more mangalitsa and a chamber upgrade

The mangalitsa is now coming in more and more that is being featured on our menu, and we have all sorts of things going on. We currently have working 2 bellies (chef has them in his molasses brine) for bacon, all sorts of lardo, guanciale, 3 coppa, and we will be making some salami and pepperoni on monday. I really want to do a country ham soon, but then comes the waiting and waiting and....

The jowl are so nice. They look more like regular bacon than the bellies do (because they are so fatty). I cured these with salt, sugar, black pepper, thyme and garlic for 15 days, and they will prob hang close to 3-4 weeks. I can't wait to render these bad boys out and taste them.



I have also recently had an upgrade in a curing chamber. Its a good thing too, because we have soooo much fat that we have lardo hanging from the roof (ok, that's an over exaduration), but still we have a lot. Half of which isn't even done curing yet.

We have been trying a lot of different recipes, ratios, spices, etc. for curing the lardo to find out which one we like the best so you'll see a lot of different types hanging. I would like to do a side by side flavor and texture comparison once we have one of each type ready, but until then here's what we got!!


LEFT TO RIGHT: lardo di toscana, pimente d' espelette, smoked paprika (behind the pimente), sugar/salt/black pepper, garlic, lardo di colonata (which is berkshire not mangalitsa) and has been curing for about 5 months.

The bottom half of the new chamber.

gunaciale, lonzino, boar salami

And the old chamber... thank goodness for the new!!!

Pasture Prime

The other day we had the opportunity to travel up to Pasture Prime Farms in Ocala, Fl to take a look at their operation. The property is beautiful, and rests on hundreds of acres of open fields and is surrounded by woods. Spring was the perfect time to go out and see the farm as everything is beginning to bloom and is bright green.

Their story up there is unique. Once a dairy farm that was forced to shut down by large corporations and government regulations, pasture prime shifted its focus and has been raising 100% grass fed Wagyu since 2007. They have recently begun raising Mangalitsa (a.k.a. wooly pigs, which we have been lucky enough to be receiving), Naked Neck Chickens, and Red Bourbon Turkeys.

The trip was not only informational, but was inspirational as well. I can't wait to get my hands on some more mangalitsa. I see some coppa and salami in the future and we have more bacon and lardo already working. I thank them for their hospitality the other day and also for their passion for raising such great products 100% naturally the way they do. You can find them at www.pastureprimewagyu.com and on facebook.

I have so many pictures from the farm, but will only show a few....

The Wagyu



Cattle dog in training


The old dairy farm




The Mangalitsa



Naked Neck Chickens




Red Bourbon Turkeys

mangalitsa

Although we have been extremely busy with the new menu change, and the addition of a 5 course tasting menu and 3 course prix fixe menu, I have been able to keep up with curing (large things anyways). I must say before I start, that this is in my own personal opinion one of my, if not the most successful and tasty thing we have cured yet. MANGALITSA BACON! which really looks like lardo, but if rendered properly is soooo good. I cured it for 17 days, Chef Windus smoked it for about a day, and now we eat it. The best way to cook it is pressed between 2 silpats in the oven, but was able to do an amuse for my uncle the other night (with I had snapped a shot) which consisted of bacon wrapped wild striped bass, stewed dragons tongue (white) beans, burnt onion and truffle jus. I was really pleased with it.

I know these pictures aren't very good, but they give you an idea of the fat on these things....






We also have some mangalitsa lardo that has been hanging, and a bunch of chunks that recently went into the cure...



We're also messing around with flavor profiles....



Piment d'Espelette



Hot Smoked Paprika

Have some guanciale on the way as well.....STOKED!!

Spring pasta

We have recently received our first batch of spring vegetables including spring onion, spring garlic, fiddlehead ferns, favas, english peas, and some flambeau radishes. I love spring vegetables the best out of all of the seasons. The flavors are so fresh, the colors are so bright, and you can use pretty much every part of each vegetable(and even though some of the vegetables are a bit tedious to clean, they are sooooo worth it).

So the other day the Chef de Cuisine, Aaron told me to come up with the idea for the pasta that would work with parsley root puree, (our first batch of) soft shell crabs and house made tagliatelle. So, I looked through the walk in and picked through some of the vegetables. I wanted to keep it as fresh and bright as possible. Simple, clean flavors.

What I came up with was spring onion used 4 different ways. Puree, Grilled, Braised bulbs (along with cippolinis), and burnt. I also cleaned and pickled the roots, but they're not done yet.
Then I took some flambeau radishes and compressed them with some meyer lemon zest, fleur de sel, and J. Leblanc Olive Oil.
I finished the plate with cherry tomatoes, arugula and meyer lemon vinaigrette, and the pasta is tossed in some butter, meyer lemon and herbs.

I tried to have one of the guys snap pictures of the plating process so you could see the bright, fresh colors.








this was for a vegetarian

Wild Boars

I recently received some Florida wild boar from one of the servers at work. I deboned the shoulder, ground it with a 3/8" die and let it marinate over night with some garlic, red wine, dextrose, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and some piment d'espelette. I then reground the meat and then the fat through the 1/4" die. Stuffed it into hog casings, fermented for about 36 hours at 74 degrees and the hung in the curing chamber. Since they were so small, they cured quick. This one had 45% weight loss after just 12 days. The boar is super gamey, but the "wintery spices" if you will, come through nicely. My only problem is that there are some minor air pockets in areas, and I didn't really get much heat from the piment d'espelette.

Mangalitsa

I apologize now for the lenght of this post, but without further ado....

The other day we went to Ocala to visit Torm Siverson of Pasture Prime Wagyu and the first ever Florida raised and killed Mangalitsa pig. It was awesome to actually get to see the slaughter process from start to finish seeing as its been about 14 years since I last saw a pig slaughtered and 8 or so since my calf experience. I snapped a lot of photos, however I will try to keep the blood to a minimum.


the pig weighed around 300 pounds before the slaughter
and about 225 after cleaning


here he is rolling around in the mud


here is Torm with him before they took him in to slaughter


the pig is bled and prepared for removing the hair


the water bath the pig is placed in


removal of the hair


the pig after removing the innards


me and my march mustache admiring the size of the jowls



Since this was the first pig, we only received sample parts which consisted of the head, a shoulder, the loin and a belly. I was able to get my hand on some lardo, the belly, some jowl and the ears. This is what I came up with.....

Bacon


The jowl and ears were sous vide for 24 hours and then pressed.


And then it is seared and crisped up, it was pretty good

there are some cracklings too.....

Unfortunately.....

Like I said I was planning on showing my trials, hopeful successes and errors. Unfortunately this is an error. Well, maybe not so much of an error, but an unsuccessful attempt none the less. In the previous post I believe that I talked about the fact that the casings were wayyyyyy too big for the loins. So after talking to a couple of different chefs, and Scott from sausage debauchery I decided to remove them from the casings, wipe down with a vinegar solution and hang bare. Well, as you can see in the following pictures I lost a couple to mold (which was my main concern from the beginning. It all started under the casing). I was however able to save three that were covered with white mold, thankfully.




this was actually two loins I cased together, originally there was no separation, but I pulled it apart to see how the inside smelled and of there was any mold. They smelled great actually, but the outside is whats scary. I am looking forward to cutting into the others though.

On a brighter note, I took a trip to Ocala to see the first ever Florida raised and killed mangalitsa pig from Pasture Prime Wagyu. I will post more on that soon, but for now you can check it out Bluechefs or Wooly Pigs.