Flavours of Home cured meats

[ped]

Perhaps an obvious answer to this (I don't know it though!) but what would you say is the difference in flavour between mass produced and home produced cured meats?, is it that mass production has just Homogenised things so that for example most salami's taste very similar and there's not much difference between flavours of Hams etc?. The reason I ask is that I have recently started making these things and find that the flavours are so much stronger and often a bit too strong for my palate though having followed recipes to the gram. I'm not sure whether it is that my palate has been dulled by what I have previously eaten regularly or that the correct flavours which I now enjoy are what I should be tasting! I have to add at this point that this may just be my problem and that others don't have the same palate experience that I do due to my recent medical treatment in the neck/mouth area which may have affected my taste buds and certainly reduced my salivary gland function!

Not very well articulated but I hope you get my drift?

[quietwatersfarm]

Any products in particular? and which recipes?

I can then give you an entirely subjective view from my own palate!

I agree that most shop bought products are quite bland but that shouldn't mean that you put up with flavours and tastes that are anything other than fantastic, that's why we do this after all.

having said this not everything is to each of our tastes - especially in the air dried, highly herbed & spiced, where age and the strength of the seasonings can put some people off what others of us would pay a kings ransom for.

[ped]

Morning QWF

Here's a couple where I find the flavours very strong:

CHORIZO
1520 gms meat gms

Salt 42.56
Cure #2 3.65
Black Pepper 9.12
Sugar 3.04
Dextrose 3.04
(Sweet) Smoked Paprika 30.40
Oregano (Dried) 3.04
F-LC Starter Culture 0.53
Cayenne pepper 1.52
(Fresh) Garlic 13.68


This is my first attempt at Chorizo (Marianski/Molinari), First taste today, 44% weight loss, I find that the smoked paprika flavour is very strong in this one.


CAPOCOLLO

1088 gms meat

Salt 32.64
Cure #2 6.53
Black Pepper 0.87
Sugar 27.20
Garlic powder 2.72
Cumin ground 2.18
Cloves ground 2.18
Cinnamon 0.54
Paprika 2.18
Cayenne pepper 1.09

First attempt:(Molinari recipe) 40% weight loss, no dominant flavour but Cumin, Cloves & Cinnamon very strong.

Do you see disproportionate amounts of spices?

I intend to reduce the proportions of spices next time but would you consider these recipes to be reasonable?

[wheels]

Jason likes flavour! His pancetta is also well herbed/spiced...

...and IMO superb!

I like that style, but also make a pancetta with the spicing 'toned down'.

As for the chorizo, my recipe has very similar levels of herbs and spices - a little less black pepper and slightly more sugar, but otherwise much the same. So perhaps I'm not the best person to comment!

Phil

[quietwatersfarm]

Chorizo looks quite similar to my own typical recipe apart from the dextrose, cayenne and a hell of a lot more salt than I use. The sweet smoked paprika would normally be the dominant flavour, but there aint no booze in the recipe which is the other crucial ingredient for me in an everyday type chorizo - some 80 odd mls of really good sherry allowed to soak right in!

44% weight loss is quite dry and this will tend to intensify things perhaps?

On the capocollo - if its one of Jason's recipes then you are going to get a real strong flavour, I'm a big fan of his mixes but I know some people tone them down a little (I think I remember Wheels ending up doing the same with a herb laden Tesa?)

If you think the Capocollo is fragrant, You should try our Venetian Sopressa!

Both of these recipes are someones personal take on things, other than the cure and salt elements that you need for safety and curing purposes everything else is for you to adjust to your liking - there is nor right or wrong.

[quietwatersfarm]

Sorry Wheels, my post crossed with yours!!

[wheels]

No probs - I'm glad that your experiences are similar to mine.

Phil

[ped]

Would you say that it is safe to use a minimum of 2% Salt to meat weight in anything, or put it another way, do you consistently use a salt ratio that is nearer 2% than 3% ?, what is your rule of thumb?, and what weight loss are you looking for in your Chorizo's QWF?
FYI the actual consistency of the Chorizo is very good with no case hardening or softness in the centre.

[quietwatersfarm]

I don't have a rule of thumb as such. Most of the recipes I use have either been given to me long ago and I stick to them religiously to maintain what it was that made me beg, steal or borrow them in the first place or they are ones that I have arrived at through experimentation and revising of others takes on things until they tasted how I liked.

