Mallard Breasola

[Fallow Buck]

Righto the braesola idea has grown!!!

After taking the venison loin out of HFW's red wine cure I decided to try an experiment for stuffing some whole or large sliced duck bresats into salami casings (tks PK!!!) after curing them in the same mixture.

I took the original cure and added andother 1kg salt and a bottle of red wine. Cloves, bay , cinnamon, lemon (from home in cyprus) and orange zest. I also added 6g of salpetre into the mixture.

I then preasted out 8 brace of mallard from saturdays shoot and brined them in the sink with 3 changes of water to remove any blood present. The result was 2.5kg's of clean duck breasts wwith no skin.

They went into the cure yesterday and I hope to take them out thursday or friday. They are in a quite cool fridge at the moment, (about 4 degrees) in a tupperware and I'll turn them every day or two.

The plan is to cut each breast in two length ways and let it drain on a rack in the kitchen for a few hours to remove excess cure. Then stuff them very tightly into the ffibrous casings. I saw a programme a while back where the italians were beating the casings with a small mallet to get a snug fit and expell all the air cavities. Then they tied the tops off and bound the whole thing.

Rgds,
FB

[saucisson]

Do you have a vacuum sealer FB?, Could be one way of getting air cavities out, just a thought. It might be easier than beating them with a small mallard.

Dave

[Fallow Buck]

Hey Dave,

I just had to check myprevious post to be sure I hadn't gone all freudian!!!

I don't have a vac-packer so i think it will be the percussive route for me.

I turned the breasts yesterday and had a thought that they may be good if pressed during the first stage of drying. I'll have to give the whole thing some thought.

Rgds,
FB

[Fallow Buck]

Righto,

The mallard breasts stayed in the cure for a week in the end. It was too long and they got too salty. when I took them out I washed them and put some dry spices on before stuffing and this got rit of the worst of the saltiness.

To be honest though as an experiment it was a great success thus far. The meat smelt fabulous in the cure and I'm thinking that this could be a mice way forward with some prime ofcuts of venison in the future. Given the thickness of the meat though I think it would only need a couple of days in the cure rather than the week.

The Duck is hanging in the fridge at the moment in the Salami casings but now it has gone colder I will move it to the loft where the RH is better suited. My fridge runs at 90% RH for some reason???

Rgds,
FB

[saucisson]

My fridge runs at 90% RH for some reason???

Rgds,
FB

That is odd, mine is at 36% RH

Dave

[Fallow Buck]

It seems to lower the RH to about 65% if I lower the temperature to 4-6degrees. From 7-10 degrees it is just plain wet, but I have to run it up there as I have another batch of Hams in the Brine.

I'm gonna take them out and hang in the loft tonight where I hope it will be better conditions.

FB

[saucisson]

My loft is 10 degrees C and 66% RH right now so you should be fine if yours is the same.

Dave

[tristar]

It seems to lower the RH to about 65% if I lower the temperature to 4-6degrees. From 7-10 degrees it is just plain wet, but I have to run it up there as I have another batch of Hams in the Brine.

I'm gonna take them out and hang in the loft tonight where I hope it will be better conditions.

FB

Fallow Buck,

If you are brining in the fridge, the brine will increase the RH, this is normal. The moisture comming from the brine itself.

[Fallow Buck]

Hi Trisatr,

the brining meat is in a sealed plastic container so I don't think it would have an effect.

Yesterday the RH in the fridge had gone down to 80% when I went in to hang some pheasants. I think it is just down to the extremely damp weather we are having at the moment and the air itself getting pulled into the fridge being quite damp.

It's an oldish unit so perhaps that is the best I can expect....

FB

[Fallow Buck]

I took a look at these last night and although they seem to have lost some weight they are still looking quite squidgy. I expected them to dry faster than this.

Either way they smell very nice indeed. I'm expecting them to be far too salty in all honesty but I'm going to continue with the experiment to see how the process goes. Then I can replicate with less curing time.

The venison breasola was a great success so I think there is some scope with this.

Rgds,
FB