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Having just returned from five weeks in France (working, but it pays the bills...) I have got the taste for the filet mignon fumé (amongst other Lyonaisse delights) which was sold in the nearet market (with the encouragement of the very pretty girl who insisted on my trying a bit every time I passed her stall).

So, there's some on the go now. Having consulted the interwibbly, the usual approach seems to be to salt (no cure) for a period of between 4 hours and 4 days, rinse, coat with pepper and hang to dry. The recipes are all a bit vague about target weight loss and all of those things that we worry about.

The story so far: I salted a nice pork fillet (with a very small amount of sugar) for 20 hours (being the geometric mean of 4 hours and 4 days!) and then rinsed. The weight loss is now 17% and it's stiff as a stiff thing. Coated it with ground mixed peppercorns and mixed herbs, and it's now in the smoker along with a nice piece of salmon. I shall give it one run of the CSG, then hang in the curing cabinet, then give it another smoke next week when some bacon should be ready for a run.

So, it's relying on salt, water loss and smoke to keep it safe. I'll be aiming for a weight loss of around 35%. Does that sound reasonable?

Martin/

without cure its risky could prove fatal IMHO

It is a whole muscle cut so there is a bit less concern about not using nitrite (I wouldn't consider a salami without it). I would use the weight after your salting step as your initial weight and look to lose 30 % from that. I think your biggest challange will be to avoid case hardening and getting a small cut uniformly dried. You will probably need high humidity at the start and may want to have a pan of water in with your CSG to keep the environment moist during smoking.

onewheeler wrote:So, it's relying on salt, water loss and smoke to keep it safe. I'll be aiming for a weight loss of around 35%. Does that sound reasonable?

For wont of being sent to Coventry all I can say it is reasonable --- but the weight loss is way toooo low. Think of AW I (would) do a 50% We have done Bratwurst at the smokehouse -- fresh pork salt spices fresh onion and fresh garlic

The question is can it be done -- yes it can but is not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for the thoughts chaps.

I'm inclined to do the drying stage at normal 'fridge temperature of around 4 C rather than the usual 10 - 12 C and it's easy to keep the humidity up with the current weather. (Most of the French recipes I've seen suggest just wrapping the meat in a clean cloth and sticking it in the salad drawer).

The ones I was eating from the market were showing signs of slight case hardening but were clearly good. Very good! It's clearly something to watch out for though given the thin diameter of a fillet compared to, say, a coppa or a ham.

Martin/

I've now done two fillets. The first one was as described above, dried to 40% weight loss, and was delicious but too salty. The second one was a more "conventional" cure: 2.5% salt + 2.5 g cure #2 + .8% sugar per kilo, left for a week, rinsed and then rolled in pepper and dried to 50% weight loss (I forgot about it!) Both got smoked whenever the CSG was on, so they had about three runs each.

The second one was better, but still too salty. The texture and flavour of both were wonderful however. Assuming most of the salt from the cure was absorbed, and allowing for the weight loss, the salt level must be getting on for 5%.

So, next time I'm inclined to go for a cure at about 10G salt + 2.5 g cure #2 per kilo. That will end up (allowing for 40% weight loss) at around 2% salt.

I'm a little nervous however that in the early stages of drying the level of salt (1.25%) might not be sufficient to give good protection. Any thoughts? Should I go for a lower weight loss to keep the salt less concentrated?

Many of the French recipes I've seen (thanks for the links Brican!) seem to dry for quite short periods (a week or so) but they don't use nitrites/nitrates and don't quote the weight loss - presumably fairly low.

Martin/

During the early stages of drying the salt will be concentrated on the outer surface.