Spanish Cecina - Cure Recipe

[ryanpropst]

Hi, I've successfully cured 3 Italian Bresaola, and this was my first year in curing or making anything of this nature. Moving into summer here in Sydney, I will not be curing any meat again till next fall, I'd like to start looking for recipes now. I am making a homemade hot/cold smoker and would like to try and make Spanish Cecina which is similiar to Bresaola but cured, smoked and then aged. I've searched and can not find any cure recipes or instructions on making Cecina, much less what might be an 'authentic' cure. If anyone can assist, I'll be much appreciative and am willing to share anything I've got or learned.

Cheers,

Ryan
www.ozcooking.com

[Spuddy]

Ryan,
I just did a search on google for cecina and followed it up with a comparison search for bresaola.
I can only conclude that either:
1) cecina tastes SO dreadful that nobody has ever bothered to write anything about it
OR
2) you got the spelling wrong.

Try it yourself, I've not heard of it either. Are you sure of the spelling?

BTW What's wrong with bresaola????

[TJ Buffalo]

Ryan
I found that someone did a PhD thesis on the cecina de leon at Catholic University of America in Washington DC. The student and thesis are:

Alessandra Sartori-McCormack, Ph.D.
Dissertation: "Cecina de Leon: The Production, Comsumption, and Cultural Representation of a Spanish Traditional Food in a Global Economy"

You might look at the CUA anthropology dep't news website and see if you can contact anyone about the thesis. It might be a total wash, or things might work out. I'd be interested in hearing what you find. Good luck.

[/url]http://anthropology.cua.edu/news/[url][/url]

[sausagemaker]

Hi Ryan

I found the following links that may be of help.
http://www.iberianfoods.co.uk/cecina.htm
http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-arc ... 6957.shtml
and a couple of definitions of the product
Cecina - [Spanish] salted, cured or smoked dried meat strips; similar to carne seca.
CECINAS NIETO
Pav 6A, stand 33
Cecina de Le�n
The "Cecina de Le�n" is a kind of meat that comes from the hind legs of beef cattle, it is called "the Ham from Beef". This high quality beef meat, having an appropriate concentration of proteins and low in fat, is the ideal tasty delicacy for a healthy balanced diet.

From what I have read its a ham made from the hind leg of beef so I would suggest that you use a standard ham cure & see how you go.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker