Weekend Projects.......Bresaola & Hungarian Salami

[Dingo]

Howdy howdy,
I just had a productive weekend of charcaturie. I've been planning on a bresaola and Hungarian Salami for some time. Here is the start...

Bresaola

I used quietwatersfarm recipe (scaled for my purposes)

5kg. Beef top round - trimmed of all fat.
4-5 Liters Red wine - inexpensive burgundy
1150g Coarse salt/Cure 2
12 Branches Rosemary - each about 6-8 inches.
1 Lg. Thyme - bunch
6-8 Bay leaves
2 Lg. Carrots - quartered
2 Lg. Onions - white
6-8 Lg. Garlic cloves - crushed
1/2 Cup Peppercorns - black
1/2 Cup Juniper berries - crushed
1 Tbl. Pepper flakes - hot
2 Oranges worth of orange peel

The ingredients;




All mixed up and some wine left to lubricate the cook.....


Packed and marinating

Seven days of this, then a rinse, pack into beef bungs and inoculate with mold 600....then wait.....

Hungarian Salami

I used Marianski's recipe.... sort of....

Not a whole lot of photo's for this one, just hanging in the incubation stage...




3-4 days (pH dependent) of incubation....4 days of cold smoke....inoculate with mold 600....then wait.............

Started at a pH of 5.7 (or more as my papers only go that high). Tested 12hrs later at 5.4. i guess it is heading in the right direction.


I did stuff up a little In my excitement i mixed up my mold600 in distilled water ready to inoculate. Then i realized that it would be 7days before I should inoculate. How long will the mold 600 live in 200mls of distilled water covered with cling wrap at room temp 70F? Any ideas?

[tommix]

Did you use up the whole package of Mold 600? If not I would make a fresh batch.

The information sheet I got from Butcher & Packer reads this way:
"The spore suspension should be stirred from time to time to prevent settling of the spores, and the suspension should only be used on the day of preparation."

I am putting a mold culture on some Lonzino I made using Grisell's method of harvesting mold from commercial salami. You could always buy a stick of salami that has a good white mold on it and make your own, maybe mix it with what you have.
Good luck........Tim

[Dingo]

Hi Tommix,
No, i have some spare Mold600 so it is not the end of the world. I'll ditch the premature batch and start again when I've finished smoking the salami.

Out of interest.....Marianski's book notes Hungarian Salami as both smoked and molded. I guess the mold is for looks, being that he smoke process should flavour and coat/protect the salami from outside invasion? Will the mold even work with the the lower drying temps (i.e.no starter environment)

Just Curious

On the by....an exciting update pH of salami is 4.8 today. Yeah!

[Gray Goat]

Looking good Dingo, keep us posted

[Dingo]

So I was checking the Hungarian Salami today...pH seems to have stabilized at 4.8 (which I think is stable)?
My question is re white mold; The salami's are developing LOTS of white mold spots. I haven't used the Mold 600 pending cold smoking. I am hoping to start smoking tomorrow....pending snow (my work).(I'll post some pics tomorrow)

Question: Should i wipe down with vinegar before smoking? If i cant smoke due to weather tomorrow..should I reduce the environment to 60F @ 70%RH or leave it in incubation?

I'm wanting to do a four day cold smoke if I can, then inoculate with Mold600 for aging.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Dingo]

Here is a pic of the white mold....



Interestingly, the sections that have no mold seem to be closest to the heat source..and might even be case hardening. I'll re-set the hanging after today's smoking.

I guess that I am going to wipe this mold off with vinegar before I begin smoking today. I'll inoculate with Mold600 after the smoking process.

Seems a shame to get rid of it as it occurred naturally.

[Y@t]

Dingo,

I have never been one to follow the rules and I like experimentation. This is my experience with the 600.
$15 a pack is a bit expensive so I tried testing the limits. I have used as little as 4grams with 2grams of dextrose in 50ml of distilled water letting it sit overnight. I then diluted it into 800ml of water, shook it up, and gave a few coppas a bath. I hung them at 70 overnight, then put them in the chamber- 4 days later I had fuzzies.
I took the rest of that water and froze it. I thawed it 3 weeks later, put in a bit of dextrose, let it sit for 2 hours and gave a fiocco a bath. Same process at the coppa, started seeing mold on the strings in 3 days. I will take a picture of it later to show coverage.
I have also put it in the refrigerator for as long as 3 weeks and added dextrose the day I was going to use it and gotten successful results.
Now, my chamber has enough stuff with mold that it is jumping to other sausages. I am not questioning other peoples wisdom or instructions, but this has been my experience.

[Dingo]

Thanks Y@t..that helps alot. I will try the freezing thing when I inoculate the salami & bresaola in a few days.

[Dingo]

1st day of smoking in progress......

Hungarian salami, mold rinsed off with vinegar, hanging & smoking;


My Aussie engineered cold smoke setup..(still a work in progress...but it works )

[Y@t]

Ok, here are the pics. The Goteborg on the left was sprayed from the refrigerated solution that was fed on the day I used it.
The fiocco was bathed and basted with the frozen culture solution. As you can see they both took on a nice covering. The ham is still colonizing and is not yet fully covered.
On monday I made a batch of Olli water, I soaked the casing from an Olli salami, added 2 grams of dextrose and about 100ml of water and let this sit overnight. I will take a picture of the finnochiono and a large diameter landjager that I will not be smoking (experiment). The rest of the landjagers are done in 34-36mm and will be cold smoked and hung for 3-4 weeks.

<a href="http://s1122.photobucket.com/albums/l536/Papanaq/Charcuterie-%20Almost%20from%20the%20beginning/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_1591.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l536/Papanaq/Charcuterie-%20Almost%20from%20the%20beginning/IMG_1591.jpg" border="0" alt="Goteborg/fiocco, refrigerated 600 left,frozen 600 right."></a>

[Dingo]

Thanks for the photo's Y@t. it seems you have mastered harvesting mold.....making you a....master mold harvester (has a ring to it)

Here we are at day 3 of the smoke festival

I am concerned about case hardening.....the smoke sessions last 4-6hrs..my ambient RH is 26%. I'm storing them at 65F@80%RH before starting the next session. Out of curiosity, i weighed the salami;

Start.............6days.........% loss
0.98lbs..........0.67lbs.........31.6%
1.43lbs..........0.97lbs.........32.1%
0.88lbs..........0.59lbs.........32.9%
0.95lbs..........0.66lbs.........30.5%
1.34lbs..........0.94lbs.........29.8%
0.70lbs..........0.48lbs.........31.4%
0.96lbs..........0.67lbs.........30.2%

Overall Average Loss = 31.2%

Does this seem high for only 6 days and the knowledge that this salami is supposed to dry for 2-3 months?

I think I'll do today's smoke session (#3) and mold600 them all tomorrow before hanging. Any advice is appreciated.

[Dingo]

hhmmm....the silence is deafening

Anyway...day 4 and final smoke session for the Hungarian Salami.. In the mean time I stuffed the Bresaola....

Here is the beef after a week of marinating;



Cased & tied; (which was certainly some shenanigans




The final smoke session for the salami;(with some cheddar thrown in for an experiment)


Here are a couple of close ups (detailing my case hardening concerns)





Bresaola and Salami doused with Mold600 and back in the aging cabinet;



I'm going to run the cabinet at 70F@80%RH to encourage mold growth for a couple of days and then back the temp down to 60F.

I'm still concerned with the salami's rapid loss of weight. Oh well...i guess we'll find out in time

[Dingo]

Oh.....& by the way......


!!!!!! GO PATRIOTS !!!!!!

[wheels]

Nice job of tying the bresaola. Yes, I too would be concerned about such a high weight loss in such a short time. I'm sure a lot of this was during the smoking if it was only at 26% RH. They look good, but regrettably that's not necessarily an indication that they're not case hardened.

As to the Patriots, I'm afraid I have to leave comment about that (them?) for others.

Phil

[Dingo]

Thanks Phil...it was my first time tying...it seems to be holding up..


Anyway, I weighed the Hungarian salami again; it is at about 50% of original weight and feel firm. So i cut into one to have a look;



What I've learned;

(A) There is definitely a dark ring around the edges..although I'm not sure if this is case hardening or from the 3 day smoke?

(B) I need to be more patient when hand dicing the fat

(C) I am surprised at the finished diameter: I started off with 38-40mm beef rounds. They have dried and shrunk to the same size as the Tuscan salami I recently did in Hog casings?

(D) 50% loss was reached in 14 days The recipe looked to age these for up to 3 months. The reason for the rapid aging is my smoker.....it produces excellent cold smoke, however, the ambient RH is generally around RH30% is these parts...plus I am using a 4" inline duct fan to transfer the smoke from primary to secondary chamber. I believe I am moving to much air, which is contributing to the rapid weight loss.

All in it has been a good experience. I will redesign my cold smoker to deal with RH & Air exchange issues and try again.

On the flip side, these Hungarian salami taste great ( and I'm still around to write about it ) . I've vac -packed the rest of the salami and will leave them in the fridge for another month to age and test again.