Home Cured Ham
This past fall I bought half a pig from my nephew, Taylor Henry at Sidie Hollow Farm. He pasture raises the hogs, so I was looking forward to several charcuterie projects with the meat. Bacon and pepperoni turned out great, guanciale made form the jowls is currently drying. So it was time to prepare a […]
Papa’s Pepperoni
Papa’s pepperoni (or maybe “Paparoni”) is loosely based on a variety of other recipes and adjusted for my taste preference, but it is not too spicy so that Teal and the kids / grandkids will enjoy it as well. I LOVE pepperoni pizza (including cold for breakfast). However, I detest the little pools of grease […]
Drying chamber setup
I was able to purchase a “scratch and dent” wine fridge (Frigidaire Gallery 55 bottle) for use as a proper drying chamber. This means that I will now be able to dry meats and sausages year-round. It also means the Rubbermaid bin drying chamber is being retired. Once it warms up a bit outside, I […]
Emptying the Drying Chamber
The drying chamber was full with Lonzino, Soppressata, and Pepperoni. Creating the Lonzino was covered in a prior post. This is “simple” dry cured whole muscle meat (pork loin). The Soppressata and Pepperoni are both fermented dry cured sausages. This takes a bit more finesse to ensure food safety. Before starting on your own, I […]
Pepperoni
The overall process for making the Pepperoni is nearly identical to that of the Soppressata, except that it does not need to be pressed. Pepperoni (started 12/24/20) ~8-10 lbs Pork butts well trimmed of all soft fat and much of the hard fat Salt 2.5% Cure #2 0.25% Dextrose 0.2% White sugar 0.3% Cracked Black […]
Soppressata
Soppressata is a mildly spicy dry cured italian pork sausage. It is seemingly one of the more common starting points for dry cured / fermented sausages. Batch 1 was started started 12/17/20 Sanitize everything! I sprayed the utensils, grinder, counter top, hands, etc with StarSan (same as I use for Brewing) ~ 10 lbs Pork […]
Lonzino batch 4 – first one done
The first of the 3 Lonzino pieces from Lonzino batch 4, that I started at the beginning of November is ready. For the first 5-6 weeks the drying chamber (Rubbermaid bin with fan for humidity control) was in the garage. Once it dropped below freezing outside, the basement was now cool enough (55-60F) to bring […]
Meat Grinder Tune-up
I have been wanting to get into making fermented sausages such as Sopressata, Pepperoni, Salami and more. My sausage making has been rather limited as Teal is not a big fan of “tubular food” and each time I made sausage (summer, brats, Italians, etc.) it in the past it was painfully slow , so the […]
Lonzino Batch 4
Now that the weather is turning cooler, it is time to make a new batch of Lonzino – Dry Cured Pork Loin. Batches 1 & 2 were Fantastic! Batch 3 was a bust, as I rushed the curing stage, and additionally it was partially frozen for much of the time due to a cold snap. […]
Pastrami v2
We have been pleased with the first couple of batches of home made pastrami – see: Home Made Pastrami . However, I am always looking for variations that are (hopefully) better. We would like to lower the salt content and adjust the spices to better match our taste preferences. Note that this recipe uses […]
