I am making the Bressaola from an Eye of Round roast. This is based on the Bressaola recipe in Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I have converted it to a slat and cure by weight and adjusted the herbs and spices as it is mid winter and my Rosemary and Thyme are only dry now not fresh.
After trimming the roast of fat silverskin and any nicks, it ended up at 1233g.
3% salt = 37g
0.25% cure #2 = 3g
1.5 tsp dried Rosemary
1 tsp dried Thyme
6 Juniper berries
Finely grind the mixture together until powdered in a mortar and pestle. I don’t like dragging out the blender for this and these flavors would not help my coffee.
Divide the mixture in half.
Rub the roast with 1/2 of the mix all over and place in a plastic bag in the fridge for 1 week turning every few days. After 1 week pull it out, drain any liquid and then apply the other half of the spice mix. Refrigerate for another week.
Remove the roast from the bag, rinse well removing the cure and spice blend. Place on a rack at room temperature uncovered for 2-3 hours. This will dry it enough to be ready for wrapping.
Wrap in 1/2 sheet of collagen, pressing it tightly against the meat and then truss with butchers twine. 2 vertical wraps and 3-5 horizontal wraps. Make a loop in the twine so it will fit over the dowel in the dry box. Prick all over with a sanitized sausage pricker. Dip in a solution of Bactoferm 600 (penicilium mold culture).
Hang in the dry box. This was taken after 1 week
Here I have it out for weighing after 1 week. You can see mold growth and it is much heavier where it bumped the mold covered pork loin.
| Date | Weight | |
| 01/05/19 | 1233g | Start before cure applied |
| 01/18/19 | 1250g | Ready for dry box |
| 01/23/19 | 1192g | |
| 03/10/19 | 988g | |
| 03/18/19 | 906 | |
| 03/23/19 | 867 | |
| 03/30/19 | 822 | |
| 04/06/19 | 773 | |
| 04/13/19 | 695 | tasting |
| end wt loss | 44.40% |
Beware this is still an experiment in progress. Get the book while waiting for the tasting post.
Sources:
TheSausageMaker.com: Dry Aging Collagen Sheets for Dry Aging Meats 22″ x 24″ (5 pcs) and Bactoferm Mold-600 (Penicillium Nalgiovense) and Sausage pricker. You can also order their products via Amazon but it is much more expensive but with free shipping. So if you need several things direct is cheaper.
Mark Bronkalla