by larry » Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:27 pm
I made another batch, actually a half batch, which came out looking very cute. This time, I used the same pork loin, which is very pale in color, gave it a two hour cure with the pink salt and regular salt, mixed the emulsion at a lower speed, and just for laughs, baked it at 170F. It came out slightly darker in color, but still much paler than standard. I think it's the loin that makes the color lighter. Next time, I'll duplicate the recipe with shoulder and I'm guessing it will be the usual color.
I also cut down the fat considerably. The Charcuterie recipe I used last time had a 1:1 ratio of meat to fat (ground and cubed added together). In another post, I asked the forum if anyone had made "low fat" mortadella, and the consensus was that it wouldn't really be mortadella. I did see in my research some of the italia standards, and a ratio of 7 to 3 meat to fat was among them, as well as 15% cubed fat in each slice, which was pointed out in response to my post. The finished product was one pound in a 90mm fibrous casing.
So this time, I my recipe was 8 oz. pork, 4 oz combined fat, and everything else proportioned down. Texture was a little firmer, taste was good, and I think I prefer the baking to the boiling. The trick is keeping the oven at 170. I started the oven a couple of hours early and kept a pizza stone in it for more consistent temperature retention. The baking instructions were borrowed from Len Poli's recipe (which calls for pork and beef, by the way) .
My conclusion is that this recipe made with loin is fine, but it is lighter in color, and is not authentic. The only real disadvantage is that the fat cubes don't stand out visually.