As an example my Chorizo tipico above is about 1.5% salt as it goes. I look for 25% weight loss in two weeks tops. ( I know its cropped up a lot before but I also have no place in Chorizo for starter cultures or mould ...just saying )

[vagreys]

It's interesting that this topic comes up every year or two. I do think homemade sausages can be more intense, but no more so than hand-cured product from an artisan maker. The big commercial producers are making for a large market and the sausages have to be muted enough to appeal to a broad range of consumer tastes. While not everyone makes for mass appeal, many do. Not only are the seasonings muted, but the techniques and ingredients may be altered from the original style - consider all the sausages that are traditionally all-pork made with a pork/beef blend for the American market and using an acidic additive instead of actual lactobacillic fermentation, or belly bacon made in 3 days with gang-injected brine cure and smoke flavor. Compare that to an all-pork salami, redolent of garlic and pepper, dry-cured, and carefully aged, or hand-cured, cold-smoked bacon, matured for several weeks. The flavors are vastly different. Also, especially with chorizos, the flavors of the real thing differ from attempts to recreate them elsewhere, I think. Cantimpalo chorizo from around Cantimpalo is very different from Cantimpalo-style chorizo made in the US or elsewhere. The great thing about making it yourself, is that you can adjust it to your taste. I find I end up adjusting most recipes, just as every sausage maker does. So, if you find a recipe too strong or unpleasant to your taste, adjust it until it tastes right to you. Made to your taste is just as valid as anyone else's.

Taste perception is very individual. Some people have more than twice the taste sensitivity of others. That means that no one recipe can suit everyone. That you find some recipes too strong, even unpleasant, doesn't make you "wrong" or odd. It just means that recipe is not to your taste. Because it was presented by a published author or experienced charcutier doesn't mean you must like it. Consider any recipe you use as a starting point, only, rather than a definitive version you must appreciate. Enjoy the process and adventure of adjusting the balance of flavors as you discover what you do appreciate. If I'm off the mark, then pardon the verbiage. I think it is perfectly ok to not care for the outcome of a particular recipe.

[ped]

Great verbiage from all, as a beginner it's nice to be reassured sometimes.
QWF, you give an example of using only 1.5% salt in a recipe is that because the curing period is relatively short, or is it a flavour thing?, if it's not the flavour would you be happy using 1.5% in all Chorizo's for example?,

Whilst on the subject of chorizo you mention that you don't use cultures, does chorizo naturally become acidic, or does it have to even?, and if you don't use a culture do you even have a fermentation period at the beginning?

[quietwatersfarm]

My recipe was developed from countless visits on the pretext of researching Spanish sausages!
Because its a cooking/recipe sausage most of the time (we do a separate slicing version) I am not looking for anything overly salty. Cold cured meats can take a bit more salt.

I always leave my chorizo mixed in the fermentation chamber in a tub at least overnight to get its act together and get all of the sherry (though in fact we use a PX Dulce de Postre) to fully soak in and allow the flavours to develop.

I would say that this mix is fairly acidic from the get go and I have never ever used any cultures in Chorizo, the flavours are all in there. For me you want a sense of garlic and sweet smoked paprika all engulfed by the sweetness of the raisins in the booze and in a nice moist sausage with large hand cut (or extra large ground) fat and an almost tissue paper like bind within the mix.


EDIT: sorry I can get a bit carried away with Chorizo!

[ped]

You can go into a Shamanic trance as far as I'm concerned if it allows me to suck great info from you

[Dogfish]

The majority of the artisan (especially dry-cured) meats that I've consumed have been from BriCan, or stuff I've used myself. I consider that there are 'artisan' style meats, corner store/small butcher cured meats, and commercial stuff. Corner store meats come out of cure buckets and taste roughly the same in every shop in western Canada because I think they buy their stuff from the same supplier. Commercial stuff is more uniform, but usually carries (in my opinion) more acidity and salt...more idiot-proofing.

From what I have eaten, it seems artisanal, long-aged stuff has far more umami. Some call it 'stink' and I think it's a good description; I've met more than a few people who detest authentic proscuitto. I noticed with BriCan's chorizo (and I used the identical recipe) that due to no culture being added, a definite pork-funk came up. Is it a bad thing? Possibly, to some people; I love it. I also add fish sauce to most dishes in order to get that funk.

There's also the pork. My current pig was fed grocery scraps her whole life, and is extremely tasty and sweet as well as dark like beef. I've had Russian boar fed scraps, waste grain, and roadkill, and it's also very tasty. The least flavour is in the commercial pork, which is also the most tender and dinner-guest friendly. Drying the meat will just concentrate those flavors.