is getting into South American style BBQ both Argentinian and Brazilian, that is some pretty cool stuff
Olikli, great pictures ... I can almost taste them. Welcome to the cheese making community.
Awesome stuff reg! They know a thing or two about beef down there... Argentina is very "Canadian" like with regards to weather and climate zones.... Lots of foreign land ownership and Canadian developers in Argentina, good real estate opportunities there... Once they fix the lacking road and rail infrastructure there it will be a boom.
I'll put on my Goucho outfit for when you serve up your meaty delights :)
Quote from: Fritz on June 02, 2016, 06:32:13 AM
Thanks for sharing olikli, those look absolutely great! ....was that Westphalia ham I see there?
No, this was simply a piece of ham meat cured only with sea salt and air dried as a practice piece for the whole ham I am wanting to tackle later this year.
Keep us (me) up to date ... I'm doing some curing and smoking too ... You are more advanced than I, would love to learn and share cachuterie pics and tips. :)
In your basement eh ?
How about humidity , is it naturally humid enough , or do you somehow manipulate the humidity ?
Your products look great.
I have been doing pancetta , bacon , hams , bresaola and lonzino for the last couple of years , but looking at doing some dry cured Salami this fall in my cold room , but I will need to regulate the humidity somewhat.
You can pick up a cool mist humidifier at CTC for about $30 and a timer for about $ 5-$10 bucks. That way you can watch it and adjust accordingly.
Quote from: jwalker on June 12, 2016, 12:30:04 PM
In your basement eh ?
How about humidity , is it naturally humid enough , or do you somehow manipulate the humidity ?
The humidity is usually around 75%. Summer temperatures are a bit high, so I use it only from October to April or May.
Quote from: reg on June 02, 2016, 12:25:06 PM
Hey Fritz I did notice you were from Toronto, I have a lot of friends from the Toronto area. My son is a golf pro working at Deer Creek up in Whitby.
I am a retired chef but still do a lot of cooking and meat curing. My newest hobby is getting into South American style BBQ both Argentinian and Brazilian, that is some pretty cool stuff
Hey Reg do you have a favorite recipe or a link for both Argentinian and Brazilian BBQI would be very interested. Thanks John
Morning John. Your best bet would be to invest in two books, Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann and the other Churrasco by Evandro Caregnato. In both Brazilian and Argentinian BBQ you cook over live fire either burnt down logs or lump charcoal. I had the pleasure of working at Coppa Cabana here in Niagara and all the proteins are roasted directly over charcoal on roto's. All the meats are brined/marinated for a minimum of 24hrs. I had a lot of fun working at Coppa
I will find a photo of our latest cook and post it
reg
A picture would be great Reg.
John
I just remembered that my photos are to large so I won't be able to post one but if you email me I will send it to you. The photo is a whole lamb on a cross and is called Asador, pretty impressive way to cook lamb for a small group
rrrbbq@cogeco.carrr just drop the r's
Hey John... Do you do any dry cures or sausage making too? I can't recall a post saying otherwise.
Hi Fritz here are a couple of links for the cured and smoked meats I do.
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,15174.15.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,15174.15.html)
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13956.15.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13956.15.html)
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11005.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11005.0.html)
John
That's great, thanks John.
I thought you did... Your summary links went into my bookmarks.. I'm building my curing/drying room this fall. Reg is being helpful to its design (thanks Reg) ... We need to get together to do a taste test of all our efforts.. Will be an interesting and tasty meeting :)
Opppps sorry olikli I just realised we hijacked you thread I thought fritz had started it.
Fritz we should PM or start a thread regarding cured meat, bread, wine making.
John
Olikli, I am impressed with what you've shown. Very good!
Yup... My apologies too... Sometimes I feel like we are all sitting at a big table with all sorts of breads and cheese and cachuterie with beverages, having a good ol chit chat with all...