Bresaola

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Bresaola

Postby wheels » Tue Jul 01, 2014 1:24 pm

It's a lonely little Bresaola in the curing fridge:

Image

I've done so little curing and sausage making lately due to a variety of reasons, so I thought I'd better post this to show that I still remember how to do it! :lol: :lol:

Phil
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Re: Bresaola

Postby yotmon » Tue Jul 01, 2014 1:32 pm

Looking very good Mr. Wheels. I need to get into dry curing once I have got my head around the humidity/temp/control, plus the theories and practices of the production. Plenty more reading required before I take the plunge.

How long did the beef take to cure, assuming that it ready ?
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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Tue Jul 01, 2014 1:59 pm

It was about 30 days in dry cure and it's been drying for about a month, so 2 months in all; it's lost about 25% of its original weight so far.

The humidity here's been up and down like a yo-yo, at the moment the ambient RH is a bit lower; last week it was sky high.

The fridge is running nicely at 11°C and 72 - 75RH at the moment.

I normally use Jason's recipe, or as near to it as doesn't matter; this time I've gone for less herb/spice on Mrs Wheels's orders!

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Re: Bresaola

Postby vagreys » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:47 pm

Poor little guy...
- tom

Don't tell me the odds.

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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:54 pm

I know, I'll put a bottle of beer in there to keep him company!
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Re: Bresaola

Postby BriCan » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:41 am

Blo*dy he*l; ---- a bottle of beer -- poor lonely sod.

A firkin more like it :wink:

But in all honesty -- it sure looks great, you still have the touch :mrgreen:
But what do I know
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Re: Bresaola

Postby crustyo44 » Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:29 am

Did you use mould 600. The outside looks wonderful.
These are certainly on my list soon and I mean soon.
If my curing chamber in not ready then I will use a UMAi bag to get me going.
Spare time is not available at the moment but that photo certainly got me going!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Wed Jul 02, 2014 3:20 pm

I used a home-made version of mould 600, in that I harvested a mould from a commercially produced salami, cultivated in in a little pure water, and painted it on.

Done early, it really helps to keep the bad moulds away.

I found that when I made a lot of air-dried stuff it was unnecessary as the mould was already active in the chamber, but with infrequent use it's a good idea.

Brican - I'll be drinking this at a wedding in a couple of weeks:

http://www.dowbridgebrewery.co.uk/

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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:16 pm

A couple of slices off the end of the finished item:

Image


It's amazing how Rosemary penetrates far more than Thyme - this has 0.05% thyme and only 0.025 Rosemary - but it's the rosemary you can taste.

It's lost 41% of the original meat weight and dried at approx 0.8% per day.

The amount of white mould under the casing was surprising:

Image

I went with total salt of 3.04% (2.8% sea-salt + 2.04% from curing salt), I may reduce this as it's slightly too salty to my taste - nothing drastic though.

What level of salt do others use in air-dried solid muscle?

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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Tue Jul 29, 2014 1:52 pm

wheels wrote:I went with total salt of 3.04% (2.8% sea-salt + 2.04% from curing salt), I may reduce this as it's slightly too salty to my taste - nothing drastic though.

What level of salt do others use in air-dried solid muscle?
Phil


Anyone got any views on this?

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Re: Bresaola

Postby Wunderdave » Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:43 pm

I've taken it down to about 2.5% total salt but I'm not willing to go less than that for safety purposes. I'm not even sure that 2.5% is a safe level, technically. I thought that most sources recommend 3%?
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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:57 pm

Thanks Wunderdave, I know that the salt reacts with the protein in the meat allowing the protein to 'bind more of the available water in', leaving less unbound water available for undesirable bacteria to react with.

Presumably, there's a 'standard' somewhere for the required amount of salt. I recall seeing a whole list of them for salami, depending on how they were processed. But can't recall where, or if there was one for whole muscles.

Hopefully, someone with a better memory than mine will come along! :lol:

Phil

Added: The US 'standards' for salami etc are in the Code of Federal Regulations It talks of 4½lb salt to 100lb meat (for coppa etc) which seems excessive and must be almost inedible when further concentrated by drying?
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Re: Bresaola

Postby BriCan » Wed Jul 30, 2014 4:19 am

First of all my I say that's some mighty fine looking cure you have going on :)

At first glance at the whole (cut) muscle I would have sworn that it had a touch of case hardening but looking at the slices in front of it they look mighty fine :lol:

Love the amount of mould you have on it, mine is hit or miss sometimes :(

As for the salt content I do 2% -- found that 2.5% too salty for me; I need to taste the natural flavour of the meat with a gentle hint of the spices so that one gets an all round mouth feel/taste ... if that makes sense :shock:

Anything less than 2% is pushing it .. mind you I have/do on occasion drop it what I class as my limit of 1.8%, something I would not/will not recommend for home use
But what do I know
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Re: Bresaola

Postby wheels » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:48 am

BriCan wrote:At first glance at the whole (cut) muscle I would have sworn that it had a touch of case hardening but looking at the slices in front of it they look mighty fine :lol:


I know, I nearly cried when i first saw it, but it just seems to be how it photographs - the sliced product is fine.

Do the Canadian Authorities set a minimum level of salt for dried whole muscle?

In any case, they obviously have no qualms about your 2% level; on that basis, I think I'll use less next time.

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Re: Bresaola

Postby BriCan » Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:42 am

wheels wrote:I know, I nearly cried when i first saw it, but it just seems to be how it photographs - the sliced product is fine.


Been their and seen it and had the same results :)

Do the Canadian Authorities set a minimum level of salt for dried whole muscle?


Just has a quick sufty ... not found beef as yet but would follow same as Coppa -- has been one of them days so had to read three times just to make sure I read right ...

0.045g per kg :shock: :shock:

Now it has been known that I do make mistakes and math (amongst other things) was not my top subject at school .... Science, Chemistry and Biology .... yes but the rest :oops: :(

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/meat-a ... 1132888#t2

Look at A2

In any case, they obviously have no qualms about your 2% level; on that basis, I think I'll use less next time.


Of all the random test done and sheets looked at I seem to be ok with the 2%

HTH
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