More Coppa

This time I actually was able to procure these coppa myself, since I was working butcher and received the massive mangalitsa shoulders. These things are serious. I just recently got some beef bung in, and it is a good thing that I did because I'm gonna need them. I have rubbed these down with salt, cane sugar, garlic, black pepper, cayenne, fennel, espelette, smoked paprika, and some cure 2. They just went in a couple of days ago, so I will post more about them later.

I have really high hopes for these bad boys. The smaller chunks of mangalitsa that I cured like coppa turned out really good, so my fingers are crossed.

This is a small plate i did a few weeks ago for a guest who came in and had the tasting menu 3 nights in a row. We gave him different courses each night, and I was stoked that I got to throw this one in.

From Left to Right: Pickled Okra, White Cuke, Cherry Bomb, Melted Lardo, Coppa, Bottom: Pepperoni, Lonzino

Bresaola

I have recently been cross training to work butcher on the weekends. This is not only good because it gives me a bit more experience and is something new to do, but also because it will give me a little bit of extra time after my shift to hopefully get the charcuterie project rolling faster. Now with that being said, the other day we received some beef tenderloins leftover from a chef's demo. So, I decided to try a bresaola. We haven't tried this yet, so I figured what better time than now. Since I have never done a bresaola, I am going based off of len poli's recipe for the most part. I am not smelling as much of the garlic or rosemary by using the dry, so depending on how it tastes, I may change this next time around. However, I will give in a update on those in the near future.

Here are a couple of images that Chef Windus shot the other night from a VIP tasting we did for a friend of his. There were more courses, but these included some of our house cured products. there was one more that had house lardons on it, but I didn't get a pic of that one.


House Smoked Pork Belly, Mizuna, House Lardo, Yuzu Pickled Watermelon, Compressed Watermelon, Watermelon Vinaigrette, Miso Powder, Candied Ginger, Micro Mustard Greens

House Lardo Wrapped Black Cherry, Black Cherry Noodle and Powder, Pure Butter Shortbread Cookie

A Failed Sopressata, but Good Mangalitsa Dog

I cut into this sopressata about a month ago, and was quite disappointed. It had such promise. Great ingredients, a nice mold on the outside, and I cut into it at about 38% weight loss. However, something had not gone right. The outside of the meat had dried and hardened into what I can only describe as what was like a "rind." The smell of the meat on the inside,( although not discolored but not dried either) was not right and borderline rotting. So needless to say it went into the trash rather quickly. There were only two but disappointing none the less. Better safe than sorry. I used artificial casings on these and have noticed that they dry up really quickly and don't shrink like natural casings, but there was also something that didn't go right on the inside.

On a brighter note, Chef Windus and I made some mangalitsa dogs for memorial day weekend. The ones in the following picture are the ones that I smoked at work (Chef has his own smoker at home). Then I grilled them up for a little BBQ we had for my wife's birthday. They were a hit. Better than the $2 12 pack dogs we bought...haha.

Some More Mangalitsa Jowl & The first peaches of the year

So this jowl was brined with some of the mangalitsa bacon, smoked and then sous vide. We are trying to come up with a new pork dish at work, and this is one of the concepts that I have been messing around with. The concept is there, but I am still trying to balance out the flavors.

We had a VIP come in for dinner tonight, so I sent them out a version of the dish. I didn't get a chance to snap a picture, but one of the other guys did, so I may post it down the road.

The Concept:
I sous vide the already smoke jowl @ 158' f for 24 hours in a mixture garlic honey, mustard seed, korean chili paste, peppercorns, etc.

Pickled Peaches with a mixture of cider vinegar, simple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, and red pepper flakes

the peaches were really soft, so i didn't really get the texture that I wanted. I may try compressing the with the liquid and dropping the bag into boiling water and shocking, and see if I can remove the skin without overcooking the flesh.

And I also made a Peach based BBQ sauce which turned out pretty good (a touch too sweet though).

So here is one we made up to taste.

ELEMENTS:
Sous Vide mangalitsa Jowl
Peach BBQ
Fried Anson Mills Grits
Pickled Peaches
Arugula
Parmesan
Burnt Onion
Freeze Dried Charred Corn (which was plated with NL2 to appears as if it was still smoking)

Mangalitsa Country Ham

Again, sorry for the lack of posts. I have been pretty busy, but will try to catch everyone up on what has been going on slowly but surely. So, the country ham has been cured, dried, smoked and will hang for a while (we're going for at least sixth months, but we'll see what happens).

The ham was cured with a mixture of cane sugar, salt, cure 2 and some spices and allowed to cure for just a little over 1 day per lb. I wasn't sure if it felt soft because there is at least 2 inches of fat surrounding the meat or if it hadn't cured enough so i let it go a little longer. I rinsed it, patted it dry and we allowed a pellicle to form before Chef Windus cold smoked it for about 2 days. I rubbed the exposed meat with a mixture of lard, semolina and black pepper and red pepper flakes (i read a couple of recipes who mixed the spice rub in with the lard).

I can't wait to taste it. It smells great and the meat had a dark rosy red color to it after smoking. It smelled up the walk-in for a couple of days when it first went in. Smelled like a barbecue every time someone opened the door.

Now we wait...

Here is the ham the first day into the cure

Hanging to form the pellicle before smoking

After smoking. You can kind of see how the skin has become a deeper brown color

Been Busy...

Well, I have been busy the past couple of weeks at work, however have been able to still keep up with the charcuterie. I have recently received a nice piece of coppa from one of our mangalitsa and it is in the cure, the country ham has been smoking and will be hanging soon to dry, and we have made mangalitsa hot dogs, which disappeared in a matter of minutes. I dont have any pictures to post right now, but hopefully soon I will be able to show what has been going on.

Overload of Mangalitsa Jowl

I had a picture message from Chef Windus today and was not pleased with what I saw. The weight of the 2 massive mangalitsa jowl that I had hung in the curing chamber caused everything to come crashing down on itself. I am told that nothing was lost during this disaster, but it is still a bummer. I am off today, but Chef is taking care of putting it all back in. We have had to resort to using thick oven racks thanks to the weight of the lovely mangalitsa (but I'm not complaining). The soppressata will surely be done by the middle of next week, and the coppa feel like they are really starting to lose some weight. Our country ham will come out of the cure on the 24th and we are planning to cold smoke it with white oak for 18 hours or so. Until then....

After the accident....

On the left is 20lbs of Mangalitsa Guanciale which caused the accident!